I think that Leonard and McClure’s list of "enduring and fundamental human questions" is successful in exploring the ground level of important questions for the human race. It would be impossible to write a list of every specific question imaginable, but this list covers the main points in a broad sense. In particular, I am interested in the question, “who are we, and what is our role here?” (Leonard & McClure, 2004). The answer to this question, as with all of them, depends very much on an individual’s belief system. For example, an atheist may believe that humans are on earth simply to reproduce. I.e., we are a result of evolution, a scientific process and nothing more. On the other hand, a person with a strong faith to an organised religion may believe that we are on earth to serve a god, for example.
“What are our values?” and “How should we act?” follow on from the question about our role. A person’s answers to these questions very much depend on their answer to “what is our role here?” as our purpose for living provides a reference point for guidelines on who to behave in the world. Extending the use of the examples used before, if an individual believes that we are here to reproduce then they may consider appropriate actions to be breeding, and successfully raising, as many children as they deem fit. On the other hand, a religious person may deem spreading their word of their god to be more important actions than reproducing.
References
Leonard, S.A. & McClure, M. (2004). Myth and Knowing: An Introduction to World
Mythology. McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
