Ursula
Living beings, I would say, DO have goals that they seek to achieve: they seek to self-maintain, self-repair, and self-protect to keep themselves from falling apart. The advent of life marks the advent of telos. I agree that there’s no non-theistic reason to think that these goals are pre-determined, but they’re essential.
These conversations can get muddled in that the word purpose has two connotations; it can also indicate meaning — what is the meaning of life, as in the first question in this thread.