The Meaning of Life.

What is the meaning of life?

How do you even begin to answer that? As always I don't claim to have all the answers. But I was thinking to myself, 'What do I write about next?', when it hit me. Urban legends, myths, mysteries, philosophy; let's go straight to the biggest question of all. Interestingly enough I have found that as with most questions, the answer depends on who you ask.

“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”
― Albert Camus

  “There is not one big cosmic meaning for all; there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person.”
― Anaïs Nin


"The meaning of life, the universe and everything is...42."
―The computer in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy





So what is my answer? I have given it much thought and I have decided that first we must ask ourselves a much more important question which keeps getting overlooked. 'Is there a meaning of life?' This again will depend on who you ask. If you are a religious person, you will almost definitely believe that we are all here for a purpose. You may even believe that you know or have some idea as to what that purpose is. If you are agnostic you will be undecided and if like me you are an atheist you might struggle to agree that life has a meaning unless it is one that you have created for yourself, purposely giving your life meaning through something that is important to you.

A friend of mine once said, "I'm looking for the answer to it, but I don't know what it is!" I think I know how he feels. Life on all accounts is a matter of perspective. Without even contemplating the idea of a God or a God like being, if you imagine an alien life on a distant planet looking down on us from above the way we look down on micro organisms through a microscope, to them we would all appear to be as insignificant as we really are, whether we were rich billionaires, the president of the United States, or just a homeless person passed out in a gutter. We look down on all life forms smaller them ourselves sometimes without mercy or contemplation. How many of us have squashed an insect without a second thought? Most of us eat meat without a second thought because of the natural food chain on Earth, the way other animals prey on each other. We slaughter these animals and yet many of us even the ones who are not vegetarian keep domestic pets which we treat completely differently. There are even laws protecting animals which are culturally biased depending on where you live. In Korea for example people eat dogs. In most other countries dogs must be very well looked after by their owners.

A life form looking down on us from above would treat us either like insects or as equal beings. Films and television not to mention scientists and great philosophers have wondered for many years what would happen if we were met by an alien life form. But going back to my previous point, to them we would all just appear to be what we really are: insignificant. A life form which evolved on a rock on the edge of one galaxy out of hundreds of billions in all of time and space.

We go to work and live our lives on a daily bases however we see fit, occasionally looking up at the night sky and wondering if we are all alone out there. But either way what is the point to us being here at all?



Let's look at a few different perspectives and see which one can be argued to make the most sense.

No Point

OK let's say that there is no point at all. (Hypothetically). The universe was created by the big bang and life evolved here there and everywhere. We got to the point where we are now over time and those of us who needed a voice to follow to tell them what to do and direct them through life giving them a purpose started up religions and changed them and copied these from one another starting from the ancient Greeks who believed in Zeus and the Gods of old, moving on to Norse times when people thought that thunder was the sound of Thor swinging his hammer through the air, all the way up to Christianity and even more recent religions like Scientology- which we won't be going into as I'm not here to cause offense to any one as many others have done before...

  As each day passes we change more and more. Every generation is different from the last, with new inventions being made, new obsessions, changing stances of popularity through fashion. We worry about things sometimes that we wish we could change, or things that might happen. But what if none of it really matters? We really are just beings, that came into being through chance because the conditions were right, or at least right for us to live and evolve the way we do now not created by some higher being through design but simply life that emerged and changed through time to fit its surroundings the only way that it could, imperfect but able to survive against the odds. Does it matter that we have no purpose? The very idea that we are pointless in the grand scheme of things, on account of there not actually being any big scheme or one big plan for everything, can either destroy you or it can set you free. You can sink back in your chair and ponder about how unnecessary you are, or you can think to yourself, "I have nothing to worry about in my life because none of it really matters any way!"  

 

This is in some ways a great way to live. With the inner piece that comes from knowing that we are all just living organisms given the gift of life by chance, brought into this world without a say in the matter kicking and screaming and taught how to live by the rules that we have made for ourselves through hierarchical choices made by those who were elected to be leaders and the ones who choose to follow them without question. We are often forced to do things we don't want to because society expects it from us and we accept this way of life since we accept the reality of the world we have been presented with since birth. We go to school when we are young, then go to college and then get jobs. We know what we are not supposed to do according to the law even when the law is riddled with flaws. Some of us like me are lucky enough to have good, well paid jobs whilst others struggle to get by and get treated badly. I mentioned on an earlier page how luck can effect things too but all from a matter of perspective.

    If you have a bad day for whatever reason, you can always say to yourself, "Hey, none of it matters. I'm just a life form on a rock in space. What I do doesn't matter so long as I make the most of it whilst I'm alive". And this can at times have a lasting positive effect. But I can see a flaw with this perspective. So many people would just use it as a reason to escape from their responsibilities. They would not take care of their kids, not go to work, take drugs and get other people messed up on them, brake the law, hurt people and take from them without thinking about the consequences unless they were effected in any way themselves. To the individual it's easy to just be selfish and thoughtless. But others can suffer because of it which means if we were all like this then we would not survive as a species. We need to work with one another and for one another to make any progress and we all have responsibilities down here however puerile they may appear to anyone watching out there. It really is all a matter of perspective. I feel bad for people who have lost people they care for to illness or in accidents. If I sore someone who needed help that had been hit by a car I wouldn't walk away and say, "Not my problem". So if I can see the 'value' of life then what 'point' can I see to it? Surly if we are all here by chance there must be a reason why I can still empathise with people.

 It could be evolution. Natural selection and survival of the fittest are not the only reason we have made it this far. Through the dawn of civilisation itself we have learned to help each other and be helped by each other. We each play our part and bare some of the responsibility. We do jobs for each other and get paid to do these jobs, and most of us raise families. So is that what it's all about? Maybe, but why? There can't be an intended reason at all in this scenario because we are all just here by chance. So through our own choices and freedom to choose how we live, we have given ourselves purpose and meaning. We decide the meaning of life as we are living it. 



All for one and one for all 

Let's say then that there is a meaning but we have to discover it ourselves. Where did the meaning come from? For there to be a meaning of life which was intended for us, it would have to have come from a higher being. One that put us here. So what could it be?

For many people the existence of God is just accepted without question. This could in part be down to their upbringing. But it can still in most cases be linked to the fear of death. The existence of God brings merit to the belief in an afterlife and this alleviates the fear of death as death is not the end. The soul goes to heaven (or hell) when you die and life goes on in another world. This of course raises the question why did God put us here in the first place; what's it all about? And so we find ourselves asking the most debated question in human history: What is the meaning of life? No one religion has given us a definite answer. Some may have tried but the very fact that the question is still being asked means that the answer given will have been debated, debunked and/or just ignored by the majority of people. This is because without speaking directly to God or being given an undeniable sign from him or her we can only draw our own conclusions to the answer. Even the bible does not hold the answers for the same reason. There are those of us who follow it blindly and even know it by heart as the unquestionable word of God, but it was written by human people after all. It's main message is love thy neighbour. But there is much contradiction along the way.

 So those who believe they know the answer to the meaning of life are just living lives by their own meaning without realizing it or thinking of in this way. Again the conclusion is the same. We make our own meaning of life as we are living it and it in turn gives some of us purpose. 

Naturalist give themselves a reason to live however they decide to live life because they have no other choice, no one to guide them or tell them what to do and in most cases they don't need to be told. Or they will look to others for advice and help. Theists by contrast believe that God made us all, he loves us all and good will triumph over evil and it is our responsibility to help make this happen by making the right choices in life which we have the free will to do or not to do if we so wish. But again the aspect of free will means that we can choose our own destiny one way or the other. 

And what is true good anyway? Is it right to do only good by people all your life? What if you need to do something bad to another person? If you're being attacked should you let them attack you? What if someone else is being hurt or attacked and you have to use force to stop the person who is harming them? If a person has already done wrong by you and you retaliate is this evil? Perhaps this depends on what the person did and what you do in return. The pursuit of justice is a tricky subject at times. People act in ways they normally wouldn't when they have been pushed to it. Then we have to ask, why do people do bad things? Human nature is complicated when it comes to explaining things like this. There's no one right answer. We can only take responsibility for our own choices. We make our own meaning and purpose.

All reading from different hymn sheets

It is the same if we assume that we all have a different individual meaning in life. For there to be an intended meaning we have to assume that there is a God. I don't believe this myself but again I'm trying to write from the perspective of those who do out of respect and to hear both sides of the story rather than just saying that there is no God so this opinion doesn't matter. If God gave us all a different purpose for being here than he, she or they must speak to us all individually in ways that can reach us personally to explain what we must do by giving us signs. This would mean that atheists such as myself just miss these signs or don't realize when we are being given them, whilst those who believe in fate will follow signs all through their lives and do what they believe they are being told to do. But what could it be and why?



Let's say your purpose in life is to get married to a certain person, who you meet at a certain time and start a family with them. Why? What difference will it make if you start a family with them or someone else? Supposing your son or daughter who you have with this person in this particular relationship is very important to many people because they grow up to find a cure for cancer. This was Gods plan, the answer to so many of our prayers. But if God can effect the circumstances on Earth in any such way then why couldn't anyone find the cure? Why create cancer in the first place?

 In the grand scheme of things what makes one persons life or the way they live their life more important than anyone else's? It won't change anything if one person wins a race and gets a gold medal, or cures cancer or invents a useful new gadget that makes life easier for people to do things they don't even need to do any way in most cases. It will only matter to a few people. The person that won the race. The people who get cured of an illness. The people that get a faster car or better ipod. 

Let's say that the plan for your life is mapped out as follows: You are born, you'll grow up like anyone else and then your ultimate goal is to become a doctor. Because you achieve your goal someone else important like a member of parliament gets saved by you after an accident. But in Gods eyes we are all meant to be equal anyway so no one would be given special treatment like this. What if you became a bus conductor instead? Would this mess up Gods plan? But why was this Gods plan at all when he should have just stopped the accident? 

Perhaps happiness is all we are meant to achieve, but people feel happy for different reasons; not always good. Some people take pleasure in doing bad things. Again free will seems to be involved.   

Conclusion

However you look at it and whatever you believe in it all comes down to individual perspective. And I think that whatever you believe we can all agree that we all have a different meaning in life. And we make these meanings for ourselves. So you should make it a good one. 


Prove me wrong.     



Riddle me this: ANSWER - The answer to the last riddle was, death was not beckoning on the man in the market place. He was surprised to see him there when he knew he had an appointment with him here and now (the following day). The man sealed his fate by running from death because he ended up right where he was supposed to be.

NEXT RIDDLE - A woman sees her husband die in a car accident but then goes home the same day and sees him there on the coach alive and well. How is this possible?