Question 6 – What is the meaning of life?
This question has bothered humanity from time immemorial. I think that no subject has had more books written about it and been debated over at evening campfires. What is the meaning of our existence? Where are we heading? Does it pay to struggle through life? For what?
The simple fact that something here exists, something that drives us and impels us to be continually occupied with this question is interesting. Have you ever thought about it yourself? How come we are always thinking about it? Is it because we are particularly contemplative or that it brings us an 'evolutionary' advantage ensuring our survival? Or is it something else altogether?
I was interested in this question in the Czech context for a time and gathered many repeated opinions concerning it from various polls. I am convinced that if I did an individual poll for every country or continent, the answers would be different because of individual cultures and specific political traditions. Before we delve into contemplating the subject specifically, allow me to share some opinions that can be found in my country.
What is the most often stated reason for the meaning of life for us Czechs?
- enjoy my life to the maximum (according to the saying, 'You only live once!')
- love and respect for life and the actions that are related to them
- raise my children and provide for them properly (family)
- become a wise (educated) person
- become as rich and successful a person as possible
- grow in spirituality
- my personal relationship with God – follow Jesus Christ
- to learn as much as possible, improve myself and be content
- get to know/understand myself
- somehow survive in these times
- live a respectable life and leave a legacy
Stop for a moment and reread these opinions. What do most of them express? Better said, what do most of these opinions say about the people who have expressed them?
I think that most people are expressing, either consciously or unconsciously, that there is no specific, objective, unchangeable reason that exists to this question! Therefore, our question must be asked in a different way:
Does a specific meaning for life that applies to everyone exist?
Without you realising, your answer has far-reaching consequences. That is to say, for example, if a person finds the meaning of life in enjoying it to the last drop, it is possible to expect that he/she will hurt many people as well as himself/herself by his/her behaviour. Another example is the desire for a career. If a person sees his/her meaning in life to get as high as possible in his/her career, we can expect that this will have many negative consequences, whether it be for his/her family, the raising of children or his/her colleagues by getting ahead by any means. I haven't even mentioned the impact on his/her life itself. Others find meaning in life through more refined pursuits. For example, helping others, building a family, leaving a legacy and so on. Their manners and behaviour in various situations, as a result, flow/spring/come from one of these viewpoints.
In other words, we very often behave according to what we believe the meaning of life to be, whether consciously or unconsciously. It is important to keep this fact in mind.
Where is the catch?
All of the above-mentioned possibilities are made on the premise that no objective meaning exists in any case. There, we can choose according to our will and impulse/whim (just as we see others doing around us). All of this, in my opinion, then is only valid if we are here by chance. In other words, only if no God or intelligence exists and who has created us and has a higher purpose for us. All of these opinions that we hear, whether or not many of us are aware of it, are valid only on the supposition that God does not exist.
If I wanted to express this idea pedagogically, then it would be as follows:
1) No Creator (God) exists and everything is as a result of chance → there is no meaning to life, we are insignificant nothings which have just found ourselves in a meaningless universe. This concept is then relative. We can choose whatever we want to be the meaning of our lives. On a flat plane there are no boundaries for what is normal, what is good or what causes damage.
2) A Creator (God) exists and He created us → it is appropriate to ask if He just created us and has no further interest in us. If He has created us but is no longer interested in us, then the conclusion from point 1 is valid. However, if He gave us life for some reason and continues to be interested in us, then the meaning of life is the reason He created us. Other opinions will be faulty and miss the point (this is also the case in the more refined goals that aren't wrong in and of themselves).
So then, what about the objective meaning of life?
I will repeat myself – as a Christian, I hold to the opinion that a person's main reason for life is a relationship with the living God. I believe that God created us in order that we might experience a mutual relationship based on love, submission and obedience to Him. God desires that we glorify Him with our lives and rejoice in our relationship with Him.
What is your reason for living, dear reader? Before you choose or select your own way, try considering first of all whether the meaning of life is not in fact more than your own decision.
>If God does not exist, let's not look for meaning in life – there is no meaning!<
Summation
The meaning of life does not rest in our desires and decisions. If however God exists, it is He who gives us meaning. To generalize, we could express it in the following way: The meaning of life is a relationship with the living God and fulfilling His plan for our life.
"For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible... all things were created through him and for him." (Colossians 1:16)