What is the meaning of life? Can this question even be answered? To some people, this may never be found, but others share their opinions, experiences, and other evidence to be able to properly explain their answer. Many evolutionists may say that the point of life is to reproduce and pass down genes. Some people find a meaning to life by finding their own path of happiness and doing whatever they please. However, too many religious people or Christians, they can find meaning in or through God. Due to the incontrovertible information provided, the idea that through Supernatural theism you can find the meaning of life is backed by multiple scholarly philosophers and situations.
The meaning of life is a subject that tends to be very open to everyone’s views and opinions; this is why so many philosophers write about this topic and constantly compare their information to others. In this instance a man named William Lane Craig explains how “if God does not exist, then both man and the universe are inevitably doomed to death…With no hope of immortality, man’s life leads only to the grave. His life is but a spark in the infinite blackness, a spark that appears, flickers, and dies forever.” This concept deals with a Supernatural theism point of view. Supernatural theism is about how God is a supernatural being who is responsible for the creation and at times hinders or alters with his creations. Craig discusses how man wonders about his existence and the point of being here on earth. But the issue with it is that they are asking these kinds of questions without including God. They are not connecting the two together and finding the importance of him in their lives.
Without God, there is simply no purpose. What would the ultimate meaning be to live without the hope or prospect of immortality? I don’t mean that I want to live forever, but what am I working towards while on earth if there is nothing to look forward to once I die. This situation discusses the idea of life without God as Craig says, “If each individual person passes out of existence when he dies, then what ultimate meaning can be given to his life?
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Does it really matter whether he ever existed at all? His life may be important relative to certain other events, but what is the ultimate significance of any of those events? Ultimately it makes no difference.” He brings up important information to think about; he really makes you analyze life without God. This helps to realize the significance that God does have in our everyday life. The prospect of living life after death helps to motivate us to be the best we can be. We want to prove ourselves on earth, so that way we are able to make it to Heaven.
This brings up the topic of the afterlife and how important it is. Like previously mentioned, we must prove ourselves on earth to be worthy of Heaven, which is a perfect place. My views on the afterlife differ from others at times. I believe in Purgatory and feel that we must push ourselves to even reach there. After we die, we either go to hell (I lowered cased it because I hate the idea of giving this terrible place, where God is absent, any kind of power.
That might sound dumb, but I even hated using it in this paper. I couldn’t think of a way to describe it enough to justify its evil) or Purgatory. Purgatory is a place where our souls are cleansed. We must be perfected and sinless before we enter our final resting place. Our souls and mortal bodies differ greatly; our bodies on earth are dispensable, weak, and just flesh and blood. But, our souls are so much more. They are capable of surviving near-death experiences and transitioning us from earth to a more glorified place. The afterlife gives us reason to live on earth; a place filled with pure love, happiness, acceptance, and God’s presence should be the end goal for everyone who lives.
For some people, life consists of a never-ending cycle of waking up, going to work, eating, coming home, sleeping, and then repeating this process. They spend their lives in a mindless state of forcing themselves to get out of bed every day. The mindset changes to feeling like life are pointless and worthless. Many people live their lives unhappy and have no means or purpose to be able to satisfy their needs. It is so difficult to try and find meaning in your life when you are stuck in a routine like this.
However, I believe we should find happiness throughout our lives amid the basic lifestyle that some hold. I think God of course wants us to be respectful of his teachings and to live a life as he would want us to. But I think he also wants us to be happy; for some people living a simple life like being a nun, priest, or monk is the right path for them. But for the majority of people in the world, we are living our lives and working jobs that aren’t that simple. But God still wants us to be happy; he doesn’t want us to be miserable. He loves us more than anything and wants the best for us.
The Bee Movie is a great example of how we should be allowed to break off from the normal ways of society. This movie follows a bee that must choose a job to work for the rest of his life. In society, we are constantly pressured to make big decisions like this. In the movie, the main character bee decides to explore the world and find what he wants to do with his life. Through this experience, he is able to find his own meaning to happiness. This is very important and a wonderful way to express this kind of view. Although the bee finds his meaning himself, I believe we need help from God to find our meaning. Since he himself gives us meaning to our lives.
Although I am a Christian, throughout the text that Emil L. Fackenheim uses to express the meaning of life through the eyes of Judaism, I would have to agree with a great majority explained. He talks about how “whatever meaning life acquires derives from this encounter: the Divine accepts and confirms the human in the moment of meeting. But the meaning conferred upon human life by the Divine-human encounter cannot be understood in terms of some finite human purpose, supposedly more ultimate than the meeting itself.”
We are only human, and this meeting is very difficult to understand. We have trouble comprehending situations and events that happen but still believe them. We have to put our faith in God that he is leading us on the right path for our future. God accepts us by giving us directions in our life about what is right and wrong. We must be responsible enough to take his advice and commands and obey him. We must surrender ourselves to him because he has created us and understands all of our imperfections.
Fackenheim goes on to discuss how basically just the fact that God’s presence is there, that it is a true confirmation of our meaning here. There is no longer even a question of our meaning; we don’t need to think about the purpose of our existence when we know who is present. We as humans have a relationship with God because he accepted us. There is “a relation of mutuality between an Infinite Divinity and a finite humanity-something that would seem impossible-nevertheless became possible.”
However, there are many people who are neither Jews nor Christians, and there are some people who do not believe in God creating earth at all. Some of these people believe in evolution; evolution deals with the idea of how many living organisms have developed or changed over time from the beginning of the earth. For example, humans have formed from apes. This idea deals with the theory of evolution through natural selection. It is believed that this battle of evolution versus creationism has ended and evolution has won. But many people are yet to be convinced, due to the creationist’s determination and faith in their religion.
The point of mentioning the idea of evolution is to show and disprove the ideas that are supported by it. By doing this, it helps to reinforce the subject of creation and God’s importance in it. God created the earth and gives us meaning for life, so explaining the mistakes in other ideas will help to reinforce the true meaning of life. First of all, the idea of how “natural selection is based on circular reasoning: the fittest are those who survive, and those who survive are deemed fittest.” This isn’t necessarily true though; animals have different traits that help them to adapt better to survival.
It doesn’t mean that the bigger and in better shape animals will survive longer. There are smaller, animals who may be able to breed faster and end up being the majority number of species present in the area. This could be seen as the fittest since they were able to produce generations of offspring and survive this long. However, there could be animals who are able to climb trees and collect food, or they could be very fast and catch their prey. These would fit under the category of those who survive are fittest, but the previously mentioned animals would too. So, this can be disproven.
Another thing that can be disproven is a very stereotypical evolutionist idea. This deals with how “evolution is unscientific because it is not testable or falsifiable. It makes claims about events that were not observed and can never be re-created.” This can deal with microevolution and macroevolution. Microevolution looks into changes within species over time, and many creationists actually agree with it.
There are labs and tests that prove things especially when studying cells or researching fruit flies, but macroevolution is not as accepted. Macroevolution is about studying and drawing evidence from fossils and DNA comparisons to recreate how many living organisms are related. However, for this to be true, the timeline on when human fossils should have begun to appear is not accurate. The flow and transition from apes to humans should have been seen over time in the correct time period (the Jurassic period), but they aren’t.
This correlates to the main subject of “if humans descended from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?” Evolution in general is not meant to tell us how we are descended from one particular animal or organism; it is meant to tell us about a common ancestor. New species are meant to break off and evolve from their established ones.
The parent species either survive forever or become extinct, so why are there still adults if children are descended from them? Finally, my largest question relating to disprove evolution is, why can it not explain how life first appeared on Earth? Human cells can not spring up by chance. Microevolution cannot explain new species. “The Second Law of Thermodynamics says that systems must become more disordered over time. Living cells therefore could not have evolved from inanimate chemicals, and multicellular life could not have evolved from protozoa.” However, creationists have one of the simplest and yet complex answers to this, God created the earth and everything on it.
There is a man who went beyond the idea of bringing yourself joy and happiness, and he initially advocates in his writings what to him was the only truth. Leo Tolstoy thought that writing was a waste of time at first; although, he began to gain recognition for his work. In it, he would talk about how he felt “it was necessary to live in such a way as to derive the greatest comfort for oneself and one’s family.” Then he explains something that happened to him; he began to question how to live life and asked himself simple, why, questions on the reason to live. He eventually becomes obsessed with being able to answer this question and feels that if he can’t then he couldn’t even live.
I feel that this branches off into the topic of suicide and how the willingness to live is lost. People begin questioning the reason for our existence. What is the point of working a job for the rest of your life that you don’t even like? Why am I even here on earth? What’s the point at all? Albert Camus writes an excellent point by saying that “what is called a reason for living is also an excellent reason for dying…I mean thereby those that run the risk of leading death or those that intensify the passion of living.” The topic of suicide is probably the most urgent question to be answered. He discusses how this is a solution to this absurd world. Those who commit suicide are sure of the meaning of life. But, those who want to but don’t, still live a life as they had and continue to question the meaning of life. People say life has no meaning but then continue to live as if it does.
The meaning of life is actually a very important concept I question often. I’m going to share briefly a glimpse into my life and my mindset. So, I deal with a form of depression and have severe anxiety; quite often I get down on myself and doubt my worth. This makes it easier to question my reasoning to live, and sometimes I find or feel that there is no point.
I am repulsed by the thought of having to work my whole life around people who maybe self-absorbed or money-hungry. But, with other peoples’ help and especially God’s help, I am able to find purpose. When I begin to question my existence, I look to God for help. Just knowing that he is there and has a plan for me is a reassuring matter. I am able to clear my mind more and focus on positive aspects of the world and my future such as being able to travel the world with the right job or growing old with someone I love. These are the kind of things that God gives me to make me find my meaning and happiness in life.
In conclusion, I feel that man people have lost their way and meaning in life by going out and drinking and trying to earn the most money; they have lost their way and their sight. Everyone is out for themselves now. But, through a Supernatural theistic point of view, meaning can be found. From the evidence that has been provided throughout this paper, from many different philosophers to my own experience, God is the main source of our existence. Through him, we can answer the question of, what is the meaning of life?
Bibliography
- Craig, William L. “The Absurdity of Life Without God.” Reasonable Faith with William Lane Craig, 2020. Accessed April 25, 2020. https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/popular- writings/existence-nature-of-god/the-absurdity-of-life-without-god/.
- Klemke, E.D, and Steven M. Cahn. The Meaning of Life: Edition 4. “Albert Camus: The Myth of Sisyphus,” (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), PBK. 66-
- Klemke, E.D, and Steven M. Cahn. The Meaning of Life: Edition 4. “Emil L. Fackenheim: Judaism and the Meaning of Life,” (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), PBK. 24-25.
- Klemke, E.D, and Steven M. Cahn. The Meaning of Life: Edition 4. “Leo Tolstoy: My Confession,” (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), PBK. 7.
- Rennie, John. “15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense.” Scientific American. Scientific American, a Division of Springer Nature America, INC, July 1, 2002. Accessed April 25, 2020. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/15-answers-to-creationist/. 1-15.
- Seinfeld, Jerry, and Spike Feresten. Bee Movie. DVD. Directed by Simon J. Smith, and Steve Hickner. Los Angeles: Paramount Pictures, 2007.
