I woke up this evening with an overwhelming feeling of
purposelessness. Not on my part but what it would be like for those who
suppress the truth of God. If they took their worldview to its logical
conclusion. I wonder sometimes if people have really stopped to think about the
meaninglessness of life. What significance does our life really have? In this
vast universe, on this minute planet, we exist as a speck, a grouping of atoms,
cruelly organized as a consciousness,
which has absolutely no effect on anything in the big picture. Oh, we try to
give our lives significance. We find something to occupy our efforts. We find a
cause we can be apart of. We want to say we saved some lives, helped find a
cure, saved a species from extinction, helped stop global warming, helped bring
about equality, provided healthcare for everyone, or saved your child from
drowning in the bathtub. Or we can spend our lives experiencing as many of the
opposite sex as possible, stealing what we want, hurting or killing as many as
we can around us. Only to find that once we get the next one, the satisfaction
we thought it would give us fades and we need more. But who cares?! What does
it matter?! What good did it do to help someone who will inevitably die anyway?
What pleasure did it actually bring to get just one more fling, when it only
shows that the desire can never be satisfied? A chasing after the ever eluding
fix. And ultimately, when this universe finally dies a heat death there will be
no one. No one there to even observe the nothingness. And why do we even care
to make a difference or be significant. Why do people kill themselves when they
feel life is meaningless? Life is just a puff of smoke. We are but a puff of
smoke. An accident. A cruel accident. Only to suffer and then extinction.
Nothingness. If we are just a random collection of atoms, none of this matters
anyway. It is all meaninglessness. A chasing after the wind. Marinade your mind
and heart in the meaninglessness of your life. Saturate yourself in the purposelessness
of this world. You can try to give yourself purpose but you are only deluding
yourself. How can you give yourself purpose? Purpose comes from outside us. To
try to give yourself purpose is to knowingly lie to yourself. Like turning from
the approaching semi and saying over and over again to yourself “It’s not
there. It’s ok. It will go right through me and I will be ok.” If there is no
purpose, we can not give ourselves purpose. Life has no meaning or
significance for it will all one day cease. Solomon, with all his wealth, tried
it all. Everything this world has to offer and found that it was all
meaningless. A chasing after the wind. A never ending, unsatisfiable pursuit. But, is it possible, just slightly possible,
that the desire you feel, the insatiable longing for something, that has never
been found, nor ever will be found in this world, might have an answer that
comes from another world? Might you have a longing for purpose and significance
because that is what you were crated for? You can not choose your purpose and
significance. You must receive it from outside yourself. From the giver of
purpose. Is there purpose to life or are we just accidents. If there is no God, there is no purpose accept the lies we tell ourselves. Maybe just maybe, God has an answer. The question is, do we want to listen? Just a thought.
2 comments:
Hello Aaron: You asked What significance does our life really have?
Your life means whatever you want it to mean. However, you have no duty to make it mean anything; nevertheless, if you wish your life to be meaningful, it's entirely up to you to make it be meaningful. No magic sky fairy is going to help you, guide you, or make everything be ok for you.
Ayn Rand wrote
What is morality, or ethics? It is a code of values to guide man’s choices and actions—the choices and actions that determine the purpose and the course of his life. Ethics, as a science, deals with discovering and defining such a code.
The first question that has to be answered, as a precondition of any attempt to define, to judge or to accept any specific system of ethics, is: Why does man need a code of values?
Let me stress this. The first question is not: What particular code of values should man accept? The first question is: Does man need values at all—and why? ~ http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/morality.html
If any person in a quest for meaning starts with Ayn's question, particulars will quickly be self-evident, but if and only if the person observes reality as opposed to mythology.
Dawson, Photosynthesis and I have posted comments and questions for your review Dawson Bethrick's blog where you commented recently.
http://bahnsenburner.blogspot.com/2012/05/presuppositionalisms-finest.html
I'd be peachy if you'd toss out a pithy comment or two.
Best Good
Robert, thanks for stopping by. Sorry it took so long for me to moderate your post. For some reason I did not see it. You have the privilege of being the first person to comment on my blog (As if that is something special.) The comment that I wrote on Dawson's blog was written on my phone so I was not sure if it went through. And when I looked, I did not see it. I will take a look at the comments when I get a chance. Anyway, as to your comments here. In her quote she uses the term "discovering" does that not imply something that already exists? Something that is outside of us. Like discovering the laws of physics. Also, the question "Does man need values at all and why." Is that not a question of "ought." If so it is a value, an ethic. She is saying that one "ought" to ask "Does man need values at all-and Why? Thus you are starting out with a value, an ethic. What man ought to do. So this would be the particular code of value man should accept. Thus the question "What particular code of values should man accept" IS actually the first question.
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