Some Thoughts on the Big Questions

from Ch. 3,             The Meaning of Life

Introduction

     Does life have any meaning? Is life meaningful? Where this question does not mean, can you find something to do in your life that makes it meaningful to you? There are numerous answers to this second question and they run the gamut from the sublime to the seemingly ridiculous. Perhaps your work: scientific discovery, healing the sick, teaching or, probably the most common, your family and its well being.  But for some it might be just stamp collecting or model trains or building string balls that gives your life meaning, makes you want to get up in the morning or to keep going. That’s not what I’m talking about by the questions at the beginning of this paragraph. 

     Rather, these questions are asking something more like: does it make any difference what you do? Really, ultimately, does it make any difference what you do? The  reasoning which underlies this question is: if no matter how you live and act the outcome is, ultimately, the same then it doesn’t really make any diff erence what you do. And if it doesn’t make any difference what you do, then life is not meaningful–your actions, your life don’t mean anything, they don’t make any difference, at least, none that is lasting.

     At this point, it seems, the world divides into two different kinds of people, those for whom any difference one can make in the here and now and into the proximate future is enough. Clearly one can make some difference here and now, at least to those with whom one comes into contact. And, if one is lucky or sufficiently talented and hard working (or sufficiently nasty, devious and evil), the difference he/she makes may well last generations into the future. (This seems especially true of actions which have at least a moderate impact on the environment for example.) And that, it is claimed, is enough to give life meaning.

     There are others, however, for whom that is not enough. They reason that if, in the end,–if ultimately– it’s all just dust, then ultimately it doesn’t make any difference what you do. Whether you’re Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot , Mao or Mother Theresa, Gandhi or even Christ, ultimately it makes no difference, the end state is the same, no matter what. In that case, if ultimately it doesn’t make any difference what you do, then life has no meaning.

     Which group do you fall into? If you fall into the first group, then the question about whether life has meaning collapses into that simpler question: can I find something to do with the time I have that gives me satisfaction, self-esteem, pleasure, perhaps a good reputation or even money? Your corner of the bookstore would be the self-help section. If you fall into the latter group, the question expands into other, related questions and your corner of the bookstore is the religion and spirituality section.

     I fall into the second group. And I want to spend some time and thought, here, exploring what those other related questions are and whether or what we can know about their subjects.