Some further thoughts on the meaning of life

Apropos this post.

I think there’s often a confusion between meaning and purpose, and for some reason that purpose has to be external. For example, it’s not enough to simply do something, you have to have a good objective reason. To certain religionistas it’s simply not enough to have a relationship with someone (because, say, you enjoy each others company a lot) - you have to have that relationship in order to get married and have kids, and you have to get married and have kids because God told you so. For them it’s all part of some grand master-plan devised by a perfect being – so it’s easy to see why the idea of acting purely on biological and psychological impulses seems a little inadequate in comparison.

The atheistic view of life requires quite a bit of humility: I’m simply the product of evolution, in a universe which came about by accident, and in the grand scheme of things my life means very little. What I do has immense importance to me, and, if I’m doing things right, the people around me. But there’s no guaranteed great pay-off at the end. No matter how hard I try, and no matter how good a person I am, my life will eventually end and in all probability my consciousness will be extinguished.

I will be no more. Kaput. Absolutely.

Now, that’s not ideal, but then what is? An important part of life is resigning yourself to fact that you’re mortal: that you won’t live forever, you’ll never be able to fly or have super strength, and it’s unlikely that you’ll become a rock God, or astronaut, or whatever delusion of grandeur plagues you. Part of growing up is learning who you are and what you can do, all in order to get the best out of life.

There is no ultimate reason for living, no great meaning of life: you either appreciate it or you don’t. Most people do.

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