Dear Adrian,
Throughout your note(Click here for the note), you have touched on many topics; but I gather that in its essence, your article is asking one of the most profound and difficult questions that have baffled even the most renowned philosophers throughout all time: what is the meaning/purpose of life?
I write not to disprove or disagree with anything you say, neither do I claim I have the final answers to your questions, I merely found your article very intriguing, thought-provoking, and would like to offer my point of view on this matter for the sake of good discussion. Btw, Adrian, very impressed with your language and style, very nice and formal, something like an article in some intellectual magazine.
Adrian, I agree with you that deciphering life isn’t easy at all and indeed demands perseverance, determination, time and effort. But it is excellent that you are at least trying and working at it. The problem is that most people don’t even bother and live life simply trying to fit in to whatever that is immediately ahead of them.
So what is the meaning of life? Nobody can tell you the answer, cause even if somebody told you his/her answer, it wouldn’t convince you unless you searched for it yourself. Look at it this way, (I put aside my Christian belief for the time being and) from a purely logical viewpoint, every thing that has a meaning or purpose has a maker. This might sound religious but it is actually quite common sense: for example, a pair of scissors has a purpose, to cut things, because the inventor/maker of the scissors made it to cut things, you look at a pair of scissors and straight away you think: ‘cut’. Conversely, if something has no maker, it doesn’t have a purpose by itself, like a rock has no maker, it has no purpose, it is just lying on the ground, you can use it do something, maybe break open a lock, you gave it a function for a while, but still by itself it has no purpose.
So you see, as humans, most of what we do: study, sports, work, responsibilities, are merely functions, you wouldn’t say that is the purpose of our lives would you? When you ask, ‘what is the purpose of life’, logically speaking, you must first acknowledge that life/humans have a maker. One may choose to believe otherwise, but then, they would not be able to ask ‘what is the purpose of life’, for that which has no maker cannot have a purpose. So if you want to know the purpose of life, and therefore acknowledge the existence of a maker, where better to start searching for the purpose of life than by first searching for life’s maker?
You say: We are all lost. What is truth? What is lie? Yes indeed, truth is hard to find. But it doesn’t mean it cannot be found, it just takes effort and dedication, and I believe it is worth every effort when searching for the truth, should there be one, for something as important as the meaning/purpose of life itself. Faith and blind faith is different. I believe Atheism is more a case of blind faith than religion, to say ‘there is no god’ is actually saying: ‘I believe there is no god’, it is still a faith in a statement that cannot be entirely proven true or false, it is the easy way out, when things are not laid out in big bold words across the sky, to pronounce Atheism is to simply give up searching, and have blind faith that there is no god. Not all religion is blind faith, and Christianity is certainly not, in fact, Christianity encourages all its believers to test everything (1 Thes 5:21), not believe blindly, and Christianity itself is grounded in solid historical, archaeological, scientific and prophetic evidence. Blind faith is to believe there is no God and ignore that the universe had a beginning out of nothing(the Big Bang) and believe that replicating life on earth was started by random collision of molecules. Ya, sometimes we get too busy in life and forget or don’t care about many basic things.
One word about friends: friendship is good, one of the most beautiful things in this world. But base not your whole faith upon it, for everyone(yes, I mean every single one without fail) will let you down, simply because no one is perfect. True friendship is hard to find, but not impossible, and even so in one, forgiveness plays a part every once in a while.
And personally if you ask me, the meaning of life (in order) is: to know God, to live for God, and to enjoy the things He created for us in the way He intended for us. Seems simple and naïve, but how I came to it is certainly far more profound. May you find for yourself the meaning of life too. Cheers.
2 comments:
true enough, everything has a purpose, and i do mean everything. the purpose of any matter, even life, is not decided by a single entity. a purpose exist because of the intent of realizing that purpose into practice.
as mentioned earlier, a rock, all by itself, has no purpose, but it has a function when used.
so, lets put scissors into that statement; a pair of scissors, all by itself has no purpose, but it has a function when used.
i just proved two things here.
1. function and purpose is basically the same...except one is more mechanical and the other general...but they are still the same.
2. purpose exist with intent.
i agree, when one sees a pair of scissors, his first thought would be "cut". but is that the only thing that he can think of? is "cut" the only ability of the scissors? or is it the main ability?
surely, i use scissors to cut, but i can also use it to stab people....just an example here, it can be anything else. the purpose of "stab" exist in the scissors because it was my intention to do so. the manufacturer made scissors as a cutting tool, because it was his intention. it boils down to each individual. had there not been any intention to cut, scissors wouldnt exist at all would it?
lets look again, at the rock. i have establish the idea where purpose varies to each individual, and now, to a geologist, a rock can tell him a lot about the structure of earth in that area. to me, it's just a rock. just because i fail to see the purpose of a rock, doesnt mean a rock has no purpose at all. again, it boils down to each individual.
in the end, one thing is for sure is, the main purpose of life, can be as what he claimed, but that doesnt mean that its the ONLY purpose. it can be anything you want it to be.
blind faith is an interesting issue as well. there is no blind faith. just faith. faith is about believing something....it doesnt need proof...just the heart and confidence in something that you cant see, touch, smell, hear or taste. anything involving any of the sensory organs is not faith, its knowledge.
this is fun!
Ben,
Yeha I know this topic is fun! We have so many views on it. =)
As we are created by our creator, HE have in mind what are we suppose to do. We are to differentiate good and evil. The good and the bad.
So the mind is a realy interesting thing as we have the ability to think and choose our actions, even if it means that we are going againts our creator. (Which in the Christianity sense going towards Satan.)
Bytheway about your 2nd last paragraph, Joel did mention at the beginning of his note that this is according to his view. So just tolerate with it. =)
Blind faith. Probably we should ask the person who started this word and argue with him ^^
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