DO WE NEED A MEANING AND PURPOSE?

What is the meaning of our lives and must we know what it is? Sean D. Kelly, chair of the department of philosophy at Harvard University, thinks that we can find meaning in our “small-scale commitments”:

·       “…to find happiness and meaning, in other words, not in some universal religious account of the order of the universe that holds for everyone at all times, but rather in the local and small-scale commitments that animate a life well-lived. The meaning that one finds in a life dedicated to “the wife, the heart, the bed, the table, the saddle, the fire-side, the country,” these are genuine meanings. They are, in other words, completely sufficient to hold off the threat of nihilism, the threat that life will dissolve into a sequence of meaningless events.”

Are our experiences sufficient to keep life from dissolving in a sequence of unsatisfying “meaningless events?” And how do we cope when our experiences become painful? Kelly feels that life can be lived meaningfully by virtue of our day-to-day experiences, without a set of unifying truths. It’s like living in two-dimensional space – enjoying a sunset apart from seeing its relationship to purpose, truth, and the fullness of our relationships. What would help Kelly stay the course when his relationships no longer feel full? How would he deal with his “small scale commitments” if he loses his job or family?

More importantly, it seems that we need an overarching meaning and purpose to animate our lives. King Solomon was a man who had everything – women, wealth, wisdom, power, and the respect of all who met him, and yet, he was miserable. He wrote:

·       I thought to myself, "Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge. Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind. For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief. (Ecclesiastes 1:16-18)

As hard as Solomon tried, he was unable to grasp life’s meaning. It was like trying to grasp “the wind.” Instead, his wisdom-quest produced “much sorrow” and “grief.” Why? He wasn’t able to find the key that unlocked life’s meaning. Without any knowledge of eternal life, he knew that his labors and pleasures were all bereft of meaning:

·       For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered; in days to come both will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise man too must die!  So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. (Ecclesiastes 2:16-21)

Solomon found that a life lived for the pleasures and satisfactions of this life alone became oppressive. He knew that he had to discover the glue that held everything together, but instead, he found that intellect and experience alone was unable to lay hold of it.

Solomon’s emptiness is the story of humankind. Atheist Bertrand Russell believed that humanity could impose their own will and purpose on the purposeless, filling the emptiness with meaning:

• Undismayed by the empire of chance, [man determines] to preserve a mind free from the wanton tyrant that rules his outward life; proudly defiant of the irresistible forces... [He determines] to sustain alone... the world that his own ideals have fashioned despite the trampling march of unconscious power. (A Free Man’s Worship)

However, there are dreams that will not take wing no matter how confident we might be about them. Years later, Russell confessed that his dreams folded like a rose’s drooping dried pedals:

• I wrote with passion and force because I really thought I had a gospel. Now I am cynical about the gospel because it won’t stand the test of life.

Why did his dream die? It wasn’t able to deliver what Russell required. But why can’t we simply create our own meaning? Perhaps, it’s like creating an imaginary family and mate, which we can enjoy in our minds without the messiness of relationships. And when we get tired of our “wife,” we can simply exchange her for another fantasy wife.

Ludicrous? Of course! However, this is just what we do when we exchange a genuine relationship with God and the meaning that can only come from such a relationship with our own mental creations. Yes, we can be the captain of our own ship, but this ship ultimately will not take me where we need to go.