If you’re reading this, then congratulations, you’ve survived the rapture. Wait… that’s supposed to be a bad thing. Man, religion is confusing. I suppose that confusion is the only guaranteed result when one attempts to solve life’s great mysteries. Even still I can’t help but wonder what purpose my extremely unlikely existence is meant to serve. For the final of my philosophy of religion class I wrote an essay about the meaning of life. The writing was really rough but I’d like to think that some of the ideas are worth sharing, and share them I shall! I’m going to cut out a rather lengthy segment on what is called “Divine Command Theory” as pretty much everything I wrote on it could easily be found elsewhere. All you really need to know is that both actions being good because God commands them and God commanding actions because they are good are problematic ideals. Anyhow, here’s like half of the paper.
“…I have yet to encounter a convincing argument in my life that has persuaded me that the meaning of life is necessarily anything more than simply “to live.”
In Leo Tolstoy’s work “My Confession”, Tolstoy provides the story of how he transitioned from leading a life that he believed to be devoid of reason to the pursuit of a life that was religiously virtuous. Tolstoy begins this work by discussing just how miserable he was during the period in his life when he attempted to rationalize everything and lived by logic and reason. At some point he began to be haunted by the question of why he was even alive. As far as he could discern there was no way to answer this question through reason. Science and rational thought could provide him with the answers to all kinds of questions about the particulars of objects within the universe and their relation to one another, but could not lead him to the answer of why he should continue to live that he so desperately desired. Tolstoy renounced his pursuit of reason after observing countless individuals leading what he believed to be good lives through the pursuit of faith. He believed that these people had truly a discovered the meaning of life- that life is about transcending our finite existence and pursuing an eternal life through God.
When reading Tolstoy’s argument for leading a religious life it is apparent that he was serious about throwing reason to the wind. The idea that religion has worked for many others is nothing more than an appeal to popularity. Just because a certain belief or custom works for another person or group doesn’t mean that it will work for another. In this case there isn’t even a sense of certainty that religion does in fact work as a solution to the meaning of life. Because others are following a certain lifestyle and seem to be happy with it does not mean that the values of this lifestyle are correct. A billion people believing in eternal salvation will have no effect on what happens to any of them when they die. Either they were correct or they weren’t and simply believing does not make the transition from the finite to the infinite a reality. The frame of reference that Tolstoy establishes in the beginning of this piece also suggests a bias in his search for meaning. A man who believes that he is “… an accidentally cohering globule of something.” is probably one with an immense desire to change this viewpoint that may or may not have high regard for objectivism in doing so. Additionally, his dissatisfaction with life by no means necessarily leads him to religion. It could just as easily lead him to lead a life of hedonism, or to simply embrace his nihilism. He may not be wrong in saying that disregarding reason is the only way to determine the meaning of life, and it is of course possible that religion is the answer, but this is far from a definite conclusion. There is a reason that they call it a leap of faith after all. In order to investigate the issue further it is beneficial to explore the motivation of others for pursuing religion as the answer.
…Insert discussion on DCT here…
All of this discussion on the meaning of life gets heavily bogged down when God becomes a factor in the equation, which is why I find Albert Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus to be the most compelling work in this section. In his writing Camus suggests that Sisyphus’s tragic fate of aimlessly pushing a rock up a hill for all eternity is not all that different from the plight of modern man. This is a depressing notion on the surface, but Camus’ argument is one that sees Sisyphus as a happy man. While the rock can be seen as a burden it can also be viewed in a positive light. No matter what happens Sisyphus will always have a rock to push, and at times it could indeed be satisfying just to push the rock, even if he knows the exercise to be futile. Camus goes as far as to state that “[h]is (Sisyphus’) rock is his thing.” Once Sisyphus realizes and accepts the hopelessness of his situation he overcomes it. The only way for his situation to conquer him is for him to hope for more.
As I find myself awake at an unreasonable hour working to complete this paper I can see the link between Sisyphus and myself. This paper will be reflected in one grade that will probably have a marginal impact on the rest of my life which will likely be insignificant in the grand scheme of things. I fully understand that my entire existence could be completely without meaning, but unlike Tolstoy I am not concerned with this idea. Maybe there is a Truth that establishes a fundamental code for morality and maybe there isn’t. So long as I can keep pushing the rock up the hill with a smile on my face and an open mind to embrace the Truth should it present itself to me I’ll be just fine. As they say, sometimes the journey is its own reward.”
This is a far cry from my complete views on life. There’s not even word one on how people should treat one another. It is a good start though, and if I were asked to state in one sentence what I thought the meaning of life was the answer could easily be discerned form this text.
Keep on keeping on.
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