[ Nanook is speaking with George. Nanook is in italics.]

“This is pretty heavy stuff George. I mean, I’m not saying I don’t want to hear it. I really do. It’s opening up a whole new world for me just to see so many new ways of looking at things. It’s just . . . it’s just . . . “

“Your house of cards is falling down. Is that what you’re trying to say?”

“EXACTLY! The house is falling down, the foundation has crumbled, and I’m up to my eyeballs in quicksand.”

“In that case, as your dedicated medical school trained psychiatrist, I am obliged by my training to ask you, ‘HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT?”

“Yeah right! I think I’ll take the fifth on that. So, let me go back to the most fundamental question of all: WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE? And you’re not allowed to respond asking me ‘what do I think about that’. This is values time for you, George!”

“You’re neat Nanook. You really learn quickly, and you’re able to stay calm during the bludgeoning you’re getting. But can’t you pick an easier question?

. . . . . .

Hmmm . . . No answer. OK. Let’s start at the beginning.

Purpose

First let’s talk about the word ‘MEANING’. In this context, one way to interpret meaning is PURPOSE. That is, ‘what is the PURPOSE of life’. Do you agree with that?”

“Sure.”

“Don’t Catholics have an answer to that from catechism class?”

“Sure. Why am I alive? To know, love and serve God in this life and to be happy with Him forever in Heaven.”

“Ok. So, for people who believe in a God that created everything and who believe that God decides what those creations have been created for, the PURPOSE of life for those creatures is whatever that God decides. So, for those people, the answer to that question is best discussed with Father Vincent or one of their religious leaders. You just told me what you learned in catechism.

But what about the non-religious people? Is there any ‘meaning in life’ for them if a god does not exist, or even if a god does exists but that god doesn’t get involved in people’s day-to-day lives?”

“Well, I’ve always been told that there can be no meaning in life without God.”

“I’ve heard that statement. But haven’t you seen over the last few days that many of the things you’ve been told were LIES?”

“Yeah. So, help me see how you see this. I’m sure you have another view on this.”

“Good. We first have to identify, who is asking this question. Remember we talked some about the concept of ‘being’ – ‘to be, or not to be’. What if you were a rock. How would you answer the question for a rock?”

“For a rock? A rock does not have life. So, the question doesn’t apply.”

“How about a plant? A dog? An ape?”

“OK. Let me think about this. I guess, we could say that, for a plant, which has awareness consciousness, but not choice consciousness, that it just responds to its environment. It’s purpose might then be stated, ‘just to live.’ Same with the dog. The ape begs the question because we get into the question about where consciousness moves from level A1 to A2. So, let me just jump to humans, which, I’m sure, is where you were heading. I bet, all the things you were telling me somehow come together again to answer this question. I just don’t feel clear about it.”

Choice and Responsibility

“Exactly. A human with level A2 consciousness is able to make CHOICES. This is the KEY. This is what Ayn Rand was trying to tell us. Once a life form is able to make choices, they can then be held RESPONSIBLE for the choices they make. Please try to remember this relationship.”

“OK. The ability to choose is the key to responsibility. I still don’t see how this answers the question of purpose?”

“It doesn’t. But I’m not done yet. Now, let’s start from the ability to make choices. Let me re-read what Ayn Rand said from The Virtue of Selfishness:

“For man, the basic means of survival is reason . . . A sensation of hunger will tell him that he needs food, but it will not tell him how to obtain it . . . That which his survival requires is set by nature and is not open to his choice. What is open to his choice is only whether he will discover it or not, and, whether he will choose the right goods and values or not. “

“That is, she says, ‘what is open to man’s choice is whether he will discover what is needed for SURVIVAL or not.’ From this, I can construct an answer to your question.

Survival

A key goal for a life form is SURVIVAL. Or stated more poetically, the PURPOSE of life is to LIVE.”

“Hmmm . . . This is what a very smart girl friend told me.”

Definitions

Now, let’s look at a very closely related issue. Do you remember the question, ‘why am I alive’? “

“Sure. To know, love and serve God in this life and to be happy with Him forever in heaven.”

“VERY GOOD! You get a gold angel for your catechism. But what do we say to all those non-Catholics in the world?”

“And, something along the lines, ‘your life is meaningless’ is probably not what you had in mind, right?”

“Precisely! Besides, things aren’t that simple, even for Catholics. If the Catechism answer was the only answer that applied to Catholics, then all Catholics would be priests and nuns. And that’s not what happens. For most people, there are other factors that come into the picture. They want other occupations. They want to have families. They are part of families. So, we have to look at this differently for each person.

A good way to understand this is to parallel our free will discussion. The way the question is more frequently asked is, ‘WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE’.”

“OK. I see what you mean. So, the two key words are ‘meaning’ and ‘life’. Meaning, means . . . duh . . . meaning. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense.”

“Here’s what the dictionary says:”

“Meaning: something meant; the THING one intends to convey, especially by language; significant QUALITY; logical connotation.”

“Fine! A meaning is what is meant. Duh.”

“Hang on. Let’s try the Wiki Encyclopedia.”

“Meaning: the CONTENT carried by a word or sign; an IDEA conveyed by a word or symbol; the NATURE of being; TRUTH; an EQUIVALENCE; the ESSENCE of something; the consequences or significance of something. “

“I can see the problem already. We are actually asking the question, ‘what is the meaning of meaning.’

“Here. Let me keep reading.”

“The MEANING OF LIFE is a philosophical question concerning the purpose and significance of human existence. It has been the subject of much philosophical, scientific, and theological speculation throughout history, ranging from ‘grand’ theories about the nature of life itself to more prosaic questions about the specific purpose of individual lives. The question has been formulated in different ways, according to the culture and understandings of different times and places, and many different answers have been suggested. Religions have tended to cast the question in terms on humankind’s relationship to the divine or ultimate reality, or in terms of the relationships of one person to others. The relation of science to questions of meaning has been more indirect: scientists have sought to understand the facts of existence, such as the innate qualities of the natural world, our species, our relation to the environment, or in the workings of our minds. Philosophers have looked for answers in a variety of way, such as examining the nature of the self, in how we think and relate to the world. Some contemporary schools have even suggested that the question itself is senseless, or that there is no intrinsic meaning to existence to be found.

The question of the meaning of life is DEEPLY INTERTWINED with the concept of CONSCIOUSNESS and with the seemingly unique ability of human beings to create symbolic meaning. In essence, it requires the SELF AS A SUBJECT to examine the SELF AS AN OBJECT in order to give the subjective experience of life an ontological basis.”

“Ontology of course is the study of the nature of being.”

“You’re pretty clever. I can see why you brought this question up now. Of course, it’s a great question all by itself. But, when you read that part about the SELF as a subject, EXAMINING the SELF as an object, I immediately saw the connection to our discussion about free will and the awareness levels.”

“It’s hard to sneak anything by YOU, that’s for sure.”

“I’ll give you a hint. Try talking to me when I’m asleep.”

Various views based on meaning as existing to be discovered

”OK. Let’s use this reference while I’ve got it open.”

“Plato said, ‘the meaning of life is in attaining the highest form of knowledge.’ This doesn’t translate easily from the Greek text. The Greek word for ‘form’ implied the concept ‘good’ from which all good things come. This matches very closely with Buddhism and Taoism which believe the meaning of life is to become enlightened as to the nature and oneness of the universe.

The Hellenistic Cynics and Stoics believed it was living a life of virtue that agreed with Natural law. They said happiness depends upon being self-sufficient and master of one’s mental attitude. The Cynic’s life rejected conventional desires for wealth, power, and fame, by being free of the possessions acquired in pursuing the conventional.

A Socratic school that emphasized one side of Socrates’ teachings said that pleasure is the supreme good. It supported a hedonistic world view, where bodily gratification is more important than mental pleasure and immediate gratification preferred to the long-term gain of delayed gratification. They rejected denial as unpleasant and unhappy.

Epicurus and Confucius believed in moderation in all things. The Nihilists and the eastern religions like Buddhism believe that life is a disturbance; a confusion. The goal of life for them is to reduce input from the senses to a minimum and eventually gain the peace of Nirvana which is the escape to nothingness.”

Comments?”

“Well, I guess there are as many views of the meaning of life as there are people. I’m really surprised at this.”

“Why? Because you thought it would be so obvious?”

“Right. I mean, to me it was like my view a few weeks ago that God’s hand could be so easily seen in the world around us.”

“Precisely! You were captured by a philosophically stable island of religious belief when you were young and kept isolated from a broader view of the world by the conspiracy of silence about religion in our society. Welcome to the journey.

Views based on human design

Let’s continue. There was an unstated assumption beneath all the views I read. That is, that the meaning of life was a PRE-EXISTING THING to be found. There are other ways to answer this question.

One, called Humanism, is an example of a CONSTRUCTIONIST view. That is, rather than searching for meaning, they believe man must create meaning: ‘that MAN must BRING meaning to life’.

This view starts with a materialistic world where humanity emerged through the process of evolution as an integral part of nature, which is self-existing. Knowledge does not come from supernatural sources, but from human observation, experimentation, and rational analysis using the scientific method. The nature of the universe is what people perceive it to be. Values and realities are determined by intelligent inquiry based on reason. They are derived from human need and interest, as tested by experience.

People determine human purpose without supernatural influence. Man brings meaning to life by the enrichment of each individual, personally, and the enrichment of society and the natural world. Humanists promote enlightened self-interest and the common good for all people. The happiness of the individual person is inextricably linked to the well-being of humanity, as a whole.”

“OK. George talked about this. It started out when we discussed the connection between choice and A2. He then said, when we ask the question about HOW humans make choices, we get into the meaning of life question. And now I remember, he said, through choice, man gave meaning to life.”

“Good going George. We should have him over here as a straight man. And then, did he explain how making GOOD choices give life value for both secular and Christian people?”

“Ah ha! Very interesting. You guys are ganging up on me. Because he then took the catechism answer I recited and showed me how suicide, being a mortal sin, implies a command from God that we LIVE. So the first part of the catechism answer, ‘to know, love and serve God in this life’ is equivalent to saying that one of the purposes of life is TO LIVE IT.”

“Precisely! Isn’t this all falling together nicely?”

“And now I think I do remember hearing the word Humanism before. There was some TV show where a minister was saying to watch out for Secular Humanism. I guess he didn’t understand what George just explained. Isn’t what you just described similar with some of the Greek ideas.”

“Precisely! The Humanist philosophy, while never prominent, because it has never been driven by the quest for power like an organized religion, has been held and promoted by many of the intellectual leaders of the world. It is strongly scientific and rational. But note, Humanism is NOT just a recent view. It’s connections to Greek science and democracy are strong. It has close parallels with Confucianism: ‘we can realize the ultimate meaning of life in ordinary human existence.’ “

Popular views

“Hmmm . . . I guess it’s normal to turn to philosophers to answer these universal questions. But, as we repeatedly see, these gurus can’t agree on an answer. The result is the usual nightmare of getting as many answers as there are gurus.”

“Which suggests that most of them don’t know what they’re talking about.”

“Precisely!”

“Hey! That’s my word!”

“But, in the end, the ‘meaning of life’ is a question that relates, individually, to each person. So, independent of what the great philosophers and religions are telling us, it would be quite valuable to know what people actually believe, independent of whether it is ultimate truth or not.”

“Precisely! Here is an interesting section that discusses what they call POPULAR VIEWS of the meaning of life.”

“OK. You can have your word back.”

“Thank you kind sir! Hmmm.. This is a pretty long section. I’ll just read the categories.”

“..to realize one’s potential and ideals

…to live and reproduce

…to love, to feel, to enjoy the act of living

…to seek wisdom and knowledge

…to have power

…to attain spiritual enlightenment

…to do good, to do the right thing

…One should not seek to know and understand the meaning of life

…Life has no meaning”

Purpose of life is to live

“OK. This makes sense. The first 6 categories all relate to personal growth. The seventh is about helping others. I heard a slight variation on the 8th one. A very smart girlfriend told me, ‘Life is not to be understood. It is to be lived.’”

“Yes. I’ve heard that as well. Essentially, it says the meaning is not already here to find. The meaning of a person’s life is their history. A history is built by living. We don’t get the whole story until we create the whole story.

So, with all these variations, we come to grips with a classic problem. To get great answers, you need great questions.”

“Yeah. The way Bill put it, ‘the uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a creative mind to spot wrong questions.’ “

“Precisely! The form of the question constrains the answer. You get a different perspective by asking ‘what is the reason for life’, from ‘what is the meaning of life’, from ‘what is the purpose of life’. Your friend was saying that life is here to allow you to have the experience of living it. This answer fits both a secular and supernatural view.”

“Which brings me to another thing this girlfriend said. We were talking about predestination. She said, ‘religious people have to believe in pre-destination because God knows everything. Non-religious people have to believe in free will because there is no other choice.’ “

“That’s actually a pretty profound statement. You ought to hang on to this girlfriend.”

Why GOOD things happen question.

“What would the Eskimos say?”

“Good question. Remember, to understand the Eskimos, you should first start with an animal model. So, I think they would have a very similar answer: the meaning of life IS life itself.”

“Did you ever ask them about this?”

“In fact, I did have a very interesting talk about it with some Eskimo kids. It actually got started from a very different direction. I thought they might want to know why bad things happened in life. One of the girls challenged me on the question. She said, ‘she didn’t want to know why BAD things happened. She wanted to know why GOOD things happened.”

“I don’t understand.”

“It took me a little while to figure it out as well. The whole idea of evil is a major question for religions, right? We talked a lot about that yesterday. So, adults think that kids MUST want to know the answer to this as well. But, before kids develop their A2 or A3 skills, the ability to UNDERSTAND the importance of evil as a concept is beyond them. What this girl was saying to me was, don’t try to get me to understand the philosophy of evil, just tell me what are the good things in life to do.”

“OK. I understand. Kids are ready to learn things in Single Sentence Logic form without a need to actually understand a lot of details.”

“A lot of churches need to understand that as well. It’s like pushing Shakespeare on 4th graders. Sure they can memorize some passages. But the higher concepts are just too early for them.”

“And you think all this stuff you’re telling me isn’t too early for me?

“Come on, Nanook. You’ve been awake for hours!”

Man gives meaning to life

“It is a key goal for humans, because, having the ability of choice, they can choose to throw this goal away. But given that a human does make this first choice to live, the next question is HOW the human CHOOSES to live. And it is this second choice, the HOW, that leads us to meaning.

Stated in other terms, the meaning of life does not inherently exist as an element of life. Meaning is not a unique part of existence that humans must try to find. Rather than ask what does life mean for man, it is MAN that GIVES MEANING TO LIFE. That is, thinking beings, who have the capability of choice, GIVE MEANING TO LIFE, and particularly their own lives, through their choices.”

“Whoa! ! ! This is an amazing way to look at this.”

“It’s actually much more amazing than you think. Let’s go back to the first part of our discussion where I mentioned the case where a god created humans. I didn’t discuss it in any depth. But let’s now consider some common Christian principles. Most Christians believe that man has freewill. That means, man has the ability to make choices about his behavior. And if we associate the word ‘meaning’ with the word ‘value’, then when a Christian says a person lives a life of value, we are essentially saying that person has given their life ‘meaning’ or value by making righteous choices. Do you see what’s just happened?”

“Oh WOW! This is profound. What you’ve just done is show that life forms, independent of whether they believe in god or not, or if there is even a god or not, still find their meaning in life by making good choices.”

“Exactly. But now, let’s go back to PURPOSE. Repeat what you said was the Catholic purpose in life.“

” To know, love and serve God in this life and to be happy with Him forever in Heaven.”

“So, why can’t you just skip the first part of this scenario?”

“You mean, like commit suicide?”

“Right. Just go right to the Heaven part.”

“Well, suicide is a moral sin. If you do that, you don’t go to heaven.”

“Ah! Catch-22! Part of God’s plan is inherently a statement that you must live life and deal with what it brings you?”

“Correct. And I see where you’re headed with this as well. At least part of this statement is a requirement to live. Profound indeed. So again, whether a person believes in God or not, a major element of the PURPOSE of life is just to live it.”

“Exactly. And that brings us back to Ayn Rand and her guidance about how best to do that. It means searching for TRUTH and REALITY, which means using WISDOM instead of Single Sentence Logic. It means using LOGIC to determine what is true, and what is real instead of religious superstition and written documents that are full of major contradictions. It means dealing with the limits of the material existence that we can touch and feel instead of wishful thinking about promises of deliverance to some supernatural world that there is NO way to verify.”

“I can see how all of this comes together. It’s just such a big change from everything I’ve ever been told. At the same time, I’ve pretty much lost faith in everything I’ve been told because it contains so many verifiable LIES.