THE MEANING OF LIFE
The answer
to this thirty-five cents question, will not be found at the heart of the many
and varied – cursory – reflective – religious – philosophical – weighty and
abstract searches, so long as the questions remain centered around, originate
from and end with the bias perspective of a canine-toothed mammal called man.
Perhaps, instead
of searching for what the meaning of life is supposed to be, we should be
reflecting on whether a meaning is indeed possible. If so, does it then exist, only
because we seek it? I will argue that a man’s life, like that of a whale, a giraffe
or a sewer rat is devoid of meaning, and is no more worthy or deserving of
meaning than the lives of any of the other species.
To search
for a meaning that does not exist, or to create one’s own quixotic meaning is
but a futile experiment in delusion. It invariably leads the vulnerable and the
gullible into the tangled web of the religious industry, transcendental gurus, charlatans
and other smiling predators.
I will
offer a brief view on our species; from where we came and to where we go; the
rock on which we live and die; its position in relation to the Cosmos and the
futility, indifference and impermanence of the Universe.
Let us
begin with the World around us, which our species can see, touch, hear, taste
and smell. Here, common sense can only submit to two possibilities for its
existence:
- In the first possibility, an all-powerful, all-knowing and self-existent Supreme Being is posited as the creator of all life and the Universe; moreover that everything was designed or foreordained for a specific purpose and meaning.
- The second contends that the Universe was formed amidst an eternal and infinite Cosmos that had always existed. That the limitlessness of time, in concert with gravity, quantum physics and nuclear fusion gave birth to stars, planets, moons and all the other celestial bodies.
In other
words, the former possibility, God, gives the world meaning but does not
explain its chaos, while the latter, Evolution, explains its chaos but cannot
give it meaning.
As for the
incipience of life itself from inanimateness to the first single cell organism; my understanding is simply that the chaotic and
unique conditions that existed at that particular time, and which had not
hitherto or since existed, at least not on our little planet, predisposed life
to burgeon and evolution took us the rest of the way. Admittedly, this theory is
not set in stone but there is incontrovertible evidence to suggest that it is the
less ridiculous of the two.
Perhaps for
now, it remains the only explication that logic can offer common sense.
Now, if we
were to draw from the biblical version of creation, we would have to accept a world
designed by a supposedly benevolent God; where its inhabitants are forced to
kill and feed on each other in order to survive; where one must feed on the
death of the other – where something has to die for something else to live.
One would
then also have to concede, that the pain suffered by a gazelle as it is
devoured alive by a lion, or that endured by the field-mouse as it is ripped
apart by the talons of an eagle, is all part of a perfect and irreproachable nature.
Moreover,
we must bear in mind that this nature was allegedly designed by a compassionate
and omnipotent God, who then went on to pass a law condemning killing whilst
recognizing slavery.
I submit, and
even the most fixated fan would have to concede, that a better original design could
have alleviated much of today’s poverty, misery and anguish.
It is often
argued, that because other species cannot reason, have no soul or spirit and
were not created in the image of the human God, that they are somehow inferior
to humans. Therefore, unlike the ruling mammal, their lives are devoid of
meaning.
Let us now
examine if this imaginary difference between the species, makes one more
deserving of purpose and meaning than the other.
Basically,
the common ancestry we share with the other animals is unmistakable. It is clearly
manifested in our many strikingly similar characteristics, for example: not 1
or 3 or 5, but 2 eyes, 2 lips, 2 cheeks, 2 arms, 2 nostrils, 2 eyebrows, 2 sets
of teeth, 2 testicles, and 2 ears. In short, most species share something
called a face, 4 limbs, and remarkably, much the same weird and complex system
of bodily functions, organs and reproductive systems.
Recently, the
scientific community has found that the difference between the DNA (Deoxyribo Nucleic
Acid) of other animals
and ours is not as great as had been first imagined. In fact science has
indisputably proven that a chimpanzee’s DNA matches that of his human cousin
more closely than it does that of a gorilla or any of the other primates.
To my mind,
the difference I note between a man and a chimpanzee is no more extraordinary than
the difference between a horse and a zebra, a duck and a chicken, a shark and a
dolphin – or a monkey and a baboon. Moreover, I fail to see how the way a man
differs from a shark seem any more exceptional than the way a duck differs from
a gorilla.
If we took an
impartial look, from outside the anthropocentric bias of our eyes at the
history of this canine-toothed predator we call man, we would soon see an evolution
from a raw and savage barbarism to a nefarious system of man systematically
exploiting man – with a brief interlude immersed in blood, torture, rape,
slavery, human sacrifice, wars, cannibalism, and other abominations.
So, if meaning
was a kind of reward which is bestowed on the ‘virtuous’ by a caring and kindly
creator. I hasten to add that of all the species sharing the Earth today, man
would have to rank, among one of the least deserving species, to receive it.
It is often
posited that man is the only species endeared with an innate sense of right and
wrong. I submit that history does not support this view, for on most occasions
when due to breakdown in law and order, e.g. wars, plagues, and natural
disasters; when those ‘innate’ qualities have not been enforced; when man has
been left to his own devices, to do as he chooses with impunity, his so-called
sense of right and wrong soon degenerated into widespread looting, burning,
rape, murder and reckless destruction. In a nutshell, dear reader, on the
occasions where his nature has not been suppressed by force, his true animal
instincts soon emerged.
In my
opinion, the sense of right and wrong is no more innate in man than it is in
other species. It is taught to man by society, much in the same way as a man
teaches a dog that it is wrong to eat the family cat but right to retrieve a
ball.
When we
think of the brevity of our lives in terms of geological times, we can only conclude
that it is no more than an insignificant heartbeat in time. Similarly, if we
compare a finite Universe with eternal cosmic time, we begin to wonder what dent,
a few thousand billion years of existence could possibly make on the fabric of eternity?
From this
perspective of eternity, our Universe would seem to appear and disappear as
quickly as the future merges into the past; therefore it cannot be anything
else but insignificant, indifferent and completely devoid of meaning. What's
more, it is not impossible to imagine that our ‘Big Bang’ may have been but one
of many, that could have occurred in the past, and which may again occur in the
future. ‘Bing Bangs’ which may have given birth to other Universes with stars, planets,
moons and other life-forms, like those that exist today – which may have
existed for a time before disappearing without a trace.
It is
self-evident that the only inference we can draw from the turbulence of an
impermanent Universe is its proof of randomness. It exists in all its
randomness simply because it does, if it did not, it would not exist.
For some
time now, humans have been led to believe, that should we aspire to and acquire
‘virtues’ such as loyalty, obedience, honesty, nobility, charity, integrity, truthfulness,
graciousness and so on and so forth. And if we did, then our original ‘designer’
would somehow reward us with immortality – albeit posthumously. Another trendy
train of thought suggests that even without immortality, ‘virtues’ per se, give
meaning and purpose to life.
I do not quite
latch on to the same view. It is my firm belief that in an epoch of ignorance
and superstition that those ‘virtues’ were specifically constructed letter by
letter, syllable by syllable and word by word to dissuade the oppressed many
from cutting the throats of the bloated few; designed by those who would
benefit most from them. At first, by the vilest of institutions: religion and monarchies.
Later the Feudal system perpetuated those make-believe ‘virtues’ to appease the
serfs, to placate the slaves, to soothe the oppressed, to manipulate them into
serving and fulfilling their master’s purposes instead of their own. To convince
them to remain servile and ‘loyal’, to indoctrinate them with the silly notion
that they should not revolt but meekly accept their fate with dignity and that
if they remained faithful and patient, then somehow, they would “inherit the
Earth”.
Today,
those same fabricated ‘virtues’, those same unnatural qualities continue to
beguile the gullible, the naïve and the innocent into leading artificial lives
against the grain of their true nature. With most of the human race forced to waste
their fleeting lives labouring like beasts of burden to generate capital to
further enrich the few.
I ask you,
where is the raison d'être, divine or
otherwise, in such a miserable existence of quiet desperation?
It is
mind-boggling to accept that such an unjust biased system could ever have been designed,
as rumor has it, by a just, unbiased and omnipotent creator?
Just as
artificial ‘virtues’ exist only in the minds of those who believe in them, so
too does meaning exist only for those who seek it.
I submit
that it is no more real to me, than Zoltan, my invisible pet dragon – is to
you.
To believe
something to be true, simply because we wish it to be true, does not
necessarily make it so. If you are standing ankle-deep in pig shit, no amount
of wishful-thinking or self-delusion will suddenly change reality and put you
ankle-deep in Swiss chocolate. At the end of the day, you will still be in pig
shit.
When all is
said and done, we are not divine beings destined for immortal life somewhere in
the clouds, but an evolving species of hairy mammals, who for this fleeting
moment in time, live on a hot bit of stardust, which in turn spins around a
temporary fire. Sooner or later, willing or unwilling, every one of us is introduced
to oblivion. That dear friends, is the long and short of it; everything else is
mass delusion. Do not try to readjust your mind – the fault is inherent in
reality itself. What I have been saying is this, no matter how much we try to
sanitize and distort it, reality is reality. Our thinking can only change the
way we see it – it cannot change reality itself.
I am afraid
that the pure joy that other animals, madmen and little children derive from
life, simply by existing, is all the meaning that life has to offer. Today, we
may have evolved beyond a point where this pure joy is no longer possible and
it could well be, that it is lost to us forever.
At this moment
in time, we are merely recycling atoms, moving matter around on the surface of our
rock from one place to another. In the end, whatever we as individuals or collectively
as a species manage to achieve, will not amount to much more than just
scattered debris of stardust wondering endlessly through time and space,
waiting for gravity to weave its magic all over again.
Life is a
journey leading nowhere, just as it has been for countless generations before
us and will be for countless more after us, until in the end, even eternity and
infinity may cease to be.
Loulou
Alain Leveque
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