Is There a Purpose to Life?
Section 1
Is There a Purpose to Life?
1. What is often asked about the purpose of life, and how did one person comment on it?
Sooner or later, nearly everybody wonders what the purpose of life is. Is it to work hard to improve our living conditions, to provide for our families, to die after perhaps 70 or 80 years, and then to be nonexistent forever? One young person who felt this way said that there is no other purpose in life than “to live, to have children, to be happy and then to die.” But is that true? And does death really end it all?
2, 3. Why is the acquiring of material wealth not enough of a purpose in life?
2 Many in both Eastern and Western lands feel that the main purpose in living is to acquire material wealth. They believe that this can lead to a happy, meaningful life. But what of people who already have material wealth? Canadian writer Harry Bruce said: “A baffling number of rich people insist they are not happy.” He added: “Polls suggest a terrible pessimism has infected North America . . . Is anybody happy out there? If so, what’s the secret?”
3 Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter stated: “We’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. . . . Piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.” And another political leader said: “I have for several years now been engaged in an intensive search for truths about myself and my life; many other people I know are doing the same. More people than ever before are asking, ‘Who are we? What is our purpose?’”
Conditions More Difficult
4. Why do some doubt that life has any purpose?
4 Many doubt that life has a purpose when they see that living conditions have become more difficult. Throughout the world more than a billion people are seriously ill or malnourished, resulting in the death of some ten million children each year in Africa alone. Earth’s population, nearing 6 billion, continues to grow by more than 90 million a year, more than 90 percent of that growth in developing countries. This constantly expanding population increases the need for food, housing, and industry, which brings further damage to land, water, and air from industrial and other pollutants.
5. What is happening to vegetation on the earth?
5 The publication World Military and Social Expenditures 1991 reports: “Every year an area of forest equal to the whole surface of [Great Britain] is destroyed. At present rates (of clearance) we shall, by the year 2000, have removed 65 percent of forests in the humid tropical zones.” In those areas, according to a UN agency, 10 trees are cut for every 1 planted; in Africa the ratio is more than 20 to 1. So desert areas increase, and each year an area the size of Belgium is lost for agricultural use.
6, 7. What are some of the problems human leaders are unable to solve, so what questions need to be answered?
6 Also, this 20th century has had four times as many deaths from war as the previous four centuries put together. Everywhere, there is a rise in crime, especially violent crime. The breakdown of the family, drug abuse, AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, and other negative factors are also making life more difficult. And world leaders have not been able to provide solutions for the many problems plaguing the human family. Thus, it is understandable why people ask, What is the purpose of life?
7 How has that question been addressed by scholars and religious leaders? After all these many centuries of time, have they provided a satisfactory answer?
What They Say
8, 9. (a) What did a Chinese scholar say about life’s purpose? (b) What did a Nazi death-camp survivor state?
8 Confucian scholar Tu Wei-Ming said: “The ultimate meaning of life is found in our ordinary, human existence.” According to this view, humans would continue to be born, struggle for existence, and die. There is little hope in such an outlook. And is it even true?
9 Elie Wiesel, a survivor of the Nazi death camps in World War II, observed: “‘Why are we here?’ is the most important question a human being has to face. . . . I believe that life has meaning in spite of the meaningless death I have seen.” But he could not say what the meaning of life was.
10, 11. (a) How did one editor show that man does not have the answers? (b) Why is the view of an evolutionary scientist not satisfying?
10 Editor Vermont Royster stated: “In the contemplation of man himself, . . . of his place in this universe, we are little further along than when time began. We are still left with questions of who we are and why we are and where we are going.”
11 Evolutionary scientist Stephen Jay Gould noted: “We may yearn for a ‘higher’ answer—but none exists.” For such evolutionists, life is a struggle for survival of the fittest, death ending it all. There is no hope in that view either. And, again, is it true?
12, 13. What are the views of church leaders, and are they any more satisfying than those of secular observers?
12 Many religious leaders say that the purpose of life is to lead a good existence so that at death a person’s soul can go to heaven and spend eternity there. The alternative offered for bad people is eternal torment in hellfire. Yet, according to this belief, on earth there would continue to be more of the same unsatisfactory existence that has prevailed throughout history. But if God’s purpose was to have people live in heaven like angels, why did he not just create them that way to begin with, as he did the angels?
13 Even clergymen have difficulty with such views. Dr. W. R. Inge, a former dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, once said: “All my life I have struggled to find the purpose of living. I have tried to answer three problems which always seemed to me to be fundamental: the problem of eternity; the problem of human personality; and the problem of evil. I have failed. I have solved none of them.”
The Effect
14, 15. What effect do the conflicting views have on many people?
14 What is the effect of so many different ideas by scholars and religious leaders on the question of life’s purpose? Many respond as did an elderly man who said: “I’ve been asking why I’m here most of my life. If there’s a purpose, I don’t care anymore.”
15 Quite a number who observe the profusion of views among the world’s religions conclude that it really does not matter what one believes. They feel that religion is just a diversion for the mind, something to provide a little peace of mind and comfort so that one can cope with life’s problems. Others feel that religion is nothing more than superstition. They feel that centuries of religious speculation has not answered the question about life’s purpose, nor has it improved the life of the common people. Indeed, history shows that this world’s religions have often held mankind back from progress and have been the cause of hatreds and wars.
16. How important can finding life’s purpose be?
16 Yet, is it even important to find the truth about the purpose of life? Mental-health professional Viktor Frankl answered: “The striving to find a meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man. . . . There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions, as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one’s life.”
17. What questions do we now need to ask?
17 Since human philosophies and religions have not satisfactorily explained what the purpose of life is, where can we go to find out what it is? Is there a source of superior wisdom that can tell us the truth about this matter?
[Study Questions]
[Picture on page 4]
“Every year an area of forest equal to the whole surface of [Great Britain] is destroyed”
[Picture on page 5]
“I’ve been asking why I’m here most of my life”
