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The Meaning of Life
What is Life's Meaning?
Richard Robinson's viewpoint Life Has No Purpose (38) argues that "there is no god to make up for the limitations of our power" (39), and that man must look after himself and live his life for himself. Although I do not consider myself an Atheist, I agree with his viewpoint. My life's meaning has evolved from the time of my childhood to that of an adult today because of a major event in my life that forced me to realize that the only person who was going to watch over me was me.
In 1976 while I was 11 years old my mother passed away unexpectedly. A deeply religious woman, she had ensured that her children were raised in the Catholic Church. I was baptized attended Sunday school after church and eventually became an altar boy. I was taught and believed that god was our provider and that he watched over each of us. Her death changed all of this for two reasons.
When my father, a non-practicing Mormon, stopped taking me to church I no longer had a belief to follow. I wandered through life for the next eight years without direction. I had no concern for the consequences of my actions on myself or those around me. I not only lost the teachings of the church but I lost the support group which I realize now was the more important at the time.
As I became an adult I had the opportunity to go back to the church but have never done so because of the confusion that I feel toward the beliefs I had been taught. That god would watch over us and would provide for us, yet at the same time he took my mother away from me at a point in my life that I needed her most. Robinson said "There is no person in this universe to love us except ourselves; therefore let us love one another (40). At 19 I joined the Navy and found the direction I was looking for. I was taught that if I lived my life with honor, courage and commitment that I would always be able to look back and be proud of what I had done. These values have been the cornerstone of my life now for 17 years.
Richard Taylor, an American philosopher and author of, “The Meaning of Life” believes you can live a meaningful life as long as you realize your will and are completely involved in it and enjoy it, then you are no longer needed and your life was a successful one. “This is surely the way to look at all of life- at one’s own life, and each day and moment it contains; of the life of a nation; of the species; of the life of the world; and of everything that breathes” (Taylor p 27). He proves this through the ancient myth of Sisyphus. Sisyphus was sentenced by the Gods to spend an eternity rolling a stone repeatedly to the top of a hill and once it reached the top, it would roll right back down once again. Taylor calls Sisyphus’ life as an “endless pointlessness.” Taylor relates human life to Sisyphus’ life. He believes that both of our lives can have meaning. Taylor asks us to look at Sisyphus’ story in a different way. For example, while the Gods sentenced him to rolling this stone up a hill for an eternity, what if they gave him a “strange and irrational impulse” to roll the stone repeatedly. Now, according to Richard Taylor, Sisyphus’ life would now have meaning and if we were to be as invested as Sisyphus in rolling the stone, then our lives have meaning as well.
After seeing though the eyes of my pastor I’ve come to realize the importance of faith and committing to one’s beliefs. Returning to church after two massive losses has helped my mother in many ways and it has also taught me as a young man how small things that I could do would turn to have a big impact on someone’s life the same way my pastor impacted my life and the life of my siblings.
Albert Camus is a widely renowned author and existentialist philosopher from the 1950s. He believed in a concept called “The Absurd” which he described as the notion that our universe is completely irrational, yet people continue to try and give order and meaning to it. For most normal human beings, this is an extremely difficult concept to accept, including the main character from the novel “The Stranger”, Meursault. Meursault does not express and ignores his emotions, even though it is evident in the book that he does experience them. However, once Meursault falls into a blind rage with the chaplain, the universe begins to make more sense to him. In order to come to an acceptance of the indifference of the universe, one must have an emotional breakthrough, which Camus shows through differences in sentence structure and elemental imagery between parts one and two.
I have always had the knowledge of Christ, but up until this last year, I realized I did not truly believe in him. I questioned the things in my life and why I always ended up with the same misery over and over. I had grown up in an abusive life from my early years. I can honestly say I had brief periods of peace when I was allowed to go with my grandparents, but they were short lived. I was taken to a variety of counselors from a very young age and put on prescription medicines starting at 16. Everyone around me could not figure out what was wrong with me and why nothing would “fix” me. Sin was a normal for me, and I carried on that lifestyle into adulthood. I had no concept of trust and what love really was.
Religion and faith have been a part of my life since the day I was born. My grandfather has been a pastor at Selma Church of God for 39 years and my mom, along with my grandmother and aunts, run our churches worship team. One could only assume, I have spent much of my life in the church. From years of children 's church and Sunday school, I learned of God 's unconditional love for me and His constant willingness to forgive me of my sins. My family and teachers explained the crucifixion and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. As a child, I knew all these things, these wonderful things about my God and my religion, but it was not until my early teens that I began to thirst for more.
I grew up as a Southern Baptist. My family has always belonged to the same church and to this day my parents and my brother’s family still attend First Baptist Church in Forest City, North Carolina. One of the reasons Baptists are given this name is because they are not baptized as infants, but when they are old enough to understand the full concept of Jesus and the sacrifice He made for us. I accepted the Lord as my personal savior when I was thirteen and made a public profession of my faith by walking to the front of the church one Sunday morning. Many factors in the past have influenced my relationship with God and continue to do so daily.
First of all, church has greatly influenced many different aspects of my life and caused me to be the person I am today. I have always been taught to treat others with respect and to treat them how I would want to be treated. This has caused me to try to be considerate of others' feelings and thoughts as much as I can. I also respect other people's property and take care of it just as I would my own. I have also been taught at church to respect those in authority including my parents, teachers, and elders. I also have participated in church activities such as choir and video production. This has helped me to improve my social skills by interacting with other people. These things have influenced me and made me the person I am today.
One week I would be with my Mom and the next week I would be with my Dad. I knew that my parents still loved my sister and I , but it definitely took a toll on the family as a whole. My Mom seemed depressed some nights. My sister and I would sleep in her bed to make her feel better.That 's when my Mom relayed on her faith to get her through this transition. Every Monday, Wednesdays, and Sundays, My sister, me , and my Mom would be at church. If we woke up late we would have bible study in her living room. She found a different church in Athens, Georgia named Timothy Baptist Church .That’s when she actually felt accepted in a church. I knew during the week my Mom had me I would be at church every other day. The weeks with my Dad were slightly different. With my Dad, he enjoyed going out, shopping, vacations, movies, and etc. He kind of spoiled my sister and I a little more. He never really told us the real reason why he wanted a divorce , he always told us he will tell us when we are older. My Dad found a different church as well.His church was near Atlanta, Georgia and it was named Berean Christian Church. So, once my dad founded a home church, I was going to church with my Dad every single Sunday. Faith played a huge part in my parents forgiveness of each other. The weeks I’m with my Dad, he cooked more. Talked to more to my sister and I more and he became a better listener.It was like he was becoming a better father. The weeks
As I stated before, I grew up in church. In fact, the church I attend today is the one my father started attending when he was only seven months old. I have strong familial ties to my church and that is ultimately where my faith began. I sometimes reminisce back to when my father would sing Amazing Grace with me and my mother would teach me Bible stories. Together, my parents were my Sunday School teachers from third to sixth grade. I loved going to church as a family: my sister, my parents, and myself included. My sister, two cousins, and I even formed a singing group at my church in honor of my grandmother, Minnie (we were called “The Minnie Maberrys”) Needless to say, my family has been an integral part of my faith. I have sought encouragement from them and the wisdom they have instilled in me will remain with me for a lifetime. Another crucial facet of the growing of my faith has been the Fellowship of Christian Athletes organization, or FCA for short.
Which brings me to Fowler’s Theory of Faith Development, specifically Individual-Reflective Faith which occurs in early adulthood. Growing up as a family we went to church every Sunday and sometimes even twice a week, everyone in my family was a catholic and that was expected from all of us, no questions asked. I even got baptized as a baby and did my first communion when I was about nine years old. I did not mind the expectation from my family when I was little because I loved church, especially the singing. Then came a time where both of my parents started to work on Sundays, so did my sister, and so my brother and I helped out at my parents restaurant. Ever since then we really have not made church a priority, I believe this is what effected my encounter with my mother when I was eighteen years old. I was currently taking a class called “religion in the modern world” and learned about all rituals and how different religions support different things than others, and it got to me to reflect on what religion I grew up learning about. Some things I liked and some things I was horrified by. So talking to my mother, I was telling her my opinions and what I believed in and that there is not just one way to believe or think. She was furious, I was stepping out of the norm, but it had been because of my Individual-Reflective Faith than lead me to this stage. I am very thankful I was able to reflect on my faith, I now have a stronger bond on my beliefs and now my mother totally supports me on it, so it was all for the best that I went through this
I have always been to asking myself what is meaning of life? or what I supposed to do ? or what I have to achieve? . Meaning of life what 's you have been given? what you have given by different kind of human? Or what I believe or what I do not believe in life .Everybody have Meaning of life it depends between person to person, I found myself when I was young because my parents always talk about experience in their life.Throughout my entire life ,I have wondered about the significance meaning of life that has beneficial for the people, because the life is beginning odds and ending odds .Even though struggle of life, I believe meaning of life are ,regional ,ambition, participate ,achievement ,and happiness .Due to this, I
The abstract idea of life cannot be explained by such simple ideas as being animated, breathing, or speaking. Ordinary machines in this century can perform all of these basic functions. The quandary with defining death is not as abstract and elusive as that of life. The problem of defining life and death has plagued philosophers and the religious bodies for thousands of years for one reason; each philosophy or religion has tried to define the meaning of life and death from only their certain perspective. The seemingly appropriate approach to this problem would be to understand the ideas presented in various philosophies and religions and through this knowledge create a new definition for each idea of life and death. The movie Blade Runner has taken this exact approach in its attempt to finally define life and death in a logical and un-spiritual manner. By taking the position that death is a concrete idea that can be explained, Blade Runner accomplishes the task of interpreting the idea of life in terms death. Through this approach, the meaning of life is redefined to accommodate for the existence of the replicants. Also, as a result of this novel notion of life, it is apparent that humans and replicants never actually live, even though they are alive.
I became a deacon at my church, and soon after I started to build a community culture with the people in my church who shared my beliefs and values. While not every person can agree on everything, having people with similar cultures get together to not only discuss religious beliefs, but discuss family and life is very helpful in growing as a person. They were there for me, and I learned so much from the people I created meaningful relationships and connections with. This made me so much stronger in my faith than I was before, and I felt that I could put my faith in a higher position in my life. During this time I had a son, and not long after another came along; thus, shifting the culture of my family a great deal. Raising my sons proved to be a different experience altogether than raising my daughter. While I still put my faith in God first and taught that to my children, my culture shifted to include more things for them, especially as they got older and became more involved. My life was no longer about me and my priorities, but my faith and my children above everything else. My personal culture was no longer important. It was all about my family culture and what pieces of my own culture I could incorporate to raise my children in the best way possible. The biggest part of my culture that I incorporated was my faith, as I said before. Another important aspect was my family values. I am a very family oriented
During my seventh grade year, my church went to a youth rally at a local church on weekend. Because of this rally and the message it sent, I realized and wanted to give my life to Jesus through baptism. It was awesome, I got home as a young teenager and actually talked to my mom about what it really means to be a Christian and to pick up your cross and follow him. So that very next weekend, my dad baptized me in front of the whole church on Sunday morning. It was an awesome feeling knowing that because of Jesus’ grace and mercy, I will be with him one day and spend eternity with him. Although I was on top of the world at this point, I still didn’t know fully what I had gotten into. So the next few years, I live the typical Christian life. I was trying to be the perfect person by doing the right stuff, I would try not to cuss, I would try to wear as many WWJD bracelets as I could so that I wouldn’t have to talk to them about Christ and they could just see it on my wrist, I would not join in on conversations with my friends that I knew were not right, I was just living life on cruise control.
Many people have a stage in their life when they stop for a moment and think “what am I here to do?”. For me that stage in life had arrived a long time ago. I was about fourteen years old, I felt alone, I felt scared, but most of all I felt useless I didn't know in what direction my life was going. I kept asking the Lord to show me, to lead me to what he wants me do to and to shape me into who he wants me to be. When I say purpose most people think about the career I want to have, while having a career is important to me. I feel like that still doesn't complete my purpose. I want to do more for us, for humanity, for our future. I believe my ultimate purpose in life is to help people in need of attention and affection. I think that the Lord has put me through difficult obstacles in life so that I could help the people that went through or are going through the same things that I have left in my past. My motivation for doing this is first of all is knowing that this is what God wants me to do, and knowing that he is blessing me. And then of course is helping the people, seeing their smiles and telling them that they are not alone and that I understand them. And will help them with whatever I can. What I do to achieve my purpose is that I go to many centers, and meet people, mostly children that have been through any kind of abuse.