Back to Basics 2: The Meaning of Human Life

Before getting into theology proper, I'd like to take a look at another foundational question: what does the life of a human being consist of? We are born, we live, we die. Some of us live long lives; some of us live a short time. If we are lucky enough to be born, we have to sustain our lives by meeting some foundational needs, for example, food and shelter. Eventually we all succumb to death. In these ways, we are much the same as the other living things on earth.

Is there any meaning in all of this?

For the great majority of human history, the 'meaning' of human life appears to have been utterly simple: find a way to keep on living. From the fossil record, it appears that the earliest humans were on the scene about 3 million years ago. They don't appear to have had language or any elements in their societies that we would regard as 'culture.' Their entire existence seems to have been consumed with finding food and defending against predators.

Some ten thousand years ago, human civilization appeared. One of the marks of civilization is that the challenge of finding food and shelter were conquered to some degree. By this time, humans had developed language and were able to communicate symbolically. With some 'free time' on their hands and a conceptual consciousness, humans had time to begin pondering questions. They began to ask: 'Why are we here?', 'How did we get here?', and 'What does all this mean?'. We have been asking these questions ever since and, from the look of things, have not arrived at totally satisfying answers. In a way, we have become a victim of our own success.

So, what does this have to do with theology? I believe it is this: any study of theology must begin by recognizing that theology is motivated by these foundational questions. 'How did we get here?', 'Why are we here?', 'What does all this mean?'.

Over the course of human history, many answers have been proposed to these questions. The Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) answer the questions like this:
1. We are here because a deity (God) decided to put us here.
2. We are here to do the will of the deity.
3. Our life here is a temporary state. It is a test, the results of which determine what will happen to us after we pass on from this place.

In more recent times, some naturalistic answers to these questions are this:
1. We are here because life spontaneously generated on earth from natural causes.
2. There is no inherent 'why' to our existence. Nature is not conscious and does not have 'purpose'.
3. There is no inherent meaning to our existence. Any meaning to our existence must be generated by us. We must choose our meaning.

Other answers have been proffered. Non-theistic religions like Buddhism and Taoism do not speak of a 'personal' deity but do appeal to universal transcendent principles.

So boiling it down to basics, the possible answers to the 'why' question are this:

1. We are here for a transcendent reason, perhaps one that transcends our understanding.

2. We are here for no reason. There is no transcendent 'why.'

Which one is right?