There is no meaning for life?

[Wrg1405]

Somerset Maugham, a famous 20th century writer and agnostic, stated:

If one puts aside the existence of God and the survival after life as too doubtful . . . one has to make up one’s mind as to the use of life. If death ends it all, if I have neither to hope for good nor to fear evil, I must ask myself what I am here for, and how in these circumstances I must conduct myself. Now the answer is plain, but so unpalatable that most will not face it. There is no meaning for life, and life has no meaning.

I have two thoughts about the above quote.

The first is that it non beleivers can feel this way and the second is that beleivers can also feel this way.

To me the difference is that a true beleiver cannot put aside the existence of God, but they may really struggle in their walk so that is why they would question the meaning of life/or their life (Ecclesiastes comes to mind)

The first does not have faith, the second does. However both are asking the question because of a lack of faith.

Given the the first how would you counsel?
Given the second how would you counsel?

 

[Christ_empowered]

The 1st person...I dunno. I guess I'd explain that I believe in Christ and try to live through that. If they want to keep on believing in life as some random, meaningless event, then perhaps I'd point them towards Camus, Sartre, etc.

For a believer...that's a tough one. Its easy to --say-- "Keep your eyes on Christ, and Him crucified," but its harder to talk with someone who's in the pit of doubt and such and be there with and for them. I'd ask if they're spending too much time alone, under stress, neglecting important relationships. Its easy to think of life as meaningless when you're disconnected from other people and the community in general. Again, books are good...I'd point out The Great Divorce. The Christian experience is one of becoming ever more Real, like when all those lost souls take the bus from hell up to heaven. Doubt, pain, fear, boredom...all of these are part of anyone's life, but they can be productive and significant for Christians. For the non-Christian...who cares, right? Give it enough time, we'll all be dead, anyway.

I've been thinking along these lines, to a point ((not as severe, Praise God...)), so this post was ((amazingly)) timely. Thanks.

 

[Milk-Drops]

The concept of purpose is mostly a motivator for ourselves. I understand the Christian perspective because I believed in God and Jesus as the savior for the majority of my life, ( don't argue that, this isn't the place). The idea of doing your best to emulate the figure and teachings of Jesus to obtain everlasting life and escape a horrible everlasting punishment was a good goal. Its a motivator that has positive and negative reinforcements that helps a person guide their life and quiet our brain's demands to understand everything we can.

As a non believer, once you've either come to terms with the idea that there probably isn't an afterlife or hell, or even a consciousness after death then something new can be built. Motivations to family, self realization, to friends, to ones own vices, to their own whims. A lot of non believers either don't care about cosmic or intrinsic purpose because its not really something that can be controlled or changed anyway. That is a fascinating aspect of the human mind. When something doesn't effect us, it is easy to not care about it or compartmentalize it.

The most fervent and meditations about purpose usually comes to people when they doubt their beliefs or abandon an idea, or lose an aspect of what they consider of themselves. That could be a physical or emotional attachment. Depression and cognitive dissonance can form and take root in response because of our own concepts of identity and self motivation.

I've had Christian and Atheist friends struggle with these ideas and even I occasionally Struggle with these threats, because we all do. Something as simple as a High school athlete that looses a major game/ event can cause equal trauma and depression because it shakes their identity and/or purpose.

Something to think about.

 

[Not_Now.Soon]

My first thought is how is the person doing? Do they look well, or are they looking like they are suffering a great burden. I've met people who would consider their perspective and philosophies to be close to the ideals of nihilism, which is a philosophy of everything being meaningless. And as far as I could tell at the time the person looked well and wasn't struggling internally. If the person looked like they just took a hard hit and considered life meaningless my approach hopefully would be different.

To the person who looks well, I think I'd approach the topic in general terms, with some aspects from my own life. To the person who looks burdened by meaninglessness, I would probabley. Try and aproach them at a personal level. Ask them what happened, and focus on them more then people in general, or on a general topic of philosophy and theology.

If they are Christian I think I can relate to the world being meaningless because of the book of Ecclesiastes has a good amount of thought of the meaninglessness of our lives and struggles. I can approach some of the ideas from that aspect and relate that in a long term scale life can look meaningless. Even if they are not Christian I can use what I know from Ecclesiastes to relate, and try to offer the good points I know from that book, that it's good for a man to have hard work to satisfy him at the end of the day, even if it doesn't solve the issues of the bigger picture.

With both a person who is struggling and a person who is calm at the world being meaningless, I think I would try to offer purposes in life,many hopes in life. Expecially if the person is burdened by meaninglessness of it all. And if things go well I might tell them about what I think is the purpose of being here. My own conclusions on a broad scale being that we live in a broken world, and our two jobs/purposes in life is to find God, and love Him; and the other is to be a source of healing and comfort in the world. That that is what God called us to do when he cominishened us to love our neighbor even our enemy, to give generously and to not hold back, to forgive, and to correct with the intent to help the other person, for their well being. All of these things from being the light of the world, the salt of the earth, and everything more specific of things to do, and things not to do, seem to me to be a purpose of their own. 1) Love God, and 2) mend a broken world.

If the person was struggling life having no meaning I think I would try and reach them that God gives us so much hope, and helps us by easing our burdens sometimes or by making us stronger through them. And so for me my greatest source of strength and hope is God Himself. If the person isn't christian though I would try and reach out to them and comfort them in any way I know how. Try to be a friend.

 

[Kidron]

-
Purposeless people are hopeless people.
Hopeless people are people who only live for themselves.
Only living for yourself is to have no real purpose in life.
A person with no purpose is a lost Ship on the ocean waiting for a Wind to fill its sails, that never will.
A person with no purpose is a ship without a rudder, a plane without any wings, and a voice that will never have any reason to sing.

 

[Not_Now.Soon]

-
Purposeless people are hopeless people.
Hopeless people are people who only live for themselves.
Only living for yourself is to have no real purpose in life.
A person with no purpose is a lost Ship on the ocean waiting for a Wind to fill its sails, that never will.
A person with no purpose is a ship without a rudder, a plane without any wings, and a voice that will never have any reason to sing.

My experience is that people are people. We all share that bond and can try to fill eachother up, encourage eachother, share in eachother's joys, and be there in eachother's sorrows. Like one body that feels the pain of other parts of the body and goes to protect it, or move to compensate for it. Or like one body, every part is more overjoyed at the success done by one part. That is how we should be as Christians trying to be one body in Christ, and even more so how we should be to everyone anyways.

They say a person who is acting out is likely the person who needs help the most. In the same way a person with no purpose or no hope, are the people who need it the most. As followers of Jesus we are called to help with the burdens of those around us and to live them. If given time, who knows maybe they might be given reason to sing again.

 

[Dr Doughboy]

Hello Wrg1405, your post title intrigued me. I am living and breathing the topic of meaning in life with my dissertation right now and just created a course on this topic. Be blessed.