This page is part of “Meaning”, which is part of “Creating a New Positive Religion or Spiritual Tradition”.
This is still a DRAFT.
The importance of meaning
People have a psychological need to feel that what they do with their lives is meaningful and matters, that they are not just “passing the time” until they die, and that their life is a life worth living. We find it interesting and important to think, talk, understand, learn, and clarify our positions about how we can find meaning and purpose in our lives. This is especially important to us in the face of the moral emptiness of materialistic consumerism and of nihilism, as well as the dark extremism of fundamentalists and zealots. On the Meaning page we present a variety of possible sources for finding meaning in life. You are invited to share with us other ways in which you find meaning in your life.
A lack of meaning
For some people, a feeling of meaninglessness points to a state of depression. This may stem from a great disaster, or from despair and a sense of helplessness, whether under external oppression (such as under a dictatorship, or in an oppressive community or family) or under internal oppression (when our mind is very rigid and critical toward us). In such a state of mind, almost everything feels pointless, and the question arises in us: “What is the meaning of all this? What is the point of all this?” In such a state, people may become obsessively preoccupied with the question of meaning on a philosophical level, when in fact what they really need is emotional healing. In any case, the ideas in this section can help you find your own answers to the question.
Meaning in a finite life
Does the finiteness of life necessarily mean that we will feel our life has no meaning? That is, if life ends, then is everything pointless? Not at all!
For example, people enjoy playing a game of chess. But what is the meaning and the point of it? After all, at the end of the game, all the game pieces go back into the box, and it no longer matters how we moved them during the game. But what still remains is that there was a game, and we had an experience. And so existence, when viewed as a whole that includes both the past and the future, is different thanks to the game we played. The same is true of our whole experience of life, no matter how long it lasts.
Similarly, if we think about everything in the manner of “Well, fine, so we did that, but what is it good for? What’s next? What comes of it?”, then for any answer we find, as if we were acting for the sake of something even greater, we could ask the same about it too: “Well, fine, but what’s next?” This is an infinite regress, and the way out of it is to understand that the experience is meaningful in itself.