Do you feel pretty confident that you know the answer to life’s meaning? How did you come to this knowledge? Did you not observe every clue you could discover, learn what they tell you and, when satisfied, accept the knowledge you arrived at? Let’s face it. That’s the only way any of us come to know anything. But have you ever found that, on further investigation, something you “knew” needed to be corrected by new learnings?
Think about when, as a baby, you learned to crawl. You soon knew crawling was the best way to get around. But, investigating further, you saw adults walking upright, experimented in pulling yourself upright, finally letting go and repeatedly falling. With perseverance, your relearning led you to know walking was the best way to get around. You relearned what you knew by repeating the process of perceiving and learning which led to a correction of what you knew.
Is it time to relearn what you know of life’s meaning? As you progress from left to right in what’s known as Experiential Learning, as illustrated in this table, what you know gets corrected by relearning.
Some apply the scientific method to the hypothesis that a creator of everything exists. Observations consistently provide no proof that a creator exists. Until proof is discovered, they accept that no creator exists and thus come to know that life’s purpose is merely earthly fulfillment.
Some study (to a greater or lesser degree) what their Church teaches, observe their friends’ opinions about those teachings and, practicing them in their social interactions, come to know that life’s purpose is to live according to those teachings. Both accept what they have come to know about life’s meaning, get on with their lives and leave further learning
behind. But does that not sound like a baby who knows crawling is the best way to get around, leaves further learning behind and gets on with its life?
Just as most babies become dissatisfied with crawling, some in the first group become dissatisfied with their knowledge when they realize that the lack of a proof a creator exists is not proof a creator does not exist. Likewise, some in the second group become dissatisfied when they realize that there is no proof of most church teachings. What about you? Like the baby, is it time for you to move beyond what you currently know of life’s meaning and undertake relearning? What approaches might you take?
Might you study the process of reasoning and apply it to life’s meaning as well as to what you read in books by apologists and atheists, the Bible and the RC Catechism? If so, you’ll discover how reasoning leads to the above table’s learnings, and what they lead you to know of life’s meaning, in Discovering Life’s Purpose and in the Meaning of Life Video Series.
Most importantly, you’ll see how sound reasoning can establish that Jesus was God Incarnate and thus that His teachings are crucial to enriching what you know of life’s meaning. You’ll find guidance in doing this in The Sayings of Jesus appendix to Discovering Life’s Purpose.
Is it time to apply yourself to relearning learning?
Del H. Smith conducts research into life’s meaning and is the award-winning author of the AMAZON Best Seller, Discovering Life’s Purpose.