From time to time do you question, “Why am I here?” Does the question nag at you until you are able to put it aside? At other times do you question, “What am I doing here? Is what I am doing really what I want or is it leaving me unfulfilled just as every other pursuit in my life has?” Do you sometimes feel you are just going through the motions or that you are on the road to nowhere? Buck up! You are not alone.
What if your search for meaning in your life could finally take direction? What if you could finally answer all these questions with complete confidence? Can you picture what that would be like? Would not your real knowledge of your purpose provide you the fulfillment of knowing that you are living your life as it is intended? Would not that knowledge, as sound as any knowledge we humans possess, rescue you from the questions that plague you? Would you not feel secure and fulfilled, knowing your life has real meaning?
Well, all this can be yours. All that it demands of you is that you search for the answers to those plaguing questions as well as you are able and for as long as it takes. Never stop searching. Search what your life experience has taught you. Search atheism, spirituality and many religions for what they have taught others. Explore writings by spiritualists, apologists and atheists to pursue what support they can provide for your search. Master, and then apply reasoning to provide direction to your search.
Does the immensity of this search give you pause? Does it seem like it could consume most, if not all of your discretionary time over a period of several decades? For me, it did. Fortunately, upon retirement, I had the luxury of spending over two decades in such a search. For you, do the demands of a career, providing for a family, making enough money to keep up with the Joneses and other demands on your time keep that luxury from you? But does not pursuit of all worthy goals start with the first step? Could your first step be a couple of night's read of the results of my research in my book Discovering Life’s Purpose and an occasional hit on the Video Channel and Blog of my website, delhsmith.com be your first step?
If you’re ready to take this first step, start by setting your expectations. Although the best knowledge of which humans are capable is available to you, absolute knowledge is not. All human knowledge is fallible, whether it is supported by science, reasoning or anything else. This is the best we can do. However, until reasoning is refuted, or science is corrected,
the knowledge they produce is as good as it gets. Because of this, must we not accept it and act on it until it is, if ever, corrected?
One last suggestion. Your search will produce an overwhelming number of conflicting ideas. This is not a bad thing. It means you have opened your mind. However, they can’t all be right. Assemble the ideas you have discovered to date and assess which ones make most sense and which ones reinforce each other. An example of this reinforcement is the subject of Video 30 – Are not reasoners, spiritualists and the religious saying the same thing – the concluding video in the Meaning of Life Video Series, available at delhsmith.com. If you were to discover that reasoning, spirituality and religion each, independently, reach an identical position on life’s purpose, would not their mutual reinforcement cement your knowledge? Would you not finally really know life’s purpose?
Good hunting!
Del H. Smith conducts research into life’s meaning and is the award-winning author of the Amazon Best Seller, Discovering Life’s Purpose.