Are we alive for a reason?
Oliver Hime
Many people have an innate yearning to find a reason for their existence. Whether through religion or meditation, they spend their lives in constant search for the ‘meaning of life,’ desperate to find a purpose in their lives. However, I am going to argue that this search is futile and irrational because the underlying essence of what it ‘means,’ to be alive contradicts the notion that life has a unified and all - encompassing answer to why it exists at all.
Or: if there was a meaning to life, life would have no meaning.
It follows that the unimaginable complexity of life means that there must be no reason behind its existence. This is because something so complex cannot have a reason behind its existence, otherwise its complexity would be rendered to nothing and it would be a simple thing. To have no meaning to be found is ultimately the mark of a highly complex thing. How can an infinitely complex thing be understood without no longer being infinitely compl ex? It can’t. So, the infinite complexity of life means that it must have no reason behind its existence whatsoever. However, just because life has no true meaning, doesn’t mean that whatever reason you can find that tells you why you exist isn’t worthwhile to hold dear. You can find ‘meaning’ or reason all around you. Whether you have a family or simply a garden to tend to, every single one of us can find a purpose if we search for it. This purpose, whatever it is, may not be anything more than something that your imagination sprouted one day, but, if it helps you to strive harder in your life, then is it any less valuable than the true and all- encompassing ‘meaning of life’ that many people claim is out there to be found? If you are a person who needs a reason to live and a goal to tackle, then there is nothing better you can do than to look at the things that you already have. If you are lucky enough to have a family, what better purpose in your life could you ever wish for than to nurture those special people? Even if you live alone, and all you do every day is feed the birds, you should grab hold of those small wonders and focus your attention on making their lives as magical as possible. So, we can all find a reason for our existence somewhere deep inside of us. Our purpose comes from within. Not from anyone else. You have to create your ownmeaning in your life, because your thoughts are the only thing that will ever gift you with something to strive for in life. Each and every one of us has the ability to fashion a million reasons for our existence. If every reason were a puzzle piece, even if you had infinitely many reasons, you could never form the full puzzle, because there is no full puzzle to be formed. Life sprung into existence in a series of chemical reactions billions of years ago. After billions of years of evolution, we – homo sapiens – were born. Despite the uncountable advancements that were made over those billions of years, no reason for why life existed ever came into fruition because life was not created for a reason . Life came about purely by chance, so if we think this miraculous thing has ‘meaning’ behind it, we are being unbelievably naïve.
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