Perspectives on Human Purpose Some persons may refer to a rational worldview, free from gods and goblins, as just another one of many belief systems. They are implying that a rational view of Objective Reality is no more efficacious in achieving happiness than religious belief systems. The difference between a faith-based belief system and a rational philosophy of life rests in the rejection of illusions and the affirmation of facts firmly embedded by objective evidence in a framework of science and natural laws. To declare science a faith-based belief system implies lack of knowledge and suggests obfuscation and self-deception. Science is the very antithesis of a belief system. There is nothing to believe in science. Science does not need faith. Faith is only required if a person chooses to accept a statement as true after science has already exposed it as false. Science does not deal with miracles; science is the domain of objective facts, of precision and repeatability. Science is the implacable opponent of pseudo-science, sometimes referred to as Creation Science. A rational view of Objective Reality and human existence may show some similarities to the philosophical orientation known as existentialism. Existentialism is a contradictory, unstructured cauldron of the supernatural in the form of theism and atheism, and politics in the form of communism. Existentialism is a philosophy of despair, bemoaning the lack of meaning or preordained purpose in life. In its confusion, existentialism burdens us with the impossible task of inserting a purpose into our lives ourselves. It then fails to provide us with a rational explanation for the need for such meaning. Existentialism, as espoused by Sartre and Heidegger, bewails the dreariness of human existence, instead of simply exhorting people to enjoy life to its fullest. Mythology and religion also try to imbue human existence with external meaning or purpose, however implausible and contrary to all objective evidence. Such mystical believe-systems, although completely unsupported by facts or evidence, appeal to many persons. They conjure a reason for living out of thin air by creating an imaginary god who may or may not bestow his imaginary favors upon them. Religion charges persons with imagined sins; it burdens people with guilt and superstition. It then urges them to pray to a non-existent god in order to absolve themselves from sins they did not commit. This method is clearly counterproductive to the attainment of happiness and joy in life. Humanism is another synthetic concept which builds on the idea that the purpose of life is to help others and to improve the world and the human condition, without refuge to mythology and religion. Although the term improvement is relative in itself, there is no attempt to explain what humanists mean by terms such as good or improvement. Hitler tried to improve the human condition in his own particular way. Humanists then proceed to proclaim the inherent dignity of man. There is nothing inherently dignified or undignified about man. Man simply evolved from lower forms of life. The humanistic approach to a meaning in life is faulty because it revolves around erroneous assumptions regarding the evolutionary nature of human existence By acknowledging our evolutionary need to enhance our happiness, we eliminate all need for a pre-ordained or self-imposed meaning in our life. The mere acknowledgment of the evolutionary roots of our emotions does not constitute a meaning in the sense of an externally or internally assigned purpose. If every individual makes it his objective in life to lead a happy life in accordance with man’s evolutionary, emotional structure, then it is self evident that all of humanity, every individual in the world, would be happy. It is more important to concentrate on the enhancement of our own happiness than to find a non-existent purpose in life, or in wasting our life trying to make other people happy. We, as individuals, owe nobody happiness and nobody owes us happiness. Happiness is ours to grasp or to surrender, as we choose, in any given moment. We must not willingly surrender to other persons our ability to experience happiness. Other persons cannot make us feel happy. We cannot make other people feel happy. The feeling of happiness, of emotional well being, rests solely within ourselves, within our own grasp. The attempt to insert a non-existent purpose into human life is counterproductive to mental health and happy living because it precludes us from seeing reality with utmost clarity. An artificially imposed meaning will prevent us from dealing with Objective Reality in the most productive manner. The search for a meaning in life is analogous to medical quackery because we are allowing superstition and inefficacious conduct to usurp our rational means of dealing with our environment. A search for a meaning or a purpose in our life will impair our opportunity to lead rational, effective lives in a manner consistent with the innate nature of man. A futile search for an elusive meaning prevents us from correctly aligning ourselves with Objective Reality. It will frustrate our ability to achieve the only real success in life: Optimal, lasting happiness.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 13:54:02 +0000
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