Whats the meaning of life Meaning of life from religion point of view - Essay Example

? Topic: Whats The Meaning Of Life PAPER Most of us spent our lives in everyday chores. We eat, sleep, wash, work, dress up, relax, balance the checkbooks, do laundry, clean house, pay bills, chat, car serviced and worrying about thousands other miscellaneous work to search for some pleasures doing small things that makes our lives a worth living place. We go through all these chores in intervals between the acquainted milestones from birth to death. We get kids, lose parents, we complete studies find a job and start a marital life, set up homes enjoy accomplishments at some points and face failures on the other. Similarly, we make new friends, fight with the old ones, change house, cities, countries, change jobs, get hired and fired from different jobs, face many hardships, fall ill, recover, save a few bucks for our retirement and eventually retires. So, the life runs on its track for me, for you and for everyone and interestingly, these activities set up human’s life. No doubt, keeping life going needs a constant struggle. No one ever wishes to die but, it is a harsh reality. Though, we can cope up with never ending life problems but, we can’t stop the deaths. In the journey of life, if you fail you will suffer and if you get success you will feel a sense of accomplishment, triumph, immense pleasure and of course peace of mind. However, these are the interludes of comforts and a happy life because difficulties and hardships never ceases. So, it's very natural to pop up with the question then, why an individual has to continue on the treadmill of life? Why are human beings on earth? What is the basic purpose of their creation and why they are born? What is the meaning of life? Are few arguably the common questions for scholars and children alike. The answer to these questions especially about the exact meaning of life are endless and can be answered from different perspectives and disciplines like psychology, philosophy, science, spirituality and religion etc. Since the beginning of time, man has struggled to find out the reason for his existence. To know why he was born and what purpose he had to serve after coming into this world. This question, though apparently quite broad and vague, is masked by yet another broader question. Many of us have strived day and night, consistently, to enlighten themselves with the meaning of life in general; to know why life on Earth started in general and why oxygen found its way into our atmosphere. This query is basically philosophical in general and has been dealt with at all levels including scientific, mystic and theological. Men have tried very hard to solve this stigma and have yet come up with little success so far.Following are few main standpoints that are used to answer the question “What's the meaning of life”? 1. Meaning of life from religion point of view: Many of the people in this universe have a strong belief that the basic and the real meaning of life is the devotion and sincerity to their faith or religion. Almost all the religions have supernatural existence. The admirers are supposed to associate with higher powers and have to work better for the creator or deity that benefits the mankind. Atheisms are completely of opposite beliefs and they have the believe that there is no Godexcept heir personal God. They are the people who reject the idea of existence of God. They express the true meanings of life without believing in any religion and base all their arguments on their own beliefs. Religions such as Islam, Judaism, Christianity and Buddhism defines he meaning of life as follows. 1.1 . Christianity: The purpose or meaning of life in Christianity is a hunt for the divine salvation with the help of GOD and intervention of Christ. The latest testament is “God urges to build relationship with his creature both in the present life and the life hereafter, which is only possible if a person’s sins are excused”. 1.2 . Islam: In the religion of Islam the ultimate meaning of life is to worship ALLAH, as he is the creator of the whole universe. The human being is bound to follow HIS teachings revealed in the Holy book Quran and the Hadith. According to the teachings of Islam the earthly life is a test that determines the afterlife of an individual either in Paradise (Jannah) or in Hell (Jahannam). 1.3 .Judaism: In Judaism the true meaning of life is to analyze the physical creation orthe universe and prepare them for the life to come. They do not merely focus on the personal salvationhowever, believe on communal and individual spiritualized acts in the world. 2. Meaning of life from scientific point of view: Many who don’t really believe in religion and faith, have very conveniently acquainted themselves with the scientific believes, that might somehow explain to them the meaning of life. Using science as a tool to dig out the answers for the rationale of life and its existence is not unknown for. Millions of scientists strive daily to add to the pool of what they already know, in order to make the answers clearer than ever. They have made abundant use of theories of evolution, along with the Big bang theory, over decades to prove to people what they believe to be true. If light is shone upon the branch of neuroscience then it is seen that certain chemical agents are released from the neurons that are responsible for all our emotions. These chemicals are known by the name of neurotransmitters whose positive subdivisions bring about the feelings of pleasure and joy. This means that the meaning of life or the drive that makes the man keep going about his or her business is possibly the reason that satisfaction and happiness are all a person seeks; thanks to their neurotransmitters. Biological aspect of science gives a different view altogether. According to it, the sole reason for existence is the continuity of life and DNA replication. During this process of replication, nature tries its best to conserve species and that is where anomalies like gene mutations come into play. One of the most popular views regarding the origin and meaning of life is perhaps the Big Bang theory according to which a Big Bang took place trillion of years ago which resulted in the birth of our universe. Though initially inhabitable, universe enlarged gradually and cooled down in temperature to allow first living beings to shoot out of its soil. 3. Meaning of life from biological point of view: For some folk the real meaning of life is to reproduce and multiplies the number through reproduction. As the end point of human life is death so, they believe that the creation of human being is highly essential. Otherwise, humanity will come to an end. According to the humanist approach the true meaning to this question is basically the expansion and reproduction of mankind. There are a variety of stances who named themselves humanist. Some other humanists express that the real meaning of life is the connection of an individual to their fellow man: socially, biologically and culturally. It is pertinent to mention here that many of the humanists who view humans as the constantly evolving creature perceives the factual meanings as one that can possibly change. 4. Meaning of life on an individual level: A large group of people and scholars have answered this question in an entirely different way. According to them the meaning of life is very simple, humans are created just to enjoy their life and strive for the things that makes them happy. Viennese doctor Mr. Sigmund Freud who is the inventor of the psychological therapy process named as psychoanalysis named this concept as “the Pleasure Principle”. The basic idea is mankind is created to experience maximum happiness and minimum agony. The humanistic psychologists focused on the individual purpose and potentials in life. For the majority of the people irrespective of their religions the meaning of life is the personal achievements and to accomplish a better happier place in the world. Jean Paul Sartre a French existentialist said that “ An individual is nothing new but, the truth which he makes of him/herself”. According to the saying personal freedom can be taken either way as it has both negative and positive outcomes depending on his/her choices. 5. Life is all about helping mankind: For a large group of people the real meaning of life is to help others and forgive them for their faults and evils. This meaning is helpful in its own way as it will help in reducing the pains and sufferings that results in availing the basic necessities of life and equal justice irrespective of the caste and creed. This concept includes the longing to devote a portion of life to a useful pursuit that will definitely help those who are in need. One can help others in a myriad of ways. Many of the people find pleasure in contributing to society through various means. Some feel happy to invent and unearth new technologies or similar other advances in order to contribute to the well-being of humanity. A very powerful and famous school of thought naming as Transhumanism suggests that the true meaning of life includes the improvement of the human body by prolonging their life. They seek physical and mental improvement of mankind through technological developments that are associated with averting the aging procedure. According to the Transhumanist views life started through the process of evolution and its purpose is to evolve human with an aim to control, improve and prolong the quality and standard of human life. 6. Philosophical perspectives about “Meaning of Life”: Thephilosophical outlooks on the real “meaning of life” are the ideologies or philosophies that explain the meaning of life in relations to the abstractions and ideals explained by humans. 6.1. Theism: They have the believe that God is the creator of the universe and HE has a purpose behind this idea. Many of the theists including Anthony Flew a former atheist have convinced that God created it as a result of low entropy Big Bang some 13 billion of years ago. They also believe that every individual has to find the purpose and meanings of life in the God’s basic purpose of creating life. Further, they have the believe that if there was no God to give ultimate meanings purpose and value to life then, life is completely absurd. 6.2. Logical Positivism: It is also known as the logical empiricism. It was a philosophical effort started in the Vienna in 1920s and it was regarded as the view that the scientific knowledge or learnings are the only true knowledge and the other outdated metaphysical rules and principles are rejected as useless or meaningless (Eagleton). According to this philosophy the things or events that happen in the life of an individual have meanings as a whole. However, the exact meaning of life without these things cannot be recognized. The meanings of a person's life result from his or her achievements, family, legacy etc. In simple words, we are responsible forgiving expressions and meanings to our emotions and life because the word life alone is nothing. 6.3. Legalism: It is a Chinese philosophy and they believed that hunting for the meaning of life is a completely useless act. According to them only practical information and knowledge is appreciated. 6.4. Mohism: The philosophers of Mohist believe that the meaning of life was universal and impartial love. They have proposed a philosophy of unbiased care. It means an individual has to care for and treat all the other people equally irrespective of his/her actual relationship. The promotion of impartiality was actually a target to attack other Chinese philosophies and school of thoughts more specifically the Confucians. They believe that love must be unconditional and should not be undiscriminating. For instance, there should be a clear difference between love for parents and for the random people. To find the true meaning of life an infinite number of philosophies are presented by the great philosophers from every nook the world. History is full with a range of philosophies presented in different centuries and have offered useful information to the scholars and students till date. 7. Conclusion: Until today, scientific understanding, philosophies and different approaches have failed to give a satisfactory answer to the purpose and meaning of life. It might be because of the fact that it is very deep and hard to answer. Different approaches have shown that mankind will not be able to reveal the perfect and exact answer to this question because of different reasons. The logical positivistconcept of philosophy also known as the logical empiricism includes both rationalism and empiricism. The empiricism says that knowledge and awareness can be achieved through the observational evidences. While on the other hand, rationalism focused on the fact that empiricism is not sufficient enough to give the accurate and complete knowledge that is why verification is necessary. Verification of anything or fact is measured to be meaningful, means it must be cognitively or logically determined to be real and true. The logical positivist verifiability principle cannot verify the real meaning of life and they viewed this question as meaningless. Friedrich Nietzsche German Philosopher’s concept of “nihilism”nullifies the existence of human being has any meaning. Basically, nihilism is used for the term “nihil”means nothing. For him the real meaning of life is empty. French scientist and philosopher Rene Descartes says that life is not real in fact, life is a dream. He also questioned the existence of the physical bodies of human beings. For some people the existence of humankind is either a coincidence or an accident. After finding several answers to the question human mind is bombarded with thousands of other interesting questions. For instance , one may think that how the meaning of life changes with our current estimationof destiny? Is man's destiny already planned or is it happen one way or another? Or human beings are free to choose their destiny based on their learnings or experiences? In a nutshell, the “true meaning of life” is from inside us, and is not dependent on the outside. Moreover, it exceeds equally in its permanence and beauty any bliss of which an individual ever yearned or dreamed for. Life is all about what you want it to be. Moreover, the meaning of life may not be the same for every individual. It is not necessary that what you think about the life and what is the purpose of your life should be the aim and purpose of others. Every individual is responsible to give some meaning to their lives. Every single individual is allowed to enjoy and live their life the way s/he want it to be. For this purpose figure out the meaning of your life and make possibilities to live it the way you want it. Be happy and let the other to be happy and live their life in their own way. Reference: Eagleton, Terry. "Is Life What you Make It?" The Meaning Of Life (2007): pp. 135-164. Read More