Human Existence and the Meaning of Life Dum vivimus, vivamus, Horace (Since we are living, let us live well) What are we really trying to say when we refer to the purpose or the meaning of life? We use both words synonymously and both convey different degrees of significance, signification, purpose, intent, or objective. However, all of these terms essentially convey a search for an assigned function. The underlying question is, why do human beings exist? What is existence? We stipulate that an object or event exists, if it manifests itself in an observable manner. Objects that are claimed to exist but that do not manifest themselves in any way, form or shape, do not exist, by axiomatic definition. Anything that human beings claim to exist must show objective evidence to human beings that it exists; otherwise, it would be meaningless to say that it exists. Some Thing may conceivably exist in another space-time continuum or in an alternate universe but, if it does not manifest itself in any form or shape to human beings, it does not exist for purposes of human beings: If it has no effect on human life, we can and we must disregard it. Human beings obviously exist because they manifest themselves to other human beings: Among other attributes, human beings have mass and appearance that can be measured and observed, both by subjective, physiological means and by objective, scientific standards: Human beings exist. Since we clearly exist we may ask, where do we come from, why are we here? Is there a meaning or purpose to our life in the sense of an externally or internally assigned function? Alternatively, did random events place us into this universe, without any purpose or reason?
Posted on: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 10:01:27 +0000
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