The origin of man’s search for meaning in life



Everybody has their own answer to whether there is any meaning in life or not. Most people believe that there is one. ‘Why were we made?’ This question has haunted humanity for ages. Different religions offer different answers but the baseline has always been the same; that we are here for a purpose higher than merely existing. While we live we must make sure that we lead a life that gives us a blissful afterlife.

I am not going to give an answer to this question. I find man’s urge for meaning far more fascinating than the answer itself. Where did the urge to find meaning come from? Is it because we feel alienated in this world?

After all, man is the only creature with a conscience. This conscience is a blessing and a curse. There is this world and there are species living in it. They go about their lives completely unaware of the cruelty that surrounds them. They kill and get killed.

Unlike animals, we cannot suffer in ignorance. When humanity attained a sense of self and the ability to feel compassion for something outside of it’s own creation, it became hyper aware of the suffering that surrounded it.

The order of this world is simple; the strong eats the weak. One life form must consume another to survive. No other species can think about this; they can only go along with it. Man’s ability to think is what alienated him from the world. The rest of the world falls into this cruel pattern with an ease man never understand.

The discovery of fire is a pivotal moment where humanity’s reason had set it apart from animals. While animals fled from the fire, man took it and used it in his defence. From this creative usage of fire, came the rational understanding of cause and effect. ‘If I show the fire, animals will run’

Then he then applied this logic of cause and effect to everything that exists around him. A question was born from this application; something can exist only if it is made. The world exists therefore it was made by someone (God). What is the cause for it’s creation and what will be the effect of it’s creation?

Humanity could have ignored this complicated question but it had it’s taste of suffering. Humanity was not able to understand suffering but it knew that suffering is a part of life. An inevitable and natural part. The need to understand the creation of the world lies in man’s inability to understand suffering.

Why was the world created and why do we live in such a world? What will be the effect of our creation? All this culminated into man’s journey towards this fascinating question: what is the meaning of life?

 


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