Does Life Have Meaning Apart from God?
This post is by Andy McLean (M.A. Biola University; M.Div., Th.M. Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary). Mclean serves as the editor for The Gospel Project for Students. You can see the whole series on A God-Centered Worldview here.
Does life have meaning? Is there purpose to our existence? Questions like these are not unique to the modern thinker. Individuals have been asking the same question for centuries, and the answers that have been offered are the ones consistent with the competing worldviews and belief systems of the time.
Not only that, but they are questions asked not only inside a philosophy classroom, but can also be found within popular films and television series. From the nihilistic comedy of Seinfeld to most of Woody Allen’s films, talk about the meaning of life liters the contemporary landscape.
For instance, take Woody Allen’s comedy film Stardust Memories as an example. In the movie, the main character finds himself having a bit of an existential crisis when he begins to start questioning the meaning of it all. In talking to some friends, he says, “Hey, did anybody read on the front page of the Times that matter is decaying?….The universe is breaking down….Soon there’s not going to be anything left….There’s not going to be any Beethoven or Shakespeare.” For him, the implications of these physical processes is nearly too overwhelming to consider, leading him to despair as he contemplates the meaning of his life.
Yet to go beyond a Hollywood answer to this question, one needs to begin by first settling the larger question concerning God’s existence. This is because the question about whether life has meaning is directly tied to whether God exists. This idea was illustrated somewhat recently by the late atheist Christopher Hitchens, who was once asked in a debate, “If God does not exist, what then is the purpose and meaning to life?” Hitchens responds, in typical fashion, by turning what would otherwise be a serious question into an opportunity for lighthearted humor. He says, “Well, I can only answer for myself. Whatever cheers me up. I suppose mainly gloating over the misfortunes of other people.” On a more serious note, he goes on to list other things, such irony and sex, before saying that every one of us is making a “clear run to the grave.”
Why would Hitchens respond this way? Is this the standard answer of the self-professing atheist, or the inevitable outcome of a naturalistic worldview? It would seem that an answer along these lines would certainly follow from the atheistic worldview. This is because, as Hitchens well knew, if God does not exist, then the objective grounds for ultimate meaning and purpose do not exist either.
This is the logical outcome of the atheistic worldview – the necessary denial of ultimate meaning and purpose to human existence. If God does not exist, then all an individual really has is what has been called the “Do-It-Yourself Approach” when it comes to personal meaning and purpose. This is the approach that was essentially adopted by Nietzsche and other atheistic existentialists, whereas the individual creates meaning and purpose by ordering activities in his or her life around things he or she desires, values, and enjoys, etc. It is an approach that stands or falls on the power of the subject being able to continue to create meaning based upon the structuring activity in his or her life. It is also an approach that indicates that meaning in life is altogether subjective.
Of course, one of the biggest problems that Hitchens’ and Nietzsche’s approach has come across is the simple fact that any illusions of created meaning are shattered by Hitchens’ keen observation that everyone is making a clear run to the grave. In other words, whatever type of meaning this is, it isn’t the kind that transcends the grave. Not only that, but it would seem just as possible, and problematic, for one to orient his or her life around trivial and even immoral goals just as easily it is to do so around meaningful goals. Since there is no objective standard of what constitutes something as meaningful in a world void of God, it seems that our futile efforts are equivalent to us making rearrangements to the deck chairs on board the Titanic. We can participate and try to find meaning in whatever trivial activities there are, but the end result is that we will all die and nothing we have done will have mattered in the end.
However, by affirming God’s existence, one also affirms the grounds for objective meaning and purpose within the universe. In other words, true meaning can only come from a personal Creator who has endowed creation with meaning and significance. Meaning, in its objective sense, is wholly dependent upon God and is derived from His being. As the philosopher Tom Morris has said, “We can create islands of meaning in this sea of existence we’ve been given, but it is beyond the power of any of us to endow with meaning the entirety of life itself or the entirety of any of our own lives.”
There are vast implications to the worldviews around us. For the atheistic worldview, the answer to the meaning of life is pretty bleak, and often one that many people have a hard time coming to terms with on a personal level. On the other hand, the Christian worldview is able to provide the rationale for why life has real meaning and purpose – because it was created by a personal Creator who endowed it with meaning and purpose. Only by affirming God can one coherently support the notion that life is endowed with meaning and purpose. It is only in a being like God, as Tom Morris puts it, “a creator of all who could eventually, in the words of the New Testament, ‘work all things together for good’ – only this sort of being could guarantee a completeness and permanency of meaning for human lives.”
Amma,
Great question. Let me first begin by sharing a little of my own personal experience with self-professed atheists. For the most part, I would say that a majority of atheists I have dialogued with make it clear throughout the conversation that their dispute with Christianity, or theistic religion in general, is based more on moral considerations than intellectual. They often hide behind the guise of an intellectual objection, but when it comes down to it, their resistance is more than not moral in nature as they struggle with the thought of the moral demands upon their life that would follow if there is a God. I say all of that not to suggest that your son’s objections are merely moral – for they certainly may not be – but only to offer the advice that his commitment to atheism at this point in his life may not stem entirely from intellectual reasons. If that is the case, then the most reasonable and compelling response that you could give him over this topic may not amount to much because of these deeper issues.
However, I think there are a number of areas you could point to as a way to “lovingly expose the lostness of his position.” There are a lot of good resources available that offer help in these areas while presenting both offensive and defensive arguments against the atheistic worldview. You might start with Christian philosophers and apologists like William Lane Craig or J.P. Moreland to see how they approach the topic.
If he wants to press the meaning of life question then, as far as his objection goes, I wouldn’t respond by adding much to what I have already written in the post. As I stated above, there is the “Do-It-Yourself Approach” that argues that the individual creates meaning and purpose in his or her life through whatever means available. It is the existentialist attempt to find meaning and purpose in a meaningless/purposeless universe. Based on what you said, it seems that this would most likely be your son’s position.
A few responses. First, I would reiterate what I have already mentioned above. However, I might press the points that this view is, at best, borderline absurd, given that it denies meaning and purpose in the universe only to affirm that individuals can have personal meaning and purpose. Of course, this has to do with their denial of objective meaning, which consequently makes their position too subjective and unable to extend beyond death. I might even go on to point out that, while having a family can bring certainly bring a sense of fulfillment, etc., family itself is not capable of offering lasting meaning and purpose to one’s life. If it were capable of doing that, what would it mean if something were to happen to one’s family, or to one’s job, or to himself? Would it mean that all meaning and purpose are gone? According to this worldview, it would mean that, at least in these areas. If he were to have anymore meaning in his life, he would have to create it in other ways.
I might also ask the question: what does it mean for the person who has no family, who has no job, who has no prospects in life to find meaning and value? What about his own children who, when they were infants and toddlers, never intentionally created individual meaning and purpose in their lives given that the thought never occurred to them? Does it follow that these people have no meaning and purpose to their existence? If so, where and how?
This line of questioning is called the “grounding objection.” Christians would affirm that all people, of all ages, have objective meaning and purpose to their existence because this meaning and purpose is grounded in the existence of their Creator and being created in His image. The atheistic worldview, however, contains no such grounding, thus making it extremely difficult to argue for a view of meaning and purpose that is logically sound and compelling.
I agree with all that you have said but I have a question. If my atheist son saw this post he would be insulted and would indicate that his wife and his family give his life meaning, that he has a good job that provides for those he loves and that he is the one who defines what is meaningful about his life and that he will continue to do so regardless of whether or not God exists or not. He also says that he doesn’t care whether or not God exists. It doesn’t really matter to him. Can you give me any wisdom as to how to answer him, lovingly exposing the lostness of his position?