Well Don, being a highly practical multi skilled person, I have formed a view on life too.

You drew tantalising close to the truth. And that truth is we have no choice in being born at all. That actually is the " stupid" of life. And from that realisation, we can work outwards, and look backwards. And always, it's somebody else's fault if it goes wrong.

The great cop-out!

Dan

Interesting introspection in the twilight years Don. And as some who has died and been brought back twice! I believe there's is a purpose and a noble destiny. If we are willing to embrace our higher self and nobility! Be the best person we are capable of and treat others as we would want were we stood in their shoes. Albeit, tempered with honest, fair play, justice. You're a few years older than me Don but have lived less, I believe.

My life was a fortunate one as inferred in Chinese philosophy. You, on the other hand, had advantages that few enjoy?

What have you done with it? Retreated into a world of literature?

Is the world a better place because you were part of it? And has your contribution advanced humankind or just aided its exploitation by the robber barons?

Only you can know and only the man in the mirror knows the honest answer to that or be able to judge you!

My life was one that included routine daily brutality, starvation and extreme disadvantage. Yet I lived on through it when I should have been dead several times. And I'm here to tell you there is an afterlife that includes hell and terror beyond description or human understanding.

A nightmare reality I would never ever care to revisit! But still capable of making human mistakes! Ditto every other human extant on the planet!

And for me, reinforces a belief, we are, all of us, fallen angels trying to return back to that from whence we sprung and given we are fallen angels embued with enormous power if we combine as a single mind, with a single angelic purpose?

And the reason demonic power wants us a divided rabble!?

That said, at the end of the day the only thing we have absolute control over is the thoughts we care to entertain in our heads! Think, there's great power there!
Alan B.

Don - given that you seem to either not believe in God at all or don’t regard God as having any relevance to our existence, I am surprised that you think life is for anything at all.

If the universe, including humanity, has just unintentionally happened into existence then it would follow that the universe (and humanity) has no ultimate significance or purpose.

Of course, anyone can make up a purpose for themselves and try hard to achieve it. But apart from their own personal satisfaction in possibly achieving that goal, it does not really matter what they do with themselves.

One made up goal in a goalless universe is as “good” or as “bad” as any other made up goal.

Hitler made up goals that he wanted to achieve. We usually want to think that his goals were “bad” but since there is no state that the universe is meant to be in, then his goals are only “bad” relative to our made-up goals.

We have no basis for saying that our goals are better than his, closer to the target so to speak, because there is no target we are all aiming for.

Unless there is such an identifiable target then all we do is completely relativistic. It makes no more sense to say that Hitler was a bad man than to say that Nelson Mandela was a good man.

You may have a measure of satisfaction with what you have done in your life but in a godless universe in the end it all matters for nothing. You may as well just have surfed and got stoned.

Dear Don,

You opine;

“Does it have a purpose? I think so. The human species has done extraordinary things in the last ten thousand years, and my hope is that it will go on doing so indefinitely. We are really special, but the tensions within us are always there. Let us recognise and tame the tensions.”

You say you have no religion, perhaps no appreciation of a higher being, yet your words betray you.

You claim we are really special. They are three possible judges of that, ourselves (which doesn't mean that much nor does it deliver a purpose), a God/creator (which is understandable if we consider ourselves the pinnacle of his/her creation), or an alien intelligence who viewing our species now or in the distant future decides we are of note.

From your words I think you may be stuck with the second, unless of course you want to contend our art and culture are appreciated by other species.

Jesus Christ will be your judge or Saviour Don.

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.” John 3:16-21

Don,

I appreciated your article and your musings over the content of Levinson's book. I read it years ago.

I didn't receive direction for my life from its content as it is bound up too much with what happens while on this earth.

I have found that the Christian life and world view provides a framework for meaning in life through, (1) An understanding of the origin of life; (2) What brings meaning; (3) The boundaries for morality, and (4) Where life is heading (our destiny). Where will we be one minute after our last breath?

Meaning in life for me has come through the emphases of the Psalmist (16:11), "You (Lord God) will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever".

I cannot see or experience fulfillment in life without the presence of the Lord God and his plan for the universe, reality, and me.