The Answer

I’ll keep this short and simple, since all great truths are straightforward and self-evident.

Life is absurd. It has no intrinsic meaning. One comes from a great void and passes into a vast nothingness. Wherever, whatever, however these before and after states may be, the answer has no application to ordinary human awareness. We might as well regard these times as dreamless non-being. There simply is no awareness. As far as anyone knows.

All we know is that we are here. We exist. This is nothing new. Awareness of one’s existence is the basic starting point of all human life. It is the one thing we all know to be true before we are targeted by an endless barrage of belated and wholly unnecessary “truths”.

Now, here’s where it gets complicated. Because there is nothing beyond mere existence. But from the moment of awareness the individual is bombarded relentlessly by directives about how one must conduct their life. These directives vary in the degree of their insistence from mild parental guidance to stern societal commands to damning religious strictures.

Granted, to a large degree parental and societal guidance is useful. We do, after all, conduct ourselves largely as social beings, and it’s good that we all largely agree to be on the same page. The danger lies in regarding these guidelines as being something more than mere arbitrary suggestions. Danger lies in regarding them as moral absolutes which are not subject to question without injury to one’s own self-esteem or social ostracism. In such instances one risks fears of inadequacy, stupidity, embarrassment, perversion, isolation, loneliness, and generally negative self-devaluation simply for asking, “Why?”

I have founded my life upon an existential basis. On the one hand I feel free to make my own moral choices without regard to text or pulpit. On the other hand I believe that such moral relativism brings to the individual the full burden of moral responsibility. I cannot, nor will I seek to justify my behavior by reference to holy writ or legal statutes. It would have been better had more Germans been moral relativists, rather than just following orders.

An even greater danger lies in the absolute folly of religious stricture. Because throughout the history of human kind these have been the most fervently enforced and fatal of delusions.

There is no God. This is so self-evident to me that I can’t fathom how anyone can believe otherwise. I mean, where’s the proof? Well, I learned long ago not to ask such a question. You know the old saw. “To those who do not believe no proof is sufficient. To those who believe no proof is necessary.” Well, maybe. Maybe not. I do not believe in God, not because of an insufficiency of proof, but because of a total lack of proof. And if others insist that there is proof of God all around, obviously proof is necessary for their belief.

Inevitably in the course of discussions regarding the meaning of life these questions arise: “How can you live without any meaning? Why don’t you just commit suicide?”

Well, to begin with living is pretty much a given. It’s the natural state of living things. The very fact that we’re discussing the matter rather presumes that the first question must remain rhetorical. To posit the need for some sort of “meaning” as a prerequisite for living is like putting the cart before the horse. With or without meaning life abides.

As to why one doesn’t just commit suicide, well, putting aside the obvious hostility implicit in such a question I think it silly to believe that one has to either cobble together some sort of “meaning” or, in the alternative, snuff oneself. I just don’t see life in such stark terms.

To be, or not to be? Hmmmmm. Let me sleep on that one.

Which, as a matter of fact, may be why I’m perfectly happy to be free to simply live and to allow whatever “meaning” there may be to take care of itself. In the meantime I’m free to pass my life in a vast, mysterious, and unknowable reality which leaves me in a constant state of awe and wonder. This is enough for me. I feel perfectly comfortable living without final answers, and I feel no great need to pursue them. This way I feel free to believe what I want, when I want.

And here’s the key to living happily this way. Living one’s life without meaning does not mean living without faith. Oh, I have a busload of faith. Because I do believe that once everything’s all said and done, it’ll be all right.

Yes. It’ll be all right.