Living meaningfully in a godless world

"If there is no afterlife, what is the purpose of life? How can we find meaning in an existence without knowing there's something after this, something to live for?"

Scientific progress and better educational systems to explain them have slowly chipped away at the realm over which religion defines the rules for our reality. Somewhere in this process, our culture seems to have reached a bit of a tipping point. There are enough educated people now who openly question religion validity that it's become a mainstream issue. Instead of turning to a higher power, more people are looking within for answers first. As a consequence, more people have come to the conclusion that we may not have an existence after this life or as I personally believe, that the existence of an afterlife is unimportant to how life should be lived. This can be difficult to come to terms with, because if nothing follows life it can seem to take away the meaning of life. It doesn't. Life should be lived to be meaningful in and of itself, regardless of the existence of an afterlife.

What does it even mean, that life should be meaningful in and of itself? How is that even possible, if our life is extinguished the second we stop living? Why should we even care about making a difference in society that likely won't change much in our short time here? To me, the answer to this question is simple...almost a cop-out in its simplicity: it's a personal decision. We make our own decision about how to define meaningful. I wrote at length here about how whether we realize it or not, we're personally accountable for the decisions we make about how to live our life: this idea is simply builds off that concept to apply it on a philosophical level.

Theories abound about what the afterlife might be, but generally they share a common theme - it'll be better if you live "right". If we can let go of the idea that it's the end of our destination that is important and accept the importance of the journey itself, it becomes clear that our focus should be on life and not post-death. What does it mean that life should be meaningful in and of itself? It means an acceptance that life is its own reward. It means an appreciation and reverence for life, it means an acceptance of the potentials of our existence.

"How can we make our own priorities without a foundation? How can we know what is important and what we would find meaningful?"

The foundation for our priorities comes from our experiences and from our reason (or mind or consciousness, name it as you like). This is a very different step from the last 800 years, where religion provided societies and cultures with a shared moral foundation. We've all had different experiences and we all have different capacities and types of reason, and these fundamental differences will lead to a varied culture with different moral systems. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but this does allow religion to continue playing a role in our lives in the future - our spiritual leaders can provide well-reasoned moral foundations that can be shared among those who accept them. We can all, even now, follow an established faith or develop our own. In my experience, people willing to honestly devote thought and time to the development of their own systems generally come to share principles found across religions. This indicates a shared value system inherent in all of us: that is, these values are part of the experience of being human. The source of this shared humanity isn't material for this post, but author Joseph Campbell has a lot to say about similarities between cultural moral foundations in a number of his books (and in his Power of Myth interviews).

So if we decide to look within to find our priorities, how exactly do we do that? How can we know what is important to us? Unfortunately, that's a question I still don't have an answer for. We may all have to find our own personal solutions.

We use our priorities when we make decisions in life. We look within for answers, and we use our priorities to guide us. For me, my moral priorities come from a desire to live a life that I can be proud of. I want to be able to say, "Given what I knew when I made a decision, I'm not ashamed of the choices I made". I've tried not to shirk the burden of increasing what I know so that as my life continues I can make better informed decisions. It seems I'm always learning (whether I try to or not) and it's important to use our new knowledge to re-evaluate our priorities.

Let me finish by saying that it's not necessarily better to develop your own moral system. People have devoted their lives to this, and many religions have been founded from the teachings of these individuals. A wholehearted commitment to follow the moral framework laid out in a holy book that appeals to you is just as valid as developing your own. (The book Siddhartha by Herman Hesse is a fictional work on this topic)

"Well, we're still going to die, and nothing that we do is going to matter after that. Why bother with all this?"

Yes, we're going to die. It's possible that once we die, there's nothing more. Why should we bother troubling ourselves with all of this?

The simple truth is...with awareness, it's not an issue we can ignore. Once we recognize the power we have over our own life, I don't believe we can live a contented life ignoring that fact. In essence, we're not "troubling ourselves with all of this", instead we're going down the only path that can allow us to be truly happy in our existence here. A blissful ignorance is no longer possible with the recognition of personal power.

And that, really, is why it's worth bothering. Whether or not we have an afterlife is irrelevant to our time here: all we can do is make the most of our time on earth. Ultimately, we all define how to do that in our own way.

As I mentioned earlier, my answer to making the most of our time means living a life I'm proud of - not because of the pride itself, but rather the deep-seated contentedness and happiness that comes from a life well-lived.

Have you found your answer?