Introduction
We trace our ancestors back some 200,000 years. Unlike the vast majority of species that have ever existed, we (humans) are still here. This is not as impressive as it might seem at first. Compared to some life forms, notably the dinosaurs that ruled for about 175 million years before going extinct 65 million years ago, being around for 200,000 years isn’t all that impressive. Also, conditions for most humans, until very recently, were pretty bleak. Life expectancy as late as the Middle Ages was 25 years at birth: 50% of children died before reaching the age of five! Furthermore, a relatively good life, at least in terms of comfort, security, clean air and water, opportunities for happiness and love, sanitation, abundant food, and other measures of quality of life, was appalling by contemporary standards. in developed nations. Personal extinction was always present.
It is unlikely that people who lived for all but a fraction of human time did not spend much time pondering the meaning of life.
Speaking of extinction, consider this somewhat disturbing reality: We are all doomed, too, not just as individuals but as a species, along with all other life forms, and the Earth itself.
How much time do we have?
It depends. Countless natural or human-induced calamities could drop the cosmic curtain at any moment, perhaps while you’re reading this, such as asteroid strikes, thermonuclear wars, a supernova, or volcanic eruptions combined with earthquakes. Less sudden but no less epic terminal misadventures, such as the loss of the biosphere to global warming, widespread pandemics, or other sci-fi-like events might do, such as a blitzkrieg of aliens with serious attitude problems.
Even if our descendant Homo sapiens survives for a few hundred, or a few thousand, or even millions of years (it seems unlikely), in time the lament of Ecclesiastes will be fulfilled, that is, everything will be futile, utterly futile. Humans are doomed. How does that behave with the meaning of life?
What awaits us?
Unfortunately, the absolute certainty is that our Sun is mortal, just like us. While its lifespan is more impressive than ours, it will eventually go the way of all flesh, even if it is decidedly not meat. Yes, our Sun is going to die. It is currently about four and a half billion years old and has already burned about half the hydrogen in its core. There’s barely enough left to keep the lights on for another five billion years, tops.
Once the fuel runs out, the Sun will begin to expand, getting hotter and hotter. The Earth will turn into a giant desert, only insects and bacteria will remain. Later the oceans will boil and everything will catch fire. Eventually, the sun explodes, though no living thing will notice, and the Earth and our solar system will disappear without a trace.
But, look on the bright side. You will have been dead for a long time before those things happen.
The truly amazing news, really very good
While billions of people around the world still don’t recognize ultimate nonsense, the good news is that eventual recognition of said nonsense could bring about dramatic advances for humanity, like the way we treat one another. If almost everyone realizes and adjusts to the reality that there is no purpose to our existence, no grand scheme, no divine plan, and no blueprint, then compassion, kindness, empathy, and other decencies might be more attractive than today.
Think about it. Your presence as a humanoid doesn’t make any sense: you don’t have a predetermined role. You are inconsequential, like everyone and everything else. You and I and all of us are alone, without a loving or angry deity or savior to care or reckon with us, without a god from heaven to reward or punish. No invisible and unknowable superpower to do favors by prayers or inflict harm if we don’t adhere to what the priests and preachers, ayatollahs and rabbis, sorcerers and shamans insist they demand we do or not do.
Consider the overwhelming probability that there is no hell below or heaven above, no afterlife of any kind, period. Your momentary presence on this planet as a somewhat advanced life form is a cosmic accident. It is highly unlikely, and a real wonder.
This life is and never lasts long so try to experience and share as much joy, art, music, drama, happiness, exuberance, love and so on before you die. The end is near, keep going.
This are good news!
Make no mistake, this is really good news. It’s an incredibly wonderful and liberating prospect. It’s a good reason to set a course to live life well and die happy. Celebrate and shape your own meaningless existence in a way that it does mean something, many things that are precious to you and those you love and care about.
In no way does the lack of final meaning mean that you should or are more likely to disregard the welfare of others. Conversely, a view of life as meaningless except for what purposes we invent makes us just as likely to care about others as we care about ourselves. This sentiment reflects Robert Ingersoll’s thoughts on death, as reflected in these two excerpts:
What would this world be without death? It can be from the
fact that we are all victims, of the fact that we are all
united by a common destiny, it may be that friendship and love
they are born of that fact. (Loto club addressMarch 22, 1890, New York.)
Perhaps death gives away all that is valuable in life. if those we
The pressure and tension inside our arms could never die, maybe
that love would wither from the earth. maybe this common
fate pulls weeds from the paths between our hearts
of selfishness and hatred. And I had life and love rather where
death is king who has another life where there is no love.
(Prayer at the grave of a childJanuary 8, 1882, Washington, D.C.)
A solidarity philosophy
We know from Viktor Frankl, Irving Yalom, and many existential philosophers whose work focused on finding meaning in this life, that service to others is the surest path to happiness.
Many who can afford to indulge in lavish self-indulgence choose instead to devote themselves to causes and service to their fellow men, and derive lasting meaning and satisfaction from doing so.
The list of such notables is long: familiar examples include former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Sonny Bono, Angelina Jolie, and many others.
This is what Apple CEO Tim Cook told a graduating class at George Washington University:
There are problems that need to be solved, injustices that need to be ended, people that are still persecuted, diseases that still need to be cured. No matter what you do next, the world needs your energy, your passion, your impatience with progress. History rarely yields to one person, but think and never forget what happens when it does. (Tim Cook, Beginnings, George Washington University, May 17, 2015)
That can be you. That should be you, all of us, leaving a mark and a
positive, if modest, difference during the brief moments of our time. No, none of it will matter to us when we’re gone, but it makes sense for a while, while we and those we affect still exist.
Of course, with a REAL wellness philosophy, you’ll want to go one step further: learn, adopt, and maintain a lifestyle that promotes wellness, reason, exuberance, and personal freedoms; do that and you will surely make the most of your chances.
Despite the absence of illusions about a predetermined, cosmic ultimate purpose that you may have long suspected to be fantasy, you will have filled your time with consequences, with meaning and purpose of your own design.
May your life be epic and triumphant.
