What Is the Meaning of Life?

Humans can’t keep from asking “why.” We just modeled it, by asking why we need to ask why. With our self-awareness, distinct from any other animal or being we encounter, we can’t help but notice what happens and then asking what it means for our lives. From philosophers to religious leaders, we observe the world as it is, and we compare it to how we think it ought to be. The current reality appears broken, so we endeavor to seek reasons for why the world has been corrupted. If we find these answers, then we can find ways to fix it, we think.  

Interestingly, the human search for a better world is based on one we’ve never seen for ourselves. We long for a perfect world outside our ability to perceive it. 

In these ways, we try to make sense of events to regain a sense of control and purpose. With meaning, we have a way forward. Meaning tells us where we’ve come from, where we are, why we exist, and where we’re going. 

Not so cliché’ after all. 

In a life absent of meaning, we tend to despair. Depression, anxiety, and other negative emotions rule us. To remove meaning destroys us. 

On one level, we seek meaning because it helps us survive. The natural human curiosity helps us recognize and react to threats, opportunities, innovations, and goals. Evolution suggests we seek meaning for the survival of ourselves and the species. When we frame our tasks as part of a larger purpose, we endure and learn faster. We recover better after a crisis. Meaning gives us motivation. However, simple biology doesn’t explain why we seek the transcendent. 

We also search for meaning in a community. We tell stories to put our lives inside a bigger one made up of family, community, or nation. These shared stories give us identity and values. They connect us to neighbors and even strangers. Meaning sees purpose within the community. Who counts on me? What kind of person do I want to be? I don’t just file reports; I’m serving clients. I don’t just teach a subject; I’m shaping a student’s future. 

More than anything, suffering forces us to ask the question “why?” Pain and loss disturb us, as if we were made for something else. Without meaning, we have no hope or security. Our minds and hearts require a frame that places hardship within a greater purpose. Otherwise, the difficulties overwhelm us. When we link momentary struggles to a larger arc of growth and a transcendent aim, we persevere and learn during chaos instead of finding despair. We still grieve, but meaning helps us continue on. 

Finally, everyone dies. Our lives are finite. This finite existence heightens the search for meaning. We can achieve great things, but what does it matter if there’s nothing beyond death? Meaning seeks to answer this question, helping us know we don’t struggle or sacrifice for nothing. 

Some philosophic views still seek to find meaning in this earthly life.

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Atheistic and non-religious views approach the meaning of life without any supernatural source and denies any life after death. 

Secular humanism proves the most optimistic. It asserts humans can create meaning through reason, empathy, and shared causes. They find their purpose in their idea of human flourishing, which includes things like curing diseases, social justice, and making art. Rights and activism matter because human well-being matters, individually and universally. To humanists, actions have meaning when they increase the overall welfare of the world, including environmental concerns and reducing suffering. 

Naturalists view meaning through an evolutionary lens. They say we have biological drives like caring for children, curiosity, and community. These aren’t mystical or supernatural to naturalists, but elements which helped our distant ancestors survive. We feel meaning when we nurture relationships, master a skill, or help society thrive. Any cosmic feelings we get are lies and delusions, in their view. Naturalists associate purpose through setting goals and improving organisms. 

Pragmatists describe meaning as something we prove in lived experience. They test purposes the way people test mechanical tools. Do they properly help you solve problems? If a cause or job results in real improvement, it becomes meaningful. 

Secularists mirror this by tying meaning to excellence of character, encompassing aspects like courage, honesty, and charity. These things make us “feel” meaning since they support stable, true values. 

With all the above, the salient question becomes, by what do we measure good? What makes courage, honesty, and charity better than being a pirate? Without a higher being or reality, how can we empirically define these things for humanity? 

Existentialists respond that we can’t. To them, the universe provides no objective meaning, nothing universal. Therefore, you should choose your own, which is where we’ve come to in our culture with many living their own truth. To an existentialist, you create meaning as you wish or determine in yourself (loving another, defending a cause, writing a book, etc.), committing to it, and accepting the consequences. 

Absurdists believe we can’t answer the intrinsic “why.” The world and current reality is simply absurd. They advise us to find meaning by living in rebellion against the absurd by doing “good” — working well, loving deeply, and living in awe of beauty — all without giving into any illusions about the mystical or supernatural. 

Finally, at the least optimistic end, nihilism denies any meaning exists at all. Not morally or spiritually. Where does this leave them? Some nihilists accept the emptiness and focus on entertainment, distraction, amusement. Others believe their denial of any meaning gives them the ultimate freedom, beholden to no idea of truth. Of course, when people treat them immorally, these nihilists smuggle back in ideas of fairness and friendship. Because humans naturally care about meaning, no matter their view. 

For atheists or the non-religious, people make their own meaning. 

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Across the past few thousand years, however, many groups have taken the search for meaning into supernatural or spiritual realms of thought. These religions have their own idea of meaning.

In Islam, meaning centers on worshipping Allah through submission and true devotion. Muslim believers serve as stewards of Allah, and he will hold them accountable for the moral tenets of justice, mercy, and community. The disciples of daily prayer, generosity, fasting, and pilgrimage inform the life worshipping god and the hope of an eternal paradise ahead.

An ancient tradition, Hinduism has four “aims”: moral duty, wise prosperity, wholesome enjoyment, and liberation from rebirth. They believe lives are reincarnated until people get it right. Those who live right gain a greater future life. The opposite happens to the harmful or evil. Paths might differ, but they should arrive in realizing the “deepest Self” and losing attachment. This religion seeks to be freed from the reincarnated life.

Buddhism focuses meaning on ending suffering. They teach the Four Noble Truths, which lead to walking the Eightfold Path. In this, they seek wisdom, compassion, losing their desires, and ultimately awakening to nirvana. Some Hindus stress personal freedom from desires and suffering. Others widen the goal with aiding all living things, making compassion the purpose of life.

Sikhism teaches devotion to a transcendent One through what they call remembrance, honest work, giving to those in need, and serving selflessly. They try to unite with god while rejecting self, injustice, and human division.

Daoism is named after the way, or the Dao, what they call how life is. Meaning comes from living simply and spontaneously, and they refuse to force any action on another. Through this, they claim to find a quiet peace.

Confucianism is more a moral philosophy than a religion, although many see it as one. Confucius taught meaning through finding harmony in right relationships. The moral beliefs of Confucianism brings harmony to the family, local community, and ultimately the state. This harmony supposedly leads to human thriving and peace.

Shinto finds purpose in living peacefully with the kami (nature spirits), community, and ancestors. Traditions of purification, festivals, and having a sincere heart lead to harmony and renewal.

Many other religions exist, and they all express some greater meaning or purpose beyond the self. This transcendent meaning guides the believer’s life and morality.

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While these world religions have some moral overlap with Christianity, the biblical idea of meaning proves distinct from all of them. The Bible declares God as creator of all things, from the spiritual to the natural. His ultimate creation was and is humanity, made in his image and likeness. As Creator, God would know the meaning of life best; He designed us for certain things. 

Other world religions don’t properly answer the why questions. What went wrong? Why is the world broken? What can fix it? Why do we long for a perfect world? How do we find meaning and live within it? 

The Bible definitively answers all of them. 

The Bible defines meaning as living for the glory of God, and it ties this purpose to our greatest joy and a lasting, eternal reward. God created people for his glory (Isaiah 43:7), and all things exist through and for Christ (Colossians 1:16). Meaning begins and continues when we know the Creator and why we’re here — to know God intimately, glorify him, reflect his character, and walk in his will and purpose. 

Humanity lost access to relationship with God through the Fall (Genesis 3). Adam and Eve’s rebellion introduced sin, death, and corruption. It broke our bonds with God, each other, and creation. Now we have a cursed world with twisted desires and death. This removed us from meaning. 

But God didn’t abandon us. He sent his Son to redeem us. Jesus Christ lived a righteous life, died for sin, and rose to defeat death. Through Christ, God offers forgiveness and a restored relationship with the Father. This anchors our meaning in God and the eternal reality, both in this life and the paradise to come.

Paul says, “Whatever you do … do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Out of our relationship with God, we steward work, relationships, and culture in ways that reveal God’s wisdom and goodness. The prophets teach us to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8). Jesus summarized the moral law with two more commands: to love God with all our heart and love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40). Our “good works” become lights for others to see and glorify the Father (Matthew 5:16). 

Again, the meaning begins in the correct relationship. We don’t do works to attain this right relationship; we couldn’t reach God on our own. He had to come to us and establish a way to be redeemed. Redemption is a gift, and only through it can we live morally. 

Jesus declared, “This is eternal life, that they know you … the only true God, and Jesus Christ” (John 17:3). In God’s presence there’s fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11), and he becomes our life and strength (Psalm 73:25-26). God promises to provide for our needs within the right “meaning of life,” when we “seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). Beyond material provision, restored relationship with God gives us revelation, right character, and sincere love. None of our good works go for naught. There’s an eternal reward awaiting us (1 Corinthians 15:58). 

Our suffering also has meaning within God’s promise. When we live for God’s glory, he infuses our whole life with meaning and purpose, even in times of crisis and grief. They prepare us for “an eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18). The sufferings of this life can’t compare with the glory and reward later, if we remain faithful. For those who love God and live in his purpose, God turns even evil things to our good (Romans 8:28). 

In Christ, the meaning of life isn’t a private feeling. It’s open for all who will believe: to know God, trust the work of Christ on the cross, follow him and obey in love, serve others self-sacrificially, endure this life with hope, and graduate this life to an eternal Kingdom paradise with God and others. This path glorifies God and gives us the richest rewards now and forever (Revelation 21). 

Peace.

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