A Few Thoughts on Purpose

Without freedom of choice, there is no creativity. Without creativity, there is no life.
--Benjamin Spock

The world is at once a mysterious combination of persons, places, and things working in synchronicity toward disparate goals. It is top-heavy with forboding places and dangers everywhere; it is also breath-takingly beautiful beyond our senses to fully appreciate; while it has more mysteries left to be revealed than the 8.5 billion of us living here can fathom. Earth scientists tell us that 100 billion humans have passed this way, while astrophysicists estimate that there are 200 to 400 billion galaxies “out there” each with earth-like planets in temperate zones with water, atmospheres, sunshine, and intelligent beings more or less like us. The same scientists reason with measured skill that there still is no “safe” place for us. We can die under water, on the ground, or high up in the sky wherever those conditions exist. The distances are too great, however, for us even to conceptualize about how we might at some future date travel first within our galaxy in search of creatures like us, and then on to other galaxies.

Meanwhile, earthquakes, hurricanes, forest fires, tsunamis, viruses, diseases, deformities, greed, oppressions, wars, plagues, bad judgments, jealousies, and many other chance factors, individually or collectively, make for times of intermittent violence, suffering, and misfortune. They are partly offset by the joys of life and the free will to enjoy some of them while we can. But sooner or later we all will die and leave this world behind. Nobody gets to carry anything forward. Whether we are weak or strong, rich or poor, handsome or decrepit, the earth is the great equalizer. When we die, all of our assets, our strengths, and our failures leave us, while our bodies become sustenance for the small creatures in the soil, or fuel for a blazing cremation furnace.

Do we laugh at our miseries, cry at our misfortunes, and applaud our successes from a deeper place, hoping that one day we will all have a shared epiphany and the “truth” will awaken our minds, relieve our fears, and lead us to the promised land? To many of us, such thoughts are exhilarating like soaring in the clouds. To others, they are frightening, and made bearable only by drugs or by finding a safe place from them all.

Philosophers, theologians, logicians, outward- and inward-looking scientists, and many others have looked at the complexities of life and the immensity of our universe and asked: Who are we? What are we doing here? Why? With or without a directed purpose, how can we go about solving this set of riddles?

It seems to me that the answer to each of those questions is the same whether our existence ends at the grave, or not. In order to make sense of our limited knowledge of all things large or small, we need to develop our own sense of purpose. It doesn’t matter whether we base our thoughts and activities on logic, or on things mystical, we must do so without merely accepting somebody else’s beliefs. If we each can find a set of premises that cohere, that support the good that we can do, while giving each other the freedom to do the same, we are on grounds that satisfy an inner need for peace, love, understanding, and forgiveness. Experience, logic, and compassion tell me that I dare not accept limitations from others that define who I am, what I need, or why I am driven toward a given way of life. I must be free to explore, to discover, and to modify my moral code as needed to always pursue enlightenment, and the good that I can do. My knowledge, skills, and motivations are different from yours, therefore, my choices and activities will be different from yours. In order to be true to myself in my search for enlightenment, I must allow you the same freedom to choose. If I fail, then I will answer to my creator, if such there be. I choose to believe there is.