Towards the end of the fourth century, St. Augustine wrote, “You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in Thee.” Of course, he is addressing our
creator. Can we know, as well as we know anything, that he was correct? Call in the Rubik’s Cube of Life’s Meaning!
As you may recall, the Rubik’s Cube has six sides, each composed of nine smaller white,
green, orange, yellow, red or blue cubes. Any nine-piece side can be rotated in any direction. As illustrated in How to Solve the Rubik’s Cube, the sides must be rotated in the right direction and sequence until the nine component cubes of each of the six sides are of the same colour.
The six sides of the Rubik’s Cube of Life’s Meaning are reasoning, atheism, spirituality and religions, Jesus, His teachings and research. Each side is composed of multiple ideas about life’s meaning. The ideas need to be sorted and sequenced such that each side’s ideas lead to a conclusion about life’s meaning.
Any one side’s conclusion may be flawed. For examples, reasoning and atheism can be refuted; religion and spirituality are largely unsubstantiated; Jesus’ deity can be challenged; His teachings can be insufficiently understood; and research can be contradicted. However, when the conclusions of all six sides complement each other, their mutual reinforcement produces knowledge, as sound as any knowledge humans possess, of life’s meaning. As with the Rubik’s Cube, we may get one side correct, but can only know life’s meaning when all six sides reinforce each other.
Let’s study each of the sides of the Rubik’s Cube of Life’s Meaning, starting with reasoning. Chapter 13 of Discovering Life’s Purpose and the Meaning of Life Video Series develop reasoning that produces the conclusion that life’s purpose is to love God and all His children as selflessly and unconditionally as we are able.
Do You Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist – and Video 15 – Atheists suggest you forget about meaning and just get on with your life – followed by Videos 16-18 – refute atheism and thus reinforce reasoning’s conclusion.
Video 20 – Is spiritualism an alternative to reasoning? produces the conclusion that life’s purpose is to channel the spirit force’s universal consciousness into our minds and to act on it as well as we are able. It then shows how spirituality’s conclusion is consistent with many religions, and reinforces reasoning’s conclusion.
How Can a Man be God – and Video 25 – Why do many people dismiss the claim that Jesus is the Son of God? – followed by Videos 26-28 – develop the conclusion that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, using reasoning and research. This conclusion, that His teachings are absolute truth, means that the Rubik’s Cube of Life’s Meaning can be solved only when His teachings reinforce all its sides.
All the Alls in The Greatest Commandment and The Neighbour in The Greatest Commandment establish the deep understanding of Jesus’ greatest teaching, which one needs, to see how it reinforces all the sides of the Rubik’s Cube of Life’s Meaning.
Video 29 – Are reasoners, spiritualists and the religious really in conflict? – followed by Video 30 – summarize how all six sides of the Rubik’s Cube of Life’s Meaning reinforce each other.
The Rubik’s Cube is solved when all its six sides are of one colour. The Rubik’s Cube of Life’s Meaning is solved when the conclusions of all six sides reinforce each other. Its solution provides us knowledge, beyond reasonable doubt, and as good as any knowledge humans possess, that life’s purpose is to love God and all His children as selflessly and unconditionally as we are able, so that our hearts rest with God.
Del H. Smith conducts research into life’s meaning and is the award-winning author
of the Amazon Best Seller, Discovering Life’s Purpose.