This question came up in a recent discussion, with a friend, about life’s meaning. After many such discussions he finally told me that he despaired of ever being able to adopt religion. He reads countless articles by atheists claiming there is no creator. When I offered him sound reasoning supporting knowledge of our creator’s existence, he insisted that reasoning cannot lead to belief. I suggested, if that is true, how could atheist reasoning lead him to unbelief? Our discussion dealt with atheism before pursuing what religion has to do with life’s meaning.
Atheists’ denial of a creator is based on the lack of evidence of one and their dismissal of reasoned argument that one exists. They fail to realize their denial is unfounded. They can find no evidence of a creator because our creator intends that we will never be able to prove its existence as explained in Why Our Creator Keeps Itself Hidden From Us. They can find no scientific evidence of one because scientific proof is dependent on observation of what exists, and our creator is beyond existence as explained in Do You Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist. Atheists ignore or dismiss sound reasoning (like the reasoning you’ll find in the Meaning of Life Video Series) rather than successfully refuting it.
This led us to the question, “What’s religion got to do with life’s meaning?” He insisted that religious belief in an afterlife is unfounded. He cannot accept Christianity because he finds much of what it teaches is unsupported by sound reasoning. He cannot accept the Bible because much of its content is erroneous. He finds the position that Jesus Christ is the Son of God unbelievable. I tried to reassure him, though religion is an enabler of discovering life’s meaning for some, it is by no means a prerequisite to that discovery for everyone. 85% of the world’s population complacently claim that their religion supports their position that life’s meaning is to achieve eternal intimacy with their creator. What that means to each religion is briefly described in The Creator. Because each religion’s teachings are different, is it not likely that each of them is partly in the right but largely in the wrong?
Spiritualists reject religion and call our creator a “spirit force” which endows its creation with consciousness. Humans are unique in having minds that can channel the universal consciousness of the “spirit force” into their individual consciousnesses and thus become at one with their creator/spirit force. Their position is described in the video Spiritualism. If they’re correct, Spiritualism can be an enabler of discovering life’s meaning for some people. However, is it likely that it is a silver bullet?
If all religions describe life’s meaning differently and if only a small number of thinkers support spiritualism, what is a prerequisite to discovering life’s meaning? Rather than each insisting on the claim they are most comfortable with, wouldn’t it make more sense to share and study each other’s claims to approach the real right?
But what approach to discovering life’s meaning is available to you if none of the world’s religions or spiritualism works for you? Why not try reasoning? Do you have the courage to pursue reasoning? If so, you’ll find a very thought-provoking (and entertaining) treatment of it in the Meaning of Life Video Series. Once you’ve pursued reasoning, what if you found that religion, spiritualism and reasoning all support the same knowledge of life’s meaning? Might that not erase any unreasonable doubt?
Del H. Smith conducts research into life’s meaning and is the award-winning author of the AMAZON Best Seller, Discovering Life’s Purpose.