Terry Sneller :
It seems to be a question that has haunted man ever since he has existed. Why am I here? What is the point to all of this? What is the meaning of life? Doubtless, we all have pondered this question many more times than just once.
Start by taking apart the two central words in the question-meaning and life.
Now, “meaning” has, well, several meanings. The one that is implied in the question, is this-“important or worthwhile quality; purpose.”
Likewise for the word, “life” in that there are several definitions for this word. I’m going to use this one, “the existence of an individual human being or animal.”
So, if we combine the two, we have a broader question to consider: What is the important worthwhile quality, or purpose, of the existence of an individual human being or animal? Now we have a more precise question to consider.
This question must reside exclusively somewhere near the heart of man’s quest to find answers; for we are fairly certain that animals don’t have this concern. Certainly, in the entire history of mankind, this question must have frequently come up and obviously, there were some who came forward with answers. For buried deep within the question is a fear-based insecurity and at the base of that insecurity is the taunting concept of being able to experience another life after this one expires.
Beginning in the far distant past, those who came forward with the most plausible answer to this question, were usually not only rewarded, but given additional consideration in other matters. They were believed to have special insight, knowledge, wisdom or powers that often extended into other realms.
Since the vast majority of mankind’s existence on this planet evolved without the benefit of written or recorded history, once these specially endowed individuals died out, so did their specific answers. Of course, some left behind a spoken history that relied on transmission by the memory of survivors-who often neglected or embellished some aspects, for various reasons.
With the advent of crude pictographs and representational text carved into stone and other permanent media, mankind began to compound and standardize answers to our question. The answers began to be, well, “Carved in stone.” Hand printed scrolls led to books and with the advent of the printing press and now the Internet, mankind’s quest to find an answer to our question is continually accelerating as well as being magnified.
At some point, lost to history, the compiling of solutions to mankind’s questions, ours included, were relegated into organized groups called religions and recorded text allowed the compounding, preservation and expansion of “answers” to these questions. Over time, these religious organizations became more protective of their particular perspectives and generally even exponentially resistant to change, as rituals were put into place.
The formulated answers that worked best, were those that offered a preferred positive answer and were a salve to the fear-based insecurities created by the bracketing events of birth and death.
The instinctual fear of death is, and always has been, well known and seemingly acknowledged throughout all sentient life forms. No need to expand further on our drive for survival.
However, there are new scientific discoveries being explored surrounding the imprinting processes that occur during our formative years and in particular the pre and post natal periods.
It may even be that our instinctual fear-based insecurities surrounding death, are the result of the very traumatic event of rejection that occurs as a result of the birthing process.
There is another major conflict that must be included in this examination of the meaning of life. I’m referring to the ongoing, and relatively recent, infringement that science has been making into the established religious realms.
As science develops irrefutable proofs that dispel one religious premise after another, the conflicts become more apparent and too often even deadly. The bureaucracies that are enthroned throughout the religious communities are doing all they can to maintain and expand their dwindling reach. This ongoing confrontation of opposing paradigms has, and is, creating deadly and massive international conflicts.
Why is the opposition of religion to science relevant to our question? Well, while science is deeply involved in exploring and resolving this question, religion is not. In fact, should the answer to this question become universally understood and accepted, there would be little need for religion.
So, after this rather perfunctory examination of some of the various aspect of our question, what is the answer? What answer can have such value in the face of its historic significance and the various forces at work in divining its truth?
Here is my answer to this ageless question:
The meaning of life, is to simply know that there is life! The correlation to that statement, is to experience the infinite and multidimensional aspects of love-which is the emotional pinnacle of that existence.
– Terry Sneller, Opednews.org
