Does Life Have Any Meaning?

A man in his 80’s thinks: ‘My life is nearly over. It’s gone so fast. So little is left. Where did it all go? What did it mean? It’s all behind, nothing’s ahead. Except the grave. And oblivion. How pointless it all was! No wonder the cynic says, “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”’

But is this all there is?

LONG ago a man undergoing a painful ordeal without knowing why cried out in despair about the human condition: “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower, and withers; he flees like a shadow, and continues not.”​—Job 14:1, 2, Revised Standard Version.

Is this all there is? Does life have any meaning? These questions have been asked over and over again, by generations of people down through the ages. Especially as they grow old. They look back on life and wonder what it meant.

At the funeral of an old man some will say: ‘Well, he lived a full life.’ Supposedly this means death is now acceptable. But does a full life that is past make dying easier to accept? Or does it make it harder? Would it not be easier to leave an empty life than a full one? No one says, “I’m so happy I’m going to kill myself!” It’s the miserable that resort to suicide. Yesterday’s full stomach doesn’t comfort today’s empty one. And what seemed meaningful during life often doesn’t seem so important as death draws near.

Life has lost its meaning for many. The world scene is bleak. Life is cheap. It’s frustrating for many. The young are neglected, the old shunted off into dreary nursing homes. Stress builds up until hearts fail or violence erupts. Political corruption spreads and credibility gaps widen. Concerned individuals who try to improve conditions have about as much impact as a flea pouncing on an elephant. Disillusionment sets in and people submerge themselves in meaningless preoccupations with self. On this trend, a United States best-seller, The Culture of Narcissism, says: “Having no hope of improving their lives in any of the ways that matter, people have convinced themselves that what matters is psychic self-improvement: getting in touch with their feelings, eating health food, taking lessons in ballet or belly-dancing, immersing themselves in the wisdom of the East, jogging, learning how to ‘relate,’ . . . They cultivate more vivid experiences, seek to beat sluggish flesh to life, attempt to revive jaded appetites. . . . mental health means the overthrow of inhibitions and the immediate gratification of every impulse.”​—Pp. 29, 39, 40, 43.

When people pursue this course, their meaningless lives become more meaningless, and, in more desperate efforts to escape, they plunge into sexual orgies and perversions, go on sprees of vandalism and senseless violence, take drugs and even opt for the ultimate escape​—suicide. All because they feel their life has no meaning.

Here for a few short years, then into the grave and oblivion. How can it have meaning? What makes a man more important than an ant or a grasshopper? In the vastness of universal space, he feels like nothing, irrelevant, of no consequence, here for a moment and gone for eternity. Life seems like an exercise in futility.

“How could my life have meaning?” a person wonders. ‘When I’m gone who will miss me, and for how long? And if some do, how will it help me? I’m just one among thousands of millions. Who notices, who cares, who remembers?’

But wait! Some do notice. Some do care. Some will remember. Life does have meaning, if you want it to, if you make it so. The articles that follow show that to be true.