4w---The Need for Meaning
Who needs
it? Not the earthworm or the eagle, the chipmunk or the whale. It is man alone
of all earth’s creatures that raises the question,
Does life have any meaning? Every generation has pondered it. If the need for
meaning were not inherent in man, the question would not have haunted him
through the centuries
EARTH
seems big to man, but it’s a small planet orbiting a medium-sized star we call
the sun. Our sun’s 864,000-mile diameter sounds impressive until we learn that
some red supergiants have a diameter of 2,000,000,000
miles. It takes light, traveling 186,000 miles a second, eight minutes to reach
earth, but it needs 100,000 years to cross our Milky Way galaxy containing some
100,000,000,000 stars.
Some
astronomers estimate that there are as many galaxies in space as there are
stars in the Milky Way. Radio telescopes have detected light coming from
10,000,000,000 light-years away. Even so, these staggering figures do not give
us the size of the universe.
The
unknown vast reaches of space are of no concern to the rabbit or the cockroach
or the chimpanzee, or to any other animal. But man is awed by its immensity.
Long ago King David of Israel saw only two or three thousand stars in the
heavens, and just this tiny fraction of universal space caused him to cry out
to Jehovah God: “When I see your heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon
and the stars that you have prepared, what is mortal man that you keep him in
mind, and the son of earthling man that you take care of him?”—Ps. 8:3, 4.
David
felt dwarfed by a few thousand stars. With our knowledge of untold millions of
galaxies, we should feel microscopic! If the earth is a mere speck of dust in
the universe, of what consequence are individuals living on this speck?
It
is not only our smallness in a big universe but also our brief existence in the
eons of time that makes it difficult for us to believe our life means
something. Just as animals have no comprehension of universal space, so they
have no concept of time, but “God has planted eternity in the hearts of men,”
“he has given men a sense of time past and future.” (Eccl. 3:11, The Living Bible and The New
English Bible) Although knowing that time is eternal, man is also
told that his life is very brief.
The
psalmist says: “As for mortal man, his days are like those of green grass; like
a blossom of the field is the way he blossoms forth. For a mere wind has to
pass over it, and it is no more; and its place will acknowledge it no further.”
“Man himself bears resemblance to a mere exhalation; his days are like a
passing shadow.” The Christian Bible writer James concurs: “You are a mist
appearing for a little while and then disappearing.”—Ps. 103:15, 16; 144:4;
Jas. 4:14.
If
life is so fleeting and followed by a future of oblivion, how could it have
meaning? But the need for meaning and permanence is so great that doctrines of
immortal souls and reincarnations are seized upon. Many feel the need to make
this present life memorable by leaving something of themselves behind—a book, a
painting, a musical composition, an endowment, a foundation, anything to give
some kind of tangible evidence of their having been here. It seems to help them
to feel that there was some meaning to their existence. Even those who made a
name for themselves fade from memory as they are eclipsed by prominent ones now
living. Of efforts to change this fact of life, the verdict is: “Look! everything was vanity and a striving after wind.”—Eccl.
1:14.
In
spite of man’s tininess in universal space, however,
and his fleeting appearance in the stream of time, he still needs to feel his
life is meaningful. This springs from the way he was
created. It is an inborn need. Viktor Frankl, the
psychiatrist who originated the psychiatric school of logotherapy,
which he defines as meaning-therapy, says: “The striving to find a meaning in
one’s life is the primary motivational force in man.”
How
can the need for meaning in our life be met? The following article gives some
of the requirements.
[Footnotes]
1
mile = 1.6 kilometers.
1
light-year = approximately 6 trillion miles.
[Blurb on page 5]
If the earth is a mere speck of dust
in the universe, of what consequence are individuals living on this speck?
[Blurb on page 5]
“The striving to find a meaning in
one’s life is the primary motivational force in man.”