People who believe in god(s) are inclined to say that one reason they believe in god(s) is because they would find their lives “meaningless” otherwise. So, here’s my question: how does belief in god(s) create “meaning” in life?
Let’s consider an example. Many Christians are inclined to say that one reason they believe in God is because they would find their lives “meaningless” otherwise. According to this worldview, the “meaning” their religion offers them is to suffer through life until God is satisfied they have suffered long enough, then (if they are “united with Jesus”) they go to heaven to worship God for all eternity or (if they remain “fallen”) they go to hell to suffer for all eternity.
Does that really seem like a meaningful existence? God creates us merely to play games with us for a few dozen years here on earth — in order to “test” us — and then God sits in judgment of us to decide where we will spend the rest of eternity? Our “meaning” in life thus reducees to praising God throughout our lives just to earn the right to praise God for the rest of eternity? Indeed, the story of Lucifer demonstrates that even after a person gets into heaven, his failure to continue praising God might still put him in hell for all eternity. Where is the meaning in being nothing more than a praising chorus for a God who already knows He is omnipotent?
Let me put it another way. Think of Adam and Eve — arguably the best models we have for what human life in heaven is probably like. Exactly what meaning did they have in their lives? They had no struggles, no pain, no death, no successes, no failures, no challenges, no accomplishments, no learning (because they were forbidden to eat from the Tree of Knowledge), etc. The Bible does not even describe them as having any joy. Their lives consisted of being specimens in God’s little zoo. Where is the meaning?
Now, imagine you are in heaven and imagine you are surrounded by people who are perfectly happy to have no successes, no failures, no challenges, no accomplishments, no learning, etc. You spend eternity either praising God or discussing how you are going to better praise God. Where is the meaning?
Indeed, can we think of any earthly place that is similar to heaven — where people can be perfectly happy to have no successes, no failures, no challenges, no accomplishments, no learning, etc., and to, instead, spend all of their time praising some god-figure? I can think of one: psychiatric hospitals.
Sorry, maybe that’s too harsh, but my question remains: if you tell yourself (and others) that your religion gives your life “meaning,” but you ignore the details of the “meaning” that your religion promises you, then in what way does your religion actually give your life “meaning?” Said another way: is having no answer to the question, “What is the meaning of life,” so frightening that any answer — even a vague, self-contradictory one — becomes better than none at all?
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