Many people will have asked themselves why we are here and what is the point of it all and for millennia, people have looked to religion for the answer.
Evolutionary theory would suggest that the purpose of any organism is to survive and to reproduce which would reduce meaning solely to the production of offspring.
The continuing development of consciousness in humans will surely result in religion being recognised as a delusional attempt to outsource personal responsibility to a magical supernatural being and the very existence of our developed consciousness means that there is more to life than the urge to reproduce.
The problem is that we start with the wrong question. If we accept that there is no meaning of life imposed on us from outside or dictated by our genes, the question becomes one of How can we live meaningfully? This puts the responsibility for a meaningful life squarely on us, where it belongs.
By defining our values and belief system we create our own meaning that requires us to live our lives authentically in line with our own values. Nietzsche (pictured above) argued that, to do that, we first need to envision a better and more advanced being than our current selves to give us an aim and that life is a process of self-overcoming which is less about a sudden change than it is about an ongoing personal transformation.
Many people have goals and ideas for success that they envision, but they seldom have an improved identity that they look to evolve into. Maybe that is a Meaning of Life.
