We Create Our Own Meaning

Are we here for a purpose? This question puzzled not only philosophers but many ordinary people throughout centuries. To avoid falling into an existential crisis and follow its hard path, people choose to look away and not contemplate whether there is meaning to what we do. People find given meaning to their lives from religion, devotion to their government, or from the wills of their parents. I think we should choose the harder path and consider existentialist philosophy. I argue that we are a collection of atoms that exists in a universe that isn’t created for a reason. If there is no reason for our existence, then there are no absolutes to abide by, so it is better to reason ourselves rather than to trust authority figures who do not know any better than us. We must all learn, contemplate, accept the weight of the freedom we have in the light of the absurdity of the world, and ascribe meaning to our own lives. Otherwise, we will fall into ‘bad faith’ and get our purpose from authorities that won’t serve our own values, and we’ll be left unfulfilled. We’ll wonder time to time about something bigger in us than what we believe, but quickly suppress that insight that would change and improve our lives.

What is a human being? We’re a collection of atoms; 99 % of our body is made up of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. This collection of atoms is organized in such a way that we have a sense of unity, and our physical experience is somehow accompanied by subjective conscious experience. While we are built out of tiny alive stuff, cells, we’re embedded in a vast and dead universe. One person is smaller than a single grain of sand if the universe is all the sand in the world, so it is unlikely that the universe wants us to do something or that we have an inherent purpose given by the universe. If essentialism were to be true, and we had properties given to us that make our lives meaningful, how can we explain so many differences between human beings around the world? Each person has a different subjective experience, a different point of view, values, and moral compass. The variety of lifestyles shows that there is no one essence that we all carry. For instance, homosexuality is punishable by death in some countries, and in other parts of the world, they are allowed to marry and have children. The difference is so dramatic that even children who carry the same genetic figuration dissent from their parents’ values and lifestyles. Some worldviews look bleak to some, while others cherish. For example, I learned all the information and reasoned that…