I was rummaging
through my shed today, looking for a pair of portable speakers, and came upon
an artifact of technology, a floppy disk. This was surprising to me because you
can nary find a computer today that accepts this type of ancient equipment.
After standing still in shock for a few seconds I flipped the thing over and acquired
another little jolt. Written there in black sharpie is the word KEN, underlined
a few times. What most fond memories of my childhood are behind this useless piece
of plastic: sitting in my dad’s office with one or two of my older siblings,
plinking away at the keyboard of some Aztec aged monstrosity, playing my first computer
game. -For those of you who don’t know KEN is one of the first FPS shooter
games made, that has pixels the size of my thumb- I now write this looking at
that black square of pointless plastic and think of everything that has happened
since, all pointless if my life did not have some meaning outside of myself.
Why do you live such a short life and not fight to realize that you are not
just some random, pointless, piece of dust floating through space? Why do you continue
to live if you truly believe that it is all worthless? Because you don’t, you think
you can gain meaning by living a fuller life or by building your body and mind.
But I ask, if your body and essence is just dust then how can that emptiness give
it self any significance? I am proposing
that the yearning you feel is actually a want to believe in something outside
of self, something greater than self, someone more pure that self. I am telling
you that maybe there is a God, and that maybe if you believe and trust, and follow
him, then you don’t have to fight for meaning anymore.
Even if we take the universe to be inherently meaningless, we are sentient animals who can make our own meanings. I don't see the universe as pointless because it wasn't designed, but as beautiful in all the laws and theories of physics that allowed it to form.
ReplyDeleteEveryone finds the meaning to their lives in different places; some in worship, some in charity, some in the pursuit of knowledge. We make our own meaning, we assign it to ourselves and attempt to live up to it. I have no evidence of design within the universe, but that does not make it any less beautiful.
There's a common argument that to understand something is tantamount to robbing it of its beauty; but I don't believe that mystery is beauty. Interesting certainly, but if we "unweave the rainbow" and understand how it functions, why it is, I believe that a deeper understanding presents a deeper beauty.
The complexities of our minds allow us to conceive of meaning where there is none; sometimes this is folly, sometimes this is useful. What other purpose can we have, other than to help those around us, pursue greater knowledge, and enjoy our lives?
Being a Christ follower, I agree with Christopher. In this day and age, people look for satisfaction in money, sex, drugs, technology improvement, etc... but where has that brought us? Does anyone look at their life and find pure satisfaction? The answer is no. Now, believing in something that is unseen can be quite difficult, but thanks to GOD'S word (the Bible) we are able to have instuction and there rests our faith. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” I know that Jesus Christ created the universe and everything in it, but if you don't believe in Gods scripture how will you ever know the truth? Within the first sentence it states "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The truth. And nothing, but the truth. Without hope, We have nothing to live for. And without Christ, there is no hope.
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