The Wonder of Existence…
About two years ago, I came across a post on Instagram from the handle of @humansofny which struck me quite profoundly, click here to read
It was about a young man’s dilemma, about life, consciousness and existence.It reads…
“It’s a question of point of view. How can consciousness exist in a material world? Perhaps consciousness is an illusion. But if I perceive consciousness to be an illusion, then surely I must exist. These questions give me so much anxiety. I can’t stop thinking about them. I’m not attentive when other people speak to me. I forget to clean my room. I don’t do my homework. I can’t learn my lines in drama class. It creates so many problems in my life. My parents tell me: ‘You could win this award.’ Or: ‘You could easily make these grades. But you don’t care enough.’ They’ve taken me to ten psychologists. Never a diagnosis. They just say that I’m a dreamer. And in this world dreamer is not good. Dreamer means child. I need to become an adult and do material things. So that I’m stable. So that I can buy a house one day. So that I’m not just living beneath a bridge — thinking these thoughts. But it’s so hard to find the energy. Before I begin I must know if life is absurd. I can’t live in an illusion. I want to be lucid. I need to know that I’m doing things for a reason. That I’m expending energy for a reason. If death is the end of all this — and nothing but emptiness after that — then it’s a terrible problem. It would be better to not exist than to exist in a world without meaning.” (London, England)Another time, while watching Youtube content I came across a Youtube creator, I would like to keep this person’s identity hidden, but here is how they introduce themselves on their website…
“Thanks to a very strange series of events that took place in our universe, I exist.
The question now is what to do about that.”
And not just these two individuals, I’ m sure everyone of us struggles with the questions and the pursuit of meaning and purpose in life. What struck me the most about these stories is that, people actually go through this. Psychology even has a term for this — Existential Crisis.
Existential crisis, also known as existential dread are moments when individuals question wether their lives have meaning, purpose or value and are negatively impacted by the contemplation. — Source (Wikipedia)
This seems to be a growing concern in our world today especially among the youth. Why is it that numerous people have chosen to leave their everyday, mundane way of life and have taken the path to self-discovery, search for purpose & meaning, and our traveling around the world. Why does this search of meaning appear absolutely essential to us? Why does life without meaning appear futile to us?
If one were to look at Science — the source of all present knowledge, for answers, Evolution is the only explanation that is ever provided. While Evolution may attempt to explain how humans came to be, it struggles, rather fails miserably to explain the human quest for meaning and purpose in life. Evolution alludes to fitness, survival and reproduction as the sole aim of a species, which led to the origin of different life forms.
Well, if we are composed only of matter with the sole purpose of survival and reproduction, why do we grapple with these questions at all. Why aren’t the evolutionary ideals of survival and reproduction enough for us to go on with our lives. What materialistic mutations led to the onset of the search and pursuit of meaning within the human mind.
You see, the way we do Science, is not how we live our lives. We live for relationships, not survival. We strive for meaning, we have aspirations, hopes, longings and dreams. Where do these immaterial components of the soul come from?
Are we more than matter? Its time to re-think.