I have an interesting thought on what the purpose of life could be, with a comment on the religious pupose of life.
Now when a religious person says to you "To have a purpose in life makes a life worth living - without religion there is no purpose in life", he speaks the truth if he intends this above sentence to be two separate statements. However, if he means that the second statement follows on from the first, then he intends that the definition of the second use of the word purpose is the same as the definition of the first word, then he is being deceitful, and what is more, is that he doesn't even realize it.
You've probably guessed by now then, that I believe that there are at least two definitions of the word purpose, and the religious person is using two different definitions of the word each time he uses it, and all along he thought he was using one definition. That is why his argument seemed so convincing to him, to other religious people, and to ourselves when we were religious.
Let us begin with the first use of the word purpose. "To have a purpose in life makes a life worth living." The inverse of this is that if we do not have a purpose in life, then our life is not worth living anymore. This is an analytically true statement about how human emotion works. In this definition of the word, purpose is something that is felt. If we do not feel that we have a purpose in our life anymore, then we do not feel that our life is worth living anymore. Now in order for this to be an analytically true statement, it must surely mean then that this definition of purpose is the inverse of the second part of this statement. That is, to feel as though your life is worth living is to have a purpose in life and to have a purpose in life is to feel as though your life is worth living. So what things make you feel like life is worth living? Well the answer is mostly subjective. Some people find that having a family and raising children makes them feel like life is worth living. This is exactly the same as saying some people find having a family and raising children gives them purpose. One's purpose is then set by that person's own self. Something I want you to remember about this definition of purpose is that it is a POSITIVE definition of purpose. Purpose is a good thing, which makes us feel good. And this is exactly what the religious believer wants you to admit.
Now, the second definition of the word purpose, as used by the religious believer in the second statement of the sentence he uses at the beginning of this post. The religious believer has already gotten you to agree that purpose is good. So if he is also right that only religion gives you such purpose, then the religious life is the happy purposeful one and the non-religious life is the dull purposeless one. He can even prove to you that only religion gives you such purpose. He says that with religion, God creates you for a purpose, just as you might invent something for a purpose. However, if you deny the existence of a God, or if you believe God created you for no known reason (deist) then nobody has set a purpose for you... you were created for no reason whatsoever. I want to argue that this is a different definition of purpose as to what was used in the first place. In this definition of purpose, you are simply created "for" something. But how is being created "for" something the same as having meaning in your life? Where is the connection? The answer is there is none at all, and in fact we are dealing with two words that look the same but are very different in meaning.
Let me demonstrate with a thought experiment. One day, you are so fed up and bored out of your brains, that you decide you want to pray to God and beg him to tell you what your purpose is. Unusually, God responds and he tells you the honest reason why he created you. Your dying to hear what he has to say so that meaning may be restored to your life and you may live in happiness once again. You look up at God with gleaming eyes as he tells you, "I created you so that I could watch you play chess with yourself until the day you die, just for my own amusement." ....Do you jump up in joy at the prospect of doing the thing you were originally created for? Or do you look on in dissapointment and shout, "IS THAT IT?!?!"
You might be thinking, what is going on here. The above thought experiment is suppose to show to you that being created "for" something can be quite dull indeed, and this is an indicator that this purpose is something different to the first definition of purpose, which by definition is supposed to be the opposite of dull. Being created "for" something, in effect makes you a "tool" and to call somebody a tool is meant to be an insult. So how do I explain the fact that many religious believers, despite simply doing what they believe they have been created for, actually get a lot of enjoyment and fulfilment from their religion. And indeed, if you really were desparate, you could play chess with yourself for the rest of your life, for the sake of God, and actually find that it really is bringing purpose into your life. But the religious believer wants to argue that the purpose that religion gives you is OBJECTIVE. That is, religion gives you a feeling of purpose (first definition) because it is religion. They use the fact that many religious believers feel their lives to be meaningful and fulfilled as being evidence for this. But in fact, it is just that these religious believers chose the religious life to have purpose (first definition) in their lives. In effect, what this means is that it isn't God which somehow installs a sense of meaning into the heart of the believer, which can be replicated by no one and nothing, it is just that the religious believer finds that belief in God and doing good deeds for God brings them purpose in their life. This does not mean God exists. It functions in a similar way to an imaginary friend. Many young kids have imaginary friends. Why? Because it gives them comfort and purpose. Is that evidence that the imaginary friend exists? Ofcourse not.
So there you have it. It is this which leads me to believe that it is the very fact that religion offers us a purpose (second definition) in life which means it potentially makes our life more dull, rather than more meaningful, especially if that purpose is particularly extensive.
Please tell me your thoughts, I have to go for dinner before it closes at 7pm. I'll be back!
Topic: Morality and the Meaning of Life