by Asim Jalis
We see in our daily lives that we set goals and then we achieve
them. We act and our actions have consequences. And so we
extrapolate from this, and begin to feel that our lives, and the
existence of our species too must have a purpose. It troubles us
that this purpose is not obvious.
So we imagine a personal God, and then use him to define an
overarching purpose, within which we can make sense of our lives.
A simpler solution to this apparent contradiction is to realize
that actions and consequences are an illusion even in our daily
lives. There is no connection between our actions and the fruits
of our actions. Whenever I act I create ripples through the
fabric of the universe and the action leads to consequences I
neither intended nor could have predicted.
Once we realize that everything is purposeless we can stop
thinking about the ends and instead focus on the means. We can
focus simply on acting perfectly for its own sake without a need
to connect it to a higher purpose or meaning.
