Can Life Be Meaningful Without An Immortal Soul
...thread of wonderment that circulates within knowledge and understanding. This wonderment is derived from the miracle that is the human being. This wonderment is derived from the question of where man comes from and his purpose on earth. That question is “what is the purpose of life?” It has been witnessed throughout history that man has asked this question often in an attempt to ascribe some meaning to his existence. This cannot be answered through the accumulation of worldly goods, by claiming allegiance to an institution, or by just existing. To aid man in his quest for self- knowledge, various institutions were created. The most important of all institutions is religion. Religion has given man what he searches for inherently. Through religion, man not only asserts that there is indeed meaning to life, but that the meaning to life is tied to God and the immortality of man’s soul. This means that in order for one’s life to truly have meaning, he must believe in the existence of God and believe in an immortal soul. This then begs the question, “can life have meaning without an immortal soul?” Through Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy and Plato’s infamous Euthyphro, it is evident that this question still has yet to be answered, and the philosophy offered in both books leaves it open-ended.
It is not simple to assert an answer to the question of meaning in life in the absence of an immortal soul. This is most likely because in Meditations, Descartes does not give answers, but leads others to finding the answer that best suits the individual. First of all, Descartes must establish how people know what they know and that man knows he does indeed exist. In this book, he surmises “cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I exist). The presence of the thinking mind gives understanding to the existence of the physical body. The mind can...
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