4 Things

(1)

From star dust to bacteria to plants to fish to amphibians to mammals to… us.

Isn’t it narcissistic to think that we had a creator? To think that in some way, we deserved creation?

Sentience… does it give us purpose? “Leave the world in a better place than you found it” is the doctrine a lot of people live by.

It almost comes as second nature to us. However, is that because it’s closest to the real answer… or because it’s an easily defensible doctrine: who could criticize the life philosophy of somebody whose only goal is to leave the world having had a net positive existence. It's a doctrine that keeps society in good order. Imagine if instead, everyone lived by “do only what makes you happy.” What would we do with all the serial murderers?

“Ignorance is bliss.” And in this case the ignorance is of the fact that we don’t have a purpose. In light of these thoughts, a lot of things actually start to make sense. Things like religion. Imagine the medieval, celibate monk who abstained from “sin” for his whole life, and devoutly prayed every daylight hour, of every day. As long as he believed that what he was doing had purpose, validating his existence, then he could have died a content man.

Now imagine the abbot of the monastery, who could have been an unscrupulous philandering drunkard who broke every rule in the Christian handbook, but managed to justify his own wrongdoings to himself. Who is right and wrong? Who lived a good life? Who was happy?

The only question that can be answered is the last one. And the answer is one that might not please you: both of them could have been happy. 

Their happiness was in their own hands.