If life has a meaning, then what can it be? Before we can discuss this question, we may need to clarify what I mean by “meaning of life”. I think a simple question to clarify what I mean by the “meaning of life” is: What am I here for?
When I was a teen, there was no internet and certainly no smart phones. No convenient video games for me and my friends to play all day long. Therefore, we had time to ask silly questions, and one of them was: What was the meaning of life? When this question came up, I often replied that whoever brought it up must not be very happy. People probably would not care much about the meaning of life if they happily lived every day.
However, I knew the question was not answered yet. If I was in distress, perhaps in great sorrow, it would seem natural for me to ask: Why was I here to suffer? What was I here for? That sounded reasonable to me. However, could I really find someone who happily live every day and tell me that he or she never thought about the same question: What am I here for?
I heard a story about a god who offended a greater god. The greater god punished him and asked him to go to a mountain. There he was asked to roll a huge stone to the top of the mountain. The smaller god thought that was an easy punishment. He was strong and rolling up the stone was easy. Then he rolled the stone up to the mountain top, smiling, only then he discovered the truth. The mountain had a pointy top. The huge stone could not stay there. It rolled downhill right away. He would have to go downhill, rolled up the stone to the top again, but then watching it rolled downhill, and he had to do the rolling all over again. This was an eternal punishment!
Was this the same as our life, that we perpetually did the same thing over and over again without knowing why we were even here?
The story is actually called the myth of Sisyphus, it's a greek story about a king who angered the gods. Many philosophers, such as Albert Camus , would compare the punishment to humanity's "futile search for meaning and truth in a meaningless and indifferent universe." Another similar story is that of Tantalus who's punishment is to be constantly tantalized by the promise of something but to never atain it. In both of these cases there can be parallels drawn between everyday life and the myths. Such as the promise of a good life after retirement only to realize that you're too old and dont have the energy or youth to live in comfort anymore. Or the search for meaning only…
There are many good reasons to believe that the Bible is the revelation of our creator. I had the same question before. I would share my thoughts in later posts.
A great analogy for your story would be the daily job. You work your shift and that tiny moment of rest is the rock balancing. Once you wake up the rock can no longer balance and you work your shift again. This cycles for about 50-60 years of life (school included because it's practically a grind). After all those hours of work, you are left of about 20 years of life left but those aren't the years where you are most lively. Those years are long gone as you had to work those hours. What's the point of the cycle? Why do we desire to live? WHAT IS THE POINT?
I don't think god can 100% be proven. There are…