All questions › Meaning & Purpose
Does life have a purpose?
Short answer
A purpose is what something is for. Hammers, hearts and eyes all have functions. The question is whether human lives have a purpose built in, or whether we just happen to exist and make up goals as we go.
If nature is all there is, there is no overall purpose. There are only the purposes we choose, and the universe has no stake in them. Many atheist thinkers admit this frankly. Yet human beings seem built to look for purpose. We suffer when we lack it, and we thrive when we serve something bigger than ourselves. Viktor Frankl saw this even in Nazi concentration camps.
Christianity says the reason we hunger for purpose is that we were designed with one. We were made by God, in his image, to love him and love our neighbor, to steward creation, and to reflect his character. This purpose doesn't depend on achievements, health or status. It applies equally to the CEO, the cleaner and the person in a hospital bed. Jesus says that people find their life by losing it, giving it away in love. Purpose, on this view, is not something you earn. It is a calling you answer.
Objections and responses
ObjectionPurpose given by God makes us puppets.
ResponseA calling isn't coercion. Christianity says God's purpose is for us to flourish freely in relationship with him, and we remain free to refuse it.
Read more →ObjectionEvolution gives us all the purpose we need: survive and reproduce.
ResponseThat is a description of biology, not a purpose anyone can live by. Few people think their life's meaning comes down to passing on genes.
Read more →ObjectionLots of religious people feel purposeless too.
ResponseFeelings come and go for everyone. The claim is about whether purpose objectively exists, not whether we always feel it.
Read more →Best resources
- Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl (book)
Read Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl for a short, powerful memoir of surviving the Nazi camps, followed by Frankl's psychological approach to meaning; not an argument for God, but essential on purpose. See especially the parts on purpose.
- The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren (book)
Read The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren for a devotional, practical approach in forty short daily chapters; less argument, more about living out purpose. See especially the parts on purpose.
- Making Sense of God by Timothy Keller (book)
Read Making Sense of God by Timothy Keller for a thoughtful book written for secular readers that compares how faith and secularism handle meaning, identity, hope and morality. See especially the parts on purpose.
- Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (book)
Read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis for a short, beginner-friendly classic that started as wartime BBC radio talks and explains the core of Christian belief in plain language. This question is covered in Book III, chapter 10, "Hope".
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