All questions › Meaning & Purpose
What is the meaning of life?
Short answer
Asking about the meaning of life usually means asking three things. Does my life matter? Is there a purpose I was made for? Is there a story bigger than me that I belong to?
If the universe is only matter and chance, then meaning is something we invent, and it is only as solid as our own preferences. Many people find that hard to live with. Our deepest experiences of love, beauty, justice and sacrifice feel like discoveries, not inventions.
The Christian view is that life has meaning because it comes from a personal Creator who made us on purpose and for a purpose. The classic summary is that we exist to know God and enjoy him forever. Our relationships, work, creativity and care for others matter because they reflect the image of God in us. They are part of a story that runs from creation, through the brokenness of the fall and redemption in Christ, to a coming restoration of all things.
On this view, meaning is not something you have to manufacture. You receive it, and you live it out.
Objections and responses
ObjectionWe can create our own meaning without God.
ResponseWe can create personal purposes. But self-made meaning can't tell us whether one life ultimately matters more than another, or matters at all once the universe ends.
Read more →ObjectionSaying 'God gives meaning' is a crutch.
ResponseWhether a belief is comforting doesn't decide whether it is true. The question is whether God exists. If he does, meaning grounded in him is realistic, not a crutch.
Read more →ObjectionPlenty of atheists live meaningful lives.
ResponseAgreed. The point is not that atheists can't find life meaningful. It is that atheism has trouble explaining why life objectively is meaningful.
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 meaning.
- 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 meaning.
- Pensées by Blaise Pascal (book)
Read Pensées by Blaise Pascal for a classic collection of fragments by a seventeenth-century mathematician; reflective and searching, best read in small pieces. See especially the parts on meaning.
- Confessions by Augustine of Hippo (book)
Read Confessions by Augustine of Hippo for the classic spiritual autobiography, written as a prayer; demanding in places but deeply moving for anyone searching. See especially the parts on meaning.
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