All questions › Meaning & Purpose
Why are we here?
Short answer
"Why are we here?" can mean two things. How did we get here, which is a question for physics and biology? Or what are we here for? The second is the question that keeps people up at night.
If the universe is an accident, then in the end we are here for no reason. We are a brief arrangement of atoms on a small planet in an indifferent cosmos. Some find this bracing. Most find it hard to square with how deeply we love, hope and long for justice.
The Christian answer is that we are here because God wanted us here. Creation was not necessary. God, who is a loving community of Father, Son and Spirit, lacked nothing. He created out of overflowing love and invited creatures to share in it. Augustine prayed, "You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." On this view our restlessness is a homing signal. We are here to know and love God, to love one another, to care for his world, and finally to enjoy him forever. Your existence is not an accident. It is an invitation.
Objections and responses
ObjectionWe're here because of evolution, end of story.
ResponseEvolution may explain how we came to be. It is silent on whether there is a reason we exist at all.
Read more →ObjectionThe universe is too vast for humans to matter.
ResponseSize isn't significance. A child matters more than a mountain. Vastness may say more about the Creator's greatness than about our worth.
Read more →ObjectionIf God didn't need us, why create?
ResponseFor the same reason a joyful artist creates or a loving couple has children: as an overflow of love, not out of lack.
Read more →Best resources
- 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 why we exist.
- 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 why we exist.
- The Reason for God by Timothy Keller (book)
Read The Reason for God by Timothy Keller for a warm, conversational approach built from the questions skeptics in New York City actually asked; a great first book for doubters and for anyone explaining faith to a friend. This question is covered in chapter 14, "The Dance of God".
- 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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