...is readily understandable; since the assumption of reigning materialism (denail of God/ Creation/ The Spiritual) is that there is no purpose to anything.
Mainstream Modern = The universe of stuff has no purpose - it just happened; and there can be no meaning without purpose. (Because meaning is the relationship between a specific thing and the direction-of-things.)
Life loses its livingness - and this is the experience of most people in the developed world.
Instead of purpose; modern Man has plans.
Plans are a kind of mortal hell; yet we depend on plans to manufacture the pseudo-purpose - hence meaning - of our lives.
Plans locate our existence in the world of plans - you and I need to plan, because everybody else is planning. Yet, this world of plans we know, from our participation, has no root, is arbitrary.
Plans are our World, and our world is arbitrary: our 'meaning' can, therefore, be referenced only to plans.
Ask a question of what some-thing is for? What is science for; art, music, education - my job, my hobby? We can't answer such questions in any satisfactory way, because when we go back and back we get to plans merely - and these (we know) are arbitrary.
All questions of meaning nowadays land-on psychology; on some assumption of the effect had on how people feel. "I do this because it makes me feel good", or "because it stops me feeling bad".
And all activities (art/ science/ education etc) land on this same justification; because there is nowehere else for them to go.
But 'how it makes me feel' is not a reason for doing something, because it is just a guess, a hope, a correlation or probability - and such relationships are hypothetical - can and do change. Actions and feelings have a loose and unreliable causal link.
So, in the end, its just more plans.
People are confused because they are not located in the world.
But knowing one's location in the world should not be about one's 'place' (static, fixed, going-nowhere); but instead be a dynamic, purposive, directional sort of knowing.
Knowing where one is aimed and why; the rhythms of living, and the development through life.
Ideally, 'plans' would not come into this - I don't think there are many plans in Heaven.
(At least, I hope not!)
2 comments:
A garden takes planning and can bring someone closer to God's creation, but 'plans for their own sake' accurately describes what most of us are consumed with these days. Like the characters in the Great Divorce that couldn't bear the thought of heaven if it got in the way of their precious plans.
For some reason this reminded me of -the song that never ends-. "Some people started singing it not knowing what it was, and they'll continue singing it forever just because..." Circular, meaningless, maddening—Modern Life.
@sean - I am fond of garden; but the garden is an unnatural creation; made by constant warfare with the tendnecy to reversion to wildness. I assume the Garden of Eden was actually a wild place. Only after Adam and Eve were expelled did they need to clear the ground, fence, dig, plant, weed, harvest... all by the sweat of their brow. I don't think there will be gardens in Heaven!
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