Life is Meaningless (and that's the good news)

How Religion Messes Up the Meaning of Life

What if the “meaninglessness” of life is not a curse but an invitation, not a dark hole but a new opening, not a depressive state but a field of infinite possibilities? What if the meaninglessness of life moves the idea of meaning from something you are told to something you create?

I recently received an email, a part of which read:

“I no longer have faith in the answers and explanations of religion. But now what? I can’t seem to find the meaning of life. Can you help me?”

This person might be experiencing what is often identified as an “existential crisis”, which is commonly described as a deep questioning of life’s meaning and purpose. It can lead to anxiety, stress, and depression, and disrupt normal functioning in everyday life. A closely related term is “nihilism”, which asserts the ultimate meaninglessness of life and the universe.

I often work with people experiencing existential crisis as a result of leaving religion. One’s concept of “God” often undergirds their sense of ultimate and absolute meaning, and their existential wellbeing is based upon the existence of and relationship with God.

Given this framework, one can see how traditional religion might set one up for an existential crisis. Here’s how it works:

• Religion externalizes meaning and purpose in the existence of God.

• Deconstruction places one’s beliefs about God in doubt.

• Disbelief in God results in a collapse of meaning and an existential crisis.

Notice the person’s particular wording about their existential dilemma as it was written in the email: “I can’t seem to find the meaning of life.” The word I want to highlight is “the” - “I can’t seem to find THE meaning of life.” The implication is that life does or should have an ultimate or absolute meaning and purpose - it something you must find.

A common axiom among virtually all of the greatest thinkers is, “Question everything.” Socrates wrote, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” In other words, coasting through life and letting others do the thinking for you is a perilous path. René Descartes wrote, “De omnibus dubitandum” which translates, “Doubt everything.” Bertrand Russell wrote, “In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.”

The Buddha said:

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.”

For this purpose of this article, I want to question the accepted idea that life must have a meaning to be worth living. In fact, I want to assert that the insistence that life must have meaning might be the biggest obstacle preventing our contentment.

Is Meaning Overrated?

After leaving religion, my deconstruction process expanded beyond scrutinizing my religious beliefs to examining virtually every premise or assumption I had based my life upon, whether it related to my physical and mental health, way of life, vocational and financial objectives, and spiritual path. Approaching life through a deconstruction mindset continues to this day. This Substack publication is, “Deconstructionology”.

Most recently, my discovering the work of

Julie Reshe

in “negative psychoanalysis” has promoted my further deconstruction of the mental health field, and conventional psychology and self-help culture. An interview with Julie about “depressive realism” is worth the read. I previously wrote an article related to the deconstruction of the mental health field in my piece on Michel Foucault.

Early on in my post-religion journey I began questioning the need to identify an ultimate or absolute meaning or purpose to life. In my second book, Wide Open Spaces, one of the chapters was titled, “Spiritual Living: Do You Need a Purpose in Life to Live.”

In my previous religious life I had subscribed to the sentiments expressed in books such as Rick Warren’s, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? It’s one of the bestselling nonfiction books in history, with more than 35 million copies sold. In the book, Warren writes:

“Without God, life has no purpose, and without purpose, life has no meaning. Without meaning, life has no significance or hope.”

Gulp! Can you see the existential crisis looming for the person who no longer believes in God?