“My whole belief system is that our paths are drawn for us. I believe in reincarnation. I believe we’re here to learn and grow. We choose how we come into this life based on what it is we have to learn. Some people have harder lessons than others.”
-Gillian Anderson
Why are we here? It’s probably our most important question, and the most difficult to answer. If you believe in God then you might wonder why God put us here, instead of Heaven to begin with?
I believe, like the quote above states, that we’re here to learn and grow. To strive to be better people each day. To treat all beings on this planet with love and respect, be they Plant, Insect, Animal, or Human. I think that, at the end of your life, if you haven’t learned to treat all beings with love, dignity, and respect, then you’ve wasted your life, you haven’t grown, no matter how much wealth or material items you’ve accumulated.
Okay, that’s all well and good, but why are some of the lessons so hard? Well, we can be pretty hard headed as a species, so the old adage explains it very well: Tell me and I forget; show me and I remember; involve me and I understand.
So, the religious believe we’re tested with these hard lessons to build strength and our relationship with God before we go home. But what if you’re an atheist? Then the above explanation just doesn’t fly. I mean, if you’re truly a good person, you’re going to do good regardless of whether it will bring you closer to God. If you’re not altogether altruistic, but not a bad person, just middle of the road, then you don’t have to bend over backwards to do good. It won’t matter after you’re gone right? So then what would be the meaning of life to a non-believer?
Take heart, there are still good reasons to carry on. For example, here is what actor Jim Carrey believes: “Energy is what I believe all of us are. We’re just conscious awareness dancing for itself for no other reason but to stay amused.”
Not a bad reason to exist, I guess. Then again, some may agree more with author Oliver Markus’s take on the question: “What is the meaning of life? Why are we here? Philosophers have pondered that question for centuries. I’m afraid the answer is disappointingly simple: Mating. That’s it.”
That is disappiontingly simple. Too simple, and I’m sorry, but I don’t buy it. We’re here for a reason. We just may not find out the reason until we leave this life. In any case, we can all strive to be better people and make life better or easier for all beings.
A good guide to live by, whether you’re religious or not, is the Prayer of St. Francis:
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
Words to live by indeed.
May God bless and protect you and…
May you always be
Healthy, Happy
Safe, and Comfortable.
Kelly Curtis
Kelly's Quest 
I often wonder, why do humans prefix ‘why’ to every happening and then end up in mulling over it endlessly ?
A more disturbing question than the Why is whether all phenomena do have a Why at all !
“God does not play dice.”
– A. Einstein.
Well said!