Life's First Question: Is There A God? Part I

    There is one question that divides every other question about life into two very separate answers, and consequently must be the first question asked of all the questions of life.  That question is:

Is there a God?

    Whether the answer to this is yes or no will change the answer for every other issue of mankind.  For example, let us take one of the most commonly asked philosophical questions by all of mankind:

• What is the meaning of life?

    1. If there is a God, it depends on which "religion" if any is correct.

• Agnostics would state that God is aloof and not concerned with the affairs of man, so their answer would coincide with that of the atheists.  For that answer see 2.
• Buddhism is a religion that has (in older times) been theistic and (more recently) atheistic.  Their answer would be that the meaning of life is complete enlightenment in a state of nirvana which can be achieved through the Sevenfold Path.  This enlightenment is not unlike the breaking of a vessel.  The man is the vessel.  The air on the inside and the outside of the vessel is the same, though separated.  Upon enlightenment, that vessel is broken and the two realities (interior and exterior) are now unified.
• In Hinduism, one must find perfect knowledge and understanding of universal truth, much like the enlightenment of Buddhism.  If death comes before this is achieved, the soul is reincarnated to be further educated.  In both Hinduism and Buddhism, the equivalent of "Heaven" is reached when full enlightenment has satisfied the soul from all suffering, (also known as desire), and upon death, the energy of the body is one with the energy of the universe.

            All other major religions can be answered simply:

• The meaning of life in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity is twofold: 

                           -Do what God wants
                           -Love your fellow man as yourself

    2. If there is no God, the question [of the meaning of life] is in error.  If there is no God, there is no destiny, design, or motive to anything creative.  With no motive or purpose behind anything which is or was brought to be, why then do we ask for what purpose it is?  Is this not so illogical as asking why time travels at the rate of 60 seconds per minute?  We do not question its motive, we simply accept and know that it is so.  In an atheistic reality, that is what life is: technically purposeless.  So atheists do not question the meaning of life.  They are content to know no more than the fact that life IS.

The purpose of this treatise is no more than to show the importance of answering this question before every other question of life can be answered.  Is there a God?  There is certainly an answer to this question, though it will be dealt with in a later article.

    To finish off the meaning of life, there is one generally accepted truth between theists and atheists alike.  If there is one thing that gives life "meaning," it is found somewhere in the realms of love.  Some say it is in the love of God, others in the love of a spouse or child.  This is the one reoccurring theme for which nearly all would give their lives, and nearly all would agree that life has little meaning unless lived for the very thing for which one would surrender their life.