The meaning of life part II - Humanity

Either you believe that there is a meaning to humanity or you don’t.

Humans appear in the universe at a certain point. It does not matter when. The mythic perspective is that humans appear when they should, play their role, and the universe will go on. Humanity has a meaning, but it is no different from the meaning of any other life of the universe. It is a humble approach even for the gods. So the meaning of humanity is tied to the meaning of the universe.

In the Judaeo-Christian-Muslim perspective, there is a very specific and very important role for humanity to play in the universe. Actually, to be precise, the universe has a role to play in the life of humanity. Humanity is the meaning of the universe. The universe itself was created by God in order to make human life possible. It is therefore important for man to act in the way it is supposed to since it has the responsibility of the king towards it’s kingdom (see Disney’s Lion King). It must bring this kingdom to its fulfillment. Some religious groups consider that it is through them that God’s plan will be accomplished. This is a very dangerous attitude because when you think that the fate of the whole of humanity, of the universe even, is in your hands, there is not much that you will not do. And what if you are wrong?

There are two kinds of atheism in this regard. There are atheists who believe that there is no meaning to humanity. No direction either. There are actually not many of those. Most atheists believe that there is a direction that humanity should take. Mind you, they don’t believe that there is a plan or a specific place for humans in this universe; they just believe that there is a direction that is better for humanity as a whole. Communism is one such form of atheism, but it is far from being the only one. A lot of atheists believe that humanity would be better off if everyone was an atheist. So most atheists are really quite religious in this respect.