What is the meaning of life and how should we speak of it? What thought forms and constructs, religions, and belief systems support this question?
The question of the meaning of life can be approached in countless ways, all of which depend on the mind of the one asking the question. The question can be translated in intent and meaning to one person: what should I do with my life? This kind of question is not related to life itself in terms of its telos or end and purpose, but to what should be done about being in life.
Others in a more existential frame of mind, may ask the same question but with a flavor of despair: “what is the point after all? What is the meaning of it all?” This question is closer to the religious man’s view of the question as to what is the overall purpose of existence. Unbeknownst to the one asking this way, there are no multiple answers to this question but one, and it often demands the defined purpose of a Creator or being, intelligence that is beyond existence and the created world, our life. It is still possible that there be a meaning to life without a Creator. It simply would be self defined and likely be having a single meaning since life without a creator would not be complex but simple as the natural substrate of all that is would have no higher intelligence to make it complex. It would just be what it is and function as it is either one way or another - the purpose being determined simply by its doing what it is doing. The water of a river, if isolated, flowing downstream, has a meaning if there were no creator, it would be to continue flowing, and whatever would be flowing opposite would be opposed to this simple meaning. But is this he question that is really being asked when in existential crisis the soul cries out, “What is the point of it all?” I do not believe so, which is why this stage of asking about life’s meaning requires an expansive leap into the realm outside of the material world to an existence or intelligence beyond it.
For the religious man, his meaning is given, yet like the existentialist he may have doubts and have this cry for meaning. He may forget his calling and need to center on the truth that is given. The religious man may turn to the revelation of his scripture to understand life’s meaning and unquestioningly move forward knowing that life’s meaning is determined by God and his nature, his being, and that meaning transcends all others.
When those in a non existential crisis, as the first example represents, say that the meaning of life is multiplicitous or varies, they do not mean to say that the Creator has a different purpose for creating all that is to every person, but that what people should do to derive a sense of meaning in their life varies. To the religious man, this is preposterous, who knows that all meaning is derived from God and that meaning does not change as God purposed all that is for a reason, in Christianity, himself and his nature.