Wong proposes that there are also objective, concrete criteria for what constitutes a meaningful life. Take psychology: although most psychology researchers consider meaning in life a subjective feeling or judgment, clinical psychologist and professor Paul T. The science world is broad, however, and includes many disciplines and therefore many lenses through which one might understand meaning. However, because some of us struggle to find meaning within this impersonal understanding of reality, our quest for meaning persists. Within this bigger picture, humanity is part of a vast evolutionary process within which we have a meaningful role to play. While it’s a common belief that science-based worldviews imply life as we know it is a meaningless accident in a universe ultimately indifferent to human existence, recent advances in the study of evolution reveal a bigger picture, which, may, by itself, give meaning to life.

The contributions of modern science to the discussion of life’s meaning focus mostly on describing empirical facts about the material world, the observable, physical universe, and exploring the parameters of how physical existence as we know it came to be. Meaningful Lives: A Science-Based Approach (ferrantraite / Getty) Their contention may be that the concept of an afterlife simply serves to displace the problem, creating a new, if not identical question: what is the meaning of the afterlife? Reliance on an afterlife can discourage some from determining meaning or purpose for what may very well be the only life they have. Which brings us to the ‘afterlife.’ While some who hold religious beliefs might contend that all this talk about the meaning of life is sort of missing the point, as life is actually just a prelude to a form of eternal afterlife, others might respond differently.

That said, many believe simply that ‘doing good’ in life is God’s plan for us, and that those who do are leading lives of meaning that will ultimately be rewarded. Because even if God exists and had a specific purpose in creating us, no one knows for certain what God’s purpose is, or how it might converse with our own ideas of meaning.

What is the meaning of life