Now, normally, I don’t find a whole lot of wisdom in bumper sticker sayings, but this one little sentence really says a lot. The meaning of life is to live it.

We spend so much time trying to figure out the meaning, the grand purpose of our existence.

I know I have even spent a great deal of time defending the very idea that I could find meaning in my life, once I decided that I didn’t believe in god anymore.

But, really, what greater meaning does there need to be other than just being here, experiencing all that life has to offer?

The idea that a life without the “higher” purpose of serving god would be a meaningless life spent in pursuit of money, things, or the next high, with little regard for treating other people with dignity and respect, is a foolish one, indeed.

One needn’t believe in god to experience love, to care about others, to have friendship.

In fact, I would argue that any relationship that is predicated on one person’s desire to “save” the other is not a real friendship. Any help that is offered a neighbor only to show god’s love or serve the lord isn’t real caring. Any time you are “loving” someone because god loves them or because god will hold you accountable when you get to heaven is not real love in any sense that I understand the word.

Meaning is found through relationship, not with some first century carpenter, but with the people around us (both physically and virtually). And we get what we put into those relationships, which is the only motivation one really needs to be a decent person, not threat of hellfire and damnation or offer of eternal reward.

Meaning is found through getting out there and living our lives, filling them up with experiences and friendships that make life enjoyable and lift us up during the down times.

If someone else feels like they need god for life to have meaning, then fine. I am not here to change anyone’s mind.

But, for me, belief in god detracted from what I have come to see is the real meaning of life – living it.

One of the last things I threw out today was my Purpose Driven Life Journal.  It wasn’t enough that I went through the Purpose Driven Life, doing all of the exercises.  No, I needed to buy the journal, and go through the book again.  It was one of my last desperate attempts to save my faith.  I never finished it, though.

Day 2 of the journal has this to say:

YOU ARE NOT AN ACCIDENT

If there was no God, then we’d all be “accidents,” the results of astronomical random chance in the universe.  But there is a God, he made you for a reason, and your life has profound meaning!  We discover that meaning and purpose only when we make God the reference point of our lives.

(My inner-editor needs to point out, it should say: If there were no God.)

Under the text there are some lines, where I wrote:

I need to make an active habit of reminding myself that my purpose and importance is to God and for God.  It is only though Him that my life has any meaning & significance.

After hearing this tripe for so many years, I struggled with figuring out what meaning my life would have without god, when I left Christianity.  Being convinced that the only value in human existence comes through god leaves you feeling a little empty when that god is removed.

But, life has so much meaning.  The fact that I am here by astronomical random chance makes it all the more amazing to be alive!  What luck!  Now, what shall I do with this life I have?  There are so many possibilities, each offering its own satisfaction and meaning.

Now I have the freedom to figure out what I am passionate about, what drives me, and focus on that.  I don’t have to worry about god’s purpose or plan.  I don’t have to be constrained by what I think will be pleasing to god.  I can live my own dreams.

What’s so bad about that?  Seriously, it’s quite pathetic to look back at a time when I thought that serving god was a meaningful life.  To think about all the things I missed out on can be depressing.

It was that life that lacked real meaning and significance – worshiping a non-existent god at the expense of finding true meaning.

If I were to re-write what was written in that journal I would say,

If there were a God, then we’d all be “his children,” created for serving him and his purpose.  But there is no God.  You are the result of astronomical random chance in the universe!  Your life is profoundly amazing!  We discover our meaning and purpose only when we are true to ourselves.

And my note to myself would read,

I need to make an active habit of reminding myself that my purpose and importance is to myself and the world around me.  It is only though being true to myself that my life has any meaning & significance.

Leaving Christianity was a really hard process.  After having what I thought to be many genuine experiences with God, I was left feeling at a loss for how to make sense of the world.  I am still trying to find my balance.  To center myself.  To figure out what it means to be.

It’s not about god.  I don’t really believe in god, though there’s a part of me that easily could.  Because I know that there is something more.  That is why a strict rationalist view of life just doesn’t resonate with me.  It doesn’t resonate with a lot of people, I think, for the same reason.

There exists something that is bigger than ourselves.  But it’s not god.  I’m not 100% sure of that, but I am quite sure.  Sure enough, anyway.

I haven’t quite put my finger on what it is, but I think that it’s us.

All of us together make up this thing that’s greater than the sum of its parts.  That’s why people feel fulfilled when they join a religion.   It’s not god; it’s us.  We need each other.  When we help each other, it creates personal satisfaction, but it also produces good will that carries on and produces more.   It – metaphorically – takes on a life of its own.   But it can feel like there’s some outside force at work, some guiding hand, god.

But if that were so, how can we explain the times when it doesn’t work out?

“God’s ways aren’t our ways.”

“God works in mysterious ways.”

No. That’s not sufficient, in any sense.

I prefer to think, rather, that it is not god.  We have an interdependence that goes far beyond what we can see.  It is so deep, it can feel like there must be more, something that is bigger than ourselves.   But we are it.

The universe is indifferent to our existence.  It doesn’t care what happens to us.  There is no god looking over us, with his divine plan, guiding our lives.  The universe doesn’t care if you get that speeding ticket, if you get that promotion, or even if you get cancer.   It doesn’t care.   There is no other way to explain all of the bad things that happen, without revealing a god so twisted and sadistic as to not deserve our worship.   After all, he’s playing with our lives and we don’t even know his rules.

No.   Events happen and they happen by random chance, more or less.  That person two cars in front of you that died in the head-on collision could have been you.   The fact that it wasn’t doesn’t mean that god spared you and not him.  It means you won the toss of the cosmic dice that day.

But just because the universe is cold and meaningless doesn’t mean that life is.  It matters.  You matter.  We all matter.  We matter to each other.  And I don’t just mean that you matter to the people who love you, or even the people who know you.   You matter to humanity as a whole.   Everything you do affects the rest of us.  And we’re glad you’re here.

The other day, I posted about how I got my start in blogging.  Without the person who introduced me to blogging, I might never have started blogging.  Without the local alternative daily reporter who started a blog about Vermont blogs and linked to me, I might never have gained the audience I did.   Without that exposure, I probably would not have met the person who I turned to for support when I left Christianity.  Without that support, I really don’t know how I would have gotten through that, the most difficult time in my life.

Something as simple as telling someone about your blog can lead to that person making a new friend.  I’ve made a lot of wonderful connections through blogging, all because someone told me about his blog.

In just that one small example, you can begin to see how seemingly meaningless actions can profoundly effect the lives of those around us.  When we get into the ways in which we all love and support each other, our interdependence become mind blowing.

Every little thing we do in our lives affects someone else. When taken together, it creates this web of support that enriches our lives and makes them better.  It also gives our lives significance and meaning.  It creates something that is bigger than us, something that transcends our being.

But it’s not god; it’s us.  And really, isn’t that enough?