Where I Find Meaning (Re-post)

Basically, I find meaning in what I can perceive and whom I can interact with, which includes science, music, athletics, writing, humor, and friendship. I find meaning in the development of knowledge, abilities, and relationships. I find meaning in participating in the activities and events of our modern culture. I find meaning in questioning everything, searching for the most credible answers, and better understanding the world around me. I find meaning in introspection, musing, and understanding myself. I find meaning in looking inward, rather than outward, when searching for strength, forgiveness, or kindness. I find meaning in learning from my own experiences, rather than relying on others. I find meaning in autotelism. I find meaning in sharing thought-provoking ideas such as these, which is why I have become very active on social media. I find meaning in contributing to society, which for me is currently the pursuit of a career in civil engineering.

I think that what people label as ‘spirituality’ is nothing beyond strong emotion or catharsis. I have had profound occurrences in my life of close calls with serious injury/death. These moments are what make us feel the most alive and to appreciate what we have. What doesn't kill you does make you stronger.
I also feel most alive in states of joy. I find joy when immersed in a flow state during a task, game, or conversation. I find joy when I genuinely laugh and when I am comfortable enough to be my true self. I find joy when entranced in the imagination ignited by an experience, song, movie, performance, dream, etc. I find joy when I am immersed in professional athletes’ competitions of strength, agility, skill, and wits. I find joy when transfixed by mankind’s manifestations of creativity and storytelling in television, film, literature, and art. I'm especially intrigued by the pioneers of YouTube, especially Jason Silva, who produces optimistic ‘shots of philosophical espresso’ with his channel Shots of Awe (please watch The Hero’s Journey). These experiences allow me to genuinely live in the present moment.
The root to maintaining happiness and joy is upholding the mentality of 'Sound Mind  Sound Body', which is why I recently got a tattoo with this phrase.

There is an inherent void in ourselves that we try to fill with passionate interests, experiences, and love. Many people feel that void cannot be fulfilled within our physical reality, so they fill it with a sense of spirituality and the supernatural love of an intervening God. However, I cannot fathom how one may develop a personal relationship through prayer with an evasive and ambiguous deity. Prayer is simply another form of meditation as a method of straightening out one's thoughts. Any good feelings during prayer ultimately come from the body and mind, rather than any external source. Most importantly, I expect to find much more meaning in the romantic love of another person, rather than the vague love of a strict God who controls His creations with fear (the forbidden fruit, Noah's Ark, Hell, Satan, etc.). It is clear enough in our culture that romantic love and parenthood are capable of filling any void in our lives. Romantic love is the ‘Holy Grail’ that I am in search of.

Overall, I find more meaning in a personal purpose, rather than a supernatural purpose. From honest observation, we are no more significant in this universe than the nearest asteroid, and that is only humbling. Earth is not ‘fine-tuned’ for human life, but rather, we have adapted to it. You cannot say there is an all-loving God because there are mountains, beaches, sunlight, and snowflakes, when there are volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, hurricanes, ice ages, and cancer.
I am a devout humanist in the sense that I am in awe of the capabilities of the human body and mind. Mankind has adapted to some of earth’s harshest environments and has hacked earth’s resources to advance our global civilization and technology (in spare time, please watch BBC’s Human Planet). Our ancestors went through extraordinary struggles over hundreds of thousands of years in order to transcend the barbaric ‘kill or be killed’ mentality of life. We may now live relatively safe, comfortable, and entertaining lives. If it weren’t for our predecessors' developments of tools, communication, and cunning, we would not even be here today, so the credit must be given to them (please watch the Cosmos episode: The Lost Worlds of Planet Earth).

Yes, I do think Homo sapiens are an ‘accident’, since the products of nature are a matter of chance. But that makes life just as amazing and awe-inspiring! I am always stunned when I look up at the sun, moon, or distant stars. To say that we are a product of star formation, molecular structure, and evolution is incredible, and I wish more people understood it from this perspective. We are made up of star stuff, and the universe is in us (please watch this short video, The Most Astounding Fact, by Neil DeGrasse Tyson for inspiration. In other spare time, please watch the entire series of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey). Nature is constantly trying to kill us, so I appreciate every day that I am alive. I will continue to take advantage of the precious time I have while spinning on this conglomerate of stardust. 

Of course, it's easier for me to accept a personal purpose of life when I am in my youth and I am fortunate enough to live a safe, healthy, comfortable, and enjoyable life while surrounded by great friends and a loving family. I have not needed to rely on the claimed love of a Creator or anticipate a better life after death. However, there are plenty of those who live lives of hardship, pain, suffering, loss, poverty, depression, abuse, disease, war, etc. I cannot empathize with these people at this point in my life. All I can say is to try to escape from such a predicament, find your passion, share your time with good people, pursue aspirations, learn, develop, experience, increase your knowledge and understanding, have fun, let laughter happen, find hobbies, improve abilities, take care of yourself and others, forgive yourself and others, strive to find love, be optimistic, and simply appreciate existing. Life is incredible, regardless of the belief of our origin or our purpose, and I hope that people can be more willing to accept not knowing what cannot be known. 

We are all in this together, and religion has only hindered equality among gender, race, sexuality, and beliefs. More and more of ancient scriptures need to be taken figuratively to account for our developments in women’s suffrage, emancipation of slaves, desegregation, gay marriage, and tolerance of idolatry. Ancient doctrines that cause us to even question these modern moral developments should ultimately be abandoned. We should be focusing on how to be a good person, rather than why. It simply comes down to looking out for each other’s well-being. We should be focusing on the sustainability of our civilization and our planet as a whole for future generations (please watch the two episodes of We Stopped Dreaming).

In conclusion, I agree with the view of contemporary humanism: “The ultimate goal is human flourishing; making life better for all humans, and as the most conscious species, also promoting concern for the welfare of other sentient beings and the planet as a whole."

Thank you to whoever read this. If you haven't read any of my other posts, and I spurred your interest, then please do so if you have the time (I know, it's a lot of reading). I'm taking an indefinite hiatus from blogging (or a sabbatical, if you will), because I have said most of what I want to say. Thank you especially to those who have commented previously and, as always, feedback is appreciated!