Hello Jerry:
I will like to tell you that I admire your honesty and it is not without sympathy that I send my reply.
— The problem I have always had with respect to reading literally, is that the answer to one major question – maybe the question – is sorely in want. What purpose man?
O- I don’t know. But I guess whatever the person who asks the question thinks it should be.
— What purpose life?
O- God knows. But I guess that too would be answered eventually by the person who asks the question. Questions, it seems, by the time they become formulated and the “?” added, already have their answer made. By then, they are almost rose-cheeked, because unlike other, some might say easier questions around which could be asked and have not been answered, this one lacks no answer. It lacks if anything a unanimous answer. we might as well ask: “what is beautiful?”
— If not union with God, if not co-creation of some sort, then what, omar?
O- I don’t know but I guess whatever that particular person who ask the question thinks it should be. In your view this union is as good a purpose as any I could come up with.
But here is the thing Jerry, most of the answers for this questions answer nothing, but simply defer the question.
What is the purpose of man? Well, what is the purpose of God?
Sometimes this concept of “God” serves as a sedative under which we become at peace. The answer is not really an answer but because it is God, we can now feel at rest and satisfied that this concept we have added, this element of God, makes the purpose of man, of life, clear. Union with God is your goal and purpose, but I could still ask, like an obnoxious child, What is the purpose for this union with God? Creation? What is the purpose of that Creation? It never needs to end, we simply tired and fall at the ankles of “God”.
But in the end, whatever we find as purpose will include what we come to find worthy of our time. Creation important for you? Then that will find it’s way to your proposition of a purpose. As sublime and spiritual as it could be, the purpose of life, and of man, is perhaps, perhaps, enjoyment, pleasure. Cynical, maybe, but that is what I find in almost all propositions, all narrations, a happy ending.
— This was the question that originally steered me towards other avenues. This gaping hole gnaws at one incessantly, does it not? Where is the answer?
O- From a metaphysical discomfort, this hole that gnaws, we flow towards a metaphysical comfort, a sedative like Opium, that plugs the hole and gives those jaws somethings to chew on for a while. along the way, one more day is purchased of meaning.
— Asking the question gets us started down a completely new path and it has occurred to me that the question is left unanswered precisely so that we may go in search of its answer.
O- Unanswered to whom? You? Sounded like earlier you had a pretty good idea, but maybe I was wrong.
— Could be Nada. Could be Todos. Abraham Heschel used the word “ineffableâ€, a word tentative is fond of and for good reason I think. I can’t do better than that. We can catch glimpses and we can see God sometimes if we’re paying attention. Through time, I have learned that I can see God in such things as you, me, the love I feel for my son, the eyes of a close friend, the waves of the ocean, and the way twilight makes me feel.
O- What makes you so sure that perhaps all you see is just that: Me, You, a friend, a wave in the ocean, the twilight? What is found in you, me, the love for your son, the eyes of a close friend, the waves of the ocean and the way that the twilight makes you feel? What is common to all of these? There lies your God…