Consider the options in reverse order. To begin with, perhaps the writers and poets whom Brooks questions have actually noticed something that the rest of us are ignoring or covering up. This is what Nietzsche himself thought. “I have come too early,” he wrote. “God is dead; but given the way of men, there may still be caves for thousands of years in which his shadow will be shown.” On this account there really is no agreement in the culture about what constitutes a well-lived life; God is dead in this particular sense. But many people carry on in God’s shadow nevertheless; they take the life at which they are aiming to be one that is justifiable universally. In this case the happiness that Brooks identifies in the suburbs is not genuine happiness but self-deceit.
What would such a self-deceiving life look like? It would be a matter not only of finding meaning in one’s everyday engagements, but of clinging to the meanings those engagements offer as if they were universal and absolute. Take the case of religion, for example. One can imagine a happy suburban member of a religious congregation who, in addition to finding fulfillment for herself in her lofty and ennobling religious pursuits, experiences the aspiration to this kind of fulfillment as one demanded of all other human beings as well. Indeed, one can imagine that the kind of fulfillment she experiences through her own religious commitments depends upon her experiencing those commitments as universal, and therefore depends upon her experiencing those people not living in the fold of her church as somehow living depleted or unfulfilled lives. I suppose this is not an impossible case. But if this is the kind of fulfillment one achieves through one’s happy suburban religious pursuit, then in our culture today it is self-deception at best and fanaticism at worst. For it stands in constant tension with the demand in the culture to recognize that those who don’t share your religious commitments might nevertheless be living admirable lives. There is therefore a kind of happiness in a suburban life like this. But its continuation depends upon deceiving oneself about the role that any kind of religious commitment can now play in grounding the meanings for a life.
But there is another option available. Perhaps Nietzsche was wrong about how long it would take for the news of God’s death to reach the ears of men. Perhaps he was wrong, in other words, about how long it would take before the happiness to which we can imagine aspiring would no longer need to aim at universal validity in order for us to feel satisfied by it. In this case the happiness of the suburbs would be consistent with the death of God, but it would be a radically different kind of happiness from that which the Judeo-Christian epoch of Western history sustained.
Here is the deal…if there is no God, nothing has any meaning. Any pretense of meaning is insanity. The 2nd law of Thermal Dynamics means the Universe has a very bad end. It will be as if it never were. There will be no memory of existence, good deeds, wicked deeds, humanitarian projects…nothing. It will all disappear without even an echo and no witness. So everything you do, every breath you take is utterly meaningless. All pretense of free will is insanity. All pretense of love or friendship or even hatred is simply a chemical reaction. Any pretense of self awareness is merely a bit of chemistry.
If there is no God, there is no reason to be nice to anyone. Murder and friendship are the same…meaningless. Trying to live like there is good or right or fair is irrational and inconsistent.
Here is the deal. If there is no God and we think there is, nothing changes for us. The believing is the reality. For this life, this is quite sufficient.
If there is o God and we know it, meaning is still perfectly possible, but it is of a different sort: our values will be built on the benefits of our physical life, pleasure and the avoidance of pain. Social cooperation will still be necessary but harder to obtain in a solipsistic world. Standards will be hard to establish and keep. Fads will control much taste and behavior. This is, I believe where the US is right this moment.
If there IS a God and we think there isn’t……Well, then there’s a problem, isn’t there? Larry
How can there be any meaning if the universe will end in a way that it will be as if nothing ever existed?
If the universe were to go on forever, then the actions that I take in life will have a consequence after I die. I might do a kind act and that might inspire others to kindness, and so on into the future. That would have consequence. It would matter. It would have meaning.
However, without God’s direct intervention, this universe will end. It will expand into the void, dissipating as it does so. As matter gets further and further apart, the force of gravity is weakend and the the process continues to accelerate. Meanwhile, all energy continues to be move out into the cold and empty void, and continues to dissipate. Eventually, matter itself will transform into heat energy that dissipates into the void. There will be nothing left. Everything anyone has ever done will be as if it never happened. There will be no record and no one to remember. There won’t even be an echo or a shadow; not that there would be someone to see or hear.
So, if that is the case, what possible meaning can there be to anything…if there is no God?
Well, there is no evidence that the universe will end and nothing be born to take its place. Moreover, the “weight” of dark matter and dark energy have yet to be assessed, for these unknowns make up the bulk of the universe. You obituary for our universe is much too premature.
Consider, we don’t even know what gravity is – haven’t the faintest, Einstein’s explanation simply doesn’t satisfy the obvious elements.
Nor do we know what God intends – fortunately. For some reason he forgot to speak to us about his ultimate purposes. He is there; this is sufficient. I can believe in the first great commandment without a hesitation. This is simple truth. If i act in accordance with it, he will not fail me. If I don’t – well, it’s lucky there’s such a thing as mercy.
From what does meaning arise? For acquired knowledge, both education and experience? Partly. From identity? Partly. From belief? Partly. From language? Partly. They’re all fused into a single personality. Meaning is like obscenity; I can’t define it but i know it when i see it, as the good justice observed. Larry
So are you claiming that man is the measure of all things? Is meaning subjective, temporal, and transient to you?
Do you deny the Scriptures?
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. [b]The heavens will disappear with a roar[/b]; the elements will be [b]destroyed[/b] by fire, and the earth and [b]everything done[/b] in it will be [b]burned up.[/b] 2 Peter 3:10
Do you deny the Laws of Thermodynamics and the irreversability of entropy? Energy cannot be created or destroyed. Heat flows to cold.
Unless there is a trascendent, intelligent, and objective force introduced into the system of the universe (God), all energy is on a one way trip toward nothingness, and with it, any hope of objective meaning. All subjective meaning will be cast into outer darkness. There is no escape from this without God. It is inconsistent (and irrational) to insist that there is any ultimate meaning if ultimately everything ceases to exist.
Thank God that He is!
‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’[a] As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ Acts 17:28
Thank God that He has plans for us after the end of the universe!
Then I saw [b]“a new heaven and a new earth,†for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away[/b], and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the [b]new Jerusalem[/b] , coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for [b] the old order of things has passed away.[/b] †Revelation 21:1-4
The old universe will end, but we shall be spared.
The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits thick. Revelation 21:15-17
You understand, 12,000 stadia is 1,400 MILES? Yet, the Scriptures state that it is “as wide and high as it is long” – a square. That is physically impossible with our current law of gravity. The mass would cause the edges of the city to curve inward. Then there is the whole “sticking up out of the atmosphere” thing, not to mention the rotational wobble such a structure would introduce.
The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. Revelation 21:23
There will be no sun or moon…no orbit in the solar system.
[b]”The old order of things has passed away.[/b] â€
I will believe the clear words of Scripture and the established laws of Thermodynamics. Without God, there is no meaning.