The biggest question human’s face is what is the meaning of life?
Do you believe in believing?
by Cavan Wood
Introducing the our new Author Series of blogs.
This week we thought we would ask quite a profound question and we have an very interesting Bloomsbury Author and Head of RE to answer the debate and create some food for thought.
This week we thought we would ask quite a profound question and we have an very interesting Bloomsbury Author and Head of RE to answer the debate and create some food for thought.
Philosophical aspects in literature take us down a path of deep thinking. Sometimes we are too wrapped up in our daily chores, that we miss subtleties of surrounding attitudes, unaware of opinions that may either directly impact our lives or which may subtly influence future decision making. It reaches further as the mind questions our way of engaging with literature.
We are Happy London Press are Launching the last in the Illumination Trilogy by Tom Rubens, and thought it would be a good idea to throw the question out to our audience and ask for your opinions on the subject. Because it seems that there are as many opinions as there are readers, all of which have a very vocal point on the subject.
This week we would like to introduce you to Cavan Wood, a published author of religious and philosophical novels, by the renown Bloomsbury Publishing. Cavan is well versed with analysing the complexities of thinking on a broader level and so we posed an interesting debate between Humanism and Religion.
If after reading Cavan Wood’s thought provoking article we ask : Is the meaning of a work fixed, or does it change with the changes in the contexts in which it is read?
Humanism or Religion?
Humans are creatures that ask questions – lots! The biggest question human’s face is what is the meaning of life? The next is how we should live our lives. Can you answer these? Let’s look at two contrasting ways to answer this.
Humanism.
- Since humans appeared, they can be divided into religious and non-religious. A Humanist is someone who believes that the best way to answer the big questions is to trust humans.
- The ultimate concern of a human should be other humans. If we are thinking about pleasing a god, then we may end up hurting ourselves or others
- God or the gods don’t exist. At best, they are made up stories we have told ourselves – at worst, the idea of a God has been made up to stop humans thinking for themselves.
- Every human being has the freedom to make their choices about how to live life. There is no judgement by God: the only person who can judge a person is
- Supernatural explanations are irrelevant: everything can or will be at sometime explainable by science.
- This life is all there is. If you spend your time obsessed by how to live in a way to get heaven rather than hell after death, you will miss out on the joys of life by making something that isn’t true important.
- Humans will be able to improve the world through their own efforts. No God or holy book can help humans do this: only humans, as only they can understand each other and have a reality.
- Humans are responsible for the way the world is treated. They should live unselfishly not because a God will judge them, but because that is the good thing to do for themselves and for others.
- There are no holy books or holy men to follow: you must make your own path, but be aware and respectful of others’ choices. These books were written long ago and may contain ideas that we now consider to be old-fashioned such as their views on sexuality.
The majority of the people who have lived or do live on Planet Earth have been religious people. This does make them right or wrong, just the biggest statistic in history (apart from that one George Bernard Shaw used when he said “1 out 1 people die.”!)
What do religious people believe?
- God or the gods created and rule over the universe. (Buddhists don’t believe in a God, but are still religious in other ways.)
- There is order and design in the world around us, which comes from the God or Gods. This religious people might argue can be seen in the patterns of the world around them, which they say make no sense unless a being like a God planned them.
- Humans are meant to be in relationships with God/the gods and if they are not, they are not living life properly. Humans might choose to sin (turn their backs on God’s laws) or to live their life in a way harmful to others. Some religions like Christianity believe that we are “in the image of God”, a way of saying that humans have a unique relationship with God, making them more than just an animal.
- This life is not all there is – there are several possibilities after death and how we live now will influence what happens. The philosopher Blasé Pascal argued that you should live as if there was a God in this life: if there was, then living in that way meant that you got the best possible life after death but even if there was no God living as if there was a God who would judge you meant that you would be less selfish.
- Our sense of right and wrong comes from God, it isn’t learned or there due to nature. The Creator gave us this and although it might be influenced by our experience, there are certain things that all cultures and times share, pointing to a designer who gave us a conscience.
- Science cannot fully explain the world. Miracles (special events caused by a supernatural being) do happen. To limit our understanding of the world to just science would be wrong. God or the gods created a complex universe of which science is one way to explain things but not the only one.
- Why humans suffer is a bit of a mystery but you are more likely to find an answer by believing in a God.
- There are important holy books that humans have been given by God or the gods which should help them to live their lives. They contain timeless truths which will always help us to live better lives.
So which is better? Humanism or Religion? Or are both not helpful? Perhaps we can never answer the question about how we should live or if our lives have meaning. Who knows? Perhaps we should accept the adventure of life and live it day to day. What do you think?
The Illumination Trilogy by Tom Rubens
If you would like to understand more about humanism, we have just launched Tom’s latest book in The Illumination Trilogy charts the experiences of a central character named Richard Lane, a young Englishman who, in the 1960s, benefits from the growth in social and educational opportunity made available in England during the 1960s. This experience takes him to different social settings and different countries. Each part of the trilogy is a stage on a journey of experience: a journey on which he gradually develops in intellectual strength. This development takes a secular direction, one which affects his personal relationships with other people. I was intent on making overall sense of a whole period in a young person's life, across the important decades of the 1960s and 70s—especially as many of the social changes which took place in those years are still with us.
Meet this week's writer Cavan Wood
Cavan is a well sought after writer, teacher and speaker based in Sussex of over thirty years experience. He has written about religious, moral, cultural and political themes , having written or contributed chapters to over twenty books published by Bloomsbury, Oxford University Press, The Bible Reading Fellowship and Hodder amongst others. He is interested in politics, literature, cinema and is a leader in his local church and past Head of Religious Education.
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