On the Causality and Meaning of Things

I have been told, usually by well-meaning people–people that want to make me feel better when shit hits the fan–that “everything happens for a reason.” I always nod politely when I am told this cliche–pretending to agree with it to avoid offending anybody. But the truth is, I don’t buy into this everything-happens-for-a-reason craze. To those who sincerely believe in it, I’m sorry. But everything definitely doesn’t happen for a reason.

When I hear somebody justify the occurrence of events on some nebulous “reason”, it is usually in the context of religion. As in, “Everything happens for a reason because God has a plan.” A plan that is supposedly so great as to make any damaging, humiliating, or even lethal experience worth it. I am baffled that some people take comfort in this concept. There is something creepy about the idea that we are all part of some plan, like we are pieces in a chessboard that move solely under the behest of a Supreme chess master. This kind of thing doesn’t sound very God-like to me. This kind of thing sounds more like Henry Kissinger and his heartless brand of realpolitik–where everyone and everything that gets burned along the way is just collateral damage. Besides, how does God decide which ones will be the pawns? The rooks? The bishops? The kings? Is there some type of heavenly lottery where our unborn souls all sit in a stadium, anxiously anticipating our role on earth to be announced?

At what point does free will factor in when we are all hard-wired to follow a plan before we were even born? Or is free will itself an illusion?

I guess one could argue that being part of someone’s plan does not mean that that person is simply a mindless tool of the mastermind. For instance, when people agree to throw somebody a surprise birthday party, the people involved don’t usually feel that they have been used. But, see, in those situations, the main person behind the surprise party has to inform his/her accomplices the purpose of why, say, they all need to pretend that they forgot someone’s birthday the whole day and then agree to meet at a certain location where they will all scream “happy birthday!” to an unsuspecting celebrant. Therefore, the key element missing in our supposed involvement in The Divine Plan is disclosure.

When it comes to God’s ultimate plan, the supposed root cause of all of human experience, we are clueless. And I know we are clueless because whenever somebody tells me to believe in a higher purpose for things, it is said with a hint of helplessness and wistfulness. And I cannot help but feel outraged when I see some poor soul wait for years and decades and sometimes even eternity for some type of vindication.

So is there really such a purpose to everything? Or are we simply too afraid to admit as a species that things happen just because? And that we might have to face the fact that it is our very selves, and not a Supreme entity hiding out in some celestial control tower, that has the power to conduct the traffic of our chaotic lives? Whether God exists is not the point. Whether God has plans is not the point. God or no God, Divine Plan or no Divine Plan, our present lives are comprised of fragments of our past choices, which are influenced by our surroundings, our mental capacity, our ability to use reason and so on. That’s it. To surrender causalities to a higher purpose is to deny the importance of human judgment and the need for people to accept the consequences of their every action. If humanity were to believe that everything happens for a reason, then we should get rid of our jails, our police force, our entire penal code. We should let our schools and our college crumble along with the collective future of all our children. We should demolish all hospitals and remove physicians from our society. After all, what would be the point retribution, education, and rehabilitation if we are not really in control of what is bound to happen?

I like to call myself an optimistic nihilist. I do not believe in the idea that life has any inherent meaning. But neither do I deny the possibility of meaning. In fact, I do believe life must have meaning. Putting meaning to our daily experiences is what distinguishes us as a human race. However, I see the quest for meaning as an opportunity for personal empowerment, not an exercise in subservience to the whims and manipulations of a Higher Being. As humans, we need to take control of our lives, through its triumphs and tribulations, so we can appreciate life more in all of its open-ended glory.