Opinion

Life meaningless without religion

By Jennifer Jackson

I recently watched a strict vegetarian being interviewed. The vegetarian waxed long and eloquent about preserving life as the highest value, whether it be animal or human. He drew no line between human and animal life. He said it was all equally valuable.

Perhaps you think this individual's opinion does not represent the mainstream but that he is only coming to a logical conclusion. This vegetarian, like a good majority of individuals in our culture, does not believe that a god created humans. From an early age, he was taught that he is the product of an occurrence of chance. He was raised to believe that evolution occurred and for a couple million years, monkeys thrived. Eventually humans evolved, leaving them merely as more complex, further-developed animals.

But do we really believe this?

Consider this: when we are most disgusted and horrified with a human's actions, how do we refer to him? Words such as inhumane, depraved and even animal synonyms, like "dog" or "beast," are used to describe the person.

This reveals something important about the human mindset. We can't rid ourselves of the notion that humans possess more value than animals. But as I listened to this vegetarian, I wondered, "Why is life sacred to him?"

We would like to believe we can create a world filled with meaning -- apart from a god -- but we always end up asking, "Why are we here?" Why do we have a strong need to promote self-esteem and love-and-respect-yourself programs in public schools? Our society is sadly paradoxical; on one hand, our culture often promotes the idea that humans were not created for a purpose. And on the other hand, many people realize how difficult it is to accept this mentality, so we compensate with an overload of self-worth indoctrination, never explaining from where this "self-worth" comes.

But any smart kid realizes the true conclusion of evolution -- look at our suicide rates. According to the National Institute of Mental Health Web site (www.nimh.nih.gov), suicide was the third leading cause of death among people 15 to 24 years of age. Can we be surprised? 

God equates meaning into life and not only human life. If nothing on Earth was created for a purpose, then all meaning is lost for humans and animals. Philosophers over the centuries have tried to feed the idea of a "God-free universe" to society. Many of these philosophers have become suicidal. 

But something in many of us screams against these theories. Many people still struggle in vain to give life meaning without a god, hundreds of years after these philosophies have been presented. Voltaire said, "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent one." If you disagree with everything else I've said, you can't deny we all feel a need for a god.

Jackson, a columnist for The Daily Cougar, 
can be reached at jenny@mail.scholars.uh.edu.