Jean-Paul Sartre, a French philosopher and playwright, 1905-1980, was recently highlighted in a BreakPoint commentary from the Charles Colson Center. The commentary pointed out that Sartre rejected the notion of a fixed human nature. He argued that the individual must decide their nature. Without a fixed nature, humans are then radically free to choose values and identity. Though his ideas of “radical freedom” sound liberating, for Sartre, it was not a gift. Rather, humans are, he said, “condemned to be free.” No matter how we define ourselves or what meaning we make, it is all done within a meaningless, absurd universe. “It is meaningless that we are born,” Sartre said, “and it is meaningless that we die.”
It further pointed out that his philosophy has continue to shape much of our world even from the grave. The idea of a meaningless, absurd universe is horrible to contemplate. Total freedom with no anchors. Meaningless being born and meaningless in death!
But that is not what life is! How can we stress to others that there really is meaning in life? This is a central task for all of us who believe. There is a true God in heaven! He created us. We are His and He has a purpose and meaning for each of our lives.
For Sartre there is no meaning even in suicide. But one must ask themself, even as Shakespeare had his character Hamlet contemplate, “is there really nothing after death”. It is easy to say we simply enter nothingness. But is there that “undiscovered country from whose b0urn no traveler returns….”? God declares that there is something there after we cross the boundary from this physical life.
Are we willing to blindly speculate what that might be in our own imagination – from nothingness to some sentimental eternal reunion on the clouds? Rather, it is better we investigate now what The Almighty God has said about life – His life and the life He wants for mankind who He created.
This is all real dear friends. Look into it now and find the meaning God has for your life today. Jean-Paul Sartre was completely wrong. What our Lord God offers is real, beautiful, and offered to all. His word is what gives real meaning to life.
Pastor Irv