This is the second time the Rev. David Hegg is asking a question, looking for answers (opinion, Jan. 9). The first time he did that many, many months ago The Signal printed my reply. I acknowledged that his professional position in life compelled him to provide “his” answers in conformity to the policies and doctrines of his religion and his church. He is bound by them so what else can he say to people? I gave him a pass for being “constrained” by his religious devotion and by having faith and believing in things like the Christian God, Jesus of Nazareth, and everything that his religion preaches about the purpose and meaning of life.
Since you are again asking, Rev. Hegg, I will again offer my answers.
To paraphrase the words of the late French existential philosopher Albert Camus (as I cannot find the exact quote): There are those who say that a life without meaning or purpose is not one worth living, but I say that such a life is indeed worth living all the more because it lacks meaning or purpose.
In defense of that statement I will quote from your own Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when he said, “Take no thought for your life, what you shall drink or what you shall eat, nor for your body what you shall put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into the barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they are? Which of you by worrying can add one degree to his stature? And why take thought for clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of them… Oh ye of little faith. Don’t think about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have its own problems, just deal properly with what’s facing you right now… if you can manage to do even that much.” — Matthew 6:25-34.
It’s so human to overthink and overcomplicate things, things as simple as life, to the point where people have had to invent things like gods and religions to conveniently rationalize and explain the imaginary confusions they have unnecessarily created for themselves.
In reality, Rev. Hegg, I will say to you once again that there are no answers to your questions. Beyond the fact that we are born, live a life, and finally die, there is nothing, at least nothing that all the faith in the world can make real outside of the beliefs that have been conjured up in your own mind. But if faith is what you and yours need, and if it “works” for you, then more power to you all — keep the faith.
I will, however, agree with you on one point, and that is to keep the body and the mind as healthy as possible for as long as possible. Or, as the Romans used to say, “Mens sana in corpore sano.” Beyond that, life is nothing more than what we choose to make of it, for better or for worse.
Arthur Saginian
Santa Clarita