The meaning of life and freedom of choice

If there were a predetermined meaning to life, living altogether would be devoid of meaning. Our intelligence would simply be a tool for accomplishing the desires of our creator, even in the presence of freedom of choice.

Someday we might make somewhat intelligent androids to serve specific purposes with the ability to choose correctly in performing their services. When they make wrong choices in completing their tasks we dismantle them. On the other hand, those that make appropriate choices we maintain. However, it is unlikely that we will ever build intelligent androids to be punished for their bad deeds after being dismantled. Taking this as a basis of judgment along with the assumption of creation, it is highly unlikely that some intelligent being would create a form of intelligent beings with soul for punishment or reward after their bodies return to dust.

Discoveries of diggings into our past clearly indicate that we have started from scratch and on our own. Our myths indicate that we learn from the past and try to work towards a better future, while our historical feuds are the result of our barbaric past. Unfortunately, the evil in our collective existence has a wide spectrum and is the only true form of reincarnation. The evil reshapes itself, as ideology, religion and historical revivals, although none of the tools it uses are interpreted as evil.

With these introductory words, the following axiom and its corollaries may make more sense.

Axiom. We are the start of intelligence.

The axiom of intelligence does not preclude the possibility of other forms of intelligent beings in the universe, nor it rules out the possibility of our DNA being affected by such beings in some ways. It merely states that we are not the result of creation by some other intelligent being or beings, especially not for serving a specific purpose. More specifically, we are the beginning, not a product of creation by other form of intelligence.

One likely conclusion from the axiom of intelligence is the following corollary. Basically, the conclusion is that, lack of creation implies that the soul serves no purpose.

Corollary. There is no soul.

The corollary is not in conflict with our remembrance and celebration of memories, theories, thoughts and teachings of our predecessors. Also, it does not exclude the possibility of recreating someone from the past, should we achieve such capability in the future.

The axiom of intelligence has a second important corollary. Well, if we are the beginning of intelligence, and not created for a specific purpose, we must be free to choose any purpose for our lives.

Corollary. We are free to choose our way of life

The more general form of freedom of choice is associated with our combined (social) coexistence as species, in that our destiny is neither predetermined nor controlled. We may spread within the vastness of the existence, or we may annihilate ourselves in our wars of historical feuds, ideologies and unquenchable thirst for power and wealth.

Historically, the first person to understand the true meaning of freedom is Cyrus The Great. A more logical view is that, Cyrus understood his own culture quite well and noticed the injustice in other cultures around him. The magnificence of Cyrus is in his desire and efforts to spread the principles of his culture throughout the world.

Final Words

An intellectual person is one with some understand of history and a meager scientific knowledge. As a rule, an intellectual seeks a purpose for life. However, according to Khayyam, depriving yourself of pleasures of this life so you will be rewarded the very same pleasures in another life is an absurd purpose for life. On the other hand, the ability to give up certain pleasures so you can enjoy the ecstasy of achieving your goals is a virtue.

A philosophical view must associate its interpretation of purpose to this life, not postpone it to the next life. Religion needs to cast its rectification to the other world because it cannot explain choices made in this world, by oppressors and their effects on the oppressed. Instead, we need to resolve the injustice by making social and global adjustments to this life. Unfortunately, this is only easy to say. I wonder if ever we shall achieve a form of living that makes this planet a paradise for everyone, except cases of accidental mishaps. It appears that some future form of evolved democracy might lead us there. Bloodshed and destruction will not get us anywhere, as Cyrus The Great proved in the antiquity.

Brainwashing is the act of depriving a person from becoming an intellectual and thereby reducing a human into a semi-intelligent animal serving a purpose determined for him. That is, all forms of brainwashing are tools for stripping a person from freedom of choice. A true prostitute is a person who uses his profession knowingly and with deliberation in applying brainwashing techniques as a source of income.