The Struggle for Purpose

Marty Duggan
  Issue XIX - February 6, 2004
Recommend this page.
A sample image

Throughout human existence individual feelings have shaped occurrences more than any other media with the capability of exerting influence. Mere tendencies have led to death, pain, misery, and strife. However those self-same propensities have had equivocal clout to bring about the greatest good that can be found. It is in the analyzing of feelings where formerly unanswerable queries become decipherable. Courage, honor, faith, hope, and love are undoubtedly the most common emotions that arise within the borders of the mind without also facing curtailment from the conscience. The individual conscience has done more to shape feelings in history than any other entity. Also though, the conscience is not as it is considered by most. Most would say confidently that one's conscience is simply the part of them that tells them right from wrong. All of that statement is correct but a large part of it is missing. The conscience is also that part of the person that one would normally take for temptation. In general, within the mind, judgment takes place between the side presenting whether the issue is right or wrong and the side presenting whether there will be some physical or emotional gain from the issue. Both sides present their case and the mind must then choose. Contrary to common belief the conscience is both the temptation and the ethical question. The conscience is, in total, the evaluation of circumstance before a choice is made. There is a difference of opinion as to whether the conscience is itself a product of society; meaning that it is influenced by surroundings and could be manipulated if the surroundings could be manipulated. Finding the source of the conscience is undertaking of ultimate consequence. To find the basis for judgment is to find the basis for all action; and thus the cause and purpose of existence. It is toward this aspiration that philosophers, religions, and individuals have dedicated themselves. Apropos the problem is brought full circle. If those beliefs within humans seek to ultimately answer the question of man's purpose, then man's purpose, it would seem, would be to seek. Also thus, if man's purpose would be to seek then one's conscience would be influenced by one factor alone: How to achieve that purpose. In other words the influence relies on the unique opinion of every individual as to what would be the best way to seek for one's purpose. Religions then, it would seem, are then still forced on children by their elders. However, one cannot forget the extraordinary human exception: choice. Society and religion afford every individual the choice, however apparent or invisible it may seem, to either accept or reject said beliefs; proving thus the independence of the conscience and its spontaneous capability. Values then, are unprompted. So why then, do courage, honor, faith, hope, and love appear so commonly among fellows with unperturbed consciousnesses? Why then do values with the undoubted propensity to be random align themselves so predictably? Why does the conscience refuse to allow "evil" thought to conspire while simultaneously tolerating "good" thought? Why does the part of the conscience presenting the right side always prevail when the conscience is ultimately heard instead of if a part of its totality is being ignored? The answers to each of these questions are each related in that each answers itself after the analyzation of the enquiry itself. It would seem that courage, faith, hope, and love are universal constants as far as eminence of thought reaches; essentially, people have an inherent "goodness" that leads them to favor said values. Also in unperturbed minds "those of the sane" consciences are not always entirely followed and are sometimes ignored. However when the process is allowed, by the mind, to run its course the decision of good is ultimately reached. Thus it is proven that good and evil do exist. And that the conscience discovers good and evil through the seeking of purpose.

Recommend this page.

This TRA feature has been edited in accordance with TRA Statement of Policy.

Click here to return to TRA's Issue XIX Index.

Learn about Mr. Stolyarov's novel, Eden against the Colossus, here.

Read Mr. Stolyarov's comprehensive treatise, A Rational Cosmology, explicating such terms as the universe, matter, space, time, sound, light, life, consciousness, and volition, here.

Read Mr. Stolyarov's four-act play, Implied Consent, a futuristic intellectual drama on the sanctity of human life, here.