Value, Philosophy, and Faith

If “owl city” can make hit music with insomnia then perhaps I can write hit philosophy with it as well.  Thoughts often seem clearer before any attempt is made to communicate them though they do not become useful until they are expressed. Some things are not understood until taught.

I have struggled lately with a certain meaninglessness.  I have done what I believe was right, though I have been gaining little from it in the way of happiness or fulfillment.  I feel distanced from God and His nourishing power. And as much as I struggle with these feelings, I cannot help but also feel that that may be the point. 

As I see it, though I am not God, the single most important question in mortal life is the question of value.  The only trouble is that all the evidence of the senses and reason cannot positively guarantee what has value or even if value exists.  I believe that the world has been deliberately designed this way.  Life has no apparent or justifiable meaning.  There is none.  Every philosopher I have heard or read who tries to defend some objective ground for value has his axioms rooted in blind faith.  Value is then both essential to human life and meaning and also frustratingly elusive. 

If we were truly sent here to earth to learn from experience and to define ourselves by our choices, would it not make sense that we would be allowed to make those choices in the freedom of a value vacuum?  Justification and philosophy prove only that there is no conclusion which we cannot doubt.  All the intellects of the ages have not offered a single scrap of information which we can trust as a reliable foundation of knowledge, let alone value. 

I believe that the Plan of Salvation and the Gospel of Jesus Christ are beautiful in their truth and clarity.  However, they do not clear the fog of mortal existence.  Life is hard. It stays hard even with all the right answers because we cannot prove or justify those answers to rid them of the possibility of doubt.  We are free to choose the probable or the improbable, the true or the fictitious, the real or the absurd.  The decision is a matter of faith in the value of the choice. 

This is important to remember that just because the gospel is true does not mean that it will be obvious or clear.  To remove the fog, struggle, and despair of mortal life would be to defeat the entire purpose of its existence.  God is kind and gives us moments of clarity where we can see through the veil but we must not expect this as the norm.  Trials of faith can come before and also after moments of great insight.