Probably the unanswerable question that everybody wonders about from the time they’re born ‘til the time they die. People come to conclusions about Life and its’ supposed Meaning all the time, but they have no way of knowing if their conclusions are accurate or not. It would all be a matter of Faith, and that, of course, is what many of the more-important questions boil down to. But do I need Faith in order to reach my own conclusions regarding Meaning? Do I need to hold fast to the possibility that something greater than myself is the sole provider of any worthwhile knowledge?

Some say yes. And they have a point. If any meaning we may have is truly divine in nature, then the only means of attaining that knowledge would be from a divine source.

So, then, how does one go about receiving this knowledge? Supposedly, this tidbit of information can only be gotten by praying the "right" way, doing the "right" things, thinking the "right" thoughts. You read the "right" writings, you converse with the "right" people, and you only eat the "right" food. So, given that, it seems that the only question is, "Which is right?"

Wrong. There are always more questions. If you may notice, the idea that only divine knowledge can come from a divine source first assumes the divine. It’s circular logic: the knowledge is divine because the source is divine, and we know the source is divine because the knowledge is divine!

I know, it’s confusing. I think that’s the point. But how accurate can these theories be? They tell you what to do, where to go, how to behave, in order to achieve this holy insight. But remember, 3000 years ago, people believed that slaughtering goats, lambs, and each other would give them the knowledge they wanted. Look how right they were.

Atheists certainly seem to get on okay, and their belief in the divine is nil. Do they have any religious/faith-based rituals or activities? Nah. Do they spend their time wondering if God/Yahweh/Allah/Shiva/whoever is happy with them or about to bestow the answers to life’s little questions? Probably not. If they’re not too overly concerned with Faith, then do they lead miserable lives filled with doubt and fear? Not any more so than those who attend mass or read the Bible.

A person will find Meaning wherever they want to find it. I can go buy a 25¢ gumball and decide that to be my life’s meaning. A pathetic meaning, but a meaning nonetheless. However, those that want divinity in their lives don’t want to find meaning... they want meaning to be given to them. They want the clouds to part and angels to sing and a booming voice to proclaim a whole bunch of "Thou shalt’s."

Take the Christian Bible, for example. One of it’s greatest early proliferators, Paul (formerly known as Saul) was a rabid opponent and persecutor of Christianity, until he was struck down from a divine source. They need The Guy Upstairs to spoon-feed them every little thing, without ever doing some thought for themselves.

I believe it was John Locke who came up with the ideas of "A-posteriori" and "A-priori.: The former holds that something must be experienced before one can understand it, and the latter states that understanding is gotten through reason. In both cases, it requires a person to do something for himself, which is in contrast to the notion that man is utterly dependent on an Almighty Deity.