“My soul was a burden, bruised and bleeding. It was tired of the man who carried it, but I found no place to set it down to rest. Neither the charm of the countryside nor the sweet scents of a garden could soothe it. It found no peace in song or laugher, none in the company of friends at table or in the pleasures of love, none even in books or poetry... Where could my heart find refuge from itself? Where could I go, yet leave myself behind?” A quote from Wally Lamb’s novel about the Columbine shootings, The Hour I First Believed, raises questions that many have considered—how can I be happy? Why am I not satisfied? The answer is that emptiness is a human condition. The apparently insatiable thirst for something greater than yourself is engrained in the DNA of this species. Those who have everything they could possibly want are left needing something more.
“We’re all searching for something to fill up what I like to call that big, God-shaped hole in our souls. Some people use alcohol, or sex, or their children, or food, or money, or music, or heroin. A lot of people even use the concept of God itself. I could go on and on. I used to know a girl who used shoes. She had over two hundred pairs. But it’s all the same thing, really. People, for some stupid reason, think they can escape their sorrows.” Tiffanie DeBartolo grapples with this concept in her book God-Shaped Hole. The title of the book points to religion as the answer, and at the same time acknowledges that non-spiritual things are frequently turned-to as well by many different types of people. From a psychological point of view, humans have a desire for transcendence. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs shows this: at the very top of the pyramid, when all of a person’s other needs are met, they begin to search. Business leaders, stockbrokers, and some world leaders search for money as a source of full life and happiness. Sometimes that is how they find it, but other times it is never enough. Is it not unbelievable that the rich only want to become richer? Celebrities epitomize the search. They have all the fame and money they could possibly want and they are some of the unhappiest people in the world. People such as Shia Labeouf, John Mayer and Tom Brady have all expressed their thoughts about these desires. Shia Labeouf once voiced his opinions about movie stars, saying that they are nothing but washed-up losers. John Mayer wrote a song titled “Something’s Missing” with lyrics saying: “I'm dizzy from the shopping mall / I searched for the joy but I bought it all / It doesn't help the hunger pain / And a thirst I'd have to drown first to ever satiate / Something's missing / And I don’t know how to fix it / Something's missing / And I don’t know what it is / At all.” And an interview with Tom Brady, one of the National Football League’s best quarterbacks, done by "60 Minutes" exposes the dissatisfaction of a man who seems to be on top of the world:
“Tom Brady, the quarterback of the New England Patriots, is not only one of the NFL’s best players, he is one of the NFL’s great stories. At the tender age of 30, he has already won three Super Bowls, an accomplishment that ranks him with some of the best quarterbacks ever to play the game, and he’s having one of the greatest seasons in pro football history…
‘It’s what you always wanted.’
‘You’re right it is, and I didn’t think it came with all the other baggage though.’
…In addition to his success on the field and his sex appeal off it, there is also the 60-million-dollar, 10-year contract to play with the New England Patriots…
‘Hey, I’m making more money now than I ever thought I could make playing football.’
But with all that money, fame and career accomplishments, we were surprised to hear this from him…
‘Why do I have three Super Bowl rings? And, and still think there’s something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people out there would say hey, man this is what it is. I’ve reached my goal, my dream, my life is… me, I think, God, there’s gotta be more than this.’
‘What’s the answer?’
‘I wish I knew. I wish I knew.’”
To atheists, Tiffanie DeBartolo has this to say: “You try and act so tough, you think you're so damn hopeless and godless and faithless, but you don't fool me. People without hope aren't tormented by the world the way you are. People without hope don't give a shit. But I see it in you, in the way you look at things, even in the way you look at me sometimes, like I'm the coolest fucking guy in the universe, and I know it's in there. Reverence. Belief. Something. You have a lot more faith than you own up to. You just don't want to be let down.” Atheism does not exist. By definition, atheism is “not theism”—the prefix “a-” negates the rest of the word, and theism is the belief in a God or gods. Many believe that atheism does not believe in anything at all. However, the true root of atheism is fear—fear that you are not in control of your own life, fear that trusting someone else or something else could lead you astray. Atheists believe in something, just not a deity. To the religious, anything ungodly filling this emptiness is considered to be a “false idol.” These may not be wicked or sinful things, but they are things that take the place of God as the center. Whatever a person turns to, whatever gets that person excited about life that is their religion.
In Dan Brown’s novels Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code, and The Lost Symbol, he interprets and dissects different religions to essentially prove that humans have the capacity to be as great as a god. “Truth has power. And if we all gravitate toward similar ideas, maybe we do so because those ideas are true... written deep within us. And when we hear the truth, even if we don't understand it, we feel that truth resonate within us... vibrating with our unconscious wisdom. Perhaps the truth is not learned by us, but rather, the truth is re-called...re-membered...re-cognized... as that which is already inside us.” He also explains why people feel a need for religion: “Whether or not you believe in God, you must believe this: when we as a species abandon our trust in a power greater than us, we abandon our sense of accountability. Faiths … all faiths … are admonitions that there is something we cannot understand, something to which we are accountable. With faith we are accountable to each other, to ourselves, and to a higher truth. Religion is flawed, but only because man is flawed. The church consists of a brotherhood of imperfect, simple souls wanting only to be a voice of compassion in a world spinning out of control.”
Dan Brown rationalizes religion as a way to explain that which science simply cannot, and many scientists share that viewpoint. Each progression in the scientific field exposes more about the natural world as well as the world of civilization and humanity. Those who pursue these enlightenments have realized the extent of what is beyond them, and aspire to harness it. Scientists devote their entire lives to sating their curiosity. Researchers, anthropologists, archaeologists, biologists, doctors, cartographers, geologists, paleontologists, writers, all of them and more, are on a quest for information, for proof, of a greater plan. Tiffanie DeBartolo says, “I try to find meaning anywhere I can. It's the only way I know how to validate my existence.” Call it God, call it fate, call it random but acknowledge its power.
“In the last three weeks, a desire to be absorbed in something bigger than herself had grown in [her]. Day by day she had waited for the strange new need to subside (this is how people go religious, she thought, trying to laugh herself out of it), but it had, if anything, intensified.” J. K. Rowling’s first novel for adults, The Casual Vacancy brings up an interesting point. This void, this need that people have is often filled by religion. In Christianity, the reason for this is because humans were created with a need for a relationship with God, and many people have found that God is the one thing that can fill that void. The Bible says that humans were created in the image of God himself, and in that way, humans, above all, need God and need other humans. Other religions have similar beliefs, whether it is Yahweh, Allah, Buddha, Zeus or even Satan. Religion requires every ounce of a person’s being to be interlaced with his or her God or gods.
Donald Miller, author of many Christian writings including Looking for God Knows What, says this: “Earthly love… is temporal and slight so that is has to be given again and again in order for us to feel any sense of security; but God’s love, God’s voice and presence, would instill our souls with such affirmation we would need nothing more and would cause us to love other people so much we would be willing to die for them.” and “Why not get your glory from God? Why not accept your feelings of redemption because of His pleasure in you, not the fickle and empty favor of man?” These are fundamental concepts of Christianity and Judaism. The Bible also says that Christ came so that humans could have life to the full, and that full life can only be achieved through a relationship with the Creator. In Angels and Demons, Dan Brown says, “All questions were once spiritual. Since the beginning of time spirituality and religion have been called on to fill in the gaps that science did not understand. The rising and setting of the sun was once attributed to Helios and a flaming chariot. Earthquakes and tidal waves were the wrath of Poseidon. Science has now proven those gods to be false idols. Soon all gods will be proven to be false idols. Science has now provided answers to almost every question man can ask. There are only a few questions left and they are the esoteric ones. Where do we come from? What are we doing here? What is the meaning of life and the universe?” These questions that have not been solved with science are the ones that are unexplainable by any earthly means. There is no other choice but to look to divinity for the answers. Each religion offers explanations to these and other questions that people have asked over thousands of years, and it is easy to see why comfort has been found in religion.
When probing for significance, science will always fall short. There is no equation or ancestral evidence of what will fill human desire. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. One man’s passion is not the same as the next, and that passion could change overnight. The intricately designed masterpieces that make up the human race are uncharted and fluid. Inability to be dictated and unwillingness to settle are what makes these minds so absolutely fantastic. Trying to define the purpose of human life is like trying to describe the sound of the color pink—it cannot be done, but there is an inkling of possibility that always flits away the moment you try to pin it down. However, once it is seen, curiosity takes over. After that, the goal of your life is devoted to discovering the right words, only to realize at the very end that words are wholly unnecessary.
“You’re not a human being until you value something more than the life of your body. And the greater the thing you live and die for the greater you are.” Orson Scott Card says this in his science fiction novel “The Worthing Chronicle.” This quote encompasses the human aspiration of transcendence. If transcendence is not achieved, then life is not lived to its potential. The capacity for satisfaction is incomplete until that void is filled. When trying to fill it, you can ask does it love you back? Will it last forever?
