The Reality of Value Based Happiness Not Understandable in Terms of Physics or Biology

Since “meaning,” “purpose,” and “goals” do not exist in time and space, they are not physical things we can observe directly. Some philosophers have said that they do not even exist at all. Value based happiness is a romantic myth, they say, created by the human mind in order to make us feel self important. How can there be such a thing as “meaning” when this word does not refer to anything physical? Given that human beings are biological machines — we are part of the physical world, how can our behavior be driven by goals, purpose, or meaning, which are not physical entities? Scientists say that biological events have no goals and purposes. There are no life spirits, biologist’s reason. The universe has no purpose, physicists say. If there are no purposes to biological and physical things and if we are ultimately reducible to our biological and physical natures, then it would seem that we, too, cannot have any goals or purposes.

Although this philosophy, known as naturalism is a formidable theory, it is based on selective evidence. When we look at all of the evidence, we see that human beings have a dual nature. Scholars who say that human beings are more than just biological entities use words like “spirit,” “mind,” and “goal-oriented” to express the non-physical aspects of human nature. Although nobody really knows how it is possible, the fact is that human beings have a dual nature. We seek feel-good happiness because we are biological beings and value-based happiness because we are spiritual beings.

There is substantial evidence of the non-physical aspects of human life. Through consciousness we can transcend the physical-biological world, and through self-consciousness we can become individuals and transcend social groups. By recording human history, people transcend their existence in the here-and-now of the physical world. We can think about the past and be influenced by people who died a long time ago. We also can transcend our physical nature by anticipating the future. Even though the past and the future do not “exist” in the physical world, both are “real” events that affect our lives. Further, we can experience, behold, or understand mathematics, which is not part of the physical world that exists at a particular moment in time.

Self-consciousness is another indicator of our inspiring nature. By treating ourselves as an object as an “I”, we can rise above our existence in the here and now of the physical world. Likewise, people can transcend the world by becoming responsive to it and by treating it as an object.

So what should we say to those who dispute that human life has no meaning beyond its biological functions? How should we reply to those who think that value based happiness is a romantic idea with no real-world relevance? We can point to the objective evidence indicating that human beings have a dual nature, so that all is not understandable in terms of physics or biology.

By: Francis David

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