I am getting two opportunities a week to revisit this question via a study in the Book of Genesis. Genesis offers a spiritual answer to this question alongside the scientific answers we encounter daily. Why? How do we come to be here in the first place? Is there a reason for it all or is this the sum of a billion different random chances? These questions are answered for every person on earth with varying levels of intensity.
How is it that our universe exists? We are told it is expanding at a faster and faster rate... but expanding into what? We are told that according to statistical probability there should be millions of 'earth like' planets out there in space and, again, statistically speaking thousands of them should contain life. Still... everywhere we turn our gaze we find probability and possibility but nothing like the planet we inhabit.
What does my being alive mean? What does my death mean? If it is all meaningless then it is a cruel and terrible thing to spend ones life learning, growing and building only to cease to exist.
So, I choose to find meaning in the faith answers provided by Scripture. Genesis tells me that there is a reason for it all, there is an intent behind it all. "God saw that it was good" gives me hope in the face of death. The values of love, honesty, kindness, faith and joy are worthy and provide a basis for a life here and now but also in the future.
This puts me squarely in the 'religious' camp and likely in smaller company than other views. So be it... but I am enjoying the process of looking at it again.
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