Up@dawn 2.0 (blogger)

Delight Springs

Sunday, December 10, 2023

Is Life Worth Living? William James



William James says that "life is what we make of it." 

Throughout the book, "Is Life Worth Living?," James says a lot of things about life and how to make it worth living, but I want to focus on this statement he made:

"Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact."


James goes back and forth throughout focusing on this idea, that your belief can create a life worth living. He begins with presenting Christianity's reason to live life. "Ordinary Christians," he says, "would say that God alone is master of life and death, and it is a blasphemous act to anticipate his absolving hand."

This can be a solid piece of hope for those who are struggling with the will to live or the meaning of life, but William James asks the question, "can we find nothing richer than this?" He says, "For the more scientific minded, the religious demand cannot be satisfied. There is a contradiction between the facts of nature and our desire to believe there is something good behind those facts. So then, those who land here can either accept only the bare facts or adopt new beliefs to fill this hole.” 

James claims that religious supernaturalism is the view that the natural order is part of a larger reality. This gives significance to our mundane existence and explains life’s riddles. 

So, considering this, he poses this idea again: your belief can create a life worth living. 

The benefits of believing in an unseen spiritual world are practical and give meaning to life. Science can only say what is, not what is not. However, he also says that “the certainty that you may now step out of life whenever you please and that it is not blasphemous is an immense relief.” 

So, let's ask the question: Is life is worth living?

Looking at humanity as a whole, most of us oscillate between joy and sadness, and therefore for most of us, the question will occasionally arise. Suicide is evidence that not all individuals believe the fact to be true, that life is worth living. 

But what if your current belief leads you to believe that life is not worth living?

What does it take to change what you believe? Does it take evidence? A standard of truth? Logic? Or does it simply take you deciding that you are going to live a different way?


William James would say that it depends solely on the one living, whether life is worth living or not, but I ask, is there an objective reason to believe that life is worth living...

...whether you believe it or not? 



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