What is the purpose of life?

And do we need to balance our good and bad deeds?

Photo by Ravi Roshan on Unsplash

The title of this article may be misleading, since I’m not pretending I have the answers. Rather, I have thoughts and questions. If you are the type of person who demands certainty, seek it elsewhere. If you enjoy a journey down the rabbit hole, then maybe keep reading.

I’ve always been interested in philosophy. So have many who have gone before me. Philosophers have considered the meaning of life for many thousands of years. Some of this philosophy is grounded in religion.

So, for example, in the Bible, Jesus says “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much”. This implies that love and the deeds that come from love matter more to God than sins.

Each of the Abrahamic religions clearly define differences between good and evil, with the understanding that God is more powerful than his evil counterpart, the Devil. But this is not true with all religions.

In Mithraism, the struggle between good and evil is emphasized, while in Shintoism, there is really no absolute good or evil as everything and every person changes by interacting with the universe. Among those who followed Zoroaster, two opposing forces, Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu, representing the creative and destructive forces, were equal in…