Human beings have debated the reason for existence for millennia. Ultimately, each person must derive his or her own answer to the question of why they are here. Answers, however, can generally be classified into three groups: those who believe human existence is simply an accident as a result of random events; those who believe human existence is the result of a plan by a divine (or at least superhuman) being; and those who believe that human existence is simply an illusion. This paper considers each of these types of answers to see where their commonalities and differences are.

First, consider those who believe that human existence is an illusion. This belief, called idealism, considers that the only true reality is immaterial and that the physical world is merely an illusion. The earliest commonly associated proponent of this was Plato, in his famous “allegory of the cave” in which the physical reality that we all pay attention to is compared to nothing but shadows dancing on the wall of a cave, while true reality is what happens outside the cave in the sunlight.  Plato’s Forms were expanded by Plotinus into true idealism, when he claimed that the only true reality was the reality of the soul.  Elements of idealism have echoed through the ages in the works of philosophers such as Kant (who believed the mind shapes the world), and Schelling (who contended that the mind needs nothing physical) and Hegel (who insisted that only infinity can be considered fully real).  The ultimate point of any of these approaches, however, is that we are really only spiritual beings who seem temporarily deluded into placing too much reality in physical illusions. The answer to the reason for human existence thus is to recognize the illusion, break free of it, and return to a fully spiritual, infinite, existence.

In contrast with idealists are those who take the opposite approach and contend that human existence derives solely from a series of random events; these are considered materialists. Materialists believe that any phenomena outside physical sensation simply do not exist. Like idealism, materialism has roots back in Ancient Greece with Democritus and Epicurus both emphasizing the supreme importance of the physical world over all other considerations. During the Enlightenment, philosophers such as Hobbes decried any attempt to find nonphysical reality, claiming that only sensory information was “true.” Later philosophers such as Marx and Engels put their own spin on materialism with the concept of dialectic materialism, and many modern philosophers (Church, Dawkins, etc.) have reasserted the insistence that reality is solely physical.  Many, if not most, modern Western scientists hold these views very strongly in a dogma that has often been called “scientism” because of its relation to other religious “isms.” Because materialists are convinced that only physical reality is real they claim that no such entity as the human soul exists, and that this is merely the delusion or fantasy, on the order of fairy tales told to make people feel better about their lives. Since only physical reality exists, there can be no ultimate reason for human existence other than the evolutionary forces—which operate strictly randomly—which have accidentally driven life on Earth to produce human beings. Thus, the materialists’ answer to the reason for human existence is simply that there isn’t one. We’re here as a result of simple chance.

The third concept of the reason for human existence includes virtually all major religions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism.  In these beliefs, human beings (and sometimes animals) have two aspects of their existence, a soul and a physical body. This is a dualistic belief structure (not to be confused with moral dualism, which insists that reality is the clash of Good and Evil, or duotheism, which insists on two opposing gods).  Instead, this relates to the idea that neither physical matter nor the immaterial soul can be considered as part of the other. They are two separate entities. Such dualists also often contend that a divine (or at least superhuman) creator created mankind purposefully, and directs human development to various degrees, depending on the specific religious beliefs. While not denying physical reality as idealists do, they don’t place sole emphasis on the body as the source of knowledge as materialists do. Dualists generally perceive the reason for human existence as relating to God’s plan for the world, and, while that may be ultimately unknowable to human beings, it nevertheless is intended for the ultimate spiritual development of humanity and the universe.

These three responses to the question of human existence all try to determine the purpose behind humanity’s existence in the world. Their answers are completely different, but all three correlate a rationale for existence to their perceptions of being human, i.e., as being solely spiritual beings deluded into believing a physical reality exists, or as being solely physical beings deluded into believing a spiritual reality exists, or as being comprise of both physical and spiritual natures whose existence is in some way related to a greater spiritual whole.