July 02, 2013

The Purpose Of Life

1 hour 15 minutes

The Age-old question: What is the purpose of life?

[00:01:40] INTRODUCTION

In order to accomplish anything of benefit or value, we need to know why we are here. This is the crucial first step, finding a purpose.

If I create a hammer, I would have to have a purpose in mind (hammering something) before creating the hammer.

[00:03:00] YUSHA'S BACKGROUND

Before reverting to Islam, back in 1998, Yusha Evans was a Christian. Upon studying the bible from cover to cover and realizing many things were askew, and a lot of what he believed his entire life was not in line with what his research found, he left Christianity and went in search of the truth. After many twist and turns, ups and downs and after looking at the many world religions searching for the tangible proof of the right way of life he encountered a Muslim, and was given a Qur’an. After reading the Qur’an cover to cover he accepted Islam in the winter of 1998.

"What is the purpose of my life? And that was the answer I was looking for and something I was seeking." - Yusha Evans

[00:05:36] EXISTENTIAL CRISIS

Yusha wants to find out the purpose of his life, but he is afraid. Why? Because that means he would have to make a drastic life change and rethink all his beliefs.. He has invested so much time and effort in this ideology that he is afraid to open his mind to critical thinking. Initially, he continued being a Christian, but as cognitive dissonance sets in, he finally decided to take a plunge to find out the truth.

What particularly terrifies Yusha Evans from making this life change?

In economics, we call it the sunk-cost fallacy.

"Reasoning that further investment is warranted on the fact that the resources already invested will be lost otherwise, not taking into consideration the overall losses involved in the further investment. 'We have to keep going (investing) because otherwise what we have already spent will be wasted'.

Because Yusha Evans has invested so much time and dedication to a particular style of thinking, he is reluctant to change his point as of view pre-1998. Verbatim:

[00:05:43] "I would have to change. My ideas have to change. My life has to change. Everything about me is going to change revolving on that purpose. And one thing if human beings are afraid of anything, we're afraid of change. Change is frightening." - Yusha Evans

Yusha Evans is a Psychology major and knows this very well!

Humans are creatures of habit - https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/creatures-habit/200907/we-are-creatures-habit

[00:07:38] PURPOSE OF LIFE - ISLAM'S POV

Everyone has different reasons to get out of bed; to get a job, to go to work, to make a cup of coffee.

But one thing that is very beautiful about Islam is that the Muslim is taught to fine-tune that reason to a central point.

[00:09:54] ANALOGY #1 STARTS

[00:12:07] ANALOGY #1 ENDS

[00:12:40] CONSEQUENCES OF HAVING NO PURPOSE IN LIFE!

"Vices, suicide and drugs." - Yusha Evans (Paraphrased)

[00:17:47] ANALOGY #2 STARTS

[00:20:55] ANALOGY #2 ENDS

[00:22:38] Yusha Evans reiterates that creation is not by random chance; rather it is careful planning and design.

He references the moon, stars, the sun, bees, and even salmon. This cannot be by random chance. You can't put a bunch of mechanical tools in a bag, shake it for a billion years and then hope it becomes a Rolex watch!

Yusha Evans gives brilliant analogies here.

There is no doubt what we see around us is by design, not by random chance. Zero, Zilch!

[00:26:09] DESIGN - THE HUMAN BEING

Take a look at yourself in the mirror.

Isn't it amazing how the brain is able to store so much information. Think about the serotonin, dopamine, and neurotransmitters that makes the human mind. And that's not even 0.01% of what makes the mind so great. The brain's architecture that is going about, firing information a millionth of a second every single moment of your life!

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By Muslim Central

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