The God-given built-in meaninglessness of the universe as a foundation of hope and faith

Contrary to sugar-coated versions of religious teaching which frequently recommend the opposite, we must realize and fully accept that for all the staring-at-the-world and being-in-the-world we do, we can never get meaning from the universe, or from our place in it. This is because our lives and the world we live in are inevitably subjected to frailty, death and decay, which, in turn, underpins the universe’s ultimate futility, of which our lives are a part. However, the subsequent meaningless character of our lives and the world we live in should not be avoided or disguised but be stripped-back and faced-up to. Why?

The apparent bleak realization and acceptance of the meaninglessness of the universe and our place in it, according to the Bible at least, is the prompt for hope and faith. Indeed, this inevitable character of futility and meaninglessness is in-built and God-given precisely because it prompts us to look beyond, not toward a finite observable world outside ourselves that is seen, but to something beyond, unseen, infinite and yet within ourselves (and see Luke 17:21). Therefore, unveiling the meaninglessness of it all, leads to the deepest and most internal groans and moans but which can only then lead to us looking in anticipation and hope to something beyond, something permanent and everlasting.

There are many places throughout the Bible (in both the Old and New Testaments) where these deepest of themes are explored. For example, the below focuses on Paul’s letter to the Romans, and, using the Amplified Bible translation, cross references to other similar parts of the Bible:

Romans 8:20-25:

“For the creation (nature) was subjected to frailty (to futility, condemned to frustration), not because of some intentional fault on its part, but by the will of Him Who so subjected it – [yet] with the hope (and see Ecclesiastes 1:2).

That nature (creation) itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and corruption (and gain an entrance) into the glorious freedom of God’s children.

We know that the whole creation [of irrational creatures] has been together in the pains of labour until now. And not only creation, but we ourselves too, who have and enjoy the first fruits of the Holy Spirit [a foretaste of the blissful things to come] groan inwardly as we wait for the redemption of our bodies [from sensuality and the grave, which will reveal] our adoption (our manifestation as God’s children). 

For in this hope we were saved. But hope (the object of) which is seen is not hope. For how can one hope for what is already seen?”