The Futility Of Life: A Rationale For Seeking Eternal Meaning

The futility of life is a fact everyone must address. Not all people think that life is futile. Some believe that being born to die does not constitute futility. For me, this is hard to fathom. If death means the cessation of life, then being born only to cease to exist is futile. There is no point in creating something just to destroy it.

Say, for instance, you spent five years of your life building a house. You spent time thinking about the design, drawing up plans, sourcing materials, and mapping out the construction process. After detailed planning, you begin building. You dig holes for the foundation posts, pour concrete, place posts, compact the earth, and secure floor bearers. You choose high-quality materials: tongue-and-groove floorboards, mortise and tenon joints, lath and plaster walls, and slate roofing. Everything is done with care and precision to last for centuries.

Then, having completed the house, you invite friends over—not for a housewarming, but to witness its destruction. You douse it in gasoline and set it ablaze. Understandably, your friends are horrified. They call you mad. All that effort, wasted. The entire endeavor was pointless—futile.

Can you imagine saving money for ten years, building a home over five more, only to burn it down? This is the essence of futility.

Jesus said:

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and count the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? Or perhaps, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, everyone who sees begins to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build, and wasn’t able to finish. (Luke 14:28–30)

Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on a rock... But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn’t do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand... and great was its fall. (Matthew 7:24–27)

These parables show us the absurdity of undertaking a task that lacks a firm foundation or ultimate purpose. People can appear to do meaningful things, but if their end is destruction, the entire endeavor is futile.

Many strive to build legacies—empires like Rupert Murdoch’s media juggernaut or a stable retirement. Others focus on family and social contribution. These may seem meaningful, but if we are born only to die, all efforts ultimately dissolve into nothingness.

Some forms of nihilism—existential or ethical—attempt to assign meaning within a framework that denies ultimate purpose. Nihilism, often associated with Friedrich Nietzsche, claims that life has no intrinsic value. However, this worldview dates back to Gorgias (circa 450 BC), who argued that nothing exists, and if it does, it cannot be understood or communicated.

True nihilism rejects knowledge, ethics, meaning, and purpose. It leads to self-contradictions: why search for truth if there is none? Why develop a worldview to justify existence if there is no value in existing?

Even in Eastern philosophies like Buddhism, which advocate escaping suffering through detachment, the ideal state (nirvana) is rarely, if ever, demonstrably attained. If existence is suffering, and the goal is to cease existing, then the premise remains nihilistic.

People adopt worldviews to explain meaning. Even those who reject Christianity often borrow moral concepts from it. But the need for meaning cannot be erased. If we can conceive of eternity, it implies we were made for it.

Existential nihilists argue that existence precedes essence, but this undermines the value of truth. If truth does not exist, then science and reason are meaningless. Yet, we know truth has weight because we feel pain, experience betrayal, and long for justice.

When confronting nihilism, the key is not to argue abstractly, but to ask probing questions:

• Why haven’t you killed yourself?
• Do you feel pain? Emotional pain?
• Does betrayal matter to you?
• Would you prefer people kept their word? 

These questions expose the inconsistency of claiming life is meaningless while still desiring love, trust, and justice.

Pain is often the greatest motivator for change. It awakens doubt, and doubt drives the search for truth. People who doubt God often do so because of religious hypocrisy, not rational clarity.

Ecclesiastes echoes these themes: all is vanity under the sun. Yet the book ends with this: “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

Without eternal purpose, life is a house built to be burned. But if there is a Creator—one who gave us the capacity to reason, to love, and to long for eternity—then life has significance beyond death. The idea of being born just to die is not only futile; it is contrary to our very design.

The atheist who denies God yet seeks justice borrows from the moral foundation he rejects. The nihilist who claims nothing matters yet values relationships contradicts himself. The realist sees that pain is real, love is real, and truth—however obscured—is not an illusion.

Ultimately, the resurrection of Jesus proves that death is not the end. He was not destroyed; He rose. And with that, futility was broken.

God did not build humanity to burn it down. He built a Kingdom not made with hands and invited us in—not as guests, but as sons.

Life without God is not just empty—it is irrational. To embrace purpose, to reject futility, we must seek the One who holds eternity in His hands.

sharing is caring