“God and the Meaning of Life” according to Thaddeus Metz, and a Critique from the Point of View of Allamah Tabatabaei

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God-centered theories about the meaning of life maintain that a certain relationship with God is an essential condition for life to be meaningful. Different interpretations have been proposed in regard to this theory, but the most important God-centered interpretation is the Divine purpose theory. According to this theory, fulfilling God’s purpose is the only source of the meaningfulness of life. Different criticisms have been leveled against the Divine purpose theory such as the conflict between God’s purpose and God’s morality, as well as God’s omnipotence. However, according to Thaddeus Metz, the most important objection facing this theory is its incompatibility with some of the basic assumptions of all God-centered. According to this objection, the Divine attributes – such as atemporality, immutability and simplicity, which lead to the belief that God is the only source of the meaningfulness of life, are incompatible with God’s being purposive. The aim of this article is to provide answers to this objection based on the ideas of Allamah TabaTabaei. From his point of view, the Divine goal behind the creation of the world is His Transcendent Essence. This is to say that humans traverse the levels of being towards God through their innate and voluntary motion and thereby give meaning to their lives.

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