Why do young people volunteer to go out to war or in the case of the fanatic Jihadists agree to blow themselves up?  Why do so many people have a need to believe in God or search for some form of spiritualism?

I believe it has something to do with a very basic human desire to feel connected to a higher purpose.  Something that is bigger than themselves.  It seems that this is such a basic drive that it is often not recognized.  We all seek happiness in our lives, no matter whether you are a human being or come from the animal kingdom.  But, I don’t think it stops with just happiness or a general sense of well being, but the true joy of life (something well beyond happiness), lies in feeling connected to something bigger, something more important.  This can manifest in many forms.  A search for god, devotion to improving the environment, the betterment of humanity or any other form which we as individuals can see as being more important than our own desires and wishes.

I truly believe that we in most of secular societies have vastly underestimated this basic human drive.  We need to consider this in our own lives and in the lives of our children.  Our desire to drive religion from our schools has left a vacuum in our societies and in many cases a sense of purposelessness.  It is no wonder that some of our young reach out for this purpose and in many cases in destructive directions.  How can we be creative in bringing back this need for a higher purpose in the citizens of our society and point it in a constructive direction?  This is one of the reasons that I wrote the section on “Does Humanity Need a Higher Purpose”.  We humans need to have a higher purpose.  Lets point it in a constructive direction.