Why? . . . Why? . . . Why? . . . Why? . . . ad infinitum. All parents know how this ends – Because I said so, that’s why! So, why does humanity exist, and why do you exist? And the answer is not 42.
From a Judeo-Christian perspective the answers are simple to deduce. In 1 John 4:8 we note that God is Love. Let us recall that love is an action that seeks to benefit the receiver. If God is truly only one being, then there is no-none for Him to love and He could not truly be Love. Therefore, the being we know as God must be multifaceted at the least, and we see this in our Christianism as the Trinity. But even then how much giving of themselves to each other for their betterment can they achieve.
Thus in Genesis 1:26 we see it written that God said, “Let us make man in our own image”. However, before creating man there needed to be a suitable habitat for his existence, and a venue for experiencing love. So the story starts with the creation of our universe for our well-being: surely an act of love. Note the use of the word ‘us’ in that decree. Was God merely using the ‘royal’ pronoun, or as Christians usually believe, was it the Trinity speaking. Or is there another explanation?
Judaism and Christianity believe there is only one god; as stated in Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!”, but the word ‘one’ can also mean ‘unity’ or ‘unified’. This understanding can excuse the Christian Trinity, but can also open the argument for even more individual identities within the ‘one’. Indeed, in Ephesians 1:4 we note that we were chosen “before the foundation of the world”. Surely the ‘we’ mentioned here is all of humanity, and it can then be understood that the ‘us’ in Genesis 1:26 as being all of us existing in unity as the one being.
Therefore, the creation of man in Genesis chapter 2 starts with Adam as merely a ‘clay’ body, until the very essence of the spiritual being we know as God was breathed into him. ‘God’ could now love another, and through him His creation. God’s love for His creation is recognised in the command for Adam to ‘keep’ the garden. As part of the love expressed in Adam, Eve was created as a ‘helpmeet’, not only as an assistant to Adam with his duties in keeping the garden, but primarily as an ideal mutual expression for love, for they were each in God’s spiritual image.
From the above explanation we can say that humanity continues to exist for the same reasons: to love. Regrettably, since the events described in Genesis chapter 3, this has often not been our primary concern. Does this imply that we have to keep on trying over and over again until we get it right? John 17:23, effectively negates the need to keep returning, for Jesus says that He has ‘perfected’ us in Him and in The Father, for the Father’s mercy is eternal and all encompassing.
