I remember many years ago as a young person I was doing what most other young persons do, I was coasting through life without too much direction, at least for a little period. What a person did or did not do seemed to matter very little. What difference did it make where we went or what we did, the only criteria was, did we have a good time, there was no holy curiosity involved at all.
Dr. Scott-Mumby, sent an email to his readers and in the email, he asked the question; “What Is the Real Purpose of Life?” I expected some deep spiritual description of life’s purpose but instead it was a thought that quickly brought me back to earth. He said; “Last week I quoted a lady whose motto is “The purpose of life is living.” I’d like to add that, the purpose of living is to learn. We could never stay as newborn babies; that would not suit the human temperament. Humans instinctively want to learn, to grow, to become wiser in order to improve their existence. That could be argued by a lay person as a realistic purpose for life. That is a Darwinian survival trait—it doesn’t matter, the point is, we want to learn. One of my major mottoes in life is that ‘knowing is Being.’ We are what we know, in other words. To be more, to own more, to create more and to do more, we need to acquire that precious commodity: knowledge. You’ve also heard me say the opposite: that the commonest cause of death is ignorance. If you don’t know stuff, you are at risk. I have spent patient years teaching you what I know…And leading the charge into greater health awareness and greater security. That’s my job! The very word doctor means teacher.” (Dr. Keith Scott-Mumby)
Dr. Scott-Mumby believes that life’s purpose is to learn, it is to become acquainted with the world and how to live a healthy life. His purpose of life never mentions God, the Plan of Salvation, the Savior, nor anything that extended beyond life itself.
To be honest, I was let down even disappointed because I know Dr. Scott-Mumby is a good man and tries to share his knowledge as to how we can live better and healthier lives. However, to say life’s purpose is limited to the brief two words, ‘to learn,’ is a very limited description of life’s purpose. However, if the ‘man on the street’ were asked the same question, the answer would likely be even more shallow than that. Many would say life is to exist, to survive, to find food, have a place to sleep, to have others around us who play a supportive role and help with the survival process. To really live, I believe we must develop what I call a ‘Holy Curiosity,’ even an eternal purpose.
I have described the Plan of Salvation in other articles. The plan does include learning and learning is an important aspect of our life’s purpose. But learning has an eternal purpose and doesn’t end when we pass from this life. This earth was created by our Heavenly Father for us to gain a physical body and to learn and experience a physical planet, to resist evil. However, we are only temporarily mortal, we are eternal in nature, as we always have existed and we always will exist. Our learning goes on and on forever. At some point in eternity we may reach perfection, even as the Father is perfect. That is His wish for us, as His children. We disappoint Him when we become wayward or limit our purpose to learning only what we need to survive while here. I know I shall lay this mortal body down but my spirit will soar on eternally. So will yours, whether you know and understand it or not! Yes! learning is important and yes, it is something we will hopefully do after we leave mortality and if we are lucky we will adopt a holy curiosity. Our learning should include a desire to understand God and our relationship to Him and His son Jesus Christ who sacrificed His life for us.