📖 Biblical Definition
The Argument from Meaning holds that the universal human longing for meaning — for ultimate purpose, for life that matters — cannot be adequately explained by purely naturalistic frameworks. If the universe is finally meaningless, the persistent human conviction that it must have meaning is unaccountable. C. S. Lewis's argument from desire (we have desires that nothing in this world can satisfy; therefore we are made for another world) is a version. Meaning's reality requires a Meaning-maker.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
(Theistic argument.) The universal longing for meaning implies a transcendent ground beyond pure naturalism.
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C. S. Lewis's argument from desire (Mere Christianity, book III): humans have desires (for hunger, for thirst, for sex) corresponding to objects that exist; we also have desires (for ultimate meaning, for unending joy, for transcendent love) that no earthly object can satisfy; therefore the object must exist beyond this world.
Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning (1946) gives empirical support: concentration-camp survivors were those who held to meaning. Without meaning, persons collapse. The empirical resilience of meaning-needs argues for their non-illusory nature.
📖 Key Scripture
Ecclesiastes 3:11 — "He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end."
Psalm 42:1 — "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God."
Augustine, Confessions 1.1 — "Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee."
Romans 8:23 — "We ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern existentialism often confronts meaninglessness as the human condition; Christianity holds that the meaning-longing is itself evidence of meaning's reality.
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Ecclesiastes 3:11 is suggestive: he hath set the world [eternity] in their heart. The Hebrew olam can mean ‘world’ or ‘eternity’; either way, an infinite-shaped longing has been planted. Meaningless universes do not equip their products with infinite-shaped longings.
Augustine's Confessions opens with the great line: thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee. The restless heart is its own apologetic; the resting heart is its own confirmation.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Modern English term; ancient Christian tradition.
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English meaning; from mean, to intend.
Note: closely related to the existential question, the question of significance, the question of purpose.
Usage
"He hath set eternity in their heart."
"Meaningless universes do not equip their products with infinite-shaped longings."
"The restless heart is its own apologetic."