بررسي ديدگاه تديوس متز در باب خدا و معناي زندگي و نقد آن از ديدگاه علّامه طباطبايي (ره)

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

نظريه خدامحور معناي زندگي بر آن است كه ربط و نسبت خاصّ با خداوند يكي از شرايط ضروري جهت معناداري زندگي مي باشد. تفسيرهاي مختلفي از اين نظريه ارايه شده ، امّا مهم ترين تفسير خدامحور نظريه هدف الاهي است. براساس اين نظريه، تحقّق بخشيدن به هدف خداوند تنها سرچشمه معناداري زندگي است. بر نظريه هدف الاهي نقدهاي بسياري همچون تقابل هدف خداوند با اخلاقي بودن و قدرت مطلق خداوند وارد شده، امّا به اعتقاد تديوس متز مهم ترين اشكال بر اين نظريه، تقابل نظريه هدف الاهي با ديدگاه خدامحور معناي زندگي مي باشد. براساس اين اعتراض اوصافي كه سبب مي شود خداوند يگانه منبع معنا باشد (يعني فرازماني بودن، تغييرناپذيري، و بساطت) با هدفمند بودن خداوند در تعارض است. هدف اين مقاله پاسخ دادن به اين اشكالات براساس انديشه هاي علّامه طباطبايي مي باشد. از ديدگاه علّامه طباطبايي غايت خداوند از آفرينش، ذات متعالي خداوند است و انسان با حركت ذاتي و ارادي خود مراتب وجود به سوي خداوند را سير مي كند و زندگي خويش را معنا مي بخشد.

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 Tabatabai. 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.