Now What - 2

Last week I started a posting with the reflection that I think about or read about something and then I come across an article or presentation exactly about what I was thinking about. Today it happens again. Yesterday my post was titled " Now What?"

In today's First Things posting, here's a quote in the 2nd paragraph:
"Not only did the space program give a general boost to all the technological sciences, but after we landed on the moon, what goal was left?" Or, Now What.

They give a perspective in the article:
"To be a religious believer is to know that the hungers of the human heart will not find fulfillment without God, but even religious believers benefit from goals short of the ecstatic vision of the divine. A people without any temporal horizons—without any historical purpose or vision of the future—grow enervated and decadent, and they begin to follow strange gods, who promise them meaning."

Is having a bad goal better than having no goals? Maybe in the absence of defined goals a base goal of nature, acting in ones best self interest, becomes dominant and we become, as in the animals in the chronicles of Narnia, less talking beasts and merely beasts. I can applaud my children for having a goal to beat a particular computer game. I can encourage them to redirect that energy toward something more useful for life. Although, I know a certain person who might argue that playing Bubble Trouble for a few hours is really a form of relaxation that clears the mind of the mundane and refreshes the soul for more philosophical pursuits. Sort of cleansing the palate between sips of wine. Or maybe it's just fun.