The second dread the existentialists define is the dread of loneliness, or alienation, or separation from people. It is the same thing God described in the beginning of the book of Genesis when he declared, "It is not good for people to be alone." This dread of loneliness conforms to that second need we have for human relationship or some kind of personal relationship.

The third existential dread that the philosophers identify is the dread of purposelessness. Only philosophers can pile up those "essnessesseses" at the end of words. Purposelessness involves the idea or feeling that my life does not have any meaning. It is the dread of a meaningless life. In an odd way, a meaningless life may lead to a person's abandonment of the will to live. In other words, the first dread becomes less dreadful than the third dread.

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What is interesting is that people in different fields of knowledge keep identifying the need for purpose as something critical for human beings. We could ask, though, is purpose all in our minds? Is it just an idea that we have made up? Some refer to it as a psychological projection of need and desire for purpose. That is, we just have this idea in our minds that we want something, so we imagine that it exists — that there is such a thing as purpose, that there is such a thing as meaning.

This is really a circular argument. It resembles a dog chasing its tail. It is not enough to say that the idea of purpose is just a projection on the universe or something we have imagined. We must still ask, "Where does the idea of purpose come from that we are desiring?" We cannot simply dismiss it as a desire until we have explained where we get this idea of purpose.

I know where we get the idea of water; it falls on our heads. It freezes on a cold January day, and you slip and slide on it on the steps. I know where I get the idea of food; it's not a psychological projection-I have tasted it. I know where I get the idea of people and relationship. Unless people are a figment of my imagination, I have encountered them. Where do we get the idea of purpose and meaning? What happens to us if we do not find a purpose or a sense of meaning in our lives?

If we go back through the literature of people for thousands of years we find this pursuit of purpose and meaning. We can go to Solomon's search for meaning in Ecclesiastes, to the parables of Jesus, or to the literature of the 1920s with Gertrude Stein who looked at her generation at the end of World War I and said "You are a lost generation." That is, they did not know how they fit in. They had no sense of belonging.

My generation was not quite as elegant about saying it. We were "in search of ourselves." I often thought that was a strange thing to say — "I am in search of myself." Where did we suppose we had left ourselves? Where am I, if I am not where I am? I never could understand — if you were not where you were, how could you find yourself if you went looking for yourself somewhere else? But this is part of the struggle of the need for purpose; it's a quest, it's a search, and it's something that cries out for us because we do not want to be just a number. Perhaps we could simply dismiss it as a wish. We do not want to be just a cog in the wheel. Now that desire is internal. But where do we get the idea that there is some alternative? Why the dissatisfaction?