Never before in the history of man has a means for understanding and thereby achieving the life proper for human-beings right here on earth been so well conceptualized. Aristotle gave us the beginning. A definition of rationality based on the fact that reality exists and that mans mind is capable of knowing that and understanding what it is and how it operates. Now Ayn Rand has given us the end. Her conceptualization of the fact that intelligence is only achievable by the rational use of mans mind and that man’s mind is worthy of possessing it. Aristotle missed the opportunity to define a rational code of ethics. Over the intervening hundreds of years that miss has cost the human species untold suffering and death at the hands of lunatics, maniacs, dictators and all other forms of Platonistic mystically based religious leaders that sprang up, unanswered, as they proclaimed themselves to be the means to mans salvation. Aristotle did not (was not able to) properly interpret the method by which the human mind forms concepts and thereby catalogs knowledge transforming it into intelligence. Instead he formulated the concept of essence to explain the means of mans acquisition of knowledge. Aristotle believed that knowledge about the nature of things, that being the existence of their essential characteristics; is inherent within those things. That man’s mind innately grasps this existence because of his nature as being the rational animal. Aristotle's use of this single concept is responsible for keeping him from properly identifying the conceptual method of human intelligence.
This book is the result of a father’s discovery of the true and factual meaning and purpose of his life discovered as a result of his need to know it following his daughter’s death.
This book is a direct result of my journey to discover who I am and why I am here. I have discovered that the purpose and course of my life is determined in the same manner as yours. It matters not who you are or what your particular circumstance is. It doesn’t matter if you have lost a child to death or not. It doesn’t even matter if you have children or not. It matters not if you are a murderer or a saint; gay or straight; male or female; first world citizen or jungle savage; plant or animal. The purpose for living is the same for all living things. A rather intriguing claim isn’t it. But it’s true just the same, as you will soon discover.
My name is James W. Peterson; in the year this book was first published, 2003, I was 62 years old. I am a retired General Motors Manufacturing Engineer living near Lansing, the capital city of Michigan. I am married with three children, one of whom died in August of 1980. Therein is my purpose for writing this book. I am not a professional writer. I trust you will take this into consideration as you read this book.
If you have experienced the death of a child my experience is not different from yours in any important way. But the story of how I came about my particular experience probably is. We comprise a very special society of humans, you and me. We are parents of children who died before we did. It’s not supposed to happen that way. Because we did lose a child to death we are experts in the field of pain and grieving. We are not proud, but we realize that we have gained knowledge of how life operates that can be achieved in no other way. We have experienced the very worst pain a human can experience and remain alive. It is by their experiences that human beings gain knowledge. We have experienced more of what living offers than most people; therefore, we have more to say about what life is and how we are related to it.
The beginning of my struggle to learn the truth about life, about myself, and how these are related; began in August 1980 with Kristin’s death. The result of that struggle as reflected by the knowledge I have acquired is what I will share with you.
This book is my discovery of the true meaning of life as provided to me by God. It is by discovering what knowledge The Mind of God holds and how it was acquired that one comes to understand what the truth is. The truth is available to all rational persons, but each person must acquire it by their own intellectual effort.
By an Aristotelian style of argument; the truth is what it is, and it will be the same truth for all persons. If I have indeed discovered the truth about the content and functioning of The Mind of God and how it explains the truth, that truth will not be different for you in any important way. There is no such thing as a truth which is true for me but is not also true for you. This is called an opinion. Opinions are not truths and as such they can be false for all who consider them to be true.