THE PROBLEM OF LIFE’s PURPOSE blindly. He may mean well, but well-meaningness is not a substitute for knowledge of purpose. Obviously the perfect way to know the purpose of the thing is to find out from its maker: any other method leaves too many loopholes for error. Apply this principle to man himself: we cannot use ourselves aright nor help any other man till we know what man is for: we can meddle with him, tinker with him, mean well to him, but save in a limited way we cannot help him. Here we must make a short digression. There are only two ways in which anything can come to be. Either it is intentional or accidental: that is, either someone intended it or it merely chanced. The thing that is intentional has a purpose: accidents have no purpose. Humanity, like other things, must be either an accident and so purposeless, or else have been made with intent. Catholics know that man was made, and made by an intelligent Being who knew the purpose of His own action. Further, God who made us and knew what He made us for, has told us what He made us for. Accepting His Word, we know the purpose of our existence, and we can proceed to live intelligently according to it. Short of this knowledge, intelligent living is not possible for us. For apart from God’s own statement as to what He had in mind when He made us, we have no way of knowing. We cannot tell ourselves : the scientist can tell us what we are made of, or rather what our bodies 13