Existential Difference Among Humans
In your response, you explained that existential questions may remain dormant due to environment, distraction, social conditioning, or psychological adaptation similar to how other human capacities can remain underdeveloped because of life circumstances. However, this explanation seems comparable to ordinary worldly abilities that fade or remain unused due to practical constraints. My concern is deeper,,if human beings are truly created for eternal life and accountability, and if this is the ultimate purpose of existence, then shouldn’t the longing to understand one’s destiny after death be intense, central, and universal? If a person truly knows that their life has eternal consequences, wouldn’t addressing these existential questions naturally take priority over all other concerns? Other distractions should appear secondary, and one would feel compelled to resolve these questions before fully committing to worldly pursuits. Yet in reality, this deep craving for eternal truth does not appear universally intense. It varies greatly from person to person, some feel it strongly, some mildly, and many hardly at all. If this longing is truly fundamental to human nature, why is its intensity so inconsistent? Additionally, your previous answer felt more like a defense of the religious position rather than a complete resolution of the tension I am pointing out. It explains how the drive may become suppressed, but it does not fully address why something described as humanity’s ultimate purpose does not manifest as a universally dominant concern. So how do we distinguish between a genuinely built-in, universal purpose and a powerful yet variable psychological or cultural inclination?