What is the predicament that best describes mankind's deepest longings in his search for meaningfulness? Is it boiled down to liberation from bondage? In many ways, yes. Now secondarily, what is it we seek liberation from? The naturalist (-defined as those who believe nothing exists outside of physical nature) seeks freedom from the yoke of slavery placed upon it by moral influences, thinking true freedom lies in the continual pursuit of hedonistic pleasures, or at least making room for that possibility. The moralist seeks freedom from the bondage of evildoing that so easily entices our senses, thinking true freedom lies in the continual pursuit of self-denial. On the surface you might find little common ground, as both life goals here seem mutually exclusive. But look at little deeper. Both agree there is a human predicament, and both feel convinced of a possibility to overcome it. Both agree the pursuit of a higher purpose exists. Is the human predicament almost always defined as freedom from something through bondage to another? Your philosophy fueled by free-will, like it our not, provides your guide to living. It fuels your quest for meaning. Even the nihilistic naturalist must admit on some level that his rejection of meaning has some purpose to fill (yes, even selfishness has purpose and meaning). The next trap to avoid is thinking if we are going to talk about things not perceived by the senses, we then are restricted to metaphor. Those who wish can satisfy their intent, as if it were an animal let out of a cage, to find more meaning in meaninglessness; more purpose in purposelessness. The more ingenious we are in our defenses of such elaborate theories of the “self”, which have an importance quite apart from our own designs, we recognize false mental images of perfection are confused with real ones. Any imagined possibility of perfection, whether perfectly evil or perfectly good, does at once claim recognition as that which is ludicrously untrue and impossible. What then is the true meaning behind our quest for meaningfulness?