In the first part of this anti-sermon, I outlined the proclivity human beings have for seeking meaning. It’s clear that there is some sort of hardwired inclination built into human brains to discern meaning in life, whether it’s rooted in genetics, nature, evolution, biological coincidences, or some mix of these and more. Whatever the reason for this inclination may be, there’s no question that it is both present and highly relevant. (See Part 1 above for more evidence of this.)
I’ve concluded that the reality of this concept of meaning is far less prevalent than what our brains perceive, and I’ve even gone as far as stating that there is virtually no evidence the world has any intrinsic meaning at all. Going even further, it appears as though the search for meaning is wholeheartedly foolish, unnecessary, and perhaps a pernicious endeavor. These words may lead you to believe that I’m extremely negative, nihilistic, cynical… synonyms. And that I think everything is pointless and nothing we do matters. Well...
Yes, on some level I do think everything is pointless and nothing we do matters. A Google search of these themes will typically produce links to suicide hotlines and horribly depressing internet forums, so I write this knowing full well that it will largely be interpreted in precisely the way that I hope it won’t be. I’m aware of the conclusions you’re probably formulating, so just shut up and listen, and allow me to really drill down into what I mean. I’ll try to keep it brief… just a nice, sharp drilling… like a worm into an apple. Or a pencil into an eraser (what?). Or a drill bit into something that drills go into. Or a… sorry. Enough of whatever this was...
What I’m trying to say with the words “nothing matters” is this: Meaning is nothing more than a construct humans have created based on perceptions and misconceptions about reality. There are things that matter more than others in the sense of evolution and utility and individual well-being, but the idea that the universe itself cares what we do or has any sentience whatsoever is incredibly naive.
Bedtime stories for my future children.
The realization that everything we presently know to be true within the universe is merely based on whatever meaning we have assigned to it is certainly a jarring one (but also a logical one: what we have said is based on things that we have said… Holy shit!). But I don’t view the realization of meaninglessness as harsh or even negative for that matter. I think it’s a realization that is liberating rather than debilitating.
In a world with no obligations to the universe, no built in tasks to get into God’s good graces, no requisite grand gestures, we are free to just live. We are free to come to our own conclusions about good and evil, free to devise and revise moral codes, and free to make our own choices about the direction of ourselves, as individuals, and ourselves, as the human race.
If you’re the kind of person who is cripplingly fearful of boredom, scared of introspection, afraid of awareness, terrified of the unknown, and scared of making decisions, then too much freedom can be debilitating. But freedom on the whole should be a good thing. It’s the primary reason Americans say that they live in the greatest country in the world! (Side note: America isn't the only county that has freedom. Thanks Will McAvoy.) Also, freedom is defined by qualities of liberation, opportunity, and power, and these words are basically synonyms. Summary: freedom is probably good. Wow. Uau! (wow).
A common counter-argument that arises when debating the worthlessness of meaning is that faith in meaning is the foundation of human morality, and without it we would be lost in a sea of moral chaos. But if this is the case, then why do all humans generally share the same moral compass despite believing in vastly different mystical deities and concepts? People of all faiths and none are largely compatible in their understanding of reason and empathy, and while there are plenty of violent and psychotic people in the world, it would be pretty difficult to argue that evil acts are more likely to come from non-believers than believers.
But even if you disregard the problem of faith-fueled terrorism, there’s still not much basis to support the claim that meaning, faith, and belief are the foundations of human morality. Sure, some valuable lessons come from religious teachings, and camaraderie is a craving that we all share, but the fact that mutually incompatible ideologies are somehow compatible in their accomplishment of these things essentially proves that meaning is not a core requirement for our well-being. Toddlers have no concept of meaning (or language for that matter), and they still manage to effectively understand and empathize with the happiness and suffering of other people. Clearly a deeper principle must be at work...
If you’ve gotten to this point and aren’t fully convinced, here comes the real convincing… and the explanation of why your intrinsic belief in the value of meaning can hurt you, both mentally and physically:
The shackles of belief
I used this test in a previous post but I’ll say it again because I like it so much. Try saying this aloud:
“All of those people who crash their cars are idiots. That would never happen to me!”
While the nervousness caused by speaking this phrase is understandable, if you’re superstitious to the point where you can’t muster the courage to say it without knocking on wood, throwing some salt, knotting your shoes to your face, or whatever superstitious people do, then you’re doing yourself a huge disservice. There’s an anxiety caused by belief and meaning that makes certain words and phrases uncomfortable to say and hear, and there’s a psychological cost to the constant distress. Small amounts of these feelings are fine or perhaps even beneficial, but it doesn’t take much of them to cause yourself excessive stress and panic.
It’s recently become obvious to me that superstitions are generally rooted in faith and meaning; a superstitious ritual is always based on a belief in something. Knocking on wood or saying “God forbid” immediately following a spookily worded utterance implies a fear that your words mean something. What is the point of a superstitious tendency? The answer is simple: To shield yourself against abstract repercussions, or more specifically, the fear of abstract repercussions. It’s an endless maze of useless mind games.
Then why do we want meaning?
The inherent belief in meaning dates back to the origins of human history, and the human race has been reliant on instincts for the entirety of its existence. During hunter-gatherer times it made sense to see every pattern or coincidence as meaningful, because the repercussions of missing a sign were often deadly. Any gnawed off tree bark could mean that a bear was lurking nearby, waiting to come tear your guts out, so it made sense to assume that every missing branch meant that a bear was around. Jumping to conclusions and seeing too much meaning was a necessary tactic for our ancestors, and that tendency has evolved to become a part of the modern day human mind.
Cave people were smart enough to deduce that certain footprints represented the proximity of predators, and this type of awareness level in humans generally differentiates us from other animals. Most living things aren’t looking for meaning, so they can't protect themselves as effectively. So yea, go humans! Humans all the way! We’re the best! Humans are #1! Well yea, obviously (says the biased human). But it’s not really that simple.
Peter Tse, a neuroscientist at Dartmouth, willingly acknowledges that this sort of reasoning capability was immensely useful for hunting and gathering. But implied causation caused some extreme misinformation as well, such as the belief that throwing babies into volcanoes would appease the Gods and prevent rain (Supposedly the data once supported this behavior... Fuck you pre-historic Nate Silver). Assigning meaning to everything has some obvious utility, but also the potential for some severely dreadful consequences.
Kids got an A+ for throwing their faces in the volcano. Notice the tremendous effort.
So we’ve established that there is no evidence for meaning in the world, but that the search for meaning is hardwired inside our skulls. Well fuck, that is unfortunate. Would be nice if we could just be perfectly rational. Oh well. It was once useful to always look for meaning, but there’s not much of a reason to be scared of bears anymore unless you live at the North Pole or something (in which case you’ve got bigger problems anyway, like these cannibalistic reindeer).
Belief is dangerous
Even if we do acknowledge that believing in something is possibly beneficial, this does nothing to verify its verity. The inverse is true as well; the possibility that an unknown alien overlord exists is not evidence that it’s good for us to conduct ourselves in any specific way either. Even if we can’t ‘prove’ that there is no universal meaning or ‘prove’ that meaning is bad for us, it doesn’t mean we should just assume that one or both of these things is a productive ideology to organize our lives around. No one needs to act irrationally in the face of the unknown.
Belief has detrimental consequences for more than just psychological and practical reasons. Belief is probably bad for the psyche, and probably bad for the individual in general, but beyond that, there’s an even scarier impact on humanity as a whole. The search for meaning has led to conflicting religious beliefs, and the obvious repercussions of tension and war. Attributing much of the world’s violence to belief is not a revolutionary idea. But perhaps what’s more important is the inevitability that belief will always be an impediment to scientific progress.
This is where we get to the core of the problem: The most impactful fundamental trait of belief is rigidity. Belief requires conviction beyond the truth of what we know; some amount of faith that our ideas are valid and true despite incomplete information. With this mindset, new evidence is given less consideration than it otherwise would be, and this defaults to what is at best a limited capacity to adapt to new information, and at worst a complete unwillingness to change. Belief is inherently incompatible with truth, and that is an enormous problem.
Here are some of the scientific impediments caused by meaning, belief, and faith:
- If we believe everything happens for a meaningful reason, we will never fully grasp the concepts of statistics and probability (and the role of luck in our lives).
- If we believe we are obligated to procreate, we will face an increasing overpopulation problem, and fail to utilize a blatantly obvious solution: adoption (which would obviously help orphans too).
- If we believe a greater force has strategically manufactured our world, we will never fully understand the structure of our physical and metaphysical realities.
- If we believe in the universality of simplistic themes and explanations, we will never fully understand complex problems like terrorism, global warming, and artificial intelligence.
- If we believe in souls, we will never fully understand the inner-workings of the human mind.
- If we believe in eternal meaning, we will never fully grasp the magnitude of death, and we will never fully grasp the puzzle of human morality.
The more we understand the existence of these difficult problems, the more we can be equipped to solve them. But even if it’s true that belief merely slows us down (rather than halting us completely) we still may be slowed down enough where it makes the difference between human salvation and human extinction.
And instead of removing these shackles, we continue to play up false narratives and safeguard disastrously poor reasoning skills.
“Don’t be stupid, friends!”
Operating in a world devoid of meaning
Let’s assume that you actually agree at this point that meaning isn’t necessary, is probably bad for us, and might even be catastrophic. So what now? What do we do? How does one avoid a complete meltdown into nihilism?
The best part about a meaningless world is that it has no meaning (a joke could go here… insert laugh… via the joke). With the restrictions removed from our thoughts, there is far more space to creatively navigate and operate. Personally, I embrace this freedom. This freedom allows for the acknowledgement of how absurd and ridiculous it is that we even exist at all. As the great modern philosopher Joe Rogan likes to say, “If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the universe.”
"Science, bitches!"
I think there's a sense of gratitude that is increasingly maximized as you remove the false obstructions of meaning. A movement towards absolute truth naturally coincides with a movement away from absolute meaning, and a better understanding of absolute truth increases appreciation for the miracle that is the human conscious experience. People who “believe” are generally under the impression that someone or something has given them their fortunes and misfortunes, but a non-believer is aware that everything is likely sheer coincidence. The cliche “Why does this always happen to me?” question becomes increasingly nonsensical the more you shed your beliefs. The question implies that a greater being or greater energy has intentions for your life, and to realize that this is not the case is to reach new levels of understanding and liberation.
The question then becomes: What do we do when life is unburdened of the obligation to a greater end? And how do I handle this freedom? One possible answer is to “Do whatever my next impulse tells me to do, because none of this matters anyway.” I don’t really agree with this nihilistic line of thinking. Despite the lack of obligatory responsibility to ourselves and other people, it is a fact that we are conscious. We aren’t obligated to do anything in the sense of universal fulfillment, but given that our minds are consciously aware and express a clear desire to live and prosper, maximizing consciousness seems like the best way to proceed. Just because there are no obligations doesn’t mean life isn’t worth living. And just because there are no absolute moral truths doesn’t mean we can’t attempt to make the best of this preposterous existence.
So no, there is no wholesale change to your day to day life that is necessitated by the shedding of the idea that the universe has inherent meaning, but a change in awareness is a reasonable adjustment to make. And as a result of this adjustment, you may find yourself more willing to seek truth and understand reality, more willing to live in the present, more willing to appreciate people, to appreciate your surroundings, to love, to be happy, and all the other cliche bullshit. (I sense I'm getting too sentimental for some of you… don't mock me!!)
Wrapping up this mindfuck
The conclusion I’ve come to about absolute meaning appears infallible: Even if there is meaning to existence, what is the meaning of that meaning? What is the meaning of the meaning of the meaning? What is the meaning of the meaning of the meaning of the... (is it okay for me to stop yet?) No matter how apparent you think meaning is, you can always zoom out far enough where it’s infinite nature becomes obvious. It’s like seeing the fraction ⅓, and assuming those .3’s will eventually end. Nope there’s another 3. And another. And it’s over? Nope there’s more. They will never fucking stop!
But while absolute meaning cannot possibly exist, it’s difficult to say whether individual lives have meaning or not. An argument of this nature tends to result in a language or semantic disconnect (trust me, I’ve done it), and no matter how many examples and explanations I give, there is still virtually no chance that I can make everyone relate to the exact way my brain perceives this issue. Meaning on the individual level is incredibly complex.
There’s another counter argument that I’ll slip in here as I wrap this up. A lot of what I’m arguing is based on the assumption that humans have the capacity to understand and comprehend truth. While I think most people will agree that this assumption is true in a general sense, it is certainly not true for all people. So for those people who have limited capacity for whatever reason, (disease, brain damage, mental disorders, or just severe lack of reasoning skills) it may be better to rely on beliefs in order to avoid utter confusion and chaos. But for most people, increased awareness and knowledge is probably a good thing, and it’s definitely a good thing for human progression overall.