Nothing Happens for a Reason
Meanwhile, away from space punk and beer cans, here’s a short-and-sweet piece about how nothing has meaning (via my beautiful Karma). Some excerpts:
We humans are meaning-making machines. We want, even need to see meaning in our lives. We look for patterns, for answers, for signs from the divine, to psychics, tarot cards, astrology, and psychology to give us the answers we desire.
And:
It is a weighty thing to accept that this life we each live really has no grand meaning. We are not pawns on a cosmic chessboard, and we are not here to discover meaning. We are the script writers of our own existence, and we are solely responsible for the life we create, the meanings we attribute to our lives, and the ways we interpret our existence. It is not at all a hopeless thing to surrender to meaninglessness; it can be one of the most empowering ways of being. When I accept that I am fully responsible for the creation of my life’s meaning, I can choose how to lead my life. I can see tragedy as the sum total of who I am, or I can see it as a stroke on the canvas of my life. I can choose to see the trash on the freeway or the flowers dancing softly in the wind
And finally, a beautiful quote at the end of the post:
What is demanded of man is not, as some existential philosophers teach, to endure the meaninglessness of life, but rather to bear his incapacity to grasp its unconditional meaningfulness in rational terms. — Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (1959/1984), p. 12
As a female who actively tries to achieve rationality, being a part culture that believes in astrology, luck, and all other kinds of خزعبلات means that I am always getting sucked into useless debates.
Luck (for lack of more politically-correct terminology):
“Do you believe in energy?”
“Yes.”
“Then you must believe in luck.”
“No, I do not know enough about energy nor am I intelligent enough to claim belief in luck, but I do know that randomness rules our world.”
“But energy!”
(I must add here that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT when science-illiterate idiots try to use magnetic fields and magnetic energy as topics to make sense of bullshit. I personally don’t grasp much about either topic, but I can grasp just enough to be able to tell that YOU’RE AN IDIOT.)
Astrology:
“How can you not believe in horoscopes? The alignment of planets on the day you were born really affects your personality, your life, and your future.”
“If distant objects in space are able to influence the character and lives of human beings to the degree alleged by astrologist, then fundamental principles of physics, biology and chemistry which we already take for granted cannot be accurate.”
“But it makes perfect sense!”
“Okay.”
Neuro-linguistic Programming:
“But I’m a certified NLP trainer!”
“And this is why I will never take you seriously. Ever.”
Homeopathy:
“Water is atoms, and atoms remember. That’s why homeopathy works.”
“Aha.”
Crystal Healing:
“This crystal will influence your energy field.”
“Oooh, this crystal is pretty!”
Seeing Ghosts and Other Kinds of ESP:
“But she swears she was visited by her dead aunt.”
“Trauma. Mental disorders. Memories rewrite themselves all the time.”
I know. Most people don’t see the fun in actively seeking rationality. After all, there’s so much more magic in star signs and rabbit feet (I find the Internet to be the most magical thing in existence, so I can’t relate). It’s also easier to pin the misfortunes of our lives on cosmic divinities, but more often than not, things don’t happen for a reason.
It’s not an easy thing to come to terms with. I am constantly reading, thinking, and doubting myself in my war against my own irrationality. Sometimes, I just want to believe what my mother taught me as a child, which is that “everything happens for the best”. But that’s not true. The world is random. It is liberating being honest with oneself.
Huss D
January 27, 2013 @ 12:45 pm
Playboy Magazine: “If life is so purposeless, do you feel that it’s worth living?”
Stanley Kubrick: “Yes, for those of us who manage somehow to cope with our mortality. The very meaninglessness of life forces man to create his own meaning. Children, of course, begin life with an untarnished sense of wonder, a capacity to experience total joy at something as simple as the greenness of a leaf; but as they grow older, the awareness of death and decay begins to impinge on their consciousness and subtly erode their joie de vivre, their idealism – and their assumption of immortality. As a child matures, he sees death and pain everywhere about him, and begins to lose faith in the ultimate goodness of man. But, if he’s reasonably strong – and lucky – he can emerge from this twilight of the soul into a rebirth of life’s elan. Both because of and in spite of his awareness of the meaninglessness of life, he can forge a fresh sense of purpose and affirmation. He may not recapture the same pure sense of wonder he was born with, but he can shape something far more enduring and sustaining. The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent; but if we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death – however mutable man may be able to make them – our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfillment. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.”
Safiya Outlines
January 27, 2013 @ 3:51 pm
I disagree with your last line, this piece comes across far less about liberation then feeling superior to other people.
Sadly, it seems not possible to have any belief system these days without a big part of both the praxis and the discourse being about how other people are stupid and in some way lesser for not having that belief.
For all that the New Atheism/Skeptic/Rationality movement mocks religious and spriritual movements, in this they still perpetuate and indeed trumpet the very worst aspects of belief, managing to sound just as judgmental and self aggrandising as any religious or spiritual person.
Roba
January 27, 2013 @ 3:58 pm
But you misunderstand me; this has nothing to do with either religion or spirituality. From my understanding, most religions also shun concepts like astrology, etc. no?
Safiya Outlines
January 27, 2013 @ 4:07 pm
You’re using pedantry to swerve my point.
Just to reiterate: the New Athiest movement for all it’s distaste towards religion and other religious/spiritual/superstitious beliefs, still manages to ape the worst aspects of holders of these beliefs, since a big part of the New Athiest movment is about how superior it’s followers to those outside of the movment.
Tl;dr Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Roba
January 27, 2013 @ 4:11 pm
But I really am not referring to atheism, new or old :) With that said, I agree with you though; I have seen many atheists who are really frustrating, because logic and rationality has nothing to do with creed. I recently was in a situation where I was very close to beating an atheist up because she was being REALLY stupid/pushy/illogical/insensitive/etc.
But anyway, this post is actually about pseudoscience, which to me is unrelated to atheism, religion, etc.
Reema
January 28, 2013 @ 4:52 pm
Great article and I can see why come comments are referring to Atheism, religion is probably the main and most prominent خزعبلات. You can’t write an article about the meaning of life without someone yelling out “GOD”.
Banna
January 30, 2013 @ 9:38 am
At last, something worth reading!
The crazy ones are filling the media streams with their stupidity, irrationality and hate toward those who are different. It is really sickening to see how the minds are stuffed with canned-ultimate-answers to everything.
Science & rationality are our only way out of this.
Thanks Roba