Lives on Earth

purpose

  • Forgiveness and the Second Law of Thermodynamics

    The Second Law of Thermodynamics has seemed depressing to me. It states that anything left to itself, without new energy to sustain its structure, will become increasingly disordered. Molecules of different gasses in a container will move around until they… Continue reading

  • The Purpose Problem

    Years ago I heard about a book on the purpose-driven life. I rushed to a bookstore (ah, bookstores), only to find that it was mostly about God. But I realized then that I had uncertainties that had snuck up on… Continue reading

  • Finding Spirituality in Science

    I presented this lecture at the college and community Science Seminar at Raritan Valley Community College in New Jersey in January 2016. My thanks to Dr. Paul Scheuler, organizer of the series. The talk focuses on three questions about life… Continue reading

  • Finding Meaning at Auschwitz

    Austrian psychiatrist Victor Frankl endured five months of slave labor at Auschwitz towards the end of the war. In his powerful classic about that experience, Man’s Search for Meaning, he stresses how a prisoner’s sense of purpose and meaning helped… Continue reading

  • Spiritual Naturalism

    Many people find their spiritual resource in the universe as a whole, in the cosmos and its physical foundations. But for the questions I have about life, the entire universe is not a very helpful source. My questions are three:… Continue reading

  • The Brain’s Offspring

    A theme of this blog has been that the purpose of life—our sense of a direction, or our craving for one—is rooted in our biological drive to survive and thrive. I’ve felt confident in that belief, but I’ve also been… Continue reading

  • Living As Meaning

    “What is The Meaning of Life”—people either ignore or embrace the question depending on how hard it grabs them by the shoulders and shakes them.  My own answer is that being alive is, in itself, in ways we are rarely… Continue reading

    Living As Meaning