The meaning of life: A scientific approach

It all starts with asking a few philosophical questions, such as 

“What is this life all about” and “Why am I here?”

Humanity has been searching for the answers for thousands of years but the questions concerning the meaning of life seem to come from gazing at the stars.

In Ancient Greece, philosophers like Plato followed by Aristotle asked these very same questions and they were on a quest to try to explain the meaning of existence. In trying to do so they turned to the night sky, they thought if they could explain the natural world and our significance in the universe, they could explain the meaning of life. You could say this was probably the birth of science. Throughout human history people have used religious beliefs to explain the significance of their existence, from an idea that the answer to those questions will be revealed to you by a supernatural force. This view point is still wildly popular today and people still turn to religions that claim to have all the answers. Holding the idea that what you believe on faith and your behavior in regard to your beliefs provide the significance. One thing these religious answers have in common is the belief and reliance on the afterlife.

Religion and science were born from the same questions but do not exist for the same reasons.

You might feel like a scientific approach to the meaning of life is bleak and dull, depressing and confusing. Allow me to convince you that it is much more marvelous than you think.

Science is built upon asking questions; in fact that is what the scientific method is all about, asking the right questions and following a process that weeds out your “emotional desire” for the outcome as well as the faults of human perception, so that whatever the answer may be, it’s a factual answer. Science is based on one belief; that reality is worth understanding, that knowing the truth is better than believing a lie, that searching for the real answer will always bring about more marvelous and amazing answers than trying to keep the world small. So you must carry one belief around with you; the belief in truth. From there it is all scientific testable theory.

Religion claims to have all the answers but does not provide evidence, it urges to you deceive yourself in fear of a painful afterlife and discourages any attempt to continue understanding our universe, while denying any new discoveries of that understanding if the facts contradict the beliefs.

Ancient civilizations tried to answer the mystery of our origins by explaining the phenomena of the natural world with the use of all powerful beings. When trying to explain something no one else understands, it is comforting for a little while to assume there is someone much smarter than you out there controlling the universe. Modern religion has evolved from this notion commonly with the help of a few human beings claiming to be of supernatural origin with supernatural powers.

Supernatural explanations for the origin of life and the universe are far more common and have been around much longer.

The reason for a supernatural explanation for our origins and life’s meaning is simply this; humans turn to supernatural understandings at the limit of their own intelligence.
We are programmed by our genetic code to do so, in an earlier edition I discussed why we are capable in believing things that are not true. That explanation applies here.

Let’s say we scientifically explain the origin of life and the universe, should we then abandon those beliefs because now our intelligence is not as limited? Should we change our minds because we now have new information and evidence? Yes.

We have been able to trace our origins back millions of years in which we have discovered that life changes over long periods of time guided by a process called Natural Selection. Yet we are still working on how life got to Earth in the first place and we are extremely close to figuring that out.

That still leaves us with more questions.

Is there other life in the universe? If life got here somehow, where did it originate? Is the universe finite or infinite? Why did the big bang occur? Will the universe ever end? Oh.. the questions go on and on.

What is wonderful is how close we are to answering them. Through asking these questions and taking a scientific approach, accepting the evidence for how the universe works the way it does, we have discovered and been able to explain some really complex stuff.

Neuroscience has come far by studying the psychology of meaning, death anxiety, consciousness, and the origins of morality and happiness, etc.

Astrophysicists have been able to answer the question that the universe had a beginning and that it’s expanding rapidly, they are currently looking for other planets capable of containing life, studying the potential fate of the universe, and working on a unified field theory to bring together quantum mechanics and general relativity. They are closer than ever before in understanding how matter on a microscopic level came into existence and some theoretical physicists are working on figuring out the possibility of multiple universes and string theory.

Biologists have explained the origins of the variety of species on our planet and are still trying to answer the questions of how life began on Earth, through that process they have answered many questions explaining certain phenomena in human behavior and helped us to better understand ourselves.

You’re probably considering how complex all these questions have come and that it may be pointless to examine this any further, it’s easier to believe in the supernatural.

However, I ask that you consider the following;

What if there is no such thing as an afterlife? What if this is your only life?

Would you want to waste it in delusion just because it makes you feel better right now?

If you’re wrong about it, seems like a shameful waste.

To quote Carl Sagan:

This is what science has come to for now, we are in the moment where we cannot currently define what life is all about, but we live in a much more exciting time, we get to be the ones who will discover it.

A scientific approach to life takes bravery and fearlessness, it is not a bleak and cold view of life, it is the understanding that life is beautifully complex and it matters whether or not something is actually true. It is so marvelous, complex, and wonderful, we have been given a brief moment to experience it’s awe and beauty with the capacity to try to understand it for future generations.

Throughout Sagan’s work he explains the purpose in science and how to cope with letting go of delusions and accepting reality for what it is.

“The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counter-intuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what’s true” 

What if the purpose for us right now is to use our abilities and our fantastic minds to understand just how complex and awesome reality actually is? Understand that no one has been given any superior knowledge to what you know. No one knows the answers for certain., but if we hold onto delusions, that will prevent us from ever knowing. 

Once we accept the truth that we don't know and humble ourselves from the heights of delusional certainty, maybe one day we can unravel life's mysteries together.

Because...