Ask an atheist: Does the universe have a purpose? | Michael Shermer | Big Think

Ask an atheist: Does the universe have a purpose?
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While bestselling author and skeptic Michael Shermer doesn't believe in God or any outside force that cares about us, he also doesn't believe that the existence of one would give our lives meaning.

Shermer argues that it is up to us to create purpose for ourselves in various ways, including through meaningful work, familial and romantic relationships, and a connection and respect for the wonder of nature.

"It doesn't matter what happens billions of years from now or whether there's a God or not, whether there's an afterlife or not," he says. "It's irrelevant. This is the life that matters."
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MICHAEL SHERMER:

Dr. Michael Shermer is the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine, a monthly columnist for Scientific American, and Presidential Fellow at Chapman University.

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TRANSCRIPT:

MICHAEL SHERMER: Does the universe have a purpose? Okay, this is the biggest question of all. I think in part it's not quite the right question because people are asking it as if there's something out there that knows we're here and cares about us. As a nonbeliever I don't think that's the case. I think it's up to us to care. But the scientific study of the universe shows what in the universe would care? I mean the space-time continuum, stars, galaxies... What is there to care about us other than us? And the answer is nothing. Now, of course the theists says no, God is out there and God knows about us and cares about us. But how would that give your life purpose? It's up to you to create purpose in your life, not for some external source. What people are looking for is somebody to tell them what the purpose of their life is and that's the wrong way to search. The search is to go inside and go what is the purpose of my life? Now, the scientific answer that I give in the book is it starts with the second law of thermodynamics which I call the first law of life. That is entropy, the running down of the universe is what happens if you do nothing.

So if you have your warm cup of coffee and you do nothing it just gets cold. If you don't clean your room it just stays cluttered. If you don't wash your car it stays dirty, and so on. So the first law of life is to fight back against entropy. Carve out a little niche of order. Wash our car, heat your coffee, clean your room, brush your teeth. and so on and so forth. Then you build from there. Like okay, we know from scientific research by social psychologists, personality psychologists, and there's even a branch of psychology now people that study purpose and meaning. And there's certain things you could do that give your life purpose and meaning. So meaningful work. A reason to get up in the morning, get out the door and go out and do something productive. Family, having some kind of group of people that care about you, that love you, that you care about them and you love them. Marriage or partnership or just one person that you love and that they love you and that acknowledges you as a worthwhile person. And then there's something called spirituality. Now I want to be careful here because that word is almost always associated with mainstream religions, but here I mean it in a much broader sense. A sense of awe and wonder at things that are bigger than us.

The universe, the cosmos or any kind of meditative state, prayer. Just kind of walking in nature and looking up at massive trees or the ocean. There's something about standing up on a high hill or cliff and looking out at an ocean, or a grassy field, or a forest that evokes awe and wonder in people. And that's kind of the spirituality that makes people feel like wow, my life I am so lucky to be alive. And if you think about all the trillions of people that could have been born that never were, the 7.5 billion of us alive now, the hundred billion of us that came before. We are the lucky ones. I mean most people that could have been born were never even born to be given this opportunity. And even if you're a theist and you believe there's an afterlife, but let's just ask the question. Where were you before you were born? When you ask the question where do you go after you die? The same place. You didn't exist, then you exist, then you don't exist. Even if I'm wrong and it turns out there's an afterlife, and I talk about this in the book, it doesn't matter because we don't live in...

[bigthink]

What do you think, does the universe have a purpose?

[viktorask]

Man we only live fraction of sec in universe time scale. Enjoy, who cares. Meditate and find for yourself. He is very right.

[statisticaldemystic]

The fundamental existential crisis - we are each responsible for authoring our own meaning. A terrifying responsibility, at least for some of us.

[miskatonicalumni]

Of course the universe has a purpose!


It's 42.

[philosophicalharmonics]

The reason we feel awe when looking at big things is because the mind create a 3d spatial model of the world around us and we are actually _feeling_ the expansiveness of that model. Once you figure that out you can actually play with that model and make small things seem big and big things seem small. Pretty trippy.

[schwarzwolfram]

“Everyone wants to believe they're ‘chosen’. But if we all waited around for a prophecy to make us special, we'd die waiting; and that's why you need to choose yourself.” ~ Eda Clawthorne

[expfcwintergreenv.]

I am the eyes of the universe observing itself
I am a quantum disorder generator
Every thought spawns a new dimension in the multiverse

[wisdom-for-all]

If we are not careful, what we desire can become our “god”. There is always a purpose for everything. Stay safe 🖖

[aRAsgym]

Most people come to this conclusion after tripping on psychedelics, yet there is a bunch of intellectual people that acknowledge it sober, and I admire them.

[JKDVIPER]

4:39 Ok, point taken. “Would it be proper of me to presume that.. I can then theoretically do anything I’d like in that case. No afterlife, no god? Why be good? See the problem

[JKDVIPER]

Explain to me why human beings keep butchering each other? Can you explain child molesters? Can you explain war? If evil exists then so does god.

[Arbbymer]

Honestly, I would have loved if the guy just came on screen for 3 seconds, said "no" and then the video ends.

[rezadaneshi]

None whatsoever. We're the meaning making machine because we need not to be an accident. Every one of us is a one in a trillion chance. Give it a Google worth of chance and we'd be everywhere.

[philosophicalharmonics]

The trickiness of the god explanation for purpose is that the god is not physical by definition. So merely mentioning it also implies there is another (at least one more) plane of reality. And people will say their spirit is on that plane.

So they are saying a human being occupies at least 2 planes of reality at the same time. This is significant because the physical universe appears to just be a display that outputs data, like a computer monitor but in 3 dimensions instead of 2. And a monitor doesn't determine what is displayed, a computer does, which is on an other-than-monitor plane of existence, if you will.

So the search for higher purpose, or purpose that transcends the physical, would naturally take you to that higher plane.

[paulramirez]

"To live in the hearts we leave behind is to never die... "

[SS-pqci]

It's a weird phenomenon that atheists need their own "preachers".

[nitish]

We are all the same, moving towards a ideal thing called god, but each one of us are in different pase and phase. Sooner or later we have to realize.

[sussekind]

Does the universe have a purpose? No.
Does life have a purpose? That is for you to decide. You can dedicate your life to minimizing the suffering of others or you could dedicate your life to the mediation of suffering unto others.
It's all up to you.

[franklinayala]

God is the answer, just get into Christianity! Trust me

[jamesclancy]

I have purpose, and purposes, therefore the universe has a purpose. The universe harbours life and therefore it’s purpose is to harbour life. It has been said that “it is your purpose to align your heart with the heart of the universe”. A beautiful figure of speech.