Why Survival Isn't Enough: The Deep Human Need to Matter

Morality does not need a divine source to have a a rationality behind it. That was actually what turned me into an atheist when I was 12 years old because I read Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian. He goes after that argument that without God there could be no grounding for right or wrong and and and basically it's this argument that goes back to Plato that is That either God has a reason for saying murder is wrong and charity is good. The longing to matter is demonstrably so much stronger because people will martyr themselves, they will sacrifice their own life if it means demonstrating that they matter.

That's what martyrdom is all about. Life is a ceaseless struggle against entropy. Consciousness, knowledge, reflection, beauty, love, compassion, forgiveness. Tolerance, grace, creativity, happiness, they are states of great order that must be rested and with the expenditure of energy from the entropic transformation from within. Wow, that's it.

All right, hey everybody, it's Michael Shermer and it's time for another episode of the Michael Shermer Show, brought to you by the Skeptic Society and Skeptic magazine. To support our work and to subscribe, go to skeptic.com slash Subscribe. That's super simple. Skeptic.com slash subscribe.

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