The Problem of Evil. Why Theodicies Are Flawed. (There Are 4 Basic Types of Theodicies)

There are a limited number of “theodicies,” in fact most can be broken down into one of four basic kinds:

Theodicies
  1. “Mysterious Greater Good” Theodicies. God has a cunning plan that cannot fail, so even if we canʼt figure it out who are we to lack faith in it, or in Him?

  2. “Soul Making” Theodicies. God is using evil like an oyster uses a grain of sand, to create a pearl.

  3. Natural Law Theodicies God canʼt make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. And he canʼt build a planet that circulates important minerals without also creating earthquakes. And he canʼt circulate the air and distribute heat in the atmosphere without creating tornadoes and hurricanes. An endless list of things God canʼt do without creatures suffering or dying, sometimes in massive natural disasters, famines, plagues, or even after a lifetime of suffering.

  4. Free Will Theodicies. God wants creatures to love him freely, so he gives us the power to do both good and evil.

But for every theodicy there are simply more questions or even rational rebuttals.


  1. “Mysterious Greater Good” Theodicies.

    Rebuttal: This is not a rational defense but an assertion that rational discussion will not challenge that personʼs belief system. It is to accept blindly the spectrum of suffering “for some greater good,” from minor daily suffering and loses to major ones like mass deaths of animals and people, even if they are deeply troubling, even if one cannot offer rational reasons why God would do or even allow such things.

    People employing such a blind assertion are also likely to comfort themself with the belief that the only “truly bad thing” that can happen to anyone is for them to NOT become a Christian. (Of course rival religions and cults assert the same thing, namely that the only “truly bad thing” that can happen to a person is for them not to love and believe in _insert name of deity, favorite religion, denomination, sect or cult, here_.)

    Such a theodicy of blind assertion also resembles the thinking of a spouse who is too afraid to even question whether or not their marriage partner may be mistreating them. Consider these lines that abusive spouses use to assert control over their marriage partners: “You better not even think about leaving me.” “You better not even think about questioning me, my purposes, reasons. ” “I know best.” “Donʼt listen to anyone who doesnʼt understand what we have.” “Youʼre nothing without me.” “Iʼm only doing this because I LOVE you.” “Youʼre not worthy of my love.” “You donʼt deserve me.” “Youʼll never find anyone as good as me.” “Youʼre a terrible person and you need me to be better.” “You brought this upon yourself.” Religions that threaten damnation and assert Godʼs inscrutability whenever questions arise involving suffering and evil, function in ways that are similar to how and why an abused spouse convinces themself to not ask questions and instead remain in an abusive relationship. Relying on this form of theodicy is more like being trapped by a brain-washing mechanism based on fear, rather than providing an explanation for evil, pain.

    Also, if “the greater good” consists in becoming a specific type of truly believing Christian (as opposed to “untrue Christians” or believers in other religions or no religion at all), then it does not look like this cosmos was designed in order to achieve “the greater good.” In fact if the “greater good” is defined as just stated, and if eternal damnation is the “lesser good,” then it appears more like this cosmos is simply a web in which God might catch souls for hell. Just consider the fact that we live relatively short lives, a couple decades long, limited further by oneʼs geographical place of birth and the culture into which one is born, so we have limited personal and cultural experiences, limited educations, limited time for study, and limited vision as to what lay on the other side of the metaphysical curtain, as well as living in a world containing a plethora of holy books and an even greater number of books containing rival interpretations of them. And one must add to such “less than good” circumstances the countless non-religious obligations one must expend time fulfilling daily just to survive — in a world already clouded and crowded with ignorance, waves of emotion, headaches, backaches, toothaches, strains, scrapes, breaks, cuts, rashes, burns, bruises, PMS, fatigue, hunger, odors, molds, colds, yeast, parasites, viruses, cancers, genetic defects, blindness, deafness, paralysis, mental illness, ugliness, ignorance, miscommunications, embarrassments, unrequited love, dashed hopes, boredom, hard labor, repetitious labor, accidents, wars, PTSD, old age, senility, fires, floods, earthquakes, typhoons, tornadoes, hurricanes and volcanoes. Knowing all such limitations and the full spectrum of suffering and ignorance, I donʼt see what rational sense it makes to claim that anyone, after they are dead, deserves “eternal punishment” as well.


  2. “Soul Making” Theodicies.

    Rebuttal: Soul making? What about all the things in this life and world that harden peopleʼs hearts or destroy peopleʼs souls? I mentioned some of them above. At best one could argue that this world appears just as good at destroying (or damning souls) as making (or saving) them. This world is practically a net in which Jehovah catches souls for hell with its ignorance, confusion, fears, endless holy writings and endless bickering over their interpretation, and with all of the other things mentioned above, the suffering and pains, with humans tossed on seas of emotion and cultural prejudice as well.

    And I left something out of my list above, namely religions that claim you must believe (or be damned) even though you canʼt see what youʼre supposed to believe in. You canʼt hear or touch it. We donʼt get to see what Adam saw when he allegedly walked with God in the garden, or get to see what doubting Thomas saw when Jesus made a special trip back to the apostles just to prove his resurrection to that one doubter. We donʼt get to see heaven or hell either. Or Mohammed riding his horse to heaven. Or Joseph Smithʼs alleged golden plates. And not seeing is proclaimed a virtue in the Gospel of John. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Virtue for some maybe, but certainly a curse for those with inquiring minds.


  3. Natural Law Theodicies.

    Rebuttal: According to the Bible God can create heaven, apparently a place with no earthquakes where souls can supposedly grow and flourish forever. He can also create a Garden of Eden with a tree of eternal life in its midst that seemed safe and peaceful enough. But according to “natural law theodicies” God HAD to create an earth and cosmos like this one in which we “flourish” only on the trembling skin of one tiny planet, a third of whose surface areas is comprised of deserts or parched lands. See also this parody, a list of reasons Why We Believe in a Designer

    Which reminds me of a joke. A man was having a pair of pants made by a Jewish tailor. But the man grew impatient over how long it was taking the tailor to finish them. The man complained, “It only took God six days to make the world, but itʼs taken you over a month to make the pair of pants I ordered.” The tailor held out the manʼs pair of pants with pride and said: “Dat may be so, but take a look at the world … den take a look at dees pants!”

    Which reminds me of another joke. A preacher was visiting a farm and said to the farmer, “Godʼs been mighty good to your fields, Mr. Farmer.” “Yes,” the Farmer replied, “But you should have seen how He treated them when I wasnʼt around.”

    Did God design the sawtoothed grain beetle, angoumois grain moths, Mediterranean flour moths, scale insects, cabbage worms, corn earworms, corn rootworms, cutworms, tomato fruitworms, etc., that destroy 30% of U.S. food crops by devouring leaves, fruits, grain, and also by spreading fungal and bacterial plant rots as well? Are we supposed to praise the Lord for designing such insects whose proliferation leads to human starvation?

    Did God design the bacteria that infect the food we eat? Even prayed over leftovers from Thanksgiving Day? Microgram for microgram, the poisons produced by some bacteria in our food are more potent than all other known poisons on earth. It is estimated that one tenth of an ounce of the toxin produced by bacteria causing botulism would be more than enough to kill everyone in the city of New York; and a 12-ounce glassful would be enough to kill all 5.9 billion human beings on the face of the Earth. (The same goes for the toxin that causes tetanus.) Is that Godʼs handiwork?


  4. Free Will Theodicies.

    Rebuttal: Christian theologians continue to dispute how “free” the human will is. Some believe God knows the end from the beginning. But if God has such knowledge then everything must happen the way God knows it will. Therefore the doctrine of Godʼs foreknowledge and the idea of libertarian free will have been at odds with one another for millennia, and theologians continue to debate how “free” human “will” is.

    Another dispute among theologians is how to reconcile the Christian doctrine of human depravity with libertarian free will. Both Luther and Calvin concluded that “after the fall ‘freewill’ is just a word, and not something we still possess. And if an historical Adam never even existed, as some Evangelicals are now proposing, what then?

    Opposed to the view of Luther and Calvin are Universalist Christians who view “free will” as going hand in hand with eternal salvation rather than eternal damnation. Universalists point out that God has an infinite mind and infinite powers of persuasion at His disposal (and God is everywhere and in everything, at the core of everyoneʼs being, “In Him we live and move and have our being,” per Paul), therefore if God wants everyone to fall in love with the same things or believe the same things, and those things are the only true things, then there is no way a finite creature can resist Godʼs infinite will and infinite powers of persuasion eternally. Therefore, Universalists think the only logical view that someone who believes in a personal loving infinite God can hold is universalism. God has said that He will have “all” come to Him. Is any heart so dark (and without the slightest flaw or crack) such that the light of Christ could never penetrate it? Does not emptiness abhor a vacuum (neither does any such vacuum truly exist since God is in all things)? Hence every “heart” must eventually come to acknowledge the only solid and substantial truth that is. The early Christian father Origin appears to have argued in a similar fashion.

    Also, the damnationist Christian portrays God as teaching, “If you donʼt freely love me, you will suffer for all eternity,” which is like saying, “Choose whatever you want to eat for dinner, just keep in mind that if you eat anything else but the green beans you will be puking it up so violently for all eternity that you will never be granted another choice.” (A similar damnationist perspective is used by rival denominations and religions that compete with each other for souls.) How free is a choice that is coerced via threats of eternal suffering, i.e., if you donʼt love and believe specific things?

    If “free will” is of such grand importance to God, will there be free will in heaven such that people could still experience temptation there and even sin there? If not, then what types of circumstances has God set up to ensure that heavenʼs inhabitants will always be more tempted to choose good rather than evil? And why didnʼt he set up those circumstances right from the start?

    Aside from the theological controversies above, has it been demonstrated that free will exists? There does not appear to be a way to demonstrate the existence of libertarian free will experimentally since we cannot place ourselves in the same exact time, place, and mental state in which we first made each of our “free” decisions to see if we might choose otherwise. Even if we could run such an experiment, going back in time and space, repeating a scenario multiple times, to show that people CAN make a different choice under the exact same circumstances, it would not demonstrate that the different decision was “better informed,” only that it was a “different decision” from the one previously “willed.” Of what use then would it be to have “free will?” Itʼs more to the point to be able to make “better-informed decisions” than “free” ones. To make the former you have to be connected with the cosmos, not free of it — you have to collect and analyze input from as wide a spectrum of the cosmos as possible, like a computer. Therefore, building a machine that collects ever-widening amounts of data and continues to subject them to comparative analysis would be of greater value than creating a machine or human that is disconnected from this cosmos and arriving at decisions “freely.”


Abortion, Women, and the Bible

Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice

Abortion Facts Around the World

  • 1/3 of all pregnancies worldwide are unplanned.

  • Approximately 25% of the world population lives in countries with highly restrictive abortion laws, mostly in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

  • One woman dies every 7 minutes around the world due to an unsafe illegal abortion. Women who undergo illegal abortions are those who are very poor and do not have access to family planning facilities for education and prevention of unwanted pregnancies.

  • Making abortion illegal or legal has no effect on the total number of abortions performed in the world. Making abortion legal dramatically reduces maternal morbidity and mortality.

  • Nearly 50% of pregnancies that occur yearly are unwanted with nearly ½ of those pregnant women terminating their pregnancy. In essence; 42 million choose to terminate their pregnancy with close to half of those (20 million) being illegal.

  • Women who obtain abortion represent every religious affiliation. 43% of women obtaining abortion identify themselves as Protestant, and 27% as Catholic; and 13% of abortion patients describe themselves as born-again or Evangelical Christians. (See also, My abortion was different: Why women shame and blame each other.)


The Rev. Pat Robertson, founder of the “700 Club” religious TV show and Christian news program, and a leader of the national anti-abortion movement, said leaders in China who are forcing women to have abortions are “doing what they have to do.” In an interview Monday night on CNNʼs “Wolf Blitzer Reports,” Robertson said the United States should not interfere with Chinaʼs policy. “Well, you know, I donʼt agree with it, but at the same time, theyʼve got 1.2 billion people and they donʼt know what to do,” said Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition. “If every family over there was allowed to have three or four children, the population would be completely unsustainable.” “So I think that right now theyʼre doing what they have to do. I donʼt agree with the forced abortion, but I donʼt think the United States needs to interfere with what theyʼre doing internally in this regard.”

Associated Press, 2001


Abortion & The United Nations

Despite the misinformation campaign led by the far right, who claim that the United Nations Population Fund supports forced abortions, the truth is that by denying family planning services to those who need them, we are setting in motion 800,000 more abortions than would normally occur. In Hungary, the introduction of modern contraception led to a 60% reduction in abortions. Similar results can be seen in Chile, Colombia, Mexico, South Korea, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

The Population Institute, “What Can Make the World More Secure?” [Pamphlet]


A Country With Some of the Harshest Anti-Abortion Laws in the World

Nepalʼs prohibition of abortion was one of the harshest in the world: it did not allow exceptions even in cases of rape, incest, and life-threatening situations, and simply classified abortion as infanticide. As a result of that law, hundreds of women served prison terms. Two-thirds of all women in prison were there for “garbaphat,” the Nepalese term for abortion and infanticide. In addition to those in Nepalese prisons for abortion, thousands more suffered, and often died, after resorting to extremely dangerous back-street methods. It had been estimated that six women died every day in Nepal due to poorly administrated abortions. Finally, in 2002, King Gyanendra of Nepal signed into law a bill that legalized abortion in addition to bringing about sweeping changes in many other discriminatory laws.

E.T.B.


The conservative politics of the Bush administration forced me to have an abortion I didnʼt want. Well, not literally, but let me explain. by Dana L., The Washington Post, 2006.

View story by clicking here.


Nature The Abortionist, Part I

Many conceptions do not mature properly and are naturally aborted. And a fairly high percentage (20-30% or more?) of people born as single individuals used to be twins in the womb but one of them was reabsorbed into the womb or into the other twin.

Even the pro-lifer, Dr. John Collins Harvey, admits, “Products of conception [often] die at either the zygote, morula, or blastocyst stage. They never reach the implant stage but are discharged in the menstrual flow of the next period. It is estimated that [this]occurs in more than 50 percent of conceptions. In such occurrences, a woman may never even know that she has been pregnant.” (Regardless of whether you believe that Jesus “loves all the little zygotes in the world,” apparently that love does not include giving them all a whole and healthy start in life.—E.T.B.)

“Distinctly Human,” Commonweal, Feb. 8, 2002


Nature the Abortionist, Part II

There are dangers to the lives of women during childbirth, which only a hundred and fifty years ago claimed the lives of both woman and child far more frequently than childbirth does today. Of those children who are born, some suffer birth defects, a few of which are invariably fatal.

There are also dangers posed by childhood diseases. Two hundred years ago the French naturalist, Buffon, lamented, “Half the children born never reach the age of eight.” They died of diseases like smallpox, scarlet fever, measles, mumps, the flu, pneumonia, cholera, tuberculosis, meningitis, chicken pox, tetanus and staphylococcus infections. In fact a high percentage of the young of all animals and plants die from bacterial or viral infections. In the end, nothing is as disrespectful of higher life forms as the tiny microbes that hungrily devour the children of all species.

Unfortunately, picketing Mother Nature solves nothing. Neither do Christians dare blame “God” for having created “nature” this way.

E.T.B.


Bible Verses That Mention Miscarriages (“Untimely Births”) & Suggest That In Some Cases “Not Being Born” Might Have Been Best

Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed. Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad. And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noontide; Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me. Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?
— Jeremiah 20:14-18

[This is the only Biblical passage that directly and indisputably mentions a practice that we would today think of as “abortion,” but notice, Jeremiah is cursing a man for NOT aborting the fetal Jeremiah.—E.T.B.]

Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light. There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest. There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.
— Job 3:16-19

If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he. For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness. Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other.
— Ecclesiastes 6:3-5


How Pro-Life is the Bible? Part I

According to the Bible, God Himself is ready, willing and able to abort fetuses:

Their fruit shalt Thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men.
— Psalm 21:10

The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they are born… let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.
— Psalm 58:3, 8

As for Israel, their glory shall fly away like a bird, and from the womb, and from the conception…Give them, O Lord: what will Thou give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts…they shall bear no fruit…
— Hosea 9:11-16

Notice that the prophet Hosea is pleading with his God to punish the Israelites by murdering their unborn babies. The Bible never really provides a logical rationale as to why fetuses, babies, and children must be punished for the sins of their parents and others. Some would suggest that for God to kill unborn babies for their parentʼs sins is somewhat misdirected retribution.

Gene Kasmar, WHY…The Brooklyn Center High School Bible Challenge. Part 1: The Evidence


How Pro-Life is the Bible? Part II

Every living thing on the earth was drowned [by the Hebrew LORD—which included pregnant women and babies]…Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
— Genesis 7:23

Thus saith the LORD…Slay both man and woman, infant and suckling.
— 1 Samuel 15:3

Joshua destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD commanded.
— Joshua 10:40

The LORD delivered them before us; and we destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones.
— Deuteronomy 2:33-34

Kill every male among the little ones.
— Numbers 31:17

The wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and…Samaria shall become desolate…they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.
— Hosea 13:15-16

With thee will I [the LORD] break in pieces the young man and the maid.
— Jeremiah 51:22

Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
— Psalm 137:9

According to the Bible, God gave orders to kill children and to rip open the bodies of pregnant women. The pestilences were sent by God. The frightful famine, during which the dying child with pallid lips sucked the withered bosom of his dead mother, was sent by God. God drowned an entire world with the exception of eight persons. Imagine how such acts would have stained the reputation of the devil!

Robert G. Ingersoll


How Pro-Life is the Bible? Part III

According to the God of the Bible it was more important to stone a woman to death if she should “entice you to follow after other gods,” than it was to rescue the life of any fetus she might have been carrying.

It was more important to stone a woman to death the day after her wedding night “if she was discovered not to have been a virgin,” than it was to wait and see if she might have conceived new life that night.

It was more important to stone a woman to death for “adultery,” than to wait and see if she might be pregnant.

It was more important to stone a woman to death for “failing to cry out while being raped within earshot of the city,” than it was to spare the life she might have conceived during that ordeal, during which the rapist may have held a knife to her throat, or strangled her into silence and submission.

And what about the test of “bitter water” mentioned in chapter five of the book of Numbers? The test consisted of mixing dust from the floor of the Hebrew tabernacle [i.e., dirt mixed with blood and other effluvia from countless animal sacrifices along with all the possibly deadly bacteria breeding among it] with “holy water” to make a concoction that a woman drank to reveal whether or not she had committed adultery. If she had, it says, “her belly will swell and her thigh will rot.” Scholars have pointed out that “thigh” is a euphemism for sexual organs. So if the woman had committed adultery and had conceived as a result, then such “bitter water” would probably induce an abortion (“her thigh would rot”). (I wonder if this means that Bible-believing women who are accused of having affairs ought to swallow some dirt from the unclean floor of the nearest slaughter house mixed with “holy water?”)

And what about children who “curse their parents?” The Bible says, “Kill them!” (Ex. 21:17; Lev. 20:9; Mat. 15:4; Mark 7:10) The Bible does not say how old the child has to be, but it does emphatically state they must “surely be put to death” should they “curse their parents.”

Ah, the good old days, when God fearing people had higher priorities than “saving fetal lives.” They were too busy stoning whomever enticed them to worship other gods, stoning adulteresses, stoning women who werenʼt virgins on their wedding night, stoning women who “failed to cry out” during rape, and stoning sassy children. In other words they were too busy with all of those higher priorities to worry about “the fate of fetuses.”

E.T.B.


How Pro-Life is the Bible? Part 4

Abortion as such is not discussed in the Bible, so any explanation of why it is not legislated or commented on is speculative.

A key text for examining ancient Israelite attitudes [toward the fetus] is Exodus 21:22-25: “When people who are fighting injure a pregnant woman so that there is a miscarriage, and yet no further harm follows, the one responsible shall be fined what the womanʼs husband demands, paying as much as the judges determine. If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.” Several observations can be made about this passage.

The Hebrew text at v. 22 literally reads “and there is no harm,” implying that contrary to current sensibilities, the miscarriage itself was not considered serious injury. The monetary judgment given to the womanʼs husband indicates that the womanʼs experience of the miscarriage is not of significance, and that the damage is considered one to property rather than to human life. This latter observation is further supported by the contrast with the penalties for harm to the woman herself.

Drorah OʼDonnell Setel, “Abortion,” The Oxford Guide to Ideas & Issues of the Bible, ed. by Bruce Metzger and Michael D. Coogan (Oxford University Press, 2001)


There is no biblical proof-text against abortion. Deuteronomy 30:19 (“choose life”) has nothing to do with abortion; it has to do with being party to Godʼs covenant with Israel. Psalm 139:13-18 is less relevant to the issue than most people think; a careful reading of that psalm reveals that the “mother” in whose “womb” the psalmist was known by God is Mother Earth (notice the parallelism between “my motherʼs womb” and “the depths of the earth” in the inclusio of vv. 13-15). Exodus 21 is very difficult, but it certainly does not speak directly to abortion; at most, it relates to an accidentally induced miscarriage, though it may refer to a premature birth. That interpretive decision is crucial, and Iʼm not sure how to resolve it. As far as I can tell, the only biblical passage that I know of that directly mentions a practice like we would think of as abortion curses a man who did not practice it on the fetal Jeremiah (Jeremiah 20:16-18). Now, having said that, I hasten to repeat that my general default position is anti-abortion (I am willing to listen to arguments on specific cases, though Iʼve never had any input into a specific case), and I think a biblical case can be made for an anti-abortion position. But it must be a cumulative theological case, not a list of proof-texts—for there are no such proof-texts.

Dr. R. Christopher Heard [Old Testament professor at Pepperdine University, lifelong member of Churches of Christ], “Is the Bible Anti-Abortion?” at his blog, Higgaion, Friday, November 18, 2005


What Happens To The Souls of Fetuses That Die?

  1. Theological Option #1

    The Souls of the Dead Fetuses Go To Heaven

    This first option is the most optimistic, loving, and forgiving, but seems to turn abortions into “altar calls” with 100% assurance of eternal salvation for each and every aborted fetus.

    But what do YOU believe?

  2. Theological Option #2

    The Souls of Dead Fetuses Go To Wherever God Ordains Them To Go, Either Heaven or Hell

    According to various Bible verses, God “ordains” all things, including the premature deaths (including executions) of fetuses, pregnant women, and children. In other words, each soul in this world “gets” what God has “ordained” for it, regardless if they are aborted in the womb, or reach old age.

    But what do YOU believe?

  3. Theological Option #3

    The Souls of Dead Fetuses Whose Bodies Are Not Baptized, Go To Hell

    Theologians from Augustine to Jonathan Edwards considered it right for God to send to hell the souls of fetuses whose bodies were not baptized before they died. Their doctrine was called “infant damnation” and it was taught by Christian churches for centuries. So, all fetuses that are not baptized before they die go to hell.

    But what do YOU believe?

  4. Theological Option #4

    Baptize Fetuses In The Womb

    If baptism spiritually cleanses the fetusʼ “original sin,” ensuring it goes to heaven, then why take any risks of it not getting baptized, and instead baptize fetuses by inserting a syringe filled with water into the womb? This would be especially useful in cases where the life of a fetus and/or the mother was at risk. Indeed, the option of syringe baptism continued to be taught to Catholic seminarians right up till Vatican II in the 1960s.

    Attempting to counteract such Catholic excesses as he viewed them the Protestant Reformer, John Calvin, forbade mid-wives (or anyone else for that matter) from hastily baptizing sickly newborn infants, because Calvin believed in waiting a few days until a proper baptism ceremony in church could be conducted. According to Calvin, it was Godʼs providential choice, not human effort, that determined who would wind up in heaven or hell, and if the fetus or newborn didnʼt survive long enough to have a proper baptismal ceremony, it was Godʼs will that it die prematurely and/or suffer in hell for eternity.

    Which of the four cases above do YOU believe is true?


Speaking of Souls, When Does “En-soul-ment” Begin?

If the life of a personʼs eternal soul begins at conception/fertilization yet you freeze a human egg right after it is fertilized, then is that a “soul on ice?” This is not a merely theoretical question, because it happens all the time in fertilization clinics. They mix human sperm and eggs in test tubes and store the fertilized zygotes in a freezer sometimes for years before they are implanted in a womanʼs uterus. The prominent Catholic theologian, Thomas Aquinas, argued that “soul-life” only began several months after conception.

E.T.B.


Two Radically Different Views on How to Obtain “Heavenly Rewards”

“I expect to get a great reward in heaven. I am looking forward to glory.”
— Paul Hill, who murdered an abortion doctor and his escort, Washington Post, 2003

Pro-lifer (Outside an Abortion Clinic): What if your mother had decided not to have you?
Clinic Defender: Iʼd be in clover, Iʼd be in heaven experiencing ecstasy that I never earned or deserved.
— John E. Seery, Los Angeles Times


Improving the Lives of Children Who Have Been Born

The death rate of children under the age of 15 has fallen by 95 percent since 1900 in the United States. The child death rates in just the past 20 years have incredibly been halved in India, Egypt, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, South Korea, Israel, and scores of other nations. Almost all of the major killer diseases before 1900—tuberculosis, typhoid, smallpox, whooping cough, to name a few—have been all but eradicated.
— Stephen Moore & Julian Simon, Itʼs Getting Better All the Time: 100 Greatest Trends of the Last 100 Years

Much more still needs to be done for the worldʼs children, to feed and fully nourish them in the womb and soon after birth, because deficiencies in salt, minerals, vitamins and protein are still crippling children both physically and mentally throughout the world (sometimes killing them as well), yet in most cases it takes only pennies a day to provide what is lacking for each child. Meanwhile in the wealthiest countries like America we think nothing of spending ten thousand dollars or more at a fertilization clinic just to try and conceive a child, or spend a million dollars or more in hospital fees to sustain the life of a single child (one that has been born prematurely). Such extravagances in the wealthier parts of the world must make those in the poorer parts of the world look askance.

One might also consider contrasting the “needs of the unborn” with those children who are already born throughout the world and who require medicine, education, and a chance to rise out of poverty. Bringing too many children into a city or country that cannot support them is not going to improve matters in that country but increase suffering and strife. Poverty and insufficient nutrition lead to a rise in the rate of spontaneous abortions, back-street abortions and therapeutic abortions, as well as an increase in the mortality rate of children already born.
— E.T.B.

The Meaning of Life (saving the oddist for last)

Meaning of Life

The Meaning of Life And…

  1. Wise Sayings, Interviews, Mythic Journeys

  2. Religion / Secularism

  3. Love, Family, Movies, Sports, Hobbies, Housework, E-mail, Work, Money, Literature

  4. Evolution

  5. Philosophy

  6. Comedy

  7. Psychology, Sociology, Psychotherapy

  8. Seasons of Life

  9. Saving the Oddist for Last


Wise Sayings, Interviews, Mythic Journies

  • The Meaning of Life, ed., Jonathan Gabay (1995) [Produced to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the British Red Cross. All royalties are donated to the charity. For this book, Gabay embarked on a quest to ask “What is the meaning of life?” He asked hundreds of people from around the world and received answers from such diverse figures as the Dalai Lama, Julie Walters, John Harvey-Jones, Ranulph Fiennes, John Gielgud, Mother Theresa and Frank Carson. They feature alongside, for example, the thoughts of teachers, factory workers, and prisoners on death row. Each contribution is introduced with a few words explaining who the author is and what they do and something about their beliefs.]

  • Esquire The Meaning of Life: Wisdom, Humor, and Damn Good Advice from 64 Extraordinary Lives, ed., Ryan DʼAgostino (2009)

  • Vanity Fairʼs Proust Questionnaire: 101 Luminaries Ponder Love, Death, Happiness, and the Meaning of Life, Graydon Carter (2009)

  • The Meaning of Life: Reflections in Words and Pictures on Why We Are Here [The worldʼs most famous and respected people share their thoughts on the meaning of life; their words of wisdom are dispersed among excellent black and white photographs.], David Friend, Life Magazine (1st ed, 1991)

  • The Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction, Terry Eagleton (Oxford University Press, 2008)

  • 1001 Thoughts on the Meaning of Life: A Collection of Answers to The Ultimate Question [Kindle Edition], Nichole Force (2011) [not a bad little collection]

  • 100 Lessons on The Meaning of Life in 100 Words or Less [Kindle Edition] Roger Horberry [nice “starter book” on the topic since it covers topics from Christianity to Existentialism in neatly worded paragraphs like reading 100-word haiku.]

  • The Life of Meaning: Reflections on Faith, Doubt, and Repairing the World, eds., Bob Abernethy & William Bole, forward by renowned newsman, Tom Browkaw (2011) [More than 50 contributors (mostly religious) including Jimmy Carter, Francis Collins, The Dalai Lama, Robert Franklin, Irving Greenberg, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Harold Kushner, Anne Lamott, Madeleine LʼEngle, Thomas Lynch, Martin Marty, Mark Noll, Rachel Remen, Marilynne Robinson, Barbara Brown Taylor, Studs Terkel, Thich Nhat Hanh, Phyllis Tickle, Desmond Tutu, Jean Vanier, and Marianne Williamson.]

  • The Meaning of Life: According to the Great and the Good, ed., Richard Kinnier (2011) [Ten themes emerged: life is to be enjoyed, we are here to help others, the meaning of life is a mystery, life is meaningless, we are here to serve god, life is a struggle, we are here to contribute to society, we are here to seek wisdom and self-actualization, we must create meaning for ourselves, and life is absurd. Arranged by these themes, this book contains an eclectic mix of 250 quotations from “the great and the good.” Some are profound, others are witty.]

  • Worldly Wisdom: Great Books and the Meaning of Life, James Sloan Allen (2008)

  • The Meaning of Life: A Reader, eds., E. D. Klemke, Steven M. Cahn (Oxford University Press, 2007) [essays by philosophers, literary figures and religious thinkers]

    The Meaning of Life, ed., Hugh Moorhead(1988) Chairman of the philosophy department at Northeastern Illinois Univ. corresponded with 700 famous writers and thinkers over the decades, asking them all, “What is the meaning of life?” Buckminster Fuller replied, “Life is a verb.” e.e. cummings referred Moorhead to the line of a poem: “not for philosophy does this rose give a damn.” Others referred him to philosophers. “Nietzsche said: Life is an unprofitable episode that disturbs an otherwise blessed state of non-existence,” or, “Samuel Butler said: Life is like playing a difficult violin solo in public, and learning the instrument as you go along.” Comedian Fred Allen replied. “Life is a slow walk down a long hall that gets darker as you approach the end.” T.S. Eliot autographed a book for Moreland but replied, “Your question is one which one spends one`s whole life in finding the answer for, and Iʼve not yet got to the point where I can sum it all up on a flyleaf.” Distinguished historian Barbara Tuchman, who spent a lifetime studying the epic sweep of human history, suggested, “The meaning of life is what you make of it.”

  • The Real Meaning of Life, David Seaman (2005) [On October 10, 2004, David Seaman, a freshman at New York University, was trying to avoid writing a paper on “God and the cosmic order in Danteʼs universe” for his humanities class. On a whim he typed “What is the meaning of life?” into an online forum. He received a whopping 50,000 hits and 2,000 answers. Click HERE for book excerpts.

  • You Live, You Die, Youʼre Bug Food… And Other Musings on the Meaning of Life, Kirsten Selberg (1998) [Wise words and poetry from people across America that highlight our hopes, fears and phobias, both funny and heart wrenching]

  • Your Mythic Journey: Finding Meaning in Your Life Through Writing and Storytelling, Sam Keen (1989) [well known writer]

  • Myths To Live By, Joseph Campbell [famed scholar and author of books on the history of mythology]

  • A Short History of Myth, Karen Armstrong [2005] Excellent brief introduction to humanityʼs long history of the creation of myths and stories that encompass the meaning of our lives.


Religion / Secularism

  1. Jewish

    • The meaning of life (Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Joshua Loth Liebman
    • The meaning of life as represented in the life sciences and the Jewish heritage, Ephraim Katzir
    • Giving Meaning to Life: Proceedings of a Seminar, Rabbi Harold Kushner
    • Spiritually Dysfunctional: Being the True and Amazing Story of How a Confirmed Jewish Atheist and His Seriously Catholic Wife Explore the Meaning of Life, God, the Universe… , Fred Singer (2006)
  2. Catholic

    • A Pocket Guide to the Meaning of Life, Peter Kreeft [Catholic apologist]
    • The Road Back to God: Lenten Reflections on the Meaning of Life and Faith, Thomas Merton [famed Christian monk, convert, author of the bestseller, The Seven Storey Mountain]
    • Why, Oh Why, My God?: Meditations on Christian Faith and the Meaning of Life, Pierre Abbe & Frederic Lenoir [When Abbe Pierre of the Emmaus communities died at the age 94 on 22 January 2007, the BBC hailed him as “Franceʼs leading champion of the destitute and homeless”. In his final book, “Why, oh why, my God?” Abbe Pierre reflected on his life, faith, vocation and continuing commitment to serving the worldsʼ poor. He also offered insights into todayʼs most pressing religious and social issues. In conversation with Frederic Lenoir in 2004-2005, the abbe took up his long-term reflection on original sin, evil, and the meaning of life. Despite his age and bad health, he was obsessed by many fundamental questions.]
    • Weʼre On a Mission from God: The Generation X Guide to John Paul II, The Catholic Church and the Real Meaning of Life, Mary Beth Bonacci (1996)
  3. Protestant

    • Long Journey Home: A Guide to Your Search for the Meaning of Life, Os Guinness [Evangelical Protestant Christian apologist]

    • The God Question: An Invitation to a Life of Meaning, J.P. Moreland [Evangelical Protestant Christian apologist]

  4. Islamic

    • Why are we here?: A philosophical inquiry into the meaning of life, based upon an esoteric reading of the Koran, Sulaimani

  5. Other Sorts of Christians

    • My religion. On life. Thoughts on God. On the meaning of life, Leo Tolstoy. Also see, The Meaning of Life: Collected from Unpublished Letters and Diaries of Leo Tolstoy [Tolstoy was the famed Russian author of War and Peace who left the Russian Orthodox Church to go back to God]

    • Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy and Emile Zola On the Meaning of Life: Pessimism, Religion, and the Individual in History, Francis Pfost Jr. (LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing, 2010) [Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828-1910) of Russia and Emile Zola (1840-1902) of France, were haunted by the same philosophical problem, the individualʼs relation to God and the universe and the purpose of his relatively short life in it. Although Tolstoy and Zola took different approaches to this problem in their literary work, both were profoundly affected by pessimism and lack of faith in institutional religion in their lifelong search for answers to humanityʼs greatest question and to the seeming hopelessness of the individual to affect history or even his own fate. How these two great writers and thinkers of yesteryear approached the fundamental question of the meaning of human life and what they discovered present an instructive guide for people of any age, of any epoch, of any era, of any time.]

    • The Meaning of Life, S. L. Frank (1877–1950) [The author was an early theoretical opponent of Marxism and Soviet communism, but became a leading figure of the Russian religious renaissance in the early twentieth century. The Meaning of Life (published in Russian in 1925) is a distillation of Frankʼs bitter experience of the years of Revolution and post-Revolution exile, written shortly after Lenin forced many of Russiaʼs leading thinkers to leave the country.

    • Talking About God: Exploring the Meaning of Religious Life With Kierkegaard, Buber, Tillich and Heschel (Center for Religious Inquiry) Daniel F. Polish, Ph.D. (2010)

  6. Eastern

  7. Agnostic

  8. Atheistic


Love, Family, Movies, Sports, Hobbies, Housework, E-mail, Money, Literature

  • Meaning in Life and Why It Matters (The University Center for Human Values), Susan Wolf (Princeton University Press, 2012) [Often we act neither for our own sake nor out of duty or an impersonal concern for the world. Rather, we act out of love for objects that we rightly perceive as worthy of love—and it is these actions that give meaning to our lives. Wolf makes a compelling case that, along with happiness and morality, this kind of meaningfulness constitutes a distinctive dimension of a good life. Written in a lively and engaging style, and full of provocative examples, Meaning in Life and Why It Matters is a profound and original reflection on a subject of permanent human concern.]

  • Big Appetite: My Southern-Fried Search for the Meaning of Life, Sam McLeod (2012) [Sam surveys his childhood home and comes to understand that his memories, and the food that carried the love of the women who cooked it, are all he needs to know the meaning of life. Or, to put it another way, per the insights of comedian Cathy Ladman, All the worldʼs religions are just the same guilt with different holidays. “God I feel guilty…Letʼs eat!”]

  • The Motherʼs Guide to the Meaning of Life: What Iʼve Learned in My Never-Ending Quest to Become a Dalai Mama, Amy Krouse Rosenthal

  • The Fatherʼs Guide to the Meaning of Life: What Being a Dad Has Taught Me About Hope, Love, Patience, Pride, and Everyday Wonder, Joe Kita (2000)

  • Movies and the Meaning of Life: The Most Profound Films in Cinematic History, Wayne Omura (2011)

  • Movies and the Meaning of Life, eds., Kimberly Ann Blessing, Paul J. Tudico (2005)

  • Skydivers Guide to Religion and the Meaning of Life, Mike Jones (2012)[Reminds me a bit of Alan Wattsʼ view, “Faith is an openness and trusting attitude to truth and reality, whatever it may turn out to be. This is a risky and adventurous state of mind. Belief, in the religious sense, is the opposite of faith-because it is a fervent wishing or hope, a compulsive clinging to the idea that the universe is arranged and governed in such and such a way. Belief is holding to a rock; faith is learning how to swim-and this whole universe swims in boundless space.”]

  • Surfing And the Meaning of Life, Ben Marcus

  • Tennis and the Meaning of Life: A Literary Anthology of the Game, ed., Jay Jennings

  • Baseball And The Meaning Of Life, Josh Leventhal

  • The New York Mets and the Meaning of Life, Alexander J. Basile

  • The Golferʼs Guide to the Meaning of Life: Lessons Iʼve Learned from My Life on the Links, Gary Player

  • The Horsemanʼs Guide to the Meaning of Life: Lessons Iʼve Learned from Horses, Horsemen, and Other Heroes, Don Burt

  • Fish, Fishing and the Meaning of Life, Jeremy Paxman

  • Fly Fishing And the Meaning of Life, Wade N. Brooks

  • The Fly Fishermanʼs Guide to the Meaning of Life: What a Lifetime on the Water Has Taught Me about Love, Work, Food, Sex, and Getting Up Early, Peter Kaminsky

  • Catch and Release: Trout Fishing and the Meaning of Life, Mark Kingwell

  • The River Why. Twentieth-Anniversary Edition [a novel about the meaning of life with a great little parable summing up the lesson at the very end, a lesson like the one in the Book of Job but funnier and odder], David Duncan

  • Malibu : Hiking Along the Meaning of Life, Michael Banks

  • The Runnerʼs Guide to the Meaning of Life: What 35 Years of Running Have Taught Me About Winning, Losing, Happiness, Humility, and the Human Heart, Amby Burfoot

  • Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values [bestselling father-son novel about the meaning of life] by Robert M. Pirsig

  • Cleaning and the Meaning of Life: Simple Solutions to Declutter Your Home and Beautify Your Life, Paula Jhung

  • The Underdog: Seeking the Meaning of Life in the Worldʼs Most Outlandish Competitions, Joshua Davis

  • Small Furry Hope: Dog Rescue and the Meaning of Life, Steven Kotler

  • He Mail / She Mail: The Meaning of Life in E-Mail, Elliot Grant, Christine Whiteraven Olinger (1998)

  • Work: The Meaning of Your Life, Lester DeKoster (Christianʼs Library Press — Where do we find the core of lifeʼs meaning? Right on the job! At whatever work we do — with head or hand, from kitchen to executive suite, from your house to the White House! “Work is the great equalizer — everyone has to come to it in order to find meaning in living: no short cuts, no detours, no bargain rates.”]

  • Money and the Meaning of Life, Jacob Needleman (1994)

  • The Nature of Risk: Stock Market Survival and the Meaning of Life, Justin Mamis

  • Better Happy Than Rich?: Canadians, Money and the Meaning of Life, Michael Adams (2002)

  • Adland: Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded Planet, James P. Othmer (2010)

  • The Meaning Of Life, Bradley Trevor Greive (2002) [slim colorful book of inspiring photos and entertaining prose]

  • Listen to Me: Writing Life into Meaning, Lynn Lauber (W. W. Norton & Company, 2003) [includes lessons in “writing out of revenge,” as well as “writing to heal”]

  • Looking for the Meaning of Life in the Postmodern Age: The Effects of Technology and Media on Re-constructing Identity, Gülce Trak (LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, 2010) [An analysis of the postmodernist author Douglas Couplandʼs fiction as an example of how the possibility of looking for the meaning of life is addressed in the postmodern novel. It specifically focuses on Generation X, Microserfs, JPod and The Gum Thief to analyze the effects of technology and media on individuals? identity development in terms of different perspectives that might play an important role in the process. It explores the marketability of identity, daily life and relationships to find out about the twenty-first century identity and the search for the meaning of life represented in these novels. It aims to show that the modern humans are highly influenced and manipulated by media and technology. As a result, the meaning of contemporary life is in a continuous re-construction process which complicates and even makes it impossible to find a definite answer to the question ?who am I?]

  • The Problematic of Vonnegutʼs Protagonists: Search for Meaning of Life, Dr. Ravinder Singh (LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing, 2012) [This English Prof. with a doctorate in Kurt Vonnegut studies, has published research articles in journals of international repute. Writers like William Burroughs, Norman Mailer, Thomas Pynchon, Jerzy Kosinski, John Hawkes, Kurt Vonnegut etc. went on weaving their novelistic narratives and spinning their fictional heroes in a synthesized and fabulatory manner. The reader now has to negotiate a new compendium of central protagonists who came to be presented as existential explorers across an agonizing spectrum of deculture, materialism, dehumanization and the profanities of highly provocative metropolitan living.]


Evolution

  • Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life

    A Psychologist Investigates How Evolution, Cognition, and Complexity are Revolutionizing our View of Human Nature by Douglas Kenrick (2011) [Although our heads are full of simple selfish biases that evolved to help our ancestors survive, modern human beings are anything but simple and selfish cavemen. Kenrick argues that simple and selfish mental mechanisms we inherited from our ancestors ultimately give rise to the multifaceted social lives that we humans lead today, and to the most positive features of humanity, including generosity, artistic creativity, love, and familial bonds. And out of those simple mechanisms emerge all the complexities of society, including international conflicts and global economic markets. By exploring the nuance of social psychology and the surprising results of his own research, Kenrick offers a detailed picture of what makes us caring, creative, and complex—that is, fully human.]

  • Darwin, God and the Meaning of Life: How Evolutionary Theory Undermines Everything You Thought You Knew, Steve Stewart-Williams (Cambridge University Press, 2010) Recʼd high praise from atheist reviewers.

  • The Brain and the Meaning of Life, Paul Thagard (Princeton University Press; Reprint ed., 2012) [draws on research in philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience to answer some of the most pressing questions about lifeʼs nature and value]

  • Paradoxical Life: Meaning, Matter, and the Power of Human Choice

    Prof. Andreas Wagner Ph.D (Yale University Press, 2011)[explores the hidden web of unimaginably complex interactions in every living being. In the process, he unveils a host of paradoxes underpinning our understanding of modern biology, contradictions he considers gatekeepers at the frontiers of knowledge. Though we tend to think of concepts in such mutually exclusive pairs as mind-matter, self-other, and nature-nurture, Wagner argues that these opposing ideas are not actually separate. Indeed, they are as inextricably connected as the two sides of a coin. Through a tour of modern biological marvels, Wagner illustrates how this paradoxical tension has a profound effect on the way we define the world around us. Paradoxical Life is thus not only a unique account of modern biology. It ultimately serves a radical—and optimistic—outlook for humans and the world we help create.]

  • Nature Is Enough: Religious Naturalism and the Meaning of Life, Loyal Rue (State Univ of New York Press, 2011)

  • Darwinʼs Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life, Daniel C. Dennett (1996)

  • Dawkinsʼ God: Genes, Memes, And The Meaning Of Life, Alister McGrath (2004) [from an Evangelical Christian viewpoint]

  • Power, Sex, Suicide : Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life, Nick Lane (2005)

  • Evolution Extended: Biological Debates on the Meaning of Life, ed., Connie Barlow (The MIT Press; Reprint edition, 1995)

  • The Meaning of Life: As shown in the process of evolution, (The forum series) by renowned philosopher, C. E. M Joad (Watts & Co. 1928)

  • The FIFTH MIRACLE: The Search for the Origin and Meaning of Life, Paul Davies (2000)


Philosophy

  • Meaning of Life: Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Guide [Kindle Edition], Thaddeus Metz (Oxford University Press, 2010)

  • Whatʼs It All About? : Philosophy and the Meaning of Life, Julian Baggini [editor of Philosophy Now magazine, and philosophy blogger] (2005)

  • Exploring the Meaning of Life: An Anthology and Guide, ed., Joshua W. Seachris (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012)

  • Ancient Wisdom, Timeless Truths-Immortal Philosophers Discuss the Meaning of Life, ed., Jude Patterson (2003)

  • Meaning of Life, Julia Tao, Hektor K. T. Yan (McGraw-Hill Education (Asia), 2005) [Dialogues, philosophical stories, thought experiments, illustrations and literary and dramatic works are employed to make this book a highly accessible introduction. This way of doing philosophy offers a pleasurable experience for those who are encountering philosophy seriously for the first time in their life. Primarily written as an undergraduate textbook, Meaning of Life can also be adopted in secondary schools. It provides lessons in moral reasoning, conceptual analysis and philosophical evaluation of the good life in both the West and the East, from Aristotelian and Christian to Confucian and Daoist traditions.]

  • Meaning in Life: The Creation of Value (The Irving Singer Library) (Volume 1), Irving Singer (The MIT Press; Reprint ed., 2009) Part of a three volume set on the topic by a renowned philosopher.

  • Manʼs Search for Ultimate Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl (2000)

  • Meaning: A Play Based on the Life of Viktor E. Frankl by Rubin Battino (2002)

  • On the Meaning of Life (Wadsworth Philosophers Series) by Garrett Thomson (2002)

  • The Meaning of Life & Other Essays by the famed logical positivist and atheist philosopher, A. J. Ayer (who had a Near Death Experience for four minutes in which he passed through something like the River Styx in Greek mythology, and met two beings whom he described as “Masters of the Universe,” and shook his watch at them to try and remind them to fix something to do with time and space, because something was out of whack and they had not done their job properly. For Ayerʼs story click HERE. Ayer did not come to believe in eternal life after death, though people close to him report that he grew kinder after his NDE, and spent more time with his Catholic friend and debate opponent Frederick Coplestone during the remaining year left in Ayerʼs life.)

  • The Physics of Consciousness: The Quantum Mind and the Meaning of Life [A widely published physicist, mostly in scientific journals, he reports having had a Zen enlightenment experience in 1966 while walking in an open field at the University of Maryland. This propelled him on a quest to rethink quantum mechanics. This digressive, maverick tome, which opens the door to paranormal phenomena and God as “Quantum Mind,” will appeal more to serious investigators and philosophical types than to general readers seeking the purported spiritual implications of the new physics.] by Evan Harris, Ph.D. Walker, Evan Harris Walker (2000)

  • Self Expressions: Mind, Morals, and the Meaning of Life (Philosophy of Mind Series) [Brings together the latest insights of neuroscience, cognitive science, and psychiatry. Essays discuss whether the conscious mind can be explained scientifically, whether dreams are self-expressive or just noise, the moral socialization of children, and the nature of psychological phenomena. Ultimately, Flanagan concludes that a naturalistic view of the self need not lead to nihilism, but rather to a liberating vision of personal identity which makes sense of agency, character transformation, and the value and worth of human life] by Owen Flanagan (Oxford University Press, USA; Reprint edition, 1998)

  • No Excuses: Existentialism and The Meaning of Life (The SuperStar Teachers Series) [AUDIOBOOK] by Professor Robert Solomon (1993)

  • The Meaning of Life: An article from: Skeptic [magazine] by David Naiditch (2000)

  • Deleuze and the Meaning of Life (Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy), Claire Colebrook (Continuum, 2011) [from a reviewer, “a dazzling articulation of a new line of vitalism, a fundamentally passive vitalism, that always puts life out of alignment with itself and that affirms the virtual forces of becoming-other that inhere in life.” I wonder how many people understand Deleuze or even that line by the reviewer?]

  • Nothingness and the Meaning of Life (International Library of Contemporary Philosophy), Waghorn Nicholas (2013)


Comedy

  • The Meaning Of Life [Screenplay] by Graham Chapman from Monty Pythonʼs Flying Circus (2002)

    A modest proposal * on “The Meaning of Life”: (with apologies to Monty Python). : An article from: Global Virtue Ethics Review by Jonathan Anderson (2003)

  • Love, Sex, Death, and the Meaning of Life: The Films of Woody Allen by Foster Hirsch

  • Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams (a book in the Hitchhikerʼs Guide to the Galaxy series)

  • The Meaning of Life and Other Awesome Cosmic Revelations (Drumm Booklet, No. 30) [an imaginative science fiction story about the meaning of life that explains that the cosmos is one big reality contest in which the last species standing at the time of the cosmosʼs death gets invited to join other species in another dimension who were also the last survivors in each of their own cosmoses, but in this short story the survivors of our cosmos are angry at all the suffering and inter-galactic battles and planets filled with life that exploded as the cosmos neared its death and so the latest winners of the reality show enter the higher dimension with a tremendous chip on their shoulder, and begin waging war against all the other uncaring species that simply watched as sentient beings were tortured in the most brutal contest imaginable.] by Darrell Schweitzer (1989)

  • The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul: What Gnarly Computation Taught Me About Ultimate Reality, the Meaning of Life, and How to Be Happy [Timothy Leary meets Bill Gates, part memoir of a life spent teaching mathematical logic, part history of computer science, but mostly a long, strange quest for the meaning of life.] by Rudy Rucker [mathematical logician, science fiction novelist, and distant relation of the philosopher Hegel!] (2006)

  • Quest for the Meaning of Life, Mark Marrone (2002)

  • Ed Nortonʼs Secrets to the Meaning of Life (The Honeymooners), Peter Crescenti

  • The Purse-driven Life: It Really Is All About Me, Anita Renfroe (2005)

  • Audible.com: The Meaning of Life in 5 Easy Lessons (To the Best of Our Knowledge Series) by Jim Fleming, (2005) Wisconsin Public Radio. This special To The Best of Our Knowledge series contains five programs:

    1. In the Beginning— Where do we come from? Fair question. Religious scholar Stephen Mitchell says the answer lies in humanityʼs different creation myths. Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku says weʼre the reverb of a Big Bang from another universe. And, midwifery guru Ina May Gaskin gets down to where each one of us really comes from—mom.

    2. Why Bother?—Catholic-nun-turned-unbeliever Karen Armstrong describes her path back to God. Cinema Nirvana: enlightenment lessons from Hollywood. Also, Parker Palmer on how to keep going when life stops making sense. And, that good old existentialist, Charlie Brown.

    3. Are We Having Fun Yet?—At nearly 70, one high school English teacher discovers the joys of sex. Poet Billy Collins stops to smell the roses while our host, Jim Fleming, goes to Paris for a scrumptious chocolate tour. And, to the woods we go, playing jazz for the birds.

    4. Regrets—Pete Best has a few… He had Ringoʼs job just months before the Beatlesʼ first hit “Love Me Do” came out. Also, world-renowned concert pianist Leon Fleisher reflects on the disease that destroyed his right hand. And, one man sets out to apologize to the descendants of his familyʼs slaves.

    5. The End—What happens when we die? Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen says much more than you think. Novelist Jim Crace says nothing, nothing at all. Also, Amy Tanʼs story of the murder that shaped her life as a writer. And, whistle a tune at the Grim Reaper with Monty Pythonʼs Eric Idle.


Psychology, Social Psychology, Psychotherapy

  • The Belief Instinct: The Psychology of Souls, Destiny, and the Meaning of Life

    Jesse Bering (W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint ed., 2012) [Voted one of the Top 25 Books of 2011 by the American Library Association, Choice Reviews. Named one of the 11 Best Psychology Books of 2011 by The Atlantic.

  • The Meanings of Life by Roy F. Baumeister (1992) — “Eminent social scientist explores what empirical studies from diverse fields tell us about the human condition. Draws together evidence from psychology, history, anthropology, and sociology, integrating copious research findings into a clear and conclusive discussion of how people attempt to make sense of their lives. Lively and accessible style, emphasizing facts over theories, explores why people desire meaning in their lives, how these meanings function, what forms they take, and what happens when life loses meaning. Reviews what the social sciences say about such matters as happiness, suffering, and death. Explores peopleʼs need for a sense of purpose, values, control over their lives, and a sense of self worth. Divorce and religious conversion are also examined. Discusses myths of fulfillment, illusions of eternity, the suppression of female sexuality, the failure of the work ethic, why death is more threatening to us than it was to our ancestors, and how suffering stimulates the quest for meaning. Demonstrates how happiness depends more upon oneʼs interpretation than actual circumstances, and shows that the keys to happiness are attitude, judicious comparison, a bit of luck and a healthy dose of self-deception.”

  • Development and Validation of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire Dissertation by Michael F. Steger (2006)

  • Momma and the Meaning of Life: Tales of Psychotherapy by Irvin D. Yalom (2000)

  • Finding Meaning in Life: Logotherapy (Master Work) by Joseph B. Fabry, et al (1995)

  • Self-Esteem and Meaning: A Life-Historical Investigation (Suny Series in Transpersonal and Humanistic Psychology) by Michael R. Jackson (1984)

  • Self-Behaviorism: The Role of Repetition in the Meaning of Life by Matt Berry (2000)

  • Depression: Finding Hope and Meaning in Lifeʼs Darkest Shadow (Critical Concern Series) by Donald R. Baker, Emery Nester


The Seasons of Life

  • The Philosophical Baby: What Childrenʼs Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life

    Alison Gopnik (2010) [The author is a bestselling author, see her other book, The Scientist in the Crib, and professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, and an internationally recognized leader in the study of childrenʼs learning and development and was the first to argue that childrenʼs minds could help us understand deep philosophical questions. She was one of the founders of the study of “theory of mind”, illuminating how children come to understand the minds of others, and she formulated the “theory theory”, the idea that children learn in the same way that scientists do.]

  • The Mythic Journey: The Meaning of Myth as a Guide for Life

    Liz Greene, Juliet Sharman-Burke (2000) [“For centuries human beings have used myths, fairytales and folklore to explain lifeʼs mysteries and make them bearable—from why the seasons change, through complex relationship issues, to the enigma of death.” With this lofty purpose in mind, the authors organized this collection of myths according to the stages of human development. For example, part 1 is titled “In the Beginning” and takes us through the early lessons of life—“Parents and Children,” “Siblings,” and “The Family Inheritance.” Follow-up sections include “Becoming an Individual,” “Love and Relationships,” “Position and Power,” and finally “Rites of Passage.” The authors offer diverse myths beneath each heading. Within a section on “Leaving Home” we find the myths of Adam and Eve, The Buddhaʼs Departure, and Peredur the Son of Evrawc (a Celtic myth about finding the courage to leave a mother). The research and storytelling are topnotch, but what makes this lavishly illustrated guidebook stand out is the commentary that follows each myth, which explains the advice and guidance within these age-old tales.]

  • Morning, Noon, and Night: Finding the Meaning of Lifeʼs Stages Through Books

    Arnold Weinstein (Random House, 2011) [The author uses great works of literature to teach us about growing up and growing old, coming-of-age and surrendering to time.]

    With wisdom, humor, and moving personal observations, Weinstein leads us to look deep inside ourselves and these great books, to see how we can use art as both mirror and guide.

  • On Philosophy of Life: A Kaleidoscope (Seasons of Life, Seasons of Life-Volume Two) by eds., Kenneth L. Pike, Sharon Heimbach (1997 Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1997)

  • Young Peopleʼs Ideas about God, Religion and the Meaning of Life by Elizabeth Nowotny

  • The meaning of life among secondary school pupils: A theoretical framework and some initial results (Research bulletin / Dept. of Education, University of Helsinki) by Hannele Niemi

  • Making a Life in Yorkville : Experience and Meaning in the Life Course, Narrative of an Urban Working-Class Man (The Life Course and Aging) by Gerald Handel (, 2003)

  • Punks Find the Meaning of Life and…Death by Jr. Joseph Binge-Purge, Dr. Max Grody (Illustrator) (1983)

  • Autumn Wisdom: Finding Meaning in Lifeʼs Later Years (Willowgreen Series.) by James E. Miller

  • Is More Life Always Better? The New Biology of Aging And The Meaning of Life. : An article from: The Hastings Center Report by David Gems (Digital - July 1, 2003)


Saving the Oddist For Last

  • A Look At Life From A Deer Stand: Hunting For The Meaning Of Life, Steve Chapman (2005) [more than 280,000 copies sold, about how the skills necessary for great hunting can help draw people closer to the Lord]
  • Dinosaurs of Eden, Tracing the Mystery Through History - Learning the True History of the Earth, a Discovering the Very Meaning and Purpose of Life - Children Ages 8 and Up - Hardcover - First Edition, 8th Printing 2009 (Join us on this journey to the very beginning of time — when Dinosaurs Roamed the Garden of Eden)
    by Ken Ham (Director of the Creation Museum in Kentucky)
  • On the meaning of life: An oncologistʼs unification of Christianity, quantum physics, relativity theory, and common sense, Mark Tungesvik
  • AD 2036 IS THE END: The Truth About the Second Coming of Christ and the Meaning of Life, Christian T. Jacobsen