Life's Harshness

Our propensity to believe that life and the universe as a whole are inherently purposeful is rooted in part in our expectations of fairness, our bias toward optimism, and our need to feel that our lives matter.

Wishful thinking underlies the human tendency toward unrealistic optimism.

It is important to accept the harshness of reality before we can move on to build a more coherent, reality-based worldview that is ultimately more realistically optimistic.

We will also begin to see that having a strong appetite for life and a motivated sense of purpose is our natural evolved state, and that our purpose-driven nature is much more determined by our biological health than by our belief that we have a special purpose in a purposeful universe.

From “Finding Purpose In A Godless World”. Ralph Lewis. 2018.