What Gives Meaning to Your Life?

Modern living is as stressful as at any time in recent memory, especially for young people. There are rising rates of depression, anxiety, suicide, and drug abuse. Economic and political uncertainty has left many people with insecurity about the future, about survival with dignity, or has created anger or resistance to the established order. Humans are, as far as we know, the only animals that want and need meaning in their lives.

Throughout history humanity has looked to religion and the promise of an afterlife to give their lives meaning. Others have found meaning in philosophies such as stoicism or existentialism, or are focused on the attainment of pleasure or happiness as the moral goal of life, or as an aspect of chance. Nietzsche says that as a consequence of the death of God we would have to create our own values; we would have to become gods ourselves, so to speak. Jordan Peterson says that we can’t create our own values; we have to discover them and what we discover are eternal values.

Do we give up and die or do we make or find a reason to go on despite the inherent suffering and tragedy of life?

As Humanists our focus is on making human life better. We are curious about what gets you out of bed in the morning. So many of us have different points of view, and sharing them sometimes helps us to come away as better people. In this, our first meeting of 2020, we would like to follow up on last meeting’s question “What is a Human Being?” We will come together as a group to share ideas, learn new ways of thinking, and encourage others to do likewise. Our discussion will be led by Ron Rubin and Steve James. Your ideas and participation are welcome.

As usual, we will meet from 6 to 9 PM upstairs at the Moonstruck Restaurant located at 449 Third Avenue at the Southeast corner of East 31st Street, New York. Please bring friends and family; have dinner at 6, if you can, but all are welcome anytime. We will start the discussion at 7:00 PM.