Finding Purpose

Human caring in a random universe.

Ralph Lewis M.D.

Is ADHD a Real Disorder or One End of a Normal Continuum?

The standard view of ADHD as one among many possible disorders may be wrong. It may be a common set of evolutionarily mismatched traits.

Where Does Morality Come From?

Despite popular belief that religion is the main source of morality, there is a large, well-established body of knowledge about the fully natural origins of the human moral sense.

Is Consciousness an Illusion?

The brain insists it has a nonphysical conscious essence. This may be because it evolved a simplified, abstracted model of its attention processes, with the details edited out.

Are We All Zombies? (Are Humans Truly Conscious?)

Consciousness is a user-illusion, blindly honed by biological evolution but layered with language and culture and deepened by the chemistry of emotion.

How Consciousness Evolved as a Purely Physical Phenomenon

The ability of nervous systems to form internal representations is fundamentally a physical process. This is key to understanding how consciousness works and how it evolved.

The Evolutionary Origins of Consciousness

Consciousness is purely the product of a brain comprised of physical particles. So how come it feels like something—a subjective experience?

What Actually Is Consciousness, and How Did It Evolve?

Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution. Consciousness is no exception—it seems nonphysical, but is very much a biological phenomenon.

How Do We Know What Is Real?

Our sense of ‘Self’ is an illusion constructed by evolution, and our perceptions are like a form of virtual reality. So how can we really know what’s out there?

A Purely Physical Universe? “There Must Be Something More.”

Science tells us the universe is fundamentally a random collection of matter and energy and we are just collections of particles. Where do purpose, meaning, and morality come from?

Hate Speech: Would You Give the Devil His Due?

At a time of heightened awareness of racism, and in a world awash with hateful conspiracy theories, an expert debunker cautions that censorship of hate speech can backfire.

Do Psi Phenomena Exist? Debating the Nature of Consciousness

Part 2 of 2: A psychiatrist and a psychologist debate whether science should take seriously the study of paranormal phenomena.

Do Psi Phenomena Exist? Debating the Nature of Consciousness

Part 1 of 2: A psychiatrist and a psychologist debate parapsychology’s view that consciousness is not purely dependent on the physical brain.

Life Is Short and the World Will End, Can It Have Meaning?

Everything is finite, even matter itself. Life is rendered all the more urgent and purposeful by its evanescence. Some of the world’s best science writers show us why.

Moral Character and Purpose in the Face of Absurd Adversity

Events like the COVID-19 pandemic reveal to each of us who we really are, and whether we are sufficiently cooperative and rational to depend on each other and flourish.

Spirituality, Not Just Religion, May Be Declining

Young adults have the lowest levels of belief in a Higher Power. Should we be worried that they will lose purpose, meaning and morality?

Will the Kids Be All Right?

I work at the frontlines of the youth mental health crisis, and I am confident that our future is more secure than ever in this generation’s capable hands.

The Varieties of Mystical Experience

Profound mystical experiences shape our worldview. We can be more willing to doubt the laws of physics than our own minds.

Can You Accept the Randomness of Life?

Our brains abhor randomness. They seek patterns and crave control. But understanding the world as fundamentally random can liberate and empower us.

Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

Perspectives to help believers and non-believers make sense of random cosmic injustice.

What Is the Allure of the Paranormal in Our Scientific Age?

How is it that people still believe in paranormal phenomena when these have been so thoroughly debunked? Could they be looking for meaning and purpose in all the wrong places?

Would You Know if You Held a Weird Belief?

Irrational beliefs and delusions are on a continuum. You would be the last to know which of your beliefs are false. Science is the antidote, but religion is not a delusion.

Is There Life After Death? The Mind-Body Problem

Death has never been popular. The intuition that the mind is more than the product of the brain and will survive its death feels correct, but is flatly contradicted by science.

What Makes Some People So Motivated and Self-Controlled?

Conscientiousness might be determined by attention span, and can be shaped by nature, nurture, cultural norms and habit. Too much conscientiousness is as maladaptive as too little.

Finding Purpose Without God

Do you assume that without God and religion, life would have no purpose, meaning, or morality?

Does the Universe Have a Purpose?

Why we insist it does, and why it really is okay that it most probably doesn't.

Why the Exodus Story Has Value Despite Being Complete Myth

How we know that the Exodus from Egypt and revelation of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai are pure mythology. And why we can still derive much value from those traditions.

Where Does Purpose Come From? (If the Universe Had None)

Consider the huge philosophical implications if it could be shown exactly how purpose and order could emerge from a random universe, entirely spontaneously and unguided.

What Actually Is a Thought? And How Is Information Physical?

Thoughts are not ethereal. They are forms of information, and information is physical. The subjective sense of self is the experience of "being" information encoded in a brain.

How Could Mind Emerge From Mindless Matter?

Do you find the scientific reductionist worldview unsatisfying? Is that all there is—just particles? Discover another whole new side to science: complexity theory and emergence.

Profoundly Challenging Questions to Ask an Atheist

Theism must explain the problem of evil; atheism must explain everything else. Doing so would seem impossible. How then did science arrive at an atheistic worldview?

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