An Absence of Meaning

The deeper cause for the breakdown of civilization, worldwide, is the absence of meaning in each of our lives. Our historical worldview no longer makes sense in the modern light of reason, science, and evidential thinking, but we have not come up with a replacement. We have thought for millennia that values must come from religious traditions, but modern biology and contemporary philosophy are now in a position to articulate a universal ethic based on the facts of our natural world. Our existing, traditional worldview has been responsible for the alienation in each of us, and until we recognize and deal with our natural identity, there can be no end to meaninglessness and its attendant violence. This book examines our current worldview and the basis of our alienation, and suggests a different ontology, epistemology, semantic, psychology, and social structure for our civilization--suggestions closer to the scientific reality and the experiential truth we humans have painstakingly discovered and closer to a meaning that fulfills. (Its appendix showcases five meaningful social experiments relevant to the reconsideration of our current traditions.) It is no longer arguable that our species is at a serious crossroads. Political and economic changes will not go deep enough in changing our consciousness. We need worldview change. Each of us now has the responsibility of helping create a new worldview, a new understanding of reality, a real basis for meaning.