The Black Hole

People are desperate for something to believe in. From Old Time Religion to Islam to Scientology to The Secret to Ayn Rand, everyone wants something to believe in. They want something to make sense of the world. But in a desert, people will drink the sand in their desperation.

Others don't go quite as far. They turn to gurus like Deepak Chopra or Tony Robbins or whoever to guide them in living. From self-discovery to self-improvement to lifehacking, people want to get their shit together. But they still feel lost in a world without meaning.

As an atheist, I don't dwell on these ultimate questions. The best answers we can hope for will come from the Large Hadron Collider. But, regardless of what physicists discover, they cannot give you a meaning for life. Ultimately, you have to find your own meaning.

Finding that meaning can be scary. It is like staring into the abyss of a black hole. But people are overwhelmed by ultimate considerations. But does an ant give a shit that you have cancer? Hell no. She has work to do and just does it. Nothing exists for the ant apart from the task at hand.

People should be like that ant. They need to quit worrying about the big questions because they have no answer. One day, you will be dead, and that will be it. This can depress you and motivate you to hasten that end. Or you can decide to not give a fuck and enjoy the now like I do.

It helps to be selfish. I care that there are people suffering in the world, but it doesn't keep me from enjoying a good cup of coffee or reading a great book. I live today, and I hope to live tomorrow. But when I run out of tomorrows, it won't matter. The only thing that matters is my happiness.

We hang around because we want to be happy. Death takes care of itself. Life is something you must tend to right now while you still have it. We live to be happy. Without happiness, life is pointless. But there is happiness. You can enjoy the life you have. Your life can mean something to you, and in this world, you are the one who counts.

It is a lot easier to turn to a belief system or a guru to make our decisions for us, but they never do the trick. We choose what we value, and we pursue these things. This is how we are. For me, I fill my life with as much as I can cram into it. Unlike the abyss of the black hole, my life is small, and I can handle that. I don't need to dwell on the ultimate significance of my car not starting. It is simply another problem to solve. People may condemn this mindless existence, but I can tell you that it beats staring all day into that black abyss. I turned my back on it long ago, and it has been a good decision I have not regretted.

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