Science & the Big Questions

When Does Living a Moral Life Lead to a Flourishing Life?

Not all meaningful and purposeful lives have the same basis or necessarily lead to flourishing.

Character & Context, Society for Personality and Social Psychology

Topics: Flourishing Happiness Meaning Morality Purpose

Suicides Have Increased. Is This an Existential Crisis?

Sometimes people kill themselves because their lives lack meaning.

Gray Matter, The New York Times

Topics: Belonging Meaning Purpose

Why Is the World So Beautiful?

Nobel physicist Frank Wilczek sees beauty as a compass for truth, discovery, and meaning.

On Being

Topics: Beauty Meaning Reality

The Believing Brain

The human brain has a compulsion to attribute meaning to what happens in our lives through a belief system.

All In The Mind, ABC Radio National

Topics: Agency Belief Brian Greene Cognition Meaning Spirituality

Finding Purpose for a Good Life. But Also a Healthy One

Happiness has little to do with it. Research suggests meaning in your life is important for well-being.

The Upshot, The New York Times

Topics: Meaning Purpose Resilience

Special Issue: Information, Matter, and Life

There are aspects of the relationship among information, matter, and life that deserve closer attention, that have a direct bearing on how we understand ourselves and our world — and so shape our moral and social lives.

The New Atlantis

Topics: Information Knowledge Meaning Technology

What Can We Learn From Near-Death Experiences?

Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin studied people’s stories of near-death experiences. He discusses what these people and experiences had in common and what can be learned from them.

Houston Matters

Topics: Consciousness Death Meaning Transformation

The Universe Doesn’t Care About Your ‘Purpose’

But you do. And you should.

The Stone, The New York Times

Topics: Meaning Purpose Universe

Don’t Believe in God? Maybe You’ll Try U.F.O.s

The less religious people are, the more likely they are to think aliens exist.

Gray Matter, The New York Times

Topics: Meaning Religiosity Spirituality

How to Find Meaning in the Face of Death

The time between diagnosis and death presents an opportunity for “extraordinary growth.”

The Atlantic

Topics: Death Hope Meaning