An excellent article, and one that, as the title claims, can provide a workable basis for a thinking persons guide to living. As a long time lover of science and the advances in our understanding bought about by the application of the scientific method, I can only express agreement with the sentiments expressed. I have long found the seeming need of many people to call on ancient myths, ghosts, and all the many 'cop outs' and illogical nonsense provided by established religious belief systems to order their lives. The results of this approach are readily to be seen. We have rationality, observation and as driven by evolutionary selection, the desire to know and understand. These have lead to the universal language of mathematics and the tools of logic and method. These are all we need - indeed all that we have.

There is, of course, another way of looking at this.

>>That enlightenment has come at a price - as now you are unconsciously dissatisfied at being grounded in nothing larger than yourself.<<

Alternatively, you might be - consciously - aware of the enormous privilege of simply being here, given the massive odds of being somewhere else. Mr Holden gives us a succinct account of how immensely lucky we are to actually possess a consciousness at all, one that enables us to see, wonder and learn.

The history of our life on this planet should give us some idea of just how immeasurably tiny is its span. The human race really has but a few thousand years in which to communicate and discover. Living in the centre of that moment is indeed the absolute pinnacle of immense good fortune.

How can we possibly be "unconsciously dissatisfied" about that?

Brian,
An excellent article.

Life has no meaning other than the meaning you want it to have at the moment. That meaning might come from enjoying a book, whether it is a book to help expand your own knowledge, or a different book that will just enliven your own fantasies.

Your meaning at the moment may come from the resolution of your thoughts on some matter you have been mulling over for some time. That often happens to me. I suspect that for me that first arose at high school through solving problems in Euclidean Geometry, a subject that was in the syllabus to teach students how to reason. Forget the old schoolboy joke but I often slept on such problems and knew the answer next morning.

It may be that you see some purpose in helping other people either physically or mentally, the latter covering such activities as writing something for Online Opinion that might help deluded people see more clearly the universe as it really is, rather than they continue to accept some authoritarian view that was passed down to them as dogma when they were children.

Science knows for certain that evolution occurs (see the Chicago E. coli experiment). Darwin's Theory may be modified slightly over time but it has basically withstood the tests of scientists for over 150 years so is now almost a scientific law verified as extensively as the laws of gravity.

There will be responses to this article from the usual suspects.

More strength to your arm.

"The human race really has but a few thousand years in which to communicate and discover. Living in the centre of that moment is indeed the absolute pinnacle of immense good fortune," says Pericles.

The human race, since its inception, has done little else but wage war and engage in killing and plundering and greed.

Assuming that one day, we really will become an intelligent species, I would prefer to be transferred to that time and leave the current chaos and slaughter behind.

Of course, with nukes, we may well not get that far and, deservedly, go the way of the dinosaurs.

Speak for yourself, Eeyore.

>>The human race, since its inception, has done little else but wage war and engage in killing and plundering and greed.<<

I can put my hand to my heart and say that I have indulged in none of these. Not one.

>>Assuming that one day, we really will become an intelligent species, I would prefer to be transferred to that time and leave the current chaos and slaughter behind.<<

Not going to happen, Marvin. The sooner you come to this realization, the sooner you will be able to enjoy your life for what it is - a staggeringly gigantic piece of good fortune that you should learn to relish, rather than despise.

Brian, you wrote, “We and the universe have no purpose. We and it are simply here.” I agree, if atheism is true you are completely correct.

It would seem to follow then that if we have no purpose then there is nothing we ought to do and equally nothing that we ought not do. What do you say then to people who choose to do things, that impact upon you, that you don’t like