Re: The Myth of Meaning
There is a neurological basis for this. Our minds are predisposed to See connections between things. There is a specific module of the brain responsible for this. In paranoid schizophrenics it's overactive, and their paranoia comes from seeing negative connections between things that are unrelated. In manic individuals it's also overactive and they tend to see positive omens everywhere and believe that the universe has a plan involving them.
If the area is underactive, however, the result is usually depression. For some reason if we are not continually drawing connections and finding reasons for things then we seem to become unhappy.
For religious people finding meaning is easy. They can always pull out the 'god has a plan' or 'it's god's will' reasons. So it makes sense that religion makes their lives seem meaningful.
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