Why Can't We Find Meaning Anymore? John Vervaeke

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I watched the Peter Hitchens video just before this one and the contrast between each guest’s reaction to Alex challenging them is striking.

John is incredible in the philosophical sphere. This is an awesome guest for Alex

I appreciate Alex’s willingness and ability to translate what his guests say into something that can be related to be the average person.

I like Christopher Hitchens' party analogy to death: “It will happen to all of us, that at some point you get tapped on the shoulder and told, not just that the party’s over, but slightly worse: the party’s going on — but you have to leave. And it’s going on without you. That’s the reflection that I think most upsets people about their demise. All right, then, because it might make us feel better, let’s pretend the opposite. Instead, you’ll get tapped on the shoulder and told, Great news: this party’s going on forever — and you can’t leave. You’ve got to stay; the boss says so. And he also insists that you have a good time.” I see, why there is a sentiment against immortality there, but I also understand, that death is the ultimate fear of missing out, because it will make you miss out on everything. People are fearful of missing out an actual party, so it is natural, that they are also fearful of missing out the party we call life, so in that sense I don't find fearing death, and not just only dying fearful. Also I think - as I have no statistics, but only anecdotal "evidence" - that those who are more accepting their own death are older at average than those who are fearful of it, making so than at a young age you want to live forever, and at an older age, you realize, that while it was good, that much of living is enough.

1:05:30 "it doesnt need to persist for [the intrinsic value of that existence] to go on". Dang. That struck a chord with me.

Vervaeke has the magical wit to just connect so many things !

The way alex switches from debate mode to interviewer/host commentator is extraordinary, Night and day from the Ben Shapiro debate God bless and thank you for all your years of hard work to provide knowledge and insight to your followers

Alex, nice to see Vervaeke here. Then the natural next guess seems to be BERNARDO KASTRUP--I really want to see you engaging him in the channel. Vervaeke and Kastrup had a 2-part dialogue on Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal, which was amazingly good session.

Amazing epispode Alex! This really pushed the limits of my pseudo-intellectual brain's ability to comprehend, but it was great!

I would love to see a follow up interview-discussion. I believe vervaeke's work and intuitions can really challenge Alex's views in interesting ways.

I love hearing from John Vervaeke!!! This should be great!

‘You have made us for Yourself and our hearts are restless until we find our rest in You.’

John seemed to genuinely be having the time of his life in this conversation. Great episode and guest.

Haven’t had to a chance to watch/listen to this yet, but YES. John Vervaeke is wonderful; glad you both were able to speak!

Best guest so far in my opinion!!

I love vervaeke and grateful that you really pinned him down on why and what the desire for an after life in essence really is. This a really important question for both religious and non-religious. It’s one of the most important human questions!

I’m a fan of absurdism because it’s clear there’s no meaning but what we create but it’s also clear we evolved to really care about the meaning of our lives. Learning to live with this tension is the human project. Camus makes a good point that people are just hiding from this problem when they latch on to religion or some other narrative. The authentic, brave way to live is to embrace the absurdity and not make excuses or explain it away. That’s what makes the closing to The Myth of Sisyphus so powerful, “The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."

Thank you so much for defining terms and checking in with one another to be sure you are understanding the terms in the same way.

Amazing!! Highly respect both people in this dialogue.