Books & Audiobooks
Near-constant bombardment with messages about hyper-relevance, immediacy, and the very Instagram-centric drive towards everything needing to be meaningful to be fulfilling was the hook, line, and sinker that reeled me into Finding Purpose in a Godless World by Ralph Lewis. The book approaches the topic from less of a Hitchens disposition and a little more Sam Harris-meets-Mythbusters in psychiatric practice, which satisfied my enduring skepticism. Lewis writes as a psychiatrist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto. He graciously offers his own experience grappling with the book’s contents through his wife’s aggressive cancer diagnosis.
Through patient stories, historical injectures, and personal experiences he illuminates compelling philosophical inquiries: what happens if there is no purpose? What if sometimes bad things just happen and there is little meaning to be made of them? What happens when science rewards randomness, rather than religiosity? Do we need the idea of God to care about one another and prioritize kindness? Why do we orient ourselves toward miracles when most of them have a scientifically observable cause that nullifies their miraculousness? It is the dull lustre of durability; Weather-worn, evidence-based, and time-tested wellbeing is prioritized. He notes that sometimes this realism can mean choosing life-saving treatments for cancer patients, or general psychological well-being for caregivers, friends, and family of cancer patients (in oncological and thus extreme, examples from the book). While some wait for the proverbial heavens to part, others seek solutions uninformed by religion. Though I am Hindu, the contents of the book resonated for the way they face the horizon of compassion, and an imperative to care about one another simply because we are here, rather than as a response to an intelligently designed universe.
To be fair in perspective and disclosure, I will share that I read this book as someone for whom Hinduism resonates the most profoundly despite having grown up with strong Catholic, Judeo-Christian, and Evangelical Christian influences, having taken the scenic route through New Age spirituality. Last summer I read different versions of the Bhagavad Gita, Mahabharata, and the Puranas, while also delving into Bhakti studies. I read sections of the Adi Granth in tandem, as well as Guru Nanak, and Kabir, all central to Sikhism. I also delved into the likes of Idries Shah, Ibn al-Arabi, Al-Ghazali, and Rumi, and though focused on Islam, they equally summarize one of Lewis’ central tenets (paraphrasing generously): our task is not to find faith, but to remove our obstacles to it. In other words, I’m reviewing the book having been influenced by a variety of religious dispositions and though Hindu, I understand and appreciate many faiths around it, including those whose faith is only with the scientific method.
It is more of a scientific read than not, so an appreciation of philosophy beforehand or some baseline knowledge thereof may inform a reader’s takeaways. It is still an excellent read. The book discusses whether we need God to conceive of a just universe in the face of personal tragedies and traumas to make meaning of what would otherwise seem like senseless cruelty on the part of an impartial universe. It echoes Voltaire’s musing that, “if God didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent him” in the questions it attempts to answer. Physics and scientific study may not heal a broken heart; Chaos theories, and computational logics lend few comforts in a world characterized mostly by randomness. Lewis speaks to readers in these liminal places and thus fulfills an important narrative function in agnostic and atheist literature.
Lewis’ book left me with much to consider where my esotericism and Hinduism meet with generative AI futures that will fundamentally change collective knowledge of the universe. What happens when the things that we attribute to a god, become the banality of generative artificial intelligence? Lewis’ book foreshadows a solvable world where religion’s place at the existential table has been disrupted. Despite writing in 2018, the book offers a compelling prologue to the world that generative artificial intelligence will build.
An excellent way to spend a weekend, I would recommend this book for a variety of book lovers: those with agnostic inclinations, as well as science geeks of all stripes who delight in the presentation of rigorous debate to challenge their thinking. Philosophy nerds may also take heed of another great contribution to the morality-religion-general philosophy genres.