Page 72 - Liberating Liberals V2
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The God-shaped Hole in the Soul
a transcendent event that the body arrangements of males and females, and much of our hormonal and emotional makeup, cater to it. Not to mention the reproductive connection can conquer another great fear, the fear of being alone. As long as you’ve got your mate in reproduction, or a child, then you’re probably not as lonely.
But again, human freedom is so powerful that many successfully avoid this reproductive meaning even with it screaming at them most of their lives. Some avoid it to their lonely woe. Some have
happy lives because of avoiding it. And now with birth control we can pretend to reproduce, yet not. Nevertheless, making another meaning-making human, and raising that offspring for 20-plus years, is a gigantic meaning that most of humanity can access, if they choose.
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Nietzsche’s insights about meaninglessness may be a way to arrive at more stable truths, as well as being
a refuge from oppressive meanings. It’s similar to the Cartesian method of assuming everything is false until absolutely proven true — and proven true to you.
The difference is that meaninglessness provides an even more objective analytical platform. It neutralizes all tradition, hype, spiritual railroading, and the awesomeness of institutions and edifices — as well as
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