Fluidity

Systems such as religions and political ideologies reinforce eternalism. They dispel doubt by denying nebulosity.

Original text at: https://meaningness.com/eternalist-systems

You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks

If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold

Original music by Kevin MacLeod.

This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

Eternalism -- belief in fixed meanings -- makes promises it can't keep. It makes us do stupid, crazy, evil things. And we still love it and keep going back for more.

Original text at: https://meaningness.com/eternalism-considered-harmful

You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks

If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold

Original music by Kevin MacLeod.

This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

This episode contains the final page of "The Appeal Of Eternalism".

Eternalism's final promise is to keep nihilism at bay. There is a better alternative to both!

Original text at: https://meaningness.com/eternalism-as-salvation-from-nihilism

You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks

If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold

Original music by Kevin MacLeod.

This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

This episode contains the fourth part of "The Appeal Of Eternalism".

Eternalism promises answers about good and bad- the meanings we care about most- but cannot deliver.

Original text at: https://meaningness.com/wheel-of-fortune

You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks

If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold

Original music by Kevin MacLeod.

This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

Last episode, we covered the first two pages of the section "The Appeal Of Eternalism", about the illusions of certainty and understanding. This episode contains the third page, about control.

Eternalism promises complete control over life — but that is an impossible fantasy. Influence through collaboration and improvisation are possible, however.

Original text at: https://meaningness.com/control

You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks

If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold

Original music by Kevin MacLeod.

This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

This is the second of our bonus episodes, outside of the audiobook. I interview David Chapman on the secular and the sacred. I ask him questions about his background in Buddhism and Wicca, and my experiences with the TV shows "Cosmos" and "Veggie Tales", EPCOT Center, Burning Man, and the Universism movement active from 2003 to 2007 (as distinct from Unitarian Universalism).

The question for you, our listeners, is this: Does English have a single word, neologism, or portmanteau, which might convey the sense of the Buddhist word "kadag"? It means a type of sacredness which is blended with the banal, and can sometimes be found in unexpected places. As sacredness is traditionally conceived, there is a category of things which are set apart to always to be considered completely sacred. Kadag differs from that.

You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks

If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold

Original music by Kevin MacLeod.

This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

Parts 1 and 2 of this book's section "The Appeal Of Eternalism". Eternalism promises everything you could want from meaning: safety, support, certainty, reassurance, and control. Solid ground!

1. The promise of certainty: What we want most from meaning is guarantees. Religions, political ideologies, and other eternalist systems promise certainty; but they cannot deliver.

2. The illusion of understanding: It's deluded to think we mostly understand issues of meaning (ethics, purpose, value, politics). Ideologies deliberately create and sustain that illusion.

Original text at: https://meaningness.com/eternalism-appeal

https://meaningness.com/certainty

https://meaningness.com/understanding

You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks

If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold

Original music by Kevin MacLeod.

This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

Eternalism is the wrong idea that everything has a definite meaning, fixed by an external ordering principle.

I get duped by eternalism in a casino: Gambling, religion, and addiction-- a personal story.

Great confusions about meaningness stem from the mistaken assumption that there must be some sort of eternal ordering principle.

Original text at: https://meaningness.com/eternalism

https://meaningness.com/finding-god-in-a-casino

https://meaningness.com/no-cosmic-plan

You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks

If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold

Original music by Kevin MacLeod.

This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

Some things are meaningful, and others aren't. This is obvious; yet most confusions about meaning begin by denying it.

Claims that everything is meaningful, or that nothing is, are motivated by fears: fear of the opposite.

We have a choice of explanations: ones that are simple, clear, harmful, and wrong; or ones that are complex, vague, helpful, and approximately right.

Original text at: https://meaningness.com/meaningfulness-and-meaninglessness

https://meaningness.com/extreme-examples-eternalism-and-nihilism

https://meaningness.com/meaningness-first-explanation

You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks

If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold

Original music by Kevin MacLeod.

This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

For the past few months, I've been assembling cast members, to edit their performances together into a full-cast recording of this week's chapter.

What is the meaning of an extra-marital affair—or any relationship? A philosophical short story illustrates the puzzle of the nebulosity of meaningness.

Thanks to Bruce Webber of the Phase Shift podcast for his performance of the viewpoint character, Christine Kitchens as the philosophy professor, Shianne Nocerini of the Daily Detroit podcast as Suzie, Sarah Elkins as Janet, Jeremiah Staes of the Daily Detroit podcast as Chris, and Sofia Syntaxx of the ANGR podcast as Kim.

Original text at: https://meaningness.com/nebulosity-of-meaningness

You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks

If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold

Original music by Kevin MacLeod.

This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.