42. Dr. Clay Routledge — The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything

The Michael Shermer Show

Michael Shermer

Dialogue, Science, Reason, Michaelshermer, Natural Sciences, Skeptic

4.4 • 921 Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2018

⏱️ 121 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this dialogue on life’s deepest and most meaningful issues Michael Shermer talks with psychologist Clay Routledge about: the evolution of motivation and goals in animals and humans ● what a “purpose driven life” really means ● how atheists and nonbelievers can create meaningful and purposeful lives ● the self, personal identity, and existential psychology ● why people believe in God and fear death ● why religious people live longer and healthier lives ● the different types of atheists ● why one-third of atheists believe in some type of life after death ● free will as a useful fiction ● trans-humanism as a faux religion ● what should an atheist say to someone who is dying or has a loved-one who passed away ● terrorism as motivated by religion or politics or both.

Dr. Clay Routledge is an author, psychological scientist, consultant, public speaker, and professor. He is a professor at North Dakota State University. He studies basic psychological needs and how these needs influence wellbeing, physical health, and intergroup relations.Much of his research focuses on the need for meaning in life and the need to belong.He has published 95 scholarly papers, co-edited two books on existential psychology, and authored the book Nostalgia: A Psychological Resource. He was the lead writer for the TED-Ed animated lesson Why Do We Feel Nostalgia? His new book Supernatural: Death, Meaning, and the Power of the Invisible World was published in July 2018.

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This remote Science Salon was recorded on September 12, 2018.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is your host, Michael Sherman, and you're listening to Science A Lot, a series of conversations
0:10.4	with leading scientists, scholars, and thinkers about the most important issues of our time.
0:17.0	Dr. Clayer Outledge is the author, psychological scientist, consultant, public speaker, and professor.
0:27.0	Studies basic psychological needs and how these needs influence well-being, physical health, and intergroup relations.
0:34.0	Much of his research focuses on the need for the meaning in life and the need to belong.
0:39.6	He's published 95 scholarly papers, co-edited two books on existential psychology and authored the book
0:45.0	Nostalgia, a Psychological Resource, and his latest book is Supernatural, which is I have right here, death, meaning, and the power of the invisible world, which is published in July of this year, which is what triggers this discussion today.
1:02.0	It's interesting on your website you have that you're
1:05.4	a behavioral scientist or a psychological scientist not psychologist. I think
1:10.1	there you're maybe making the distinction between the two kind of big
1:14.8	organizations in psychology those that focus heavily on experiments and
1:19.3	in empirical research and that in the more clinical and less
1:23.5	psychological or less experiment or a less empirical aspect of the field.
1:29.1	Is that correct?
1:30.1	Yeah, I think so.
1:32.1	And the other reason I sort of call myself that is because a lot of the things I'm interested in, I think, you know, though my main focus is on what's going on inside, you know, inside the person's head.
1:43.0	A lot of the issues I'm interested in touch on other social and behavioral sciences.
1:48.0	So I kind of envision myself more
2:01.2	Transcending just that you know the confines of traditional psychology but yeah it's definitely more I consider myself more of you know an empirical researcher
2:06.8	Yeah, so you're you're in North Dakota now give us a little background because I read in your book you made references to living in England for a few years I presume
2:10.2	that's doctoral research or post doc or whatever.
2:14.0	Give us a little CV for you, a little bio of how you got to end up studying
	...

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