The problem often not discovered until late in life is that when you look for things in life like love meaning motivation it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people in life recognize that in life they create their own love they manufacture their own meaning they generate their own motivation. For me I am driven by two main philosophies know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And lessen the suffering of others. Youd be surprised how far that gets you. - Neil deGrasse Tysons response on Reddit when asked What can you tell a young man looking for motivation in life itselfhttpwww.reddit.comrIAmAcomments...

If you want to save your child from polio you can pray or you can inoculate. ... Choose science.

1. Myth Without God life has no meaning. There are 1.2 billion Chinese who have no predominant religion and 1 billion people in India who are predominantly Hindu. And 65 of Japans 127 million people claim to be non-believers. It is laughable to suggest that none of these billions of people are leading meaningful lives.2. Myth Prayer works. Studies have now shown that inter-cessionary prayer has no effect whatsoever of the health or well-being of the subject.3. Myth Atheists are immoral.There are hundreds of millions of non-believers on the planet living normal decent moral lives. They love their children care about others obey laws and try to keep from doing harm to others just like everyone else. In fact in predominantly non-believing countries such as in northern Europe measures of societal health such as life expectancy at birth adult literacy per capita income education homicide suicide gender equality and political coercion are better than they are in believing societies.4. Myth Belief in God is compatible with science. In the past every supernatural or paranormal explanation of phenomena that humans believed turned out to be mistaken science has always found a physical explanation that revealed that the supernatural view was a myth. Modern organisms evolved from lower life forms they werent created 6000 years ago in the finished state. Fever is not caused by demon possession. Bad weather is not the wrath of angry gods. Miracle claims have turned out to be mistakes frauds or deceptions. We have every reason to conclude that science will continue to undermine the superstitious worldview of religion.5. Myth We have immortal souls that survive death.We have mountains of evidence that makes it clear that our consciousness our beliefs our desires our thoughts all depend upon the proper functioning of our brains our nervous systems to exist. So when the brain dies all of these things that we identify with the soul also cease to exist. Despite the fact that billions of people have lived and died on this planet we do not have a single credible case of someones soul or consciousness or personality continuing to exist despite the demise of their bodies.6. Myth If there is no God everything is permitted.Consider the billions of people in China India and Japan above. If this claim was true none of them would be decent moral people. So Ghandi the Buddha and Confucius to name only a few were not moral people on this view.7. Myth Believing in God is not a cause of evil.The examples of cases where it was someones belief in God that was the justification for their evils on humankind are too numerous to mention.8. Myth God explains the origins of the universe.All of the questions that allegedly plague non-God attempts to explain our origins still apply to the faux explanation of God. The suggestion that God created everything does not make it any clearer to us where it all came from how he created it why he created it where it is all going. In fact it raises even more difficult mysteries how did God operating outside the confines of space time and natural law create or build a universe that has physical laws We have no precedent and maybe no hope of answering or understanding such a possibility. What does it mean to say that some disembodied spiritual being who knows everything and has all power loves us or has thoughts or goals or plans9. Myth Theres no harm in believing in God.Religious views inform voting how they raise their children what they think is moral and immoral what laws and legislation they pass who they are friends and enemies with what companies they invest in where they donate to charities who they approve and disapprove of who they are willing to kill or tolerate what crimes they are willing to commit and which wars they are willing to fight.

I am sure my fellow-scientists will agree with me if I say that whatever we were able to achieve in our later years had its origin in the experiences of our youth and in the hopes and wishes which were formed before and during our time as students.

The more formidable the contradiction between inexhaustible life-joy and inevitable fate the greater the longing which reveals itself in the kingdom of poetry and in the self-created world of dreams hopes to banish the dark power of reality. The gods enjoy eternal youth and the search for the means of securing it was one of the occupations of the heroes of mythology and the sages as it was of real adventurers in the middle ages and more recent times. . . . But the fountain of youth has not been found and can not be found if it is sought in any particular spot on the earth. Yet it is no fable no dream-picture it requires no adept to find it it streams forth inexhaustible in all living nature.

To achieve the impossible you must attempt the absurd

Normally it takes people about 60 to 90 minutes to reach REM sleep so they wouldnt enter this stage during a 20 minute nap. People with narcolepsy often enter REM sleep soon after falling asleep. If a person enters REM sleep in two or more of the five naps in eight minutes or less during the study its highly suggestive of narcolepsy.

Science is my territory but science fiction is the landscape of my dreams.

To be able to see into a friends dream is a dream in itself.-Doctor Ksaku Tokita Paprika