Pop Culture: Finding Meaning and Purpose in the Neighborhood

Pascal Boyer suggests that humans are created to have a spirituality, so whether we're religionists or atheists, we all strive toward the transcendent. Religionists tend to seek their source for meaning in a Transcendent reality (God), while atheists tend to find purpose in a Humanistic trajectory. (Admittedly, this is grossly simplistic, so my apologies to both groups.)

However, these differences are meaningless when it comes to pop culture. When Yael Naim's "New Soul" introduces the new MacBook Air, I hear a deeply religious message and my thoughts bounce back and forth from Martin Buber to Paul Tillich to Teilhard de Chardin—theologians who looked at life from a faith perspective. Others could be thinking of humanity in the cosmic scope of things, and recall the writings of Arthur Clarke, Isaac Asimov or Robert Heinlein—authors who looked at the world from a humanistic perspective.


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