Have you ever wondered how life could possibly be meaningful in this absurd and seemingly arbitrary world? If so, you’re not alone. The question of whether life has purpose has been debated since at least Ancient Greece, and some of the greatest minds in philosophy and literature have grappled with it and its implications. On one side of that debate is nihilism, a group of philosophies that center on rejecting the foundational ideas of other philosophies. Its most famous manifestation is existential nihilism, which holds that life is meaningless and lacks intrinsic value. This particular form of nihilism will be our focus here, but it’s worth noting that others are out there. For instance, moral nihilism rejects the idea that acts can be objectively right or wrong, a stance the philosopher J.L. Mackie argued for in 1977. Meanwhile, epistemic nihilism holds that knowledge is impossible. Plato claimed the pre-Socratic thinker Protagoras held this point of view. Exploring nihilism can be distressing. It often requires us to face the possibility that what we hold dear rests …