Starting with the obvious answer 42, anyone figured out the question yet?
Life is a bizarre concept and so many people have their own idea of what living is.
Science has various answers but there are organisms we see conforming to some and not others. Theologians have their own varied and often wonderful ideas. I being none of the above and being part of the computer rather than the programmer haven't a clue.
Most of us wonder what the point is at least once in our life and there are more opinions on what makes a fulfilling life than potential lottery numbers worldwide. If you’ve never wondered, I am surprised you have the mental faculties required to be reading this.
Why should we care? Well there is this strange theory that we are alive and its our nature to question things in order to progress. There are days I feel like death or wish I was, usually after a really good workout when every movement hurts, or when there is a lot of DIY to do, but as far as I know I am still alive and not looking likely to die anytime soon, so I care.
Are we insignificant? Absolutely without a shadow of a doubt yes and of course no. In a million years’ time the impact of our life is unlikely to be felt, this time scale seems huge for us but on a universal or even geological timeline it's nothing. Our lives do have an impact positive or negative on those around us now, that could be as minor as being the source of that awful smell in the lift or as major as providing clean water for several impoverished villages.
The big bang, or possibly the latest big bang. Anyone who tells you scientific thinking is having concrete answers, please explain why science was described as the study of discovering questions. The very joy of science is we know less by knowing more. Back when we knew our planet was the centre of the universe astrophysics was simple and wildly inaccurate, now it's complex and less inaccurate but we can say with some certainty that the sun will burn out long before we are sucked into a black hole and neither of these are likely to happen before we get home for dinner.
I live to some extent to provide a good life for my family. This wasn't always the case but I usually found things to give my life meaning and enjoyed it. I believe life is what you make of it and much as I love the big questions, it's the smaller world that makes mine feel good.
There are people who get life handed to them on a plate, and they are often the most ungracious around, but many appreciate their easy ride and work hard to improve the lives of others. Ironically whatever start you have it seems to be how hard you work on it that makes you happy, I think we need to know how hard life can be to be happy with how lucky we are.
There is a lot to be said for sitting back and looking at something you have done which may be of no importance to anyone else but gives your life meaning. For me it's often moving lumps of metal which have to be put away, for my son building lego creations that get blown up in games, and for my wife painting something she may decide to simply scrape away and paint over. Our leisure can be totally pointless and that is often the whole point. If you care what others think about your yard of ale record, or juggling flaming batons it's not fun anymore. When asked why I lift weights or run and cycle to work instead of driving or using the bus the answer is often because I can, and I love it, along with other activities known to produce endorphins. For others that would be cruel and unusual punishment for me torture would be sitting in a pub with a bunch of drunks watching football or some random talentless show, I never declared I wasn't weird.
Life is ridiculous and incredible, if you can’t laugh about it you’ve missed it. As always comments welcome.
There are many things we see eye-to-eye on, and plenty of things we may disagree on, but there's one thing we definitely agree on, and that's the definition of torture.
ReplyDeleteI've been reading a science-fiction novel on-and-off over the last 6 months called "Calculating God." The story begins with a spider-like alien (that has one mouth for one side of its brain and another mouth for the other side of its brain) landing on earth and saying: "Take me to a paleontologist." The alien has a theory that there is a god, and (along with various colleagues) is studying planets that have (or have had) life on them to test theories about this god.
The going theory, where I'm up to, is that god is an inorganic intelligent entity from the previous big bang before this one. It isn't, and never was, "alive" in the biological sense -- but a complex enough arrangement of products in the last universe came together, and spontaneously formed this intelligent entity, which in turn guided the next big bang to make a universe that could support biological life. I'm pretty sure referencing this little bit of sci-fi, and the non-conventional theology within, was leading somewhere, but while I had full clarity on where that somewhere was 5min ago, now that I'm there I can't recall for the life of me. But I do know your mention of the possibility of this being the latest big bang prompted me to think about this.
On one forum that I'm on, people have only figured out that I'm a Christian in about the last month. Prior to that, for a good year or so I'd talked about my worldview in light of my belief in God, without actually stating that I believe in YHWH/Jesus or that I'm a Christian. I found people's reactions to my beliefs quite amusing, because a lot of what I discussed was theology 101, and Christianity is supposedly the major religion of the western world, yet what I had to say came across as completely obscure, unheard of, bizzarro world stuff.
One of the big ones, which I feel is relevant to discussions on the meaning of life, is that the bible doesn't actually tell us that heaven is the end goal, but that God will restore this physical world and physically resurrect us into the restored world. Heaven may be a pitt stop between death and resurrection, but it's certainly not the main target. I think that puts a very different value on life as physical creatures than the more convential idea (amongst those who believe in an afterlife) that you die and then transcend into a purely spiritual creature for eternity. To me, it conjures up the sense that God actually values the fullness of our humanity, which is a nice thought.
I know how to fly: Just fall towards the ground and miss.
Flying is safe easy, only landing caries risk.
ReplyDeletePersonally I find conversations without at least some disagreement very dull, and I love being wrong too much to dislike those proving me so. However if you weren't intelligent enough to have defined torture sensibly I think I would have misjudged you.
I have long held that any scientist who spends time trying to disprove god needs a better hobby. We never have and never should, doing so is pointless.
I had the opposite to you. Attending church with my son meant most assumed I was bringing him along not vice versa. My knowledge of some of the historical accuracies of biblical tales confused them too, as this allowed me to understand the scriptures a lot better than some of the devout. I was never dishonest about my faith or lack thereof, but have more respect than to enter a house of worship and tell them they are wrong, especially when much of it is unproven.
I find it strange to see scientist trying to work against the church or vice versa as historically they have worked together very well for hundreds of years. Newton and Darwin were both slammed by church authorities and their work has been used to discredit religion. Those with respect would never do so as both of them were devout Christians to the extent that Darwin spent a great deal of time trying to figure out how his observations could be fitting into gods plan, and newton declared the universe was so perfect that it could only have been constructed by an almighty creator.
Religion says we ascend and are reborn. Science says energy never dies purely changes state, so our energy ascends to elsewhere after we die. I don't see an argument here, but saying that in a religious debate tends to get both sides arguing with me, great fun.
One film that is good and explains what I would like to think about our life force is powder. Quite a film too for many reasons.
I never really believed in the big bang as it was portrayed as it meant starting from nothing and that defies the very science that conceived the idea. So when the shock announcement that this was the latest in many, left me less than surprised, and wondering why eminent professors had taken so long to figure what my mind had at age 13.
Being atheist I don't believe in the god particle either. Actually that is irrelevant as to why I don't really think the Higgs Boson is real, or at least not a singular entity anyway. The current math is complicated and full of holes, because our knowledge is full of holes making understanding it complex. I think Higgs is physicists hoping for a simple neat solution and I doubt it really is that straight forward. I do as always reserve the right to be wrong.
I am unusual in that I don't want all of the answers. Knowing everything would take all of the fun out of life for me.
I have a new theory. The meaning of life is to collect as many marbles a possible so you enjoy losing them as you get older.