As my second post it's only logical now that I tackle the big question: what's the meaning of our existence? Numerous people believe that the human race were put on this planet and exist in the universe for a certain reason, but is that true? Is there some sort of goal the human race should be striving for, and would it even have any significance at the universal level? After this month of thought, it's fair to say there is no understandable reason for our existence.
Assuming that our life was created out of chance with the laws of our universe which firstly allow us to exist, to the living conditions of our planet, the random motion of molecules to firstly form life, the luck of genetics, and Japanese gameshows, all leading up to our current form of living. On the universal level, does our existence hold any sort of importance? If Earth and all its inhabitants were annihilated at this instant, would anybody care? Besides of course Pluto, who would now have her chance back at being a planet. If we land a person on Mars is there anyone else who cares besides us? No, not at all. Which brings us to a quote by Carl Sagan:
On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. - Carl Sagan
Welcome to your existentialist nightmare, somewhat. As far as we know we're alone in this universe and all of our achievements mean nothing. When's the last time Earth congratulated an ant for trekking an unreasonably long distance to bring food to their colony? The last time the universe congratulated the Earth for her accomplishments. The fact that our life seems to be the only one just leads more people to believe we must be special and have a purpose of some sort. We certainly are special, the universe just doesn't care, she threw us a bone when she gave us three dimensions to move through. But this is all assuming there is no God or other such beings.
But now instead let's say we were created by some sort of omnipotent overseer. Now does our existence hold any importance? We can't say for certain, we're simply fish in our aquarium trying to understand our owner. Our owner who lives in an entirely different world of logic, an almost completely different universe that our minds can't even begin to comprehend. So any importance that our lives may hold to him/her/it are simply inconceivable to us.
From such a distance we're meaningless
But so up close we don't seem so insignificant now, do we?
If there's nothing else in the universe that our existence is important to or if we were created for a reason that we don't understand at all, the only thing left is that our importance is objective. From person to person the reason for their living changes and we must find our own personal importance. Although there is one importance that holds true for every single person and that is to think.
Ps: This was an awful decision for a second blog post. I had much trouble trying to formulate and word everything I wanted to say, so I hope you enjoyed your stay at Chez Logical Fallacy. I'll try to develop and explain things better with things you may not understand, just ask some questions I guess.
Not at all awful - quite good in fact. Lots of stuff there to think about. But I'll focus on a couple of things.
ReplyDeleteFirst, what is the reason for our existence? Hmm - good one. Your answer - the universal reason for existence is to think - echoes what Socrates said 2500 years ago - "The unexamined life is not worth living".
Second, the feeling of infinitesimal importance in a vast universe. I think Monty Python represented the situation in this song from "The Meaning of Life" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buqtdpuZxvk
And I not only expect your writing to be of great quantity and quality, I also want guaranteed lowest prices. :-)
I like the metaphor of the fish that cant understand their master, it seems to fit pretty well. You talked about something many people wonder about, and I have to say I quite enjoyed reading what you had to say on the matter. It made me think. It is almost overwhelming to think back to the very beginnning of our existence and determine the purpose.
ReplyDeleteP.S. As of now I have never had the good fortune in my life to visit a costco. Ive been told it is wonderful but alas I have not experienced the joy for myself.
I also found the fish/aquarium analogy interesting yet i tend to disagree with it. Now, I do not want to turn this into a religous debate, yet I believe that God is the creater of the universe and do not agree that "our minds can't begin to comprehend." God is easily misunderstood and at times very confusing, yet his desire is for us to have faith in him and seek his will for our lives in order for him to reveal himself to us. We start to understand his character through experiences that occur during our walk to seek him. This also then deals with our significance on earth. God knows each and everyone of us and has a plan and purpose for every person on earth. To him, we are equally important and very significant. Be sure though, that I will be the first to say that this is my belief ad faith perspective.
ReplyDeleteI also can not wrap my head around the fact that we are insignificant just because no other planets are there to recognize our significance. Still pondering that one.. ha
JALLAN YOU MUST GO TO COSTCO!!!
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty much the best store ever. Lots of it is in bulk, cheap amounts. And they have really cheap hot dogs that are really delicious.
and they have cheap clothes and cute little trinkets. Go there next time you are in stoon. Or any big city