Eternal questions …. May 14, 2008
Fragments bouncing around in my head this morning:
A conversation with my dad yesterday afternoon. I told him he’d missed seeing Stephen Hawking live and in action so to speak on Sunday night. That got us talking about cosmic matters, with my dad’s departure point being that you can’t consider the whole where-did the-universe-come-from-why-are-we-here or are-we-descended-from primordial- ooze-or-monkeys debate from the perspective of an average human life span. 80 years is not even a stroke on the cosmic clock, so why insist on thinking of these questions from this perspective. “We’d never cross the road if we lived for 80 million years”, says dad, “because in a lifespan that long, being hit by a truck is almost a dead certainty”. My dad and I have differing viewpoints on this, which can make for some very heated sparring sessions. [Think mocking, scoffing and much eye-rolling at how obtuse and blinkered the other person’s view point is and you'd be about right 
] We’ll never agree on this, because our departure points are literally a million worlds apart, but this set me to wondering, dear reader, what your take on this debate might be? Did all of this [waves hands around] come about by accident, or was it Intelligent Design? Is the reason we can’t find the Missing Link because we’re it? Does the presence of a watch, indicate that there is a watchmaker? And when debating this, do you reach for Richard Dawkings, or the King James Bible?
Da Mario’s post yesterday picks this debate up from a slightly different angle. He approached it from the here and now. If you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that you would be dead by this time tomorrow, how would you spend your last day on earth? With who, doing what? What legacy would you hope to leave behind? And if you could change one thing before you died, had one cosmic wish, what would it be? What for you makes a life well lived? And once that life comes to an end, is yours an ashes to-ashes, dust-to-dust-here today, gone tomorrow approach? Or do you, like me, see it as a beginning - the greatest adventure yet?
Bloody hell…that’s so morbid but interesting too!
Me & my dad talk about the Stormers, what’s to eat & gardening stuff & the latest disaster to hit some poverty-stricken land!
I like to think that I’ll go somewhere fabulous but I’ll never know until the ‘adventure’ begins! Who knows, why would you want to know…maybe we should all be happy with the now rather than think about the conclusion/ future…what have you?!?
KAB: Waiting for the final whistle when the other team is on your try line can take an eternity, certainly
I like your Dad’s viewpoint. And I’d most certainly want to live for 80 million years. Quality life that is, not 20 million years growing up and another 20 million of old age God forbid!!
I guess for me it’s an ashes to ashes, dust to dust kind of scenario. Here today, gone tomorrow. I’m not all to sure of any life after this one and I’m pretty sure I’d like to be present during one of those conversations between you and your Dad…
Then you’d have someone else to also roll your eyes at!
Not really sure what there is to debate. Evolution is quite simply the best explanation for how we got here, why we act the way we do, and why this life is blind in the way it issues forth favour and misfortune. There is no evidence for a better explanation, and until such an explanation arrives, it is delusional to give credence to any other.
Yes, a watch does indicate a watchmaker, but the cosmos, and the earth, is not a watch. ID is only Creationism in sheeps clothing, to speak about a Missing Link shows a gross misunderstanding of evolution (not saying that gross understanding is yours, I know you’re just stating the most widely used questions) and I choose neither Dawkins nor the KJB, as any one person or thing claiming to be the alpha and omega on the subject of truth is more than likely not. Although since Dawkins does not make that claim, I’d no doubt be leaning toward his side of the fence.
God is not a requirement for meaning and purpose. When I die, I sleep a peaceful and dreamless eternity. So while chance was kind enough to make my life a possibility, I know whatever I want to achieve can only be achieved in the here and now. Ironically, I find a value to life now that transcends any my religious background may once have placed on it.
So yeah, I guess you’d be rolling your eyes at me too!
Da Mario: Next time you’re in Cape Town ….
FM: Just as long as you roll them back
Mocking and scoffing is what makes the debate interesting after all - life would be really boring if we all saw things the same way, wouldn’t it?
I like thinking on this stuff…until I realize I won’t be around to see any of it. I’d like to be the 80,000 year man to be able to see the amazing changes that will happen. There’s more fun to be had. So, insead, I guess I’ll have to be happy trying to make it through another 80 (which puts me well over 100, but I’m up to that challenge) to see what I’m sure will be still remarkable things. To adventure!
Intelligent Design~ that’s what i believe.
there’ s not much you can change in one day, so if i KNEW i would be dead tomorrow this time I would definately spend it with my kids and family, laugh and not think about tomorrow.
i find it difficult to talk about eternal questions, why is it so important to know that you know that you’re right anyway? everybody has a theory so let the chips fall where they may
The watch came about, but it selected itself, it evolved, adapted and became. ID…nah
I saw stephen hawking more than once this this week, it includes the public lecture. It was amazing.