Skip to main content

Thoughtful Thursday - Pondering Existence

thoughtfulI'm in a philosophical mood today. Someone on a sci-fi page asked why people hate creationism so much, but I don't think that's the most interesting piece of it all.

The thing is that many of the people who frequent such places love stories about things like aliens, but can't conceptualize a being so far advanced to us that could've created all we know to exist. They feel a need to analyze the problem with our current understanding of the world because it's all we have.

Yes, the idea of an all powerful being such as God, is a bit of a Deus Ex Machina plot device, but so is thinking of other beings in terms of our own systems that we've created. It's very possible that we are as simple to something out there like single-celled organisms are to us and therefore, our science would be of limited use to understand them or conceptualize much of anything. To compare them to a painter that would have an obvious style we could see elsewhere and be able to identify them is still in our very human framework.

I think this has come about from our need to humanize monsters in order to tell stories people actually enjoy. Perhaps this has done a disservice to us in the broader sense of existence. Perhaps there are many things out there that are so completely non-human that we'll be in an awful place someday as they make us food or servants. Maybe they haven't made us food because we aren't nutritionally sound. Maybe our planet doesn't have the kind of resources they need or we're so far away we'll be the last place they come once there is nothing else left.

Of course, we could all just be part of the matrix and awaiting the chosen one who will take the red pill and save us all.

I also think one of our biggest weaknesses as a species is that we spend more time trying to prove each other wrong than we do trying to find truth. Truth often leads to a necessary change in thinking and most humans are change averse, which may be deep within us from our caveman days. This is something I learned about when becoming certified in LEAN. Aliens could be very different from us in this regard too.

To have any hope of finding out the answers to questions like how we came to be, we'll need to put aside differences and unite as a species. Some differences exist and can be medically relevant. We can't have a standard diet for all humans as food allergies exist. There are even theories that suggest your blood type influences the foods that cause you problems. Certain races were once more likely to suffer from certain conditions though that may be changing.

I don't have any answers. These types of questions often plague my mind, but the answer may be to simply enjoy the time we have on this planet as it's really brief in the scheme of things and we don't know if there is anything after this. Many of us like to think there is a heaven because it's comforting to know there is something after this, that the point of consciousness isn't just to live for a few decades then cease to be. We may never know if there truly is something else, so I think it's important to spend each moment wisely.

There are people that suggest settling for things that don't make you happy is the thing to do because no one has found happiness. I don't understand those people. I feel like they'll wake up in their 80s and realize they should've went after their dreams.

Speaking of dreams, I have homework to do.

Guid cheerio the nou,
R~

Popular posts from this blog

2020 Vision

Mostly, I’ve been planning for the new year, but I discovered I know Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It was a recollection under the influence that brought this to light. I also discovered I still suck at drawing, but I’m okay with that. I used to think I had to be good at everything, and I’ve realized that’s just not so. Some friends and I recently hit up a local board game pub. It was a pretty fun night. The first game was Balderdash and I was terrible at it. Because I was the writer in the group, some of my friends thought I should be more embarrassed about it and hide the fact that I don’t spend all my free time learning advanced vocabulary. But I’m not upset about it. Why? Two reasons: 1. I now know what I don’t know. 2. If one takes a close look at the top selling novels on the market, the level of the language used is not the level of many of the words in Balderdash. Not that I’m comparing my own work to those, but audience is what matters in writing. To me, it is far better to e...

Fortifying Friday - Rejection

Yesterday, I received my first rejection from an agent. It stung. It wasn't that it was bad. It was worded in a way that it may have even been personally written. Regardless, rejection never feels good unless you were secretly hoping to stay home and do nothing when a friend made plans with you. Then it feels great! I might be an introvert ;) Anyway, it hurts a bit extra when you have other things going on. Between the worries of the state of the world and being unemployed, it felt much like being kicked while I was already down. The agent said she couldn't connect with my book though she really wanted to. She also said not to take her rejection as any kind of sign that I should give up. It was nice as far as rejections go. So, I lay there for a bit. Then I let my friends know via social media. Several said that I had hit a milestone and I should try to collect as many as possible this year. Rejections, they said, were a badge of honour awarded for putting myself out there. See...

Thoughtful Thursday - Dental Access

I haven't made use of it yet as I discovered it only this week, but there are free dental screenings in Ottawa for people who have a low income. I'm not sure what happens at these things, but I imagine they're rather like the once or twice yearly visits we had in grade school from the health unit where they checked our teeth. Anyway, I thought I'd mention that in case anyone is in need. There is a schedule with the locations listed and I'm guessing it's hard to get there early enough to get seen, but I'll check it out soon. I've been using dental products that are supposed to repair and whiten. I'm unsure they are working, but I figured they were worth a try. Also, I hear if you add activated charcoal to your toothbrush before the toothpaste, it helps whiten too. It makes a hell of a mess, but I tried it. I think it might take a while to whiten, but my teeth are definitely cleaner, so I think it really does help with plaque. Activated charcoal is als...