Whether this observation bounded by the strictures of religious belief, or as open as any question in quantum mechanics -- it can't be denied that we live on a single planet, its atmosphere captured by gravity, orbiting a single star in a universe so vast that we can't conceive just how large that vastness is.
So.. what? What is all this for? Religion will insist on one answer, science another -- though unlike religious leaders, scientists (not ones paid by the Koch Brothers™, or some other bored billionaire, anyway) will tell you their answers aren't absolute. But though you can debate about the purpose, the facts of where and how big can't be argued. So, what's it for? What are we for?
And from that perspective, President Boner's toupee, Obama's support for Banksters™ or 'National Security', or "Bucky The Beaver" Brooks' rat-toothed giggle doesn't mean much.
In the face of the unanswered Big Questions, many of the things we consider so important, aren't. There are obvious things which are important, but much of what captures our attention in this place we inhabit -- as Ellen Ripley reminds us, "all this, all this bullshit you think is so important" -- isn't.
We should be asking The Big Questions. But, I'm only a Dog, and no one listens to me.
The Monty Python applied philosophy collective provided an excellent summary of the existential situation facing late-twentieth-century European humanity in their film The Meaning of Life.
ReplyDeleteSee http://tinyurl.com/25wbddu
This is interesting. At the same time you were adding this, I was at someone else's place, adding a quote from the Python's 'Oscar Wilde' sketch:
ReplyDeleteWILDE: Your Majesty is like a stream of bat's piss.
PRINCE O' WHALES: What??
WILDE: It was one of Whistler's.
WHISTLER: It wasn't me; it was Shaw!!
WHALES: Well, Mr. Shaw?
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW: What -- what I meant to say, your Majesty, was that you stand out like a shaft of gold, while all about is darkness.
(Applause)
WHALES: Ah, well done; very well done.