December 13th, 2009 | 
Author: Have you ever wondered where you come from and how you got here?
I have and continue to do so, constantly. Sometimes it drives me kind of nuts.
And I don’t mean me, personally. I know how I got here. When a man loves a woman, they do the mummy and daddy dance and nine months later there you are, or a little less than eight months in my case.
No, I’m talking about more than just me, or you or all of us or even our little blue planet, but all of existence, the known universe and beyond.
Not that much of the universe is really known, very little in actual fact. Most of what we think we know about what’s out there in deep space is theory accepted as fact.
Did you know that we only found the first planet outside of our solar system in 1995 and to date, only 407 of them have been identified? Wikipedia knows all.
Don’t you find that surprising, when you’ve probably been taught that the universe is full of billions of planets. Again, theory accepted as fact. Remember, its only 15 years ago since we found that first planet, probably about as long as mobile phones have been in wide usage. That’s not very long at all.
The point is, they are using a theory to map out these planets. They aren’t really mapping them so much as predicting and describing what and where they think they are, based on scientific supposition. They haven’t seen a single one of them through a telescope, because one of such power is yet to exist.
I’m not trying to call any of this into question and one day I expect they will prove they’ve found planets outside of our solar system, but I am using it to illustrate something much more fundamental; our knowledge of existence is infinitesimally small and as a race we remain in our infancy.
If you think the universe was created by some all knowing, all powerful god and you’re ok with that, this piece probably isn’t for you.
I wish it was that simple, to just have faith that a high power put me here for some purpose, but I can’t buy into any of that.
If it works for you, great. may your life always be just as free of complexity and curiosity. I certainly wish mine was sometimes.
But its not, and I try to move beyond my questions by accepting that these answers are unobtainable, by me, by you, by every human being who has ever existed or will exist and asked these questions.
Intellectually I understand that these questions won’t ever be answered to my satisfaction, but I can’t help continuing to crave the answers. Our knowledge and experience is far too limited and our brains far too tiny and useless to come up with any plausible explanations for anything that matters.
Its not fair that we can ask these questions, but are unable to ever know the answers. And that’s my prediction, that for as long as our species exists, people will continue to seek answers that will never, ever come.
Think about that, no matter how many generations follow ours, for however many millennia, we won’t get the answers the most fundamental questions concerning the origins and purpose of all of existence.
Now I am trying to move beyond acceptance of these things I know I won’t know, to an even more basic view: All of existence is utterly pointless.
I’ve believed for a long time that life is pointless, but then I see most things in a bleak and dreary light, so this shouldn’t surprise you. We go about our brief, tiny lives, flitting from here to there like insects, but unlike insects we fill our heads with thoughts of grandiose self-importance.
We think because we build, create, destroy, reproduce, kill and dominate our domain that we’re so important, so worthy of everything we take for granted that we’ve missed just how insignificant we are in the scheme of the universe.
And if it turns out we are the most advanced living creatures in the universe, then what does it say about that universe?
That it is just as insignificant as we are.
The universe is bigger and more diverse than anyone can ever imagine. I don’t think I can come up with a fraction small enough to express how much we know about it, but I can try.
We know this much:
1/100000000000000000000000000000000000000000100000000000000000000000000
Even if you don’t understand fractions, or exponential numbers, I’m sure you can see that is an extremely small number. It a chip off a fleck of dust above zero.
That’s how much we know.
We think we know a lot more.
By choosing to believe in the utter pointlessness of all existence and that any deeper understanding of all that exists is impossible without accepting the unproveable, can be quite liberating.
If we let go of the unknowable, then we can concentrate on the things that matter to us personally. Sure, you still have to play ball with society, pay your taxes, eat your vegetables and brush your teeth, but you’re doing all those things for yourself, without wondering why you’re here.
Oh, who am I kidding, I’ll obsess about this crap forever, utter pointlessness or not.
