Philosophical Time!

I've always wondered about this. Is "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" right, and the meaning of life is 42?

But in all seriousness, whenever the topic of the beginning of the world, the purpose of the universe, or the meaning of life, come up, big debates start up.

The other day, some classmates of mine and I were discussing Aquinas, a philosopher from the Middle Ages, when scholasticism was huge.

Now, the purpose of scholasticism is to prove God's existence through science. So basically...

Aquinas' argument wasn't very good...his reasoning was almost terrible, and he wasn't actually using science. The main premise of his "essay" was that in order for everything to happen as it does now, something had to start "everything"--and that something is God.

I know a lot of people agree with this, especially those who are very religious.

These classmates of mine are very conservative, I suppose. For one of them, Creationism is the only way that life could have started, and evolution is simply out of the question. (Internally, I just roll my eyes and gag at that, but since I'm not trying to stir up problems, I didn't say anything). The other girl was all, "oh, how can everything start from one tiny thing exploding?"

First of all, I feel like the beginning of the world should be something humans can't comprehend. After all, it's the creation of the universe, a vast expanse of time and space that even today we can't comprehend.

But it seems that in this new town of mine, everyone seems to think that thoughts like that are crazy, and insane. I might as well be in the Middle Ages with Aquinas being accused of heresy for thinking thoughts like that. *sarcasm*

Just think about it, though. Who are we, us humans, to say that the world has a meaning, the universe has a purpose? If we are the ones who think that everything has a reason, does that make that automatically correct?

Whose to say that the universe just decided one day to spontaneously erupt into galaxies because it didn't give a shit?

I feel that if people are going to around saying that the universe and the world has a meaning and purpose, then they have to explain how and why. They can't just say the ol'

"Duh, everything has a purpose!",

 --because that won't fly with me.

Now let me address another issue of "hey, the purpose of the universe is the creation of humans!" I guess if your religion tells you that god was the one who created the world (of course, there's no mention of the universe), then you'll believe this.

Seven days would translate into roughly oh, you know, almost 4.6 billion years. Not to mention, things such as dinosaurs to prokaryotes are completely moot from the bible. But, I guess god decided it wasn't that important to mention the beginnings of life, eh?

I'm really not trying to offend people who believe in Creationism, so don't take offense.

I'm just saying that it just does not physically make sense that the purpose of earth (let alone the universe), was for humans to come about and be created.

You know why? Earth has been around for ...

4.6 BILLION years.

The universe has been around for much longer than that--some estimate 14 billion years.

You know how long humans have been around? 100,000 to 200,000 regular old YEARS.

Totally makes sense.

Now just to play with your brains a little bit more, as if you aren't already confused enough, chew on this thought:

Can you prove that you yourself exist?

Forget proving that the meanings of things, lets get right down to the nitty gritty. For all you know, you could just be some figment of another person's imagination, a dream caught subconsciously in another person's brain.

For all I know, I could be some mentally insane person, stuck in a white cushioned box, too far gone, just stuck making an imaginary world for myself.

A world where I think that I can succeed, write, and do all the things that I love to do. Trying desperately to create my own reality.

INSANITY!

Or maybe I'm not the crazy one. Maybe I'm just a figment of a crazy person's world. Maybe we all are.

Did that confuse you enough? Make you doubt your existence?

Chances are, the one's questioning insanity aren't the insane ones themselves...but I suppose we'll never know.

So yeah...I just threw a whole lot of philosophical crap at you.

But have you ever thought about life, the universe, or the world? Or am I just some freak who thinks about these things way too much?

~Banana Win

P.S. Freaky AND geeky= me-ee! (The most terrible rhyme that anyone has ever come up with).