To What End?
While reading more I’m even more confused and overwhelmed by humanity. There are just so many theories or explanations about our existence, our planet and the universe. The interesting thing is that we can’t prove any explanation as false or truth. We have to take a leap of faith in order to hold something as truth; we can’t help it. I’ve been thinking more about my existence, why I do exist? Who created me? Am I a collection of atoms or did God created me? To what end? What is my essence? Is it going to fade when I die? Is there after life? Is there something beyond our life on Earth? Where are we going?
I guess those questions where asked centuries ago, and will be asked forever. Do you think that we’ll have the real answer? Are we going to find it? Is someone going to give it to us? Is it our purpose to create and find meaning in this life in order to discover it? I have found myself asking, what if there’s no after life? What if my essence disappears when I die? What if I’m just matter what will turn into ashes? What would happen to my voice? Could it be that when I die my matter cease to exist but my voice keeps on living? Would keep on thinking and being me, “my essence”, outside the Earth? Where are we all going, if we go somewhere? I don’t see the universe or my existence as I did before; the questions keep on popping in my mind. Isn’t it incredible how human beings have the capacity to question?
What stroke me the most about the past two weeks was the question “what if the universe and everything we are living is just a creation of our minds?” Could it be? I think it couldn’t be that way, I’m certain that I exist and that what I see is real. However, for moments I doubt even that. I wonder why people have thought that our reality is invented? How did they come to that conclusion or to that idea? There are even ideas that someone is controlling our every day lives, that we are puppets just living guided by another being. I can’t refute any theory or explanation, but I took a leap of faith on my existence and everything that I perceive as real it’s real. I think that by sharing our ideas and dialoguing with other people we confirm to ourselves that what we are living is real. For instance, telling the other that the tree is green and the other agrees. It’s mesmerizing to stop and think for a while that we all have this mind in which creativity, imagination and questions arise.
Imagination is powerful, lately I’ve been hearing and reading that it’s a tool for survival, it makes so much sense. The ability to foresee the future or imagine different scenarios has lead humans to prepare and innovate in every sense. “Man is the only one who is not locked into his environment. His imagination, his reason, his emotional subtlety and toughness, make it possible for him not to accept the environment but to change it.” –Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man. And I would add to that quote that imagination has also helped man to understand the environment in which he lives. Every creator or inventor has to imagine, has to foresee what is ahead. It reminds me of people like Galileo, who visualized what a telescope would be like and how. Of course, there are more things that lead Galileo to invent the telescope but I want to remark the importance of imagination. I don’t know if we are the only animals that imagine, I guess we are and that’s why we’ve evolved exponentially.
How does imagination is connected to our dreams? What are our dreams? Why do we dream? Are we the only animals that dream? I mean literally dreaming, why does that happen? I have so many bizarre dreams, full of scenarios that are impossible in our world. Are they possible in another world? Are we preparing in our dreams to live in another world after we die? I know that last question was crazy but it just popped in my head and I had to write it. Our mind goes beyond, it has so much power. I realized that I’m exploring this “power” day-by-day. Learning is a surprise. This last sentence reminded me of Meno, in which he says that we are all born with the truth inside but we have to recollect it through our life, we remember it. At the beginning I was totally against this idea, for me it was silly that we just have to remember. However, after reading Ferguson I kept on thinking that I have no right or proof to falsify that statement. Nevertheless because of our reason and evolution we have rejected statements that seem obsoletes, of course with proofs. The two-sphered cosmology for instance, was rejected after we found with proofs that Copernicus was right.
After all, these questions are sub-questions of the main question: What is truth? It’s wonderful to know that all that we’ve imagined, created, invented and discovered have changed our lives dramatically. As Bronowski would say, the ascent of man since fire till today is just breathtaking. The curious thing is that we haven’t answered our existential questions but I like to think that we are getting closer. However I sometimes wonder, what would happen if we know all the truth? What would be the mystery of life? For what would it help us? Wouldn’t life be less exciting? Wouldn’t we loose curiosity? Wouldn’t we loose our questioning gifts? I think that maybe we wouldn’t strive for more or maybe we will. I can’t say a definite answer but I imagine that it would be all established, and humanity would loose the thirst for learning, inventing or understanding. It’s complex, because I want to know what is my end but if I know it I would stop looking for it because I already know it. So the last question would be: What is the end of knowing the truth? The reason of our existence?
I guess those questions where asked centuries ago, and will be asked forever. Do you think that we’ll have the real answer? Are we going to find it? Is someone going to give it to us? Is it our purpose to create and find meaning in this life in order to discover it? I have found myself asking, what if there’s no after life? What if my essence disappears when I die? What if I’m just matter what will turn into ashes? What would happen to my voice? Could it be that when I die my matter cease to exist but my voice keeps on living? Would keep on thinking and being me, “my essence”, outside the Earth? Where are we all going, if we go somewhere? I don’t see the universe or my existence as I did before; the questions keep on popping in my mind. Isn’t it incredible how human beings have the capacity to question?
What stroke me the most about the past two weeks was the question “what if the universe and everything we are living is just a creation of our minds?” Could it be? I think it couldn’t be that way, I’m certain that I exist and that what I see is real. However, for moments I doubt even that. I wonder why people have thought that our reality is invented? How did they come to that conclusion or to that idea? There are even ideas that someone is controlling our every day lives, that we are puppets just living guided by another being. I can’t refute any theory or explanation, but I took a leap of faith on my existence and everything that I perceive as real it’s real. I think that by sharing our ideas and dialoguing with other people we confirm to ourselves that what we are living is real. For instance, telling the other that the tree is green and the other agrees. It’s mesmerizing to stop and think for a while that we all have this mind in which creativity, imagination and questions arise.
Imagination is powerful, lately I’ve been hearing and reading that it’s a tool for survival, it makes so much sense. The ability to foresee the future or imagine different scenarios has lead humans to prepare and innovate in every sense. “Man is the only one who is not locked into his environment. His imagination, his reason, his emotional subtlety and toughness, make it possible for him not to accept the environment but to change it.” –Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man. And I would add to that quote that imagination has also helped man to understand the environment in which he lives. Every creator or inventor has to imagine, has to foresee what is ahead. It reminds me of people like Galileo, who visualized what a telescope would be like and how. Of course, there are more things that lead Galileo to invent the telescope but I want to remark the importance of imagination. I don’t know if we are the only animals that imagine, I guess we are and that’s why we’ve evolved exponentially.
How does imagination is connected to our dreams? What are our dreams? Why do we dream? Are we the only animals that dream? I mean literally dreaming, why does that happen? I have so many bizarre dreams, full of scenarios that are impossible in our world. Are they possible in another world? Are we preparing in our dreams to live in another world after we die? I know that last question was crazy but it just popped in my head and I had to write it. Our mind goes beyond, it has so much power. I realized that I’m exploring this “power” day-by-day. Learning is a surprise. This last sentence reminded me of Meno, in which he says that we are all born with the truth inside but we have to recollect it through our life, we remember it. At the beginning I was totally against this idea, for me it was silly that we just have to remember. However, after reading Ferguson I kept on thinking that I have no right or proof to falsify that statement. Nevertheless because of our reason and evolution we have rejected statements that seem obsoletes, of course with proofs. The two-sphered cosmology for instance, was rejected after we found with proofs that Copernicus was right.
After all, these questions are sub-questions of the main question: What is truth? It’s wonderful to know that all that we’ve imagined, created, invented and discovered have changed our lives dramatically. As Bronowski would say, the ascent of man since fire till today is just breathtaking. The curious thing is that we haven’t answered our existential questions but I like to think that we are getting closer. However I sometimes wonder, what would happen if we know all the truth? What would be the mystery of life? For what would it help us? Wouldn’t life be less exciting? Wouldn’t we loose curiosity? Wouldn’t we loose our questioning gifts? I think that maybe we wouldn’t strive for more or maybe we will. I can’t say a definite answer but I imagine that it would be all established, and humanity would loose the thirst for learning, inventing or understanding. It’s complex, because I want to know what is my end but if I know it I would stop looking for it because I already know it. So the last question would be: What is the end of knowing the truth? The reason of our existence?