The meaning of life
I'm reading this book about philosophy. Now before you cuss and think that I have 'turned', it is a fiction book that bangs on about philosophy a bit. It's got me wondering though, mainly that I have never questioned the meaning of life or asked why are we here. As I write this I'm thinking of it for the first time, and can only offer that life means nothing more to a human than it does to a puppy, cockroach or grape. Why are we here? We just are, deal with it. I mean, where else are we supposed to live?
Maybe it's my Christian upbringing, and more specifically, Catholicism, that prevents me from pondering the big questions. When you are brought up as a Holy Roman (or a devil worshipper as a dear friend of mine refers to it), you are disuaded from questioning. Never question the work of God, a mere mortal cannot begin to understand God's plan, and so on.
'Does God exist?' is another biggie. To me She does (my vicar friend reliably informs me that God is female, and he should know as he's got a direct line to heaven), but I'm unsure as to whether that is true faith or a result of brainwashing. I suspect the latter. Again, I have never questioned the existence of God.
And then there's fate. Those that do believe in it will never lose an argument with those that don't. For example;
I missed my train home the other night. I was about to leave the office, when an email from my boss arrived so I stopped to read it in case it was important. 12 seconds later I saw that it wasn't, but read it anyway. I went on my merry way. As I got to the Southbound Bakerloo platform at Oxford Circus, a train was just leaving. Next one was 6 minutes away. When I got to Waterloo, my train had just left, I missed it by 2 minutes.
Now if I hadn't read that mail, I would have caught the first tube. I would have caught the early train home and I wouldn't have got into shit with the wife for getting home late.
A believer would say it was fate that I read that email. Who's to say it's not? I reckon it's just me being unable to have an unread email in my inbox.
Ater considering all that, I have come to the conclusion that the big questions for me are along the lines of 'should I have fries with that?'
Maybe it's my Christian upbringing, and more specifically, Catholicism, that prevents me from pondering the big questions. When you are brought up as a Holy Roman (or a devil worshipper as a dear friend of mine refers to it), you are disuaded from questioning. Never question the work of God, a mere mortal cannot begin to understand God's plan, and so on.
'Does God exist?' is another biggie. To me She does (my vicar friend reliably informs me that God is female, and he should know as he's got a direct line to heaven), but I'm unsure as to whether that is true faith or a result of brainwashing. I suspect the latter. Again, I have never questioned the existence of God.
And then there's fate. Those that do believe in it will never lose an argument with those that don't. For example;
I missed my train home the other night. I was about to leave the office, when an email from my boss arrived so I stopped to read it in case it was important. 12 seconds later I saw that it wasn't, but read it anyway. I went on my merry way. As I got to the Southbound Bakerloo platform at Oxford Circus, a train was just leaving. Next one was 6 minutes away. When I got to Waterloo, my train had just left, I missed it by 2 minutes.
Now if I hadn't read that mail, I would have caught the first tube. I would have caught the early train home and I wouldn't have got into shit with the wife for getting home late.
A believer would say it was fate that I read that email. Who's to say it's not? I reckon it's just me being unable to have an unread email in my inbox.
Ater considering all that, I have come to the conclusion that the big questions for me are along the lines of 'should I have fries with that?'
posted by SkyBlueSnowy @ 9:31 am
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