Philosophy. Existence. The universe.
This series is about those big questions, imagining what is the nature of the universe and reality.
And wow, if it was already getting abstract with the whole “meaning” conversation, well, now it can get even more abstract, just looking at what is existence all about? What is the universe all about? I think overall, we don’t really need to think of this.
There’s so many traps that we can fall into, thinking that we understand the way the universe is, and having this kind of mental model of “Oh, this is the universe.” But I believe that overall, we can be comfortable and we can accept that we don’t actually know what the universe is and what’s going on.
And I like starting from this kind of non-knowing, this agnostic or non-knowing position of I don’t know what it’s all about.
I don’t know what the universe is fundamentally about and how it fundamentally works.
I mean, we’re just starting to get some idea.
Like the whole idea of being aware of who we are as creatures and what the universe is: I think there’s no assumption that we really should understand it.
We don’t really need to know it.
I don’t believe that there’s some kind of default that we should know the nature of the universe.
We don’t really need to know it, and we shouldn’t assume that we do.
I just think that it’s so comforting to have a sense that we really know what’s going on, that sometimes it’s very hard to accept not knowing.
And this is my view.
I think some people think they know the basic idea of the universe, and that since I, coming from a position of not knowing, you can’t really argue against them.
You can’t say “No, you don’t know.” “Well then, what is it? What is the answer?” “No, I don’t know either.” Well, if I don’t know, it means I don’t know I don’t know.
And wow, it’s getting even more abstract than I had imagined when I started talking about this.
So that’s the point of this series, is a place for all these kinds of thoughts that are kind of beyond personal living, beyond self-development and making choices for our own lives.
Just having these speculations about what the universe is all about.
And although I think we don’t need any of it, I think that the way we imagine the universe, the way we think of how it might be and what the whole picture of it all might be: I mean, certainly that can change how we live our lives.
Like the classic debate of free will versus fate: if we believe in a completely free will universe, that just gives a different flavour of the day than if we believe in a completely determined universe where we’re living out a predetermined fate.
So these thoughts can, I think, in some way affect our daily decisions, but it’s in a very removed sense.
And for some of these things, it’s simply for the joy, simply the joy of contemplating it, the joy of wondering what the universe is about and the joy of seeking knowledge and understanding.
It seems to me that the world is a wonderful place, and although also horrible and also boring as well, it has all those aspects, but fundamentally, I think the aspect of wonder is one of the most powerful feelings that I get contemplating the universe.
It is wonderful that all this exists.
And sometimes I wonder if that wonder itself may be enough to really fulfill a meaningful life.
Simply the joy of experiencing the universe: maybe that’s enough to really give meaning to our lives.
As part of being alive we can experience this universe, and it is a wonderful universe.
So this series looks at various topics related to that, topics like the nature of coincidences, free will and fate, the nature of consciousness, and the nature of being in harmony with the universe, what that means, and the notion of magic, things that we don’t understand.
But in the end, for me, it comes back to a sense of wonder, that the universe is something unknown and something wonderful that I’m simply glad to have a chance to experience.
#philosophy #existence #theuniverse