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The Big Question

 


Just about every culture that has ever existed on Earth has developed some kind of religion. Is this in itself evidence that God exists? Or is this just a quirk of the human mind? 

As human beings, we struggle with the big questions of life: why are we here etc. Some people look for answers in religion. Some look for answers in philosophy. Some look for answers in science. No one has ever come up with a universal answer, an answer that works for everyone. Why not? If there was one right answer, everyone should be able to recognize it. The rightness of it ought to be self-evident. There would be no need for competing religions or philosophies. If the answer was true, it ought to be as obvious as a volcano.

Maybe we struggle to find the answer because we are not very good at asking the question. Questions like: “why are we here?” Or “What’s it all about?” are really pretty vague and open-ended aren’t they? What specifically are you asking?  You might as well be asking “what’s the answer to the big question?” No wonder no one has ever answered them to everyone’s satisfaction.

Fans of Douglas Adams will recognize this quandary. In his Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books, the Magratheans design a supercomputer to answer the question, the ultimate question of “life, the universe, and everything.” The computer (named Deep Thought) tells them that it can do this, but it will take seven and a half million years to compute the answer. Generations after generations wait. The day finally arrives that Deep Thought is finally ready to reveal the answer. Yes, it has an answer. But the computer says, “Though I don’t think . . . that you are going to like it.” The Magratheans insisted on knowing what the answer is. Finally, Deep Thought tells them the answer: “Forty Two.” After much commotion the computer explains that the problem is that they’ve never actually known what the question was.

Scientists and theologians think they are asking different questions. What if they are asking the same questions, but in different ways? Scientists want to find how the universe works the way it does, while theologians want to find out why the universe works the way it does. The ultimate answer for one, might be the ultimate answer for the other.

The human brain knows that it is longing for answers. But the concepts may be so far above the understanding of the human brain that it doesn’t even know how to formulate the question. The universe is so complex from a microscopic to a macroscopic level that if there is a singular purpose for everything, it has to be so complex as to be incomprehensible to the human mind. Even if we had an answer, it would mean nothing to us. It would be like explaining derivative of inverse trigonometric functions to an ant (we’re the ant).

Or, maybe the answers (and the questions) are all right there in front of our faces, we just have to shift our frame of reference for it all to come into focus.

 

(My science fiction novel Star Liner, is now available in paperback or as an e-book through Amazon and other online sources).

Link to Star Liner

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