Fixation on Origin
Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2012 1:49 pm
since the beginning of time (yes, i went there for the sake of irony), we have postulated how we came to be. without sparking a debate on the origin of our existence, i wish for others to put forth their OWN ideas on WHY we are obsessed with our origin. why must we have an origin? why do we theorize on something that it is seemingly impossible to determine?
i have many ideas on this phenomenon. i'll start with the one i believe is the most simplistic.
in our youth, we are taught to explore and question what things are, what they do, and why they are. 'why do we brush our teeth?' we ask. well, to keep your teeth clean and healthy. 'why must they be clean and healthy?' well, so you can be healthy and live a long and happy life. ostensibly, at a young age, we are not wondering when and how the act of brushing our teeth came into existence, but we are wondering why it is indeed in existence. making the assumption that everything has a purpose (in some form of its definition), we can assume that knowing why something exists is inseparable from knowing how it came to exist. essentially, we wonder why we exist, whilst simultaneously wondering how we came to exist. this trait of curiosity carries on into adulthood, and here we are--still debating our origin frivolously.
i'll offer up another theory: the world around us is filled with things that have a 'beginning' and an 'end'. these two terms are obviously relatively subjective in most cases, but i'll try to keep it as objective as possible. looking short term, a human's life begins when it is born and ends when it dies. a day begins at midnight and ends directly before the next midnight. the list of examples is endless, but you can see my point. this embosses our minds to focus on the finite, and attribute all that we can to as being finite (although the infinite is a cogitation). we apply this predisposition to existence and become obsessed with determining our beginning and predicting our end.
the third theory is derivative of the current theories. to start, we look at the theory of evolution and we see a progression of complexity. this progression suggests that at some point in time, there was in fact an extremely primitive form of life. again this raises a microcosmic question: how did this primitive life form enter existence. obviously the theories are innumerable, but the basic foundation is there--the progression of complexity makes us retrace our steps, and resultingly we wonder how we made the leap from non-existence to existence.
putting my atheistic views aside, i'll delve a little into religion and its attempt to provide an answer on existence. i'll keep it very basic, and define it in rather christian terms. they theorize god created all there is. herein lies the seed of our curiosity. there was nothing, then there was something.
in the end, why can't existence be cyclical? we have always existed, just been going 'round the existential merry-go-round.
i have many ideas on this phenomenon. i'll start with the one i believe is the most simplistic.
in our youth, we are taught to explore and question what things are, what they do, and why they are. 'why do we brush our teeth?' we ask. well, to keep your teeth clean and healthy. 'why must they be clean and healthy?' well, so you can be healthy and live a long and happy life. ostensibly, at a young age, we are not wondering when and how the act of brushing our teeth came into existence, but we are wondering why it is indeed in existence. making the assumption that everything has a purpose (in some form of its definition), we can assume that knowing why something exists is inseparable from knowing how it came to exist. essentially, we wonder why we exist, whilst simultaneously wondering how we came to exist. this trait of curiosity carries on into adulthood, and here we are--still debating our origin frivolously.
i'll offer up another theory: the world around us is filled with things that have a 'beginning' and an 'end'. these two terms are obviously relatively subjective in most cases, but i'll try to keep it as objective as possible. looking short term, a human's life begins when it is born and ends when it dies. a day begins at midnight and ends directly before the next midnight. the list of examples is endless, but you can see my point. this embosses our minds to focus on the finite, and attribute all that we can to as being finite (although the infinite is a cogitation). we apply this predisposition to existence and become obsessed with determining our beginning and predicting our end.
the third theory is derivative of the current theories. to start, we look at the theory of evolution and we see a progression of complexity. this progression suggests that at some point in time, there was in fact an extremely primitive form of life. again this raises a microcosmic question: how did this primitive life form enter existence. obviously the theories are innumerable, but the basic foundation is there--the progression of complexity makes us retrace our steps, and resultingly we wonder how we made the leap from non-existence to existence.
putting my atheistic views aside, i'll delve a little into religion and its attempt to provide an answer on existence. i'll keep it very basic, and define it in rather christian terms. they theorize god created all there is. herein lies the seed of our curiosity. there was nothing, then there was something.
in the end, why can't existence be cyclical? we have always existed, just been going 'round the existential merry-go-round.