Roseyland

I like to ponder deep questions. Not often, but sometimes. Usually my deepest thoughts are things like: what should I watch on Tivo tonight?, do I make something to eat or go out?, and how can I make the cat just a little more insane? Occasionally though, I go deep. This is often coffee induced. When I drink coffee, I get all philosophical, and when that happens, these are questions I ponder.

1. Why is there something instead of nothing?

This is a variant of the “why is the universe so finely tuned for the existence of life?” question. I prefer this version though, because it cuts to the point. We could ask whether or not we live in one of an infinite number of parallel universes, or we could ask whether or not some god designed our universe, but these questions miss the point. Why does anything exist at all? If God created everything, why does God exist? If we live in one of many parallel universes, why do all these parallel universes exist? Why are we here?

2. Why am I alive right now?

At first this seems like a stupid question. I mean if you weren’t alive right now, you wouldn’t be around to ask silly philosophical questions. But seriously, why are you alive right now? The time span of your life is minuscule compared to all of time, isn’t it odd that you just happen to be here right now? I know some people will say that it is only possible to be conscious of a time in which you are alive, but wouldn’t that mean from your perspective you are always conscious? That’s weird.

3. Why am I me?

Why are you you? I think we tend to believe that who we are is just random chance, but doesn’t that mean we are pretty lucky? I certainly don’t have the perfect life, but considering all the people in this world, I’d rather be me that most. 80% of the world’s population lives in a third world country. Lucky for me, I’m in the other 20%. Not only that, I’m college educated, I have a good job, I seem to be healthy, my family is relatively normal. All in all, I’m very fortunate, but why am I so fortunate. Further more, why am I human. Isn’t it also possible that I could have been a cat, or a horse, or an elephant? There are far more animals in this world than humans, why did I luck out and get to be human?, and a fortunate human at that.

So these are my coffee induced deep thoughts. Do you know the answers to any of these questions? Seriously, if you do, leave a comment. I know that ultimately these questions can’t be answered, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun to think about. If nothing else, they point out just how much of reality is completely unknown, and that helps keep everything in perspective.