On a recent sojourn around Lincoln Cathedral with Elizabeth - I found myself in a beautiful building filled with the tombstones and plaques marking the lives of others who had lived out their lives in the belief that what awaited them after this life was something greater - that the life they had here was but a test, a prelude to something better which would follow should they be deemed worthy by some supreme being casting judgement upon their thoughts, ideas and actions.
I myself am a Science and Maths kinda guy, with a leaning towards some Buddhist philosophies on life . Based upon the lack of empirical evidence otherwise I need to assume that this life is all we have, and that once our time is over, our consciousness ceases to be and the atoms which make up our bodies are returned to the universe to create something else. You'd think this would be quite a sad or depressing idea - but I find it empowering - especially that we live in an age where science allows us as a species to begin to understand our place in the universe. And upon getting a glimpse at "our place" - it kinda makes the issues we consider to be so big and important, a little bit less so.
You may disagree (it's ok - you're allowed ^.^), but I find the video below comforting. To me it's life affirming and it underlines the need for us to keep everything in perspective...
"This excerpt from A Pale Blue Dot was inspired by an image taken, at Carl Sagan's suggestion, by Voyager 1 on February 14, 1990. As the spacecraft left our planetary neighborhood for the fringes of the solar system, engineers turned it around for one last look at its home planet. Voyager 1 was about 6.4 billion kilometers (4 billion miles) away, and approximately 32 degrees above the ecliptic plane, when it captured this portrait of our world. Caught in the center of scattered light rays (a result of taking the picture so close to the Sun), Earth appears as a tiny point of light, a crescent only 0.12 pixel in size."
Incidentally if you are ever near Lincoln, do pay a visit to it's Cathedral - it's beautiful. :)
You are such a frakking hippy! :-P
ReplyDeleteWhat do you hear Starbuck??
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