Questioning the Questions

Can you imagine photographing an F16 fighter breaking the sound barrier? That there is a visible reaction at all is what astounds me. In essence, we are seeing sound! The moisture caught in the sound waves makes it visible.

It’s like fire. You know it exists, but where is it? You know it takes a chemical reaction of sorts to produce fire, but where does it come from? And when you blow the match out, where does the fire go? Is it gone? It is invisible until it is called.

Yeah, I sit around and think of this stuff. Like the age old “if a tree falls in the woods, does it make a sound if no one is there to hear it?” conundrum. I could never figure out why someone even asked that question. Of course it makes a sound, a rather big one, because it’s the nature of one physical thing smacking into another, right? Besides, I bet my dog heard that tree fall, even if I didn’t.

Instead of worrying about a danged tree, why not ask questions about thinking and feeling and consciousness?  And, levels of existence? Instead of ignoring the inexplicable because it can’t be seen or measured, why not take the leap and spread out into the metaphysical?

Sure, we fear the unknown. But, ignoring it won’t make it go away. Quantum physics is taking just that leap. By exploring matter at the quantum level, they are about to prove that God exists beyond all doubt. Pity that we insist on limited, rigid thinking to need such a drastic, dramatic pool of proof.

“To be or not to be; that is the question.” If quantum physics proves the existence of Infinity by paring everything down to the smallest element, then we are faced with a different dilemma: If the infinite is the real reality, then anything finite is the illusion!

None of this stuff is new. It’s all been contemplated from Plato on down through the ages of man. All the philosophers spent their lives spewing mountains of abstract wisdom, saying the same things in different ways, searching for a way that will open the eyes of everyone to finding the truth of existence for themselves. Why not? We’re all entitled, it is our right, to live a life of meaning and purpose.

Fire exists. Ask anyone who’s house burned to the ground. We can’t see the wind, yet we can feel it on our skin and watch trees bend over as though gripped by a gigantic, invisible hand. We think, we think constantly, but the only proof of thinking is when something visible is produced by that thinking. We all feel, some more than others, and we know we all feel, yet we have no idea what another is thinking and feeling, no matter how close we are to them. We are all conscious, at least that’s what we call it, yet it’s difficult for most to include spirit and soul within that consciousness. Why is that?

Someone said that they wake up every day, do their thing, then go to sleep every night. That’s it. Well, think about this: We only use a little over one-tenth of our brain. Don’t you think there’s something more? Or, is it simpler, safer to think that the nine-tenths of the brain not used is a residual, evolutionary artifact, like our appendix? Is it easier to believe that than strive to use more of what you have?

Yeah, I sit around and think of this stuff.