Without Purpose
7 Rules for Existing
in Our Universe
(1)
Appreciate
the Inexplicable
(2)
Accept your
place
(3)
Celebrate
your place
(4)
The Universe
is “God”
(5)
Believe in
the Scientific Method
(6)
Fear
Certainty
(7)
Try Your
Best to Simply Exist
Forward: I have
written a lot of pieces on what I believe are the mechanisms and reasons and
causes of the existence and purpose of the Universe, life and myself in
particular. This piece is an attempt to
consolidate those ideas and further explore them and understand them as I write
and edit and re-edit. This project may
go on indefinitely.
Writer’s Note: If I
bold or underline a word or phrase that is not a title or sub-title, this means
that I want you to read that word with extra emphasis. Nothing more or less, but it is an important
tool for the reading of this text.
Another Writer’s Note: I use “the” Universe and “our”
Universe interchangeably, sort of like how it was once popular to alternate or
randomly assign “he” or “she” in writing to remain gender neutral. I am attempting to remain neutral on the
subject of multiple universes.
Rule #1 - Appreciate
the Inexplicable
Subjectivity and Understanding: Just because you may wish to know as
much as possible or for that matter, you may wish to know “everything”, does
not mean that you are a lesser person if you don’t. In fact, I would argue (as many philosophers
have) that sometimes less is more and further, I would argue that knowing is
very subjective and the capability to know or understand may vary across a
collection of people. So, let us set
aside the common view that in order to understand the nature of the Universe,
one has to either possess a PhD in physics or be a genius or some sort of
spiritual guru. Nothing could possibly
be further from the truth. The facts are
these. All people of normal intelligence
possess the ability to know all that humans currently know about the
fundamental nature of the Universe.
There is a very large and profitable genre of books for the common
person which adequately explain these fundamentals at a level which requires at
most a late elementary or middle school reading and comprehension ability to
digest. So, you can know all that there
is to know, if you apply yourself and are interested. You can also learn about all sorts of
exciting and wonderful ideas about the nature of the Universe that have
absolutely no basis in fact (see “the Scientific Method”), but are rational and
reasonable ideas, worth exploring further.
Lastly, there is a lot of garbage, myth, religion, art and what not that
attempt to explain things (see “Fear Certainty”) which while usually off base
on 90% of what they claim to be true, usually contain some nuggets of insight,
so they should not wholly be ignored. As
I said, in the end, you need to put forth some effort, if you are to learn what
is known.
Objectivity and Understanding: Okay, now comes the sad news (for some) and
the happy news for people like me. You are a human being and as such, you
possess certain limitations. Until
recently, humans couldn’t fly and we had to use our over sized brains and even
larger egos to accomplish that feat with the help of tools. The bottom line is that we do not innately
have the ability to fly. As far as I
know, no human has ever been made significantly sad or contemplated suicide
over that fact. We accept it as one of
our many limitations. We can not see in
the Ultra-violet wavelengths, but we build instruments that can. There is a long list, but my point is, we
readily accept that as humans we have limitations. For some odd reason, we irrationally resist
the fact that one of those limitations is to understand fully and completely
the fundamental nature of the Universe.
How it began, where it is headed and how did life start on earth? Now don’t get me wrong, I love science and I
am as curious as anyone else about these things, but I have accepted that while we might get closer and
closer to understanding, we will never fully understand and even more likely,
our brains, as fantastic as they are, may not be equipped to process that
understanding, even if a higher intelligence handed us the operating manual.
With Rule #1 “Appreciate the Inexplicable” in mind, let us
move on to Rule #2.
Rule #2 - Accept
Your Place:
Okay, so now we have embraced the idea that there is a whole
lot that we can’t ever understand about our Universe. If you don’t embrace this either stop
reading, re-read the previous chapter or keep reading, it is your life.
It is vitally important to my belief system that I re-center
my thinking to the realization that I am
part of the Universe. I wrote a blog
post once that suggested that the 1 step approach to ending our Universe would
be if a being of some sort (maybe human) was able to truly transcend the
boundaries of the Universe. At that
moment the Universe would cease to exist.
This is sort of the corollary to what I mean here. While my life may be a ridiculously small and
seemingly insignificant part of the vast Universe that we believe we know
something about, the Universe does
not exist without me in it at this point in time, space or however the
Universe actually defines itself as it changes, seemingly at an ever
accelerated rate of expansion. That is a HUGE insight.
Let me repeat this.
The Universe does not exist without me in it. Sure, it apparently existed for over 14 billions
years without me and is presumed to continue to exist for another trillion or
so years after I am dead, but without me in it, when and where I am supposed to
fit in, it never existed.
We are at once nothing and everything. I can not change the future by making any
decisions for the Universe is unfolding as it was meant to unfold and my puny
life has no input into how that works.
However, without me occupying my role, it could never have existed,
since we are bound by that predetermination paradox. In other words, it needs me as much as I
think I need it in order to “exist”. We
(our Universe and I) are co-dependent, not in a naturist, save the earth
kind of way, but in real concrete terms.
One actually, factually, literally does not and never would exist
without the other.
If you truly get this concept the first time through and you
believe that you can believe in it, possibly after some serious contemplation,
you may want to put the book down and do that contemplation for a day, a month,
a year, a decade, however long it takes.
If you find this concept intriguing, but lacking in humph,
then read on my friend. Get your full
money’s worth from this epistle.
Rule #3 –
Celebrate Your Place
Whether you honestly and deeply and passionately believe
what I wrote in the previous section, if you even humor me or humor the idea,
then you have to admit that it is pretty cool that this co-dependency exists in
such a concrete way.
Many thinkers and insightful people may try to dismiss this
idea and say that, well on some scale there is free will or on some scale what
we do is not directly connected to the unfolding of the Universe. After all, that makes no intuitive
sense. We just haven’t met god yet or we
haven’t worked out the math yet, but we will soon and we will show that free
will is real and determinism is a bunch of horse crap.
Well, good for those folks.
I mean after all, up until now, I have been talking mostly about what I
believe and not much about the science behind what I believe, so like with all
belief systems, they should be challenged and ridicule and fear, certainly are
two forms of challenging some one else’s ideas.
Sadly for those in the “Free Will” camp of thinking (and yes
apparently the world of science is quite divided on this subject) there isn’t
any data or math to support their feelings.
Seriously, many of those in the free will camp admit that the best and
most current ideas about the nature of the Universe debunk the concept of free
will, but they wish to hang on to it.
Others create allowances for it in their theories. I am okay with that, mostly because I am not
smart enough or schooled enough on how to face their well thought out and
complex challenges. I only know enough
to know that most of the data and more of the theories indicate that free will
is a myth and a human construct.
Probably a human construct developed to help us preserve our
sanity.
Back to Celebrating.
Hey, no matter what or who you are, the Universe doesn’t exist if you
are not part of it. That sandwich you
had for lunch – necessary. That bug you
obliterated with your windshield driving home last evening – required.
Wooo- hooo I love you
squished bug !!!!
Oh and the time and manner of your death. Well, that’s predetermined too. Here is a great self confession regarding
what you think your brain/mind know and how your body reacts on those beliefs
versus evolutionary wiring. In my mind,
I truly and whole heatedly believe that the manner and time of my death is
predetermined and therefore I have no input into that eventuality. However, I am afraid of heights and I panic
when I am off of the ground on a ladder or a climbing rig or zip line (not
airplanes though or some carnival rides, but on others, yes). So, don’t judge those who seem like
hypocrites too harshly, the higher thinking parts and the ancient parts of the
brain are not always in sync and those behaviors that at times seem
hypocritical are simple one part of the brain out muscling the other.
My recommendation is to think about Celebrating Your
Place. If you didn’t exist, nothing
would. This is difficult at times,
because the need to accept that you don’t have free will can be a bummer and
really depressing and make life feel unbearable, if you don’t counter it with a
big dose of, “yeah but this beautiful, wonderful, amazing Universe wouldn’t be
here if I wasn’t part of it.”
Rule #4 – The
Universe is “God”
I am an atheist and as such do not believe in a god, a deity
or other singular or plural set of supreme beings that directly or indirectly interfere
with the lives of humans. In my view of
the Universe, we are like the petulant child in the argument with a care giver
(our Universe) – “ I am the adult and you don’t get to decide”. The unfolding of the Universe gets to decide
all things and all of these things have been known from day one and are
entirely inevitable. Therefore, it is
somewhat convenient to think of the Universe as “God”. The ultimate rule maker, judge, jury and
executioner. However, unlike most gods
that have been dreamed up by mankind, this “God” has no actual or perceived
human-like characteristics. The Universe
is not narcissistic, glutinous, good, evil, jealous, angry or loving. It just is. As we should be, it just is.
There are people who worship our Universe and view it, its
study and its secrets as something to be awed at to the point of worship. I suppose that it could be possible to become
so enthralled with the majesty of the galaxies or the complexity, yet
vulnerability of life that one may consider these manifestations of the
Universe to be worthy of devotion and worship.
In fact, it has always been supposed that this is actually how most
religions began. Before humans become
specialists and lived in mostly agrarian societies, it was not that necessary
for any one tribal leader to have control over a large portion of the
population. So interpersonal
relationships and bonds of friendship, love and mutual dependence were enough
to hold things together in small groups.
In those times, it is often assumed, humans did worship the Universe in
very native ways, simply giving in to the awesome spectacles witnessed above
our heads at night and in our sight line during the day. Religion really only took hold when humanity
required some order and control over larger and more diverse populations and a
device was required to generate this control.
Fear of the unknown and especially of the afterlife became the seeds
that grew into organized religion. Awe
and the ecstasy of experiencing the beauty of the natural world was replace
with the dread of shame, guilt and eternal punishment.
So for the first tens of thousands and maybe hundreds of
thousands of years, mankind worshiped our existence. Then for the last ten thousand years or so,
we came to worship ruling gods and put our faith in them to heal us, preserve
us and protect us. Lately, thankfully as
we become more aware of what the Universe actually is, that trend is finally
reversing as organized religion is slowly beginning to fall out of favor.
Writer’s note: I also consider
Nationalism, Governance and Economic Infrastructure to be part of what I call
“organized religion”. They are part of
the network of control that exists to keep people in line and to shift power
over the many to the few.
In the end, long after humankind is extinct, the Universe
will move onward, continuing to unfold, with us having served our purpose and
it continuing to reveal its own.
Rule #5 – Believe
in the Scientific Method
Everything in our culture is created within our minds,
however occasionally we create or discover something and create analogs that
are more precisely akin to the reality of the Universe than most things we
imagine. Two such things that come to
mind are Math and the Scientific Method.
The Scientific Method is simple enough to write about, but
not always easy to adhere to. Simply
put, an idea is hatched, which could be based on one or more observations, a
hunch, a feeling or an insight acquired from another person’s work. I am sure that there are other ways to
generate a hypothesis, but those seem to cover the basis spectrum.
Then you take this idea and you devise a hypothesis,
classically a null hypothesis – meaning I am going to assume my idea is wrong.
This is the first beautiful thing about the Scientific Method, if you use it
correctly, you are not trying to prove your idea to be correct, but rather you
are trying to see how “not wrong” it is on a scale of “not wrongness” often
referred to as statistics, probability, standard error or a confidence
interval. All of these measures are the
same thing. How likely is it that my
idea, based on a rigorous set of observations or symmetrical mathematics (more
so in modern times) is not as wrong as the most recent idea on this subject matter. In the best case, you have BOTH a set of
observations and symmetrical mathematics that support your idea as being the
least likely to be wrong.
This in fact is where Einstein had and continues to make a
name for himself, because most of his ideas (even those that he did not like)
have consistently been shown to be the least likely to be wrong, when new
information has come forward in the fields of physics, quantum mechanics and
cosmology.
This is the second beautiful thing about the scientific
method. The Scientific Method encourages
failure and wrong ideas. The need to ply
the doers and the thinkers with the requirement to come up with new, fresh
concepts and ways to either make observations or to utilize symmetric
mathematics to demonstrate whether or not those new ideas are more or less
likely to be wrong than the best known theory to date is remarkable.
Can’t you see the beauty in that method?
“Don’t believe me”, it says, “don’t trust me”, it challenges,
“try and better the last inspiration”, it implores!!
And yes, a thinker and a doer can be the same person, but
today, most scientific concepts are so bizarre and out there, that it takes a
person or a team’s whole attention to either develop the ideas and theories or
to develop the methods of measuring them, not often both, like back in the
“olden days of science” from the mid-19th to mid-20th
centuries.
Don’t just believe in the Scientific Method – Embrace It.
Rule #6 – Fear
Certainty
When someone tells you that something is known, is for sure,
is guaranteed, I would suggest that you back away, take a deep breath and don’t
ask them for proof, but seek proof of their veracity on your own.
As I mentioned in the section above, the use of measures of
uncertainty are the cornerstone of science and in fact the cornerstone of
rational thought – period.
Be they clergy, politicians, Aunt Betty or your college
professor, never ever take anyone’s view of the Universe for certain. The more certain something feels, the less
likely it is to be true. The harder
something is to comprehend or maybe more aptly, the more work you have to put
in to contemplating it until you grasp its true meaning, the more likely it is
that it may hold some truth.
However, be aware – some truth is not THE truth. People study many complicated and confusing
things like the Bible, which holds some truths, but not the truth.
In the end, always refer back to Rule #5, however,
when you feel great about something that you haven’t worked hard to understand,
my guess is that whatever that idea or concept is, must be wrong and likely
very wrong to a high degree.
Rule #7 – Try Your
Best to Simply Exist
The key phrase components here are “try” and “simply
exist”. Trying is not doing, but trying
is all we can do as humans. There is
also a significant difference in the phrases “simply exist” and “exist
simply”. To simply exist means to ride
the wave of the Universe, while exist simply means to remove complexity from
your life, which sounds very appealing, but not what this text is about.
Again, I must confess that I do a horrific job of Simply
Existing and a poor job of even Trying My Best to do so, at times. This doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate,
understand, or have experienced the benefits of achieving this state, even if
it is fleeting for me.
When you realize that our Universe is predetermined and
that you are as much a part of it, as it is of you, then you have the basis for
wanting to try your best to simply exist.
When I am at my best doing this, I use meditation,
contemplation and expression.
Meditation Calms and Clears My Mind
- Dark, Quiet, Awareness Moves into Calm Peace
- Thoughts drift by and are acknowledged, but released
- Emptiness ensues
Contemplation Focuses My Thinking and Simplifies the Complex
- Emptiness if replace by a single purpose
- Thoughts are not judged
- Clarity forms around one fundamental insight
Expression Allows Me to Expel my Insights and Release them
back into the Universe
- Writing Blogs, Essays, Poems, Lyrics
- Talking, debating, discussing ideas with myself and others
- Creating something material, gardening, cleaning, cooking, building
- Vigorous exercise, fast walking, jogging, running, boxing
Being in the moment, in the zone, lost in your thoughts,
lost in your dreams, losing track of time, feeling exhausted and refreshed at
the same time, these are some of the ways we know when we are Simply
Existing. Sometimes overwhelmed or
giving in to pain, adrenaline, fear, love, infatuation and sometimes even calm,
awe and amazement all can be “symptoms” of simply existing.
Some describe it as living outside themselves for a moment
or a time or a while. The Buddhist say
that it is like that moment when you sneeze, eliminate waste or start to
orgasm. There is nothing else in the
Universe than that moment than what you are experiencing. You cannot think, reason, or even see or hear
in some cases, if only for the briefest of seconds or micro-seconds. THAT is the only reality.
What they are really doing is existing as part of the
Universe and not as some socially conditioned animal with defenses and habits
and social norms.
Contemplate this state and think of times when you’ve
experienced it and try to recreate those conditions, but this time monitor how
it really is and remember it and keep that memory at hand, so you can do it
more frequently and with less effort.
Conclusion:
We are the Universe and the Universe is us. So be it, as it was, is and will ever be.
