Personal Beliefs,
Choices & Actions:
Matters To Question!

Questioning Our Human Origin & Meaning. Deep Stuff!

Lots of ways to pose this question. Almost endless. Certainly timeless. All cultures search for an answer that fits their epistemology and view of their position / importance in time and space. Science offers answers. Metaphysics offers answers. All religions -- large and small - construct simple or elaborate answers. Secularists have answers. Rather comforting that there remain some questions we cannot answer to the satisfaction of all. Makes some people uneasy. Others angry. Many intolerant. Keeps me in awe of all that resides beyond my comprehension. Keeps me human -- and respectful of all that I do not -- and cannot know with precision or certainty. My joy is in my journey -- the stories I write with my life -- no matter where they ultimately take me. So I travel on -- glad not to know "conclusively" my origin or meaning -- but still capable of creating my own meaning through the questions I ask. No end. Only beginnings.

What are some of the deeper questions of human origin and meaning?

Let's see -- here are a few to get the conversation going!

1. Were humans created by some supreme being as something special? Do I have preordained purpose and meaning? If so, how do I find that purpose and meaning -- and how do I envision my creator?

2. Do humans occupy a more significant place in creation than other parts of creation? Or is everything created value neutral by the creative force responsible for creation?

3. Am I just a temporary, random piece of creation? A complex creation for sure, but in the end, a biological, mechanical organism of finite duration with no parts that will transcend my physical existence?

4. If not a product of some divine plan, what purpose (if any) do I really serve as a part of creation? Just a minor blip (or even accident) in the evolution of diverse life forms in an outpost of a universe far larger and older than I can comprehend?

5. Does my ability to think -- to create and manipulate other parts of creation -- to conceive of something within me as a spiritual soul --mean that I am more than my human physical shell?

6. Like a light bulb -- am I only momentarily burning brightly -- eventually destined to go dark forever?

7. If not semi-divine and tied to something eternal, how to I define my meaning with any sense of direction and purpose?

8. Is simply existing with cognitive abilities refined enough to manage much more of my existence than most of creation around me motivation and reason enough to generate purpose that will give my life significant meaning beyond mere survival for a moment in time?

9. How connected to the rest of creation am I -- and how do I discover those connections if they exist?

10. Why am I able to think internally that a realm of being exist beyond my corporal being if no such realm actually exists?

11. Is it simply true that "I think, therefore I am. Nothing more. Nothing less. Being becomes meaning in and of itself."

OK -- that should start the ball rolling. I'm sure the list of questions on this topic will grow....

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Where do I start with responders to these questions?

Philosophers. Poets. Songwriters. Scientists. Dishwashers. Suicide bombers. Tele-evangelists. Children. Soldiers. Even George Bush -- our beloved (?) pres. All of us probably -- at some time and place -- have engaged and disengaged from these questions of origin and meaning. So it really doesn't matter with whom I start in selecting a response. But -- have no fear -- I'll save "W" for another time...

Well -- how about starting somewhere I doubt you have been before -- with some videographers and annimators at VFS who created in 2007 their response to the questions of origin and meaning in a simple, but interesting short video essay that chronicles some of the duality found in addressing these questions. Click here to view their response. (And once at this site, take time to investigate the marvelous creativity at work at this film institute!)

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