Wiston Papers

Seeking answers to life and meaning

There are certain mysteries that remain beyond our understanding and by their very imponderable nature grip us with a craving for answers.  Is there a God or other divine power?  Is there intelligent life in the universe?  Will CNN and FOX News accurately report who won the presidential election on the night of  November 06?

The ubiquity of life in nearly innumerable forms is testimony to the marvelous diversity of carbon-based organisms to survive, adapt, change and proliferate.  To the human mind it seems inconceivable that this drive by the building blocks of live to rearrange themselves in ever increasingly complex forms is pure happenstance.  Rather, the very insistence  of life to duplicate itself and pass its genetic blueprint and occasional adaptive mutations to succeeding generations certainly implies presence of divine guidance.

It may be, in fact, that existence is pure chance.  But we human beings are compelled by our nature to make sense out of our universe and seek some answer to the question of Why?  Is there an answer?  Or are humans limited in our ability to accept the randomness of life when our minds refuse to accept the premise “is this all there is?”

The current Mars rover Curiosity is aptly named.  It’s mission is to seek evidence that life ever existed on the Red Planet.  It’s an ambitious project and one that scientists and lay observers hope will provide at least some strong clues to that probability if not concrete proof.  Many scientists believe that Mars once was hospitable to life whether it ever supported it.  And recent studies of meteor fragments that crashed into Earth strongly suggest that extraterrestrial building blocks of life were hitchhikers.  Perhaps from Mars eons ago.

Author Robert Macfarlane in The Wild Places provides a beautifully poetic description of how nature tantalyzingly hints of a divine blueprint and purpose.  

Michael Pollan in The Botany of Desire implies a synergistic almost sensient relationship between humans and domesticated plants as both species have traversed the world evolving and adapting to changing environments along the way.

Steve Johnson in Where Good Ideas Come From paints a strong portrayal of exaptation among living organisms--the seemingly conscious adaptation of pre-existing features  for new purposes in new environments.  Each writer presents vivid accounts of the diversity of life and its persistence to survive.  Is there an imperative for existence beyond simply assuring future generations?

Perhaps it is the hubris of homosapiens that we refuse to believe that our place on Earth is simply to produce more human beings.  Surely our intellectual achievements argue for a purpose greater than just procreation and reproduction.  We have tamed our environment, molded it to our desires.  We create poetry, we sculpt and paint, we compose music, we explore the secrets of science and medicine, we have escaped the gravitational pull of Earth and ventured to the Moon and Mars.  There must be some reason we as a species can do this?  What is it?

Some answers will emerge in time.  Others await for our children and grandchildren to discover.  Their descendents, in turn, will unravel even more mysteries.  Each generation should rejoice that it is alive to marvel at the discoveries that lie ahead.  With each answer new questions arise--awaiting the exploration that impels human beings to understand.

As for CNN and FOX News, fortunately, we have fewer than 60 days to learn the answer to that question.

Steve Coon

September 09, 2012