Worried about the universe

Gelay asked:

What is the nature of the universe? Where does it come from? Of what is it made? How did it come to exist? What is its purpose? By what process does it change? Is it evolving or devolving? Does it function by itself or would it degenerate to chaos without some kind of intelligent control?

Answer by Shaun Williamson

You are asking some very complex questions which cannot be answered in an email. You need to start studying science and cosmology.

You can make a start by reading A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. Since your questions are complex you need to understand that the answers to them are also complex and will require some effort on your part so that you are in a position to understand them.

 

Answer by Geoffrey Klempner

For millennia, human beings have rebounded between the alternatives, ‘The universe has a purpose,’ ‘The Universe has no purpose.’ It’s got to be one or the other, hasn’t it?

Either alternative is a recipe for despair. It doesn’t matter if the universe is being driven somewhere, or careering away off the road, whether it is holding together or gradually falling apart. Either way, we are stuck here, inside the universe and we have no control at all over what happens.

The runaway universe is not our universe. It is not our home. We don’t belong here.

Say to yourself, ‘The universe is just some theory in a physics book, random spots of light in the sky, a word, a story.’ Repeat that every day, until you believe it.

The real solution — the solution you can take to heart and live with — isn’t in some clever answer to the question, but in the disappearance of the question. How you go about doing that, making the question disappear, well, that’s up to you.

 

One thought on “Worried about the universe

  1. The universe is a backdrop. You are on the Earth which is warmed by the Sun. The Earth has 7 billion parasites on it now. You need to pay the rent. Leave the universe as a back drop to all that.

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