Why Are We Here?

 The older I become and the more I read, the more I wonder about origins and the why’s and wherefores’ of Life.  Specifically, I keep wondering why humans are here at all.  The most likely explanation, I know, is that we are all accidents of evolution.  That is, we began as sponges in some ocean and then began acquiring the genes that eventually gave rise to life forms, which in turn led to humans over millions of years.

But, more to the point, what, if anything is our purpose in being here?  I know the God seekers think that a spirit who seems to be in charge of all life, created humans especially as some kind of tribute, although a tribute to what I keep wondering. Does God in some way resemble humans, so that humans were created in God’s image?  Maybe so, but, if so, what might we make of such a trivial pursuit? God felt so inadequate that she had to create a human-form resembling her? And then, what, she created humans in all possible states of adequacy and behavioral patterns?

And now, we are left with Humans, many of whom seem to prefer killing as a hobby, or even a career choice.  I look around me at our current world and what do I see? Russia under that braindead human Vlad the Impaler, continuing to spend its money and its human resources trying to kill as many Ukrainians as possible.  And, then after a couple of years of that debacle, Hamas in Israeli-Land decides to move into action and kills 1400 Israeli innocents. But, really, everywhere I turn to see humans killing other humans. I need only turn around almost anywhere in America to find one or more Humans gunning down fellow American Humans, mostly all of the Innocent variety.

It seems almost anywhere you go (and there are exceptions I know) Humans appear to spend a lot of their time and energy trying to figure out ways to kill other humans. So am I to conclude that Humans are placed here explicitly to kill off other Humans?  I imagine that, eventually the Humans of the Killing variant will eventually graduate to the really big killing machines. I mean, think back to the mid 1940’s and Japan in that World War II killing game. Yeah, we were all getting really good at killing large numbers. But then we decided that rifles and bombs were mere playthings. So, we invented a really big killing device—the Atomic Bomb. And we tried them out in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  We apparently don’t really know, but estimates range between 100,000 and 200,000 Japanese Humans died as a result of the two bombings. So, two bombs and BANG, a hundred thousand or two are dead. That was so large that it actually caused the ending of that particular War.

But did it end all wars? Hahahahaha . . . no not even close.  Some estimates suggest that somewhere close to a half million Humans have died in the Middle East since the creation of Israel.  And remember, the killing machines associated with the Israeli-Middle East conflicts, also in turn produced the 911 attacks, which led in turn to more killing sprees all over the Middle East.

And we should never forget those World Wars, both I and II, where it is estimated that in the tens of millions of Humans died as a result.  See, I was born in the 1930s, and Humans have continued killing other Humans ever since, in non-stop killing sprees. And it wasn’t as though something happened to trigger those killing sprees. Nope, they have been going on ever since man acquired an understanding of how to kill other Humans.  It makes me wonder whether more sophisticated killing machines are the true end result of Human evolution, maybe even the true purpose of human evolution.

So, as I begin aging out (I am pushing on toward 89 after all) I have begun concluding that the main purpose of Humans and Human development is killing other Humans. Now, exactly why any God would choose that objective for its creatures is way beyond my Pay Grade.  It does sort of suggest to me, though, that a God is a pretty unlikely development instrument for Humans and other of our world creatures. More likely, way more likely, I would conclude that Human development is mostly accidental and is an example of evolution going seriously off course. And you know all this great fear about AI that has been growing of late? That AI might begin moving out of our control, and begin simply taking over from Humans? Well, maybe that is exactly what is going on, and that this disastrous developmental path on which Humans are proceeding, where we continue to improve our ability to kill off other Humans, may in fact be brought to an end finally by AI interventions.  Think of that. What a concept huh? Who knows, maybe AI will curtail Human Murder instincts and cause Humans to develop in some slightly more “civilized” manner. Wouldn’t that be nice? And would God be pleased, huh? She might be smiling down on us as we consider how to end AI. Funny, Huh?

Tata Humans . . . think hard about all this.  It’s time for a change.

Beginnings and Endings

The older I become, the more interesting is the question of Beginnings, or Beginning. I realize that we know a lot about both beginnings and endings. We see humans being born and then dying. And we see plant beginnings and endings all around us. And then there are all the other animals that come into our lives and then leave us, a bit sadder, even after a fairly full life.

And I have speculated fairly repeatedly about my view of human endings. That is, although we use language that implies a journey (they “left us” . . . “they are gone”) the only evidence we have suggests only cessation. When humans die, they simply cease to function. Their brains cease operating and thus nothing follows. And it would seem that is the only sensible description for all “life forms”, i.e. all animals, and all plant life, which really means all life forms.  Material forms, rocks, mountains, even planets, stars, seem to come into existence and then cease to exist in that form. Whether a star, or a mountain can be said to experience “life” would be questionable, since we currently have no way to communicate with such seemingly inanimate entities.

But back to beginnings. Yes, we see them all the time. So, we understand that humans are created, exist in a known form and function according to certain rules.  We can even trace animal life back to fairly early beginnings, say a billion years. Oddly, sponges are listed as among the early life developers.

But this complex life development is but one tracing within our overall universe of life forms and other creatures, like planets and suns.  The universe is an amazing place, and unbelievably complex. And it always brings me back to origin questions. Folks like Neil DeGrasse Tyson spend their lives investigating and then describing the early development of our universe.  And others, those of a religious persuasion, employ other less rigorous descriptive approaches. See Neil and his BFFs spend their time trying to move us back in time so as to better understand the actual origins of life. Our religious folks I guess gave up on that game fairly early.  From their perspective, a God decided to, I don’t know, wave a wand and thereby create life.  They have some pretty silly stories, like Adam and Eve that can’t withstand too many questions. Still, at some stage, according to them there was no life, and then life was formed.

Now, whatever one thinks of the religious origins' tale, when compared with Tyson’s, my mind continues to wander back in time and always arrives at the question, “If there is/was a God, Who/What created that God?  Even if I follow Tyson back further into the origin story, I arrive at the same question. How did anything develop? Go back to before the Big Bang. Something existed then and led to The Big Bang. Who/What created that something?  Was it God? But, if so, Who/What created God?

See, if God always existed, why not the universe? And if so, How/Why?

And if humans had decided on a God, and simply left it at that, then good. Why Not? But then humans had to decide how best to use that story. And so, humans invented the Tale. You know, God created everything, and, especially, created humans so as to . . . to what? So as to worship God? How vain a God would that be? And then came the tales about Death leading to human forms sitting up on clouds looking down on we still-living critters. So, apparently, we have billions of entities (no bodies, just disembodied “souls” wandering about up above us, watching our foolishness play out daily.

And we humans actually have built whole stories and vast, complex entities called churches and interpreters called priests, who tell us what to do. How crazy is that? Folks who have no clue are allowed to tell us how to live nicely. Now, mostly, we ignore all those rules, because we seem to prefer creating our own rules of living and control. We even seem to prefer killing other humans, as a form of either sport or simply a way of expressing our disgust with how life actually turned out.

And largely, we seem to have moved beyond the God-tales, and have settled on Money-Tales. Oh we still pretend to the God-thingie. Because it remains a really useful way to maintain control over other humans.  See, we create priests who pretend to know about origins and the God thing. And then other humans place themselves into positions of control over the priests, so that they can retain total control over the humans.

Oddly, this system that might have led to peace and kindness over all of humankind, instead seems to have led to destruction and inhumane controls.  Could we change that? Sure, but first we would have to decide that we did not need a God, or those folks who pretend to know/understand God.  Humans are perfectly capable of organizing peacefully and humanely, should we ever decide that was a preferable course to inhumane methods.  Of course, that might suggest that we stop killing one another. And that would be really hard for humans. We do so seem to like killing.  It’s almost as though our Gods are watching us play out a sort of Godly TV game. Peace might just be too boring to Gods.

Ah well, back to daydreaming about origins, I guess.  It’s easier than the alternatives. How about, just be nice to your neighbors. 

America At Its End

Apparently there are no longer any consequences for political actions.  We note this especially when we view republicans . And it is not that Democrats are without fault. No, but something different has occurred since Trump became their glory leader. Somehow, it is as though he erased all normal standards of human behavior, and, as a result, a different class of republicans emerged. I mean, look at the list – Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Josh Hawley, George Santos, Matt Gaetz. And now this total cretin Mike Johnson, newly christened Speaker of the House. How is he even possible? He seems to violate every principle of ordinary citizenry. Mainly, I guess, it is his devotion to Christian Autocracy that stands out. But it is almost as though he has no functioning brain.

And now, when we need intelligent leadership at all levels, it has evaporated among republicans. And they continue to make light of Joe Biden. Yet Joe Biden keeps on trying to maintain a course of decency. He continues to make every effort to promote democracy at home, and has managed to create an economy that exceeds anything we have seen in years.  Biden continues to support Ukraine against an ongoing murderous Russian invasion.  And with the Hamas killings against Israel, Biden continues to support Israel, however difficult Bibi makes such support.  As awful as it seems, the Arab militants seem to have created a Nazi-like figure in Bibi. I know, I know, that is an awful thing to say, but Bibi seems to be a different kind of Israeli—way more manic in his zeal to destroy his Arab opposition.  But, to be fair, the Arabs seem to relish in their own zeal to deal stupidly and murderously with Israel.

But Joe Biden, has continued to perform reasonably in the face of this increasingly global insanity.

He could use some help from his republican colleagues. Instead, the republican party has simply gone off the deep end into some new kind of political craziness.  I don’t understand when sanity will return to Republican Land, but maybe never, and that could begin to define the end of America. Seriously, were I 30 rather than 88, I might well now be preparing to move with my family to another Land—anyone for New Zealand? Only if the republican party begins to regain its sanity by removing Johnson and bringing back a new core of civil intelligence would I change my mind.  And removing Johnson is but the first step. Greene, Boebert, Santos, et al need to be removed also.  But that might require the assistance of the American voting public. And perhaps that is a feat beyond American capability. Anyone for New Zealand???