What does it all mean?
One person’s journey of exploration through life
We are all born into a world we do not know. Our instinct is to make some kind of sense of our environment.
At first we just take what is around us as given and start to explore from where we are to see what we can find. Sooner or later, as we grow up, most people start to wonder about bigger questions which cannot be answered by exploration alone.
Where did I come from?
Why am I here?
Do I have a purpose?
What happens when I die?
Is life on Earth all there is to my existence?
These sorts of questions have fascinated many people, including me and, in these pages, I will outline my philosophical and spiritual quest to get closer to some answers.
As I seek and probe, I find that:
- Reality is always stranger than I think (or can think)
- Simplistic explanations are nearly always wrong
- We have to follow the evidence where it leads
Throughout my quest I aim to follow these guidelines:
- Truth is the goal – even if it is uncomfortable
- Be winning to be refuted – that is how we learn – so please refute me!
- Treat the views of others with respect and charity – even if we don’t agree with them
These are some of the waymarks on my journey:
- Awe and wonder! The place where it all starts.
- The power and limitations of the scientific method.
- The amazing mystery of being conscious, thinking beings!
- Are we just our brains and bodies? Or is there more to us than this?
- Do we have free will or is it just an illusion?
- What is the essence of my “self” or is that also an illusion?
- Do we have a purpose? Were we created or did we just emerge? Which is more likely?
- Does science support a belief in God or has science rendered it irrelevant or even untenable?
- If God exists then which of the many religions and belief systems are closest to the truth?
- Why do I believe that Christianity is true?
- What do Christians today believe?
- Some musings on the idea of a World Brain (1995)