Hello Fellow Thinkers! Welcome back to Big Questions.
After a hiatus of several months, in which time absolutely nothing happened to me or to the world, it is time to get back into the saddle and restart our favorite philosophical discussion group (virtual version). In all these intervening days I'm sure a great topic has occurred to you from time to time, and I am very disappointed at how few of you have bothered to send me a notice as to what those topics were. Shame on you. Some did send in their thoughts, and for these I am very grateful.
As for myself I've been considering the nuances of my golf swing and my ability to find golf balls in the tall grass (which I need to do far too often), which I do not consider to be questions that are all that big. I know your lives are more philosophical than mine has become, so I count on you to bubble up with interesting topics.
I have books, of course, that I can plumb for insight and inspiration. The Philosopher's Gym comes to mind. Work out your intellect by chewing on the great questions of philosophy. Or maybe your jaw. Why is there something, and not nothing? Always a conversation stopper. What is the difference between Becoming and Being? And what do the existentialists mean when they say, become who you are? That is one of my favorites. These are Big Questions. Maybe BIG Questions.
A recent entry has to do with the deceptive allure of eternal happiness as a path to life's fulfillment, or would a person prefer to have absolute knowledge of all things? If you had to choose, which appeals more? Omnipotent knowledge, or eternal happiness? Flip a coin? Or is one included in the other? Think about it...
I propose we restart BQ on Nov. 11, at 7:00. See you then! And send me questions....
Just checking in to catch up and thought of a question on my mind of late. So what happens to our soul/consciousness/spirit after we die? Lots of big thinkers have grappled with that one.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the question, @heronkaren. Yes, what happens in the afterlife is a classic question, and one that is very hard to get a clear answer to. UU's believe in universal salvation, meaning a soul would live in eternity in a "happy place", like heaven I suppose. During our discussion we recalled the experiences shared by former BQ participants as they recounted their previous lives, at times with great clarity and knowledge of time and place. Reincarnation is a comforting belief when the end is near, knowing that your essential self (soul) is going to occupy a new host body when we pass over the Rainbow Bridge into our next life. Regardless of the afterlife, however, the phase that I have always liked is, Now your problems are over, and you can find peace. When my father died suddenly 4 years ago his battle with cancer, multi-year battle with COPD, chronic joint pain, and all the rest were suddenly lifted from him. I can only hope he embraced it with serenity. I want to believe he did.
DeleteThanks to all of you who participated in our meeting last week. We thrashed the Happiness Box around quite a bit, and contrasted an endless existence of pure bliss with a life consisting of perfect knowledge of everything. Both sounded pretty good to everyone, but endless pure bliss seemed to turn people off as they felt it would get boring. Perfect bliss is boring? I'm not sure I can get there, myself. The pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain seems to be a pretty good life goal for most folks.
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