True and False

I used to be certain that ‘science’ was ‘true’ and things like ‘spirituality’ were fiction. Indeed, I feel like I had a fairly materialistic opinion for the vast majority of my life so far. But like, what do we really know?

Throughout my life, I’ve learned things then later learned they were wrong. Specifically, I remember learning in third grade that once you swallow food, it takes around nine hours for it to reach your stomach. Later, before I even finished high school, the consensus was that it only took seconds.

I don’t begrudge the people of the past for not figuring everything out, but I’ve got to believe there’s a better way to approach the veracity of information. Otherwise, you end up burning folks at the stake.

Back to my original topic, I used to not care very much about things like “How did we get here,” but now I care a lot. I tend to see Christianity as the religion of the (Holy) Roman Empire. I mean, the bible literally says, “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.” Really? Divinity is taking an emperor-centric position on taxation? That’s remarkable. But who cares? It is a big universe out there. It’s a big galaxy, and ours isn’t the only one. At the end of the ‘day,’ I have more questions than answers.

I’m very grateful to be alive in our current era, but as the clock ticks, it seems like the rate of mysteries is growing. It used to seem like there were words and numbers, but both of those are closely tied to this planet, so far as we know. Similarly, do they have jokes on other planets? Humor? Are we really smart or really dim? Are there extraordinarily simple ways to distant galaxies that we just don’t know? I have so many questions.

When I was a young child, it seemed as if figuring these things out was important. But today, 40-ish years later, answers seem as far as ever. I realize people have many earthly responsibilities, but like, what the fuck are we doing here? Elon Musk wants to go to Mars, but like… why? Is it like a reference to Total Recall? That shit is _over_. It’s time to do something that matters, that can create lots to do.

People are obsessed with getting “rich,” but like… why? Credit where credit’s due, at least Mr. Musk is doing _something_ — and something big at that. But ultimately, this is the only planet we know of that can support human life. That’s extremely sus, and we need to figure out _why_.