[AidanMatthews216]

Originally Posted by Lychee

So if the universe doesn't follow the storybook, simple plotlines, it must be incorrect?

No. Simplicity and complexity aren't at odds--our universe is both. But creating an explanation of the universe which is fundamentally more vague and complex than it needs to be is unnecessary and distorts our view of the universe.

Telling an ant to do something probably won't yield the best results. Do you think it would act on your instruction? So how can it be that perhaps we also are that ant in some way and we cannot understand things completely, either?

Of course we don't. But that doesn't mean we should invent the answers that we don't know.

Science cannot explain why. That's where religion and philosophy comes in.

Evolution answers "why" in the sense of how it happens. One answer is natural selection. Why does natural selection exist? Why do the best survive? What is the point of survival? Why is death experienced? Why is the sky blue? Why do black holes exist? Science takes away the spiritual meaning for it and relies solely on the logical, left brain. It creates an imbalance.

I disagree. Logical explanations are not at odds with deep emotions. For me, studying math and observing the world creates almost a religious ecstasy, that I wouldn't give up for any religion. The more rational, orderly, and complex the more at home I feel in the world. To me there is nothing more spiritual than the physical world.

Some people want to be one with God; I want to prove the Riemann hypothesis.

Why are things the way they are?

Does there always have to be a reason or a cause? What is the reason for the the most ultimate reason then? Somewhere there's a starting place, where the question "why" in the sense you mean it doesn't mean anything.

No. How does gravitation explain the necessity for it? What is the necessity of quantum mechanics? What is the necessity of our existence?

There is no "necessity" for gravitation; it just is. Our existence is necessitated by the physical laws that created us. There is no meaning inherent in that, but we as thinking organisms give it one.

If we're all going to die anyway, what's the point in morals? What's the point in treating people with kindness? We're all going to turn to dust someday so it really doesn't matter what we do in this world, does it? The complete cessation of our existence at the the time of death negates everything done in our lives. There would be no point to doing anything. Many religion acts as a motivation for doing good with promise of an afterlife.

I don't understand why death makes life meaningless. We simply have to deal with the fact that our lives are finite--but in a way that makes everything we do all the *more* meaningful. If we have only shot to do it, we had better do it right.

Maybe it has to do with how you perceive time. For some, the past is dead and lost no matter what. When they die, their lives instantly becoming meaningless bygones.

Again, it all explains how. Why does it enable us to predict the past and future behavior? Why is it even predictable? Why is the sun and earth being moved so perfectly that we can predict it?

I really think this question is meaningless. What do you mean exactly by "why" these things are? Do you mean who or what intended them? If you ask that way, you're setting itself up to believe in a personal God. Have you stopped beating your wife?