I think that one of the most fundamental question that science fails to answer is the question of why. Why do we exist? Why was this universe created? The question stems more than a fear of death, but it is an ultimate realization that everything that we know and do is temporary.
Consider this. After we die, what mark of ours remains? 10 years after our death, there will be our children and possibly our grandchildren, and they will probably have inherited any property that we have left them.
100 years from now, our estate will probably been changed and has changed to many different hands. Our names and deeds are probably forgotten except to some geneologist and those great grandchildren who take an interest in our stories.
1000 years from now, nothing will remain except our names. Most likely, the only people who will remember that would be people who take an active role in geneology.
10,000 years from now, humanity as we know it will probably be gone.
100,000 years from now, we will probably be nothing more than dust, or perhaps fossils ourselves.
1,000,000,000 years from now, life on this planet will start to die as the sun expands, warming this planet and causing all water to evaporate into space.
A few billion years later, the sun will have expanded far enough to absorb the Earth, making this planet's demise permanent. Trillions of years later, the universe will end up into its terminal stage. Although scientists are not sure exactly how it will happen, either by a big Crunch, a Big Rip, or a Big Freeze, but life in this universe will cease to exist, in fact everything in this universe will cease to exist then.
So, in this view, the question must be asked. What is the purpose of life? Why do we exist if our existence is temporary, and anything we do is a temporary blip on a galactic scale? Is our very existence a cosmic joke?
edited by adding spacing for clarity~PB
This message has been edited by AdminPhat, 01-23-2006 06:17 AM
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