Random Musings: Finding Meaning in Science

So, based on my few years of experience into adulthood, it seems like (almost) everyone is frustrated and tired and just wants to be a kid again. Me too! Although most of the time I still feel like I'm five years old.

The mystery and wonder of childhood is a relief to the supposed emptiness and meaninglessness of our actions as adults. We silence the mystery and wonder as we get older. We silence it so that we can work at a job we hate, talk about subjects and gossip we do not truly care about, and remain stagnant in our self-growth in order to cope with this fast-paced, emotionless, technological world we have created for ourselves; this world that is so unfulfilling to almost everyone, this world that turns you into a silent worker and a unsatiable consumer instead of a living, breathing, thinking, exploring being

Life itself is incredible. It enables endless questions! We are made out of the same matter as every visible object, yet we are able to experience and explore ourselves and the world around us. In our own galaxy, there are 9  8 planets that are not even remotely close to sustaining life long enough to get to sentient beings. We are searching the stars for the slightest hint of life in this vast universe. Life, as we typically define it, is rare and precious and amazing and literally unbelievable. It took billions of years just to get to the point where elements could bond to other elements, forming larger, more complex structures.

To me, that is meaning, that is wonder, that is mystery. Everything that we experience is the universe knowing and experiencing itself. We are the universe, the universe is us. Or as Carl Sagan once said, "We are a way for the universe to know itself."