The answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything

[photomaster]

Is the answer really 42?

Why are we here?

We sentient life on this planet are part of a closed ecosphere. To exist as life, as we know it, on an indefinite time span, many food chains have been established. We, more or less at the top of the food chain, will eventually be returned to the ground to be eaten by worms, insects, and small bacteria. Those worms are eaten by fish and chicken, which are then consumed by our offspring before they, too, are returned to the earth.

Everything which is born must die. A candle which burns twice as bright burns half as long. Trees die. Mountains rise and fall. Even the rocks, which were born out of the fire of creation, may be recycled at the end of our planet's life - perhaps by being swallowed up by a black hole. Entropy will eventually catch up with all matter in the universe and return even the molecules and atoms back into energy. Since all things described by the matter-energy system may never be destroyed, the raw materials of this reality will always exist in some form, even if we don't recognize or understand it.

The universe is really, really, really big. We are very small. We are smaller than the flea on a dog's back. In fact, more like if the flea had fleas... Our impact on the universe will be negligible, even if our impact on this planet is quite measurable.

Is there intelligent life on other planets?

Of course. Where one organic food chain exists, so too will these conditions exist on planets with similar conditions throughout the galaxy - and, we are just one galaxy in a sea of galaxies. How many other planets within our own galaxy support intelligent life? Estimates range from a handful to millions of planets, based on a simple mathematical probability equation known as Drake's Equation.

Will we communicate with life on other planets? It is not important. Just as the mold on the upstairs bathroom will never know of the existence of the mushrooms in the cellar, we may never be destined to meet other life in the galaxy. We may dream.

So, Earth is not the center of the universe?

Just as we are insignificant specs on the face of this planet, the Earth is just a rock in space, no more special than any other rock. And, that pretty blue color? That's just the diffraction of Nitrogen gas in our atmosphere. Is blue your favorite color? How about green? Blues and greens are our favorite colors because it connects us with our planet and our food source.

Is there an infinitely renewable fuel source?

Of course. We call it beer. We've been drinking alcohol instead of putting it into our gas tanks, mostly to preserve the world economy. If oil was replaced overnight with alcohol, the world economy which is based on fossil fuels would collapse and cause much worse problems.

We grow barley, potatoes, and corn, isolate their starch, and provide it as a food source to a few grains of yeast. Yeast population explodes in the presence of an abundant food source. Yeast converts the carbon molecules of starch into alcohol, which may be separated from the water and burned as a clean fuel source for heating, electricity, and transportation. Even fossil fuels have a renewable life cycle, but it takes millions of years to make crude oil compared to several months to create alcohol (this includes the time it takes to grow the potatoes).

Is love a universal constant?

No. Love is an emotion, just as hate. Love and hate are emotions which insure our survival. Love draws us together to procreate. Hate raises our defenses against our perceived enemies. We may not know one without the other. We will never know a world without hate, since we know love. Some call this battle of good and evil. So too, good may not exist without evil.

Does God really exist?

Yes and no. The perception of God is a universal constant for sentient life throughout the planet. This is due to a fault in the temporal lobes of our brains being effected by the planet's magnetic field. Michael Persinger, a cognitive neuroscience researcher at Laurentian University, Canada has done extensive laboratory experiments and published books on these experiments.

Some astronauts, who have been in outer space, have "found God." This is a result of their passing through the intense magnetic fields of the planet. God was much more popular two-thousand years ago, when the planet's magnetic field was about 4x stronger. As the field has decreased in strength, so too has our faith in a supreme being. The field will collapse within the next few hundred years, exposing us to the sun's radiation and releasing us from "God." I'm glad I won't be around to see it.

UFO's?

Michael Persinger has also reproduced the classical alien abduction scenario, grey aliens, and has introduced false memories by subjecting people to magnetic fields in a laboratory. As for those lights in the sky - most UFO's appear near military bases. Need I say more?

Do supreme beings exist?

Why not? Just as we once believed that our earth was flat and the sun revolved around us, so too may we discover a higher plane of existence and profound advancements in science and physics. We should not rule out the existence of aliens from outer space just because we have not observed them. Mathematically speaking, intelligent life must exist and you've got about a 50/50 chance of it being smarter than you are. One of these co-called aliens may be, or may have been "God."

How important is religion?

We should not divorce ourselves from the morality which organized religion teaches us, even if we grow beyond our need to worship a supreme being. Without a moral center, we degrade into a paranoid, restless, arrogant, self-centered, back-stabbing race of beings bent on self-destruction. To fight a holy war based on religious belief kinda defeats the purpose of having a religion. To live in a society, morality is essential, while belief in a God is not.

Why is a college education important?

Ignore what others tell you. To learn something in college is incidental. What matters is that you have a diploma hanging on your wall. I'm not talking about those fake degrees which claim to give you credit for "life experience." A real diploma and your GPA will follow you the rest of your life. It doesn't matter "What's your Major or Minor." What matters is that you graduate with a 4-year degree. Most of what you learn in those four years will be obsolete by the date of your graduation. You will learn so much more on the job and in the field. This doesn't matter. Do it early. Do it while you're young. Get the money somehow. Start bugging your parents about college when you're in Junior High School. Just, get your butt into a classroom and don't leave until you graduate with a minimum of a Liberal Arts Degree.

A four-year degree will open many doors. It will allow you to be hired for just about any job. You cannot accurately predict the future and a four-year degree is your insurance policy. It is your life security. You could go through life and say, "I never used or needed that four-year degree." But, you will never, ever be able to pursue an opportunity which requires a degree if you never went to college.

Why does blue cheese dip and salad dressing taste terrible?

Don't bother trying to find decent blue cheese salad dressing. It doesn't exist. Simply mix 1 part Breakstone sour cream with 1 part Hellman's Mayonnaise then add crumbled blue cheese to taste. Mix well. Do not use "lite" or "fat free" or anything horrible like that. This will make you a hero at your next dinner party.

Where do we go when we die?

There are an infinite number of dimensions and alternate parallel universes. Even if we pass on in this life, we still live on elsewhere. Have you ever had a near-death experience? Have you ever thought, I should have died in that accident but I survived somehow? Perhaps you did die but you live on in a different parallel universe.

It is often said that the journey is much more important than the destination. We will spend this lifetime traveling to our ultimate destination of being returned to the Earth when we die. How we complete this minor phase of our food cycle, before we are turned back into worm food, is important to our society as a whole. We are not born with morality; it must be taught to us, along with other social skills. Learn your lessons well.

In life, we must contribute to society for it to survive. You can contribute to society and advance the human race by bettering yourself. Read a book. Get a college degree. Take up an art project. Write a letter to your favorite newspaper. Take a pretty girl to dinner. Let someone cut in front of you on the Expressway. Do a favor for a neighbor, no matter how small. Hold the door open for the person behind you. To everyone who serves you, bags your groceries, sells you coffee, delivers your newspaper - look them right in the eye and say, "Thank you." If we do these things, we can change the world.

Can we rise to become greater than eventual worm food, born out of random DNA sequences?

Don't give up hope.