• Question: What is the meaning of life when eventually when were all going to decay?

    Asked by Gertrude to Alex, Ali, Kerry, Philip, Theo on 10 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Kerry O'Shea

      Kerry O'Shea answered on 10 Nov 2014:

      I think this is a fascinating question, I’m sure we have all wondered about this at some stage in our lives. From a scientific point of view, we can talk about the origin of life in terms of the big bang and how we came to be, rather than why we are here.

      I think it is up to every person to decide what the meaning of their life is, since we are all different!

    • Photo: Alex Pool

      Alex Pool answered on 10 Nov 2014:

      Hi Hannah,

      Definitely agree with Kerry, what a huge question, but a brilliant one.

      Everyone has to come up with their own reasons as to the purpose of living. Personally it’s to see as much, and experience as much of this planet and all the amazing things it has to offer.

    • Photo: Philip Ratcliffe

      Philip Ratcliffe answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      I’ll leave that one to Richard P. Feynman (Nobel physicist):
      “Through all ages men have tried to fathom the meaning of life. They have realized that if some direction or meaning could be given to our actions, great human forces would be unleashed. So, very many answers must have been given to the question of the meaning of it all. But they have been of all different sorts, and the proponents of one answer have looked with horror at the actions of the believers in another. Horror, because from a disagreeing point of view all the great potentialities of the race were being channeled into a false and confining blind alley. In fact, it is from the history of the enormous monstrosities created by false belief that philosophers have realized the apparently infinite and wondrous capacities of human beings. The dream is to find the open channel.
      What, then, is the meaning of it all? What can we say to dispel the mystery of existence?
      If we take everything into account, not only what the ancients knew, but all of what we know today that they didn’t know, then I think that we must frankly admit that we do not know.
      But, in admitting this, we have probably found the open channel.”

      In other words, nobody really knows, but that’s ok.

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