Nephew,

I understand you’ve been thinking about the nature of reality and purpose of existence, and thought you might find it helpful to read my opinions on the matter.

There are three main schools of thought regarding the basis of reality and how and why everything happens. They are: magic, science, and religion.

Magic we can dispose of quickly. If the universe operated based on magic, there would be no consistency. Reality would bend to the will of whomever wanted it the most. Everyone would get everything they want all the time, unless someone is actively opposing them. Or, magic is so difficult, and its results so minimal and unpredictable, that it could almost never be considered to work at all. Which leaves us trying to explain everything that magic doesn’t.

That leaves us with science and religion. The basic idea of science is that we can observe the world around us, notice causes and effects, and predict future effects based on those observations. Science tests ideas, and accepts only those that can be proven true. It can be very unsatisfying, because it can be very slow to determine and accept new facts, and even those facts are known to be, at best, approximations that can be disproven tomorrow if some new discovery invalidates it. There’s a lot of arguing and disagreement, and no one accepts anyone else’s word for anything. At any given moment, the sum total of scientific knowledge can be considered humanity’s best guess as to how the universe works, which makes it really discouraging when you want to know the reason and purpose of everything. No one knows how to test for it yet.

Religions of all sorts boil down to one basic idea: God did it. Or, a god did it, or a bunch of gods did it. In any case, it’s the easy answer to all questions. Why is the sky blue? God did it. Why did this rotten thing happen? God has a plan. What happens after we die? God takes care of it. I’m not saying it’s the right answer, or even a good answer, but it does cover a lot of territory. Except it isn’t really an answer; it’s what logicians call an “appeal to authority.” This omniscient, omnipotent thing that loves you is taking care of it, so don’t worry about it. It also stops all questions. God did it. How? He’s God; he can do that. If you can honestly accept “God did it” as the answer that makes everything okay, it’ll make you feel good, but it doesn’t tend to lead to further investigation. It’s like knowing your Dad is there to take care of you, except Dad lives in the sky and makes lightning. It’s comfortable.

Obviously, I come down on the side of science. I can’t honestly say we’re here for any particular purpose. We exist; that’s all I need. I can’t say there’s anything after death. In fact, I seriously doubt it. But I am willing to be wrong, and must admit there are times I kind of like the idea. But I’m not willing to base my life on the hope that I’ll get a prize when it’s over. It doesn’t mean I’m not moral; it does mean my morality is not based on the fear of eternal punishment, but rather on the idea of minimizing the pain I cause others here and now, because I want to live in the sort of world where everyone acts like I do.

Did any of that make sense?

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