“We go about our daily lives understanding almost nothing of the
world. We give little thought to the machinery that generates the
sunlight that makes life possible, to the gravity that glues us to an
Earth that would otherwise send us spinning off into space, or to the
atoms of which we are made and on whose stability we fundamentally
depend. Except for children (who don’t know enough not to ask the
important questions), few of us spend much time wondering why nature is
the way it is; where the cosmos came from, or whether it is always
here; if time will one day flow backward and effects precede causes; or
whether there are ultimate limits to what humans can know.”
-Carl Sagan from an introduction to A Brief History of Time By Stephen Hawking
After
hearing and reading your peer's reactions during class about the listed
quotation, what new insight can you add to this quotation analysis?
Please respond. (Blog Response Due By Thurs., Aug. 23rd at 3:40p.m.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
34 comments:
I spend 24/7 thinking about how or why we are here. I keep thinking that Mother Nature is trying to take back what was hers. Us humans are ruining this Planet we all home. Mother Nature is trying warn us I feel, with all of the hurricanes, and the wildfires. We evolved a little to fast. On the Video today, it said Greek Mythology was just the child part of this earth. But I think, we are moving a little to fast.
I think that these questions have only recently become something that only children question. If we look back in time, these are all things talked about by ancient civilizations. These civilizations, such as the Greeks, Egyptians, and Hindus, all have stories about gods and goddesses as well as events that took place; and most of these stories have connections in one way or another. Is this coincidental, or does truth lye in these stories. I feel that in todays age we get too caught up in the lives that have been built around us to question, or even realize that the answers to these questions could possibly be right in front of us.
I think a lot about what life is, how the universe started, and if it will ever end. I think that, ecause of climate change and the increasing rate of destruction of our environments, people are starting to ask these big questions more and more. I believe this is a good thing, because we, as living creatures on this planet, need to stop taking without giving back.
I believe that humans do forget the 'little' things in life and if humans thought more and educated about the world sooner, realizing what it provides for us then we could change the future of the world for the better. It could be clean and we also can have great technology. Let Earth provide for us but let us provided back, so we and the world can have a happy and health relationship.
I think that life today is so focused about the near future and what is present. We do not think in ancient civilization because those things have already occurred and they don't stop to think how it affects us now. Some of the questions asked now are about the big changes with our environment and why these things are happening, or why there is so much construction here and there. For once I think that people need to sit back and reflect and not think so much in the time frame they are currently focused on.
I feel nature and everyday life is very hard to comprehend. Both the simplicity and complexity of it all is amazing. Creation hasn't always been in existence. Its been an evolution that had a beginning, but the beginning had to start form a higher or power and or a creator.
I believe that we go into the world everyday not knowing what is going to come we truly don't know that much about our existence and that is not only super complicated but also interesting and inspiring in a way. . I feel as if the world is both simple and complicated. Nature is a big part of this. Everything is created and its interesting to try to comprehend what we are created from.
I think that humans are not actually capable of wrapping our heads around the concept of what keeps us on this planet. It is also unknown on what creates these forces such as gravity or how earth was created.
Curiosity is something all humans have. Weather it is about nature or math or colors. The explanation is simple, the entire world was created by a single God, and amazing creator There will always be curiosity of why things are the way that they are but it will always trace back to the one creator.
When I was younger I used to wonder all the time about questions such as how the universe was made and the afterlife. It has always been such a fascinating subject to me and most humans because of how complex and undiscovered these ideas are.
Everyday I look outside and and don't think about the outside world that isn't with technology and don't take the time to look at this world without tech. I think I don't spend enough time thinking about and being grateful for all of the tech we have today.
I believe that we live in a world that we can't fully comprehend and is something that is so complex for us that we can only understand the little pieces of it. It's not just now that we have all these questions about the universe though. Many civilizations before us had questions as well but in recent years we have been able to understand everything better.
Our world is so abstract to us and the idea of even trying to begin to process all the ins and outs of how we got to where we are today is just too much. As children our imaginations are huge, there are so many "what ifs" and "whys". As we get older the thought of "what if" and "why" become more of a chore to think about. We begin to essentially give up on trying to figure out who we are and where we came from because it becomes more and more prevalent that we will likely never know the answer. Why would we waste our time and energy on trying to find an answer we may never get? As we grow we lose our imaginations and our excitement to learn about the unknown. I want to learn about the world and all it brings, but, like almost all those around me, it's hard to convince myself to do something for an outcome that may never exist.
We will never fully understand everything, so I think its our natural reaction to creation to question our existence and why we are on this world. As humans, we will never fully experience the complete life cycle of our universe. Eventually our race will die due to over population and lack of necessities or we're doomed to kill each other fighting over the last of what we have, because the truth is, as humans, we don't try to solve the problem until its knocking at our door.
It is kind of interesting to compare the type of people that question things heavily today with who did thousands of years ago. In the time of the Greeks, very little was known about scientific aspects of the world, so everyone was curious about why things were the way they were. To explain some of it, myths were created. In today's world though, very little remains unknown with the exception of space and select parts of the Earth like the deep sea. Kids come into the world knowing nothing, so it makes sense for them to question. Once grown up though, with modern science and internet access there isn't much left to question at least on the surface.
Children always ask why, its not that they ask perfect questions its that they go into detail. When asking a simple question such as "can i go outside?" if they dont quite know about the answer they get they ask why. if there is a natural phenomenon that they dont understand they will always ask why. In fact, some scientists claim that their children gave them inspiration for their studies.
I guess we are just so focused on the near future that we don't take time to open up our minds and look at the bigger picture and think about how we think all this got here and what has happened before us to get us to is point. We exist for a tiny blip of time and so we never fully realize how the world works and what happens because we are only alive for the tiniest bit of our wolds existence.
People are probably too focused on their own lives, that they don't care about how the world was created or things like that. They believe that they have more important things like working and don't have any time to think about things like mythology. Only a specific part of life is important to them, so I don't think they care about learning other things outside of their own life and how they themselves function.
I don't remember ever asking questions that were deep and thought provoking. The quote really gets people to think about what we have, accomplished over the years since the Ancient Greeks. We made flight possible for man and we even went to the moon. There are many things we have done that the people of the past would have thought impossible or were the works of the Gods.
Humanity's earliest days were spent much like how a child's would be, pondering it all. The earth, nature, the universe, why things are the way they are, etc.. Some people's entire lives were spent pondering these things, and coming up with a way to understand them. Because early humanity didn't have the technology or knowledge to truly, truly understand the world around them, they made their best guesses with what they knew in the forms of myths, and eventually, into religion. Humans prefer the known to the unknown, the reason why most creation myths start with a divine being bringing order to the chaos. Humans inherently try to make order, or make sense of the world around them, and this is why humans gravitate towards myths and beliefs that can simplify or serve as guidance to them.
It is hard to think about how tis idea even came about from people in the early days of man. It must have been mind blowing and it is still hard for me to comprehend about how our world works.
It's hard to know what really happened during like the stone age, but as time goes on, its easier to connect the different pieces of history and know why we're here.
Our society has promoted thinking only about one's self and maybe a few others who are important. As children we are taught to not be self centered and that learning is important. As we grow up life becomes less about caring and learning, and more about doing just enough to reach whatever goal we have set for ourselves.
In our lives many things will remain unknown. Its human nature to have the desire to put the puzzle pieces together and try to make sense of things. Often times, making sense of things urges us to question our beliefs and curiosities and allow them to morph and change. Not having the knowledge of what goes beyond our basic understanding of life is not a tragedy. The constant questioning and self examination pushes us to explore our beings and our possible roots. It's a question that always sparks an answer. As humans we must question the world around us in order to grow in our mindsets. We must evolve and approach things through a different lens. Not every answer is in a textbook. The meaning of our roots and life are completely different person to person. Deep down, even subconsciously we are always questioning our actions and beliefs even if it doesn’t appear so.
I think everyone is always to focused on the now, always focused on work or school, never taking time to themselves. Were always going but never stopping to think about things like how and why we are here.
I constantly contemplate what we are doing here and how everything started and like since small children are so full of imagination and curiosity they think about the past more than adults do because for the most part we have that concept that yes the sun rises and sets and they gravity is here for some reason and those types of thoughts don't really intrude our brains cause it seems to be everyone is focused on what will happen, not what ALREADY happened. Maybe if we took a step back and instead of focusing and freaking out about the future we can focus and explain more about our past and see perhaps if there's a good reasoning to what is constantly going on.
Nature and the way everything in the world symbiotically works together is amazing. For me I think about these things all the time but in the end we will probably never know how the universe works. Everything is the way it is for a reason and it's way more complex and complicated then we will ever know. We spend too much time worrying about the past and not living in the moment.
This questions runs through my head a lot. As to why we are here and why God placed us on this planet. Since I was little I was always curious about what the world could offer, I wanted to explore the world around me. To the little lady bug to the mountain ranges. I feel that people around us are ruining the world around use with all the pollution, the amount of trash on the sides or the road and oceans, and all the natural disasters. We all say there is "mother nature" and how she's in control on the world around us based on nature. Thinking about how mother nature controls all this...I wonder to myself if she is trying to tell us that the world is going downhill with the way we treat it. It's like she is punishing us for treating the world so poorly with the wild fires, hurricanes, earth quakes, and other natural disaster. Over time I have seen us build the world up, but I don't think people think about the damage we do with cutting all the trees down, building on natural lands.
I think about what happens after We leave this world Like do we go to heaven or do we get reincarnated in to some one else. I also think about how will humans adapt to a half run down world with little to go around, will we fight or will we team up or will we just die out.
I think when we’re young kids we ask a lot of questions. Wether that be about the cosmos or how do cars work. I think that when we’re little we’re trying to figure everything out. Once we grow up we become the adults and think that we know everything but when we’re little we’re eager to learn and become like adults. We just lose the fuel to learn like we did when we were kids because now we are the ones who tell the kids how the world works.
Since I was a young girl, I would always have endless questions about how everything connects and works together in this world along with the roles that everything plays in our day to day lives. It was hard for me to understand that there are so many things that are unknown and will most likely stay so to the human eye or brain. I now know that everything happens for a reason and works the way it does for a greater purpose, we need to stop wondering about the outcomes and focus on here and now.
I think the ability to question things or the idea of the unknown is scary to most people. Philosophy has brought new ideas into our heads like why is the earth here, why do we do the things we do? Since philosophy started to become more and more known most people didn't like the new ideas of the unknown. A child is also a philosopher. Children are more open to new ideas and basically just wanting to know more. I think that's where most questions start. Of course we will never know. We can come up with as many ideas as we want and everything will probably still be the same until one day it's not and that's what people are afraid of. Not knowing whats to come of the life we live. As human beings it's our right to question if we were really meant to be here. In my opinion, we all can question the way we want to, but everything happens for a reason. I try to prepare myself for the worst because we never truly know the outcome of anything, but personally I think that's what makes life interesting.
Post a Comment