How Did I Get Here?

[I Am Hugh]

I’m always hearing preachers on Moody radio saying that people always ask why am I here. I don’t think that’s an important question to be asking. I think people know why they’re here. To live. To me that’s the obvious answer. I think the better question that people should be asking in my opinion is how did I get here.

You were born. Have you ever seen a birth, either human or otherwise? They're here too. Asking why seems to impose some causation. I believe in creation, but I don't think it's necessarily an obvious explanation. I think that people tend to wonder how and why; as if there is some empty place inside them that must be filled, so often they will try and fill it by associating some "purpose" with it all, especially in a religious sense. Then they get sort of tossed around, as if figuratively lost in a storm at sea, grasping in the dark trying to make sense of it all.

I believe the Bible when it says God created us to enjoy life. Not just to live. Wild beasts and insects do that.

 

[I Am Hugh]

I sometimes wonder the same thing. Not just how I got here, but where is "here"? If our planet and solar system and galaxy keep moving, then we're never in the same spot for very long.

Where the heck are we?

Floating on a planet in space.

 

[I Am Hugh]

Evolution

That doesn't propose to explain how life got here, it only alleges what happened afterwards.

 

[ChristineM]

Floating on a planet in space.

Floating?

Earth rotates on its axis at about 1,000 mph
Orbits the sun at about 67,000 mph
Moves around the galaxy at about 514,500 mph
And the galaxy is moving through the universe at around 1.3 million miles per hour.

Hold on tight

 

[Madsaac]

That doesn't propose to explain how life got here, it only alleges what happened afterwards.

Maybe, but it's without doubt the best explanation we've got

 

[I Am Hugh]

Maybe, but it's without doubt the best explanation we've got

Not for how or why life got here, and it's not even the best explanation for what happened afterwards if by evolution you mean macroevolution. If you're talking about microevolution, at least that is observable.

 

[I Am Hugh]

Floating?

Yes, it's an expression. Hyperbolic intensifier. Like the sun rises and sets, or the foundation of a marriage or earth.

Earth rotates on its axis at about 1,000 mph
Orbits the sun at about 67,000 mph
Moves around the galaxy at about 514,500 mph
And the galaxy is moving through the universe at around 1.3 million miles per hour.

The thing about science, i.e. knowledge, is that it is always subject to change. Like a weather forecast.

Hold on tight

Oh, I always do. Not too tight though. Snug.

 

[ChristineM]

The thing about science, i.e. knowledge, is that it is always subject to change.

That's how science works, it is self correcting.

They are of course 'about/around' figures, the first two are known fairly accurately, third is pretty close and the last is worked out mathematically. They are of course subject to adjustment if new data becomes available.

 

[shunyadragon]

That doesn't propose to explain how life got here, it only alleges what happened afterwards.

Abiogenesis

 

[shunyadragon]

Floating on a planet in space.

The earth does not float in space.

 

[Secret Chief]

I think the better question that people should be asking in my opinion is how did I get here.

You logged on.

 

[Stevicus]

Floating on a planet in space.

True, although what I was getting at was that, if space could be charted as a fixed grid, then we're moving rapidly from point to point within that grid, but never at the same point twice.

It's kind of scary in a way. I was thinking of the scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey where you see Frank in his spacesuit shooting through space to certain death. That scene kind of hit home for me the idea of the vast emptiness of space.

Of course, we have our nice little cozy blue ball to live on. A nice bubble of air so we can breathe and a reasonably self-sustaining ecosystem (or at least it was, but who knows how long that will last). But outside of this little bubble, it's a vast, empty vacuum, as we float through it. We're a bit better off than poor old Frank Poole in 2001, but we're still alone within a big empty.

I guess it is kind of a comforting thought to believe that we're not really alone, that "someone" is out there in the vastness of the universe who is looking out for us. Otherwise, the idea of our planet shooting through space with no rhyme or reason, with no one knowing the how or why - I guess that might be hard to fathom and difficult to accept.

 

[Kelly of the Phoenix]

I’m always hearing preachers on Moody radio saying that people always ask why am I here. I don’t think that’s an important question to be asking. I think people know why they’re here. To live. To me that’s the obvious answer. I think the better question that people should be asking in my opinion is how did I get here.

You are here because you are not there.

 

[I Am Hugh]

Otherwise, the idea of our planet shooting through space with no rhyme or reason, with no one knowing the how or why - I guess that might be hard to fathom and difficult to accept.

I have never thought of it that way. No matter how you look at it, it is difficult to accept, but it isn't terribly relevant down here on a beautiful midmorning in August. Perhaps, only in our minds.

 

[Jimmy]

You are here because you are not there.

There is no there imo

 

[Muffled]

I’m always hearing preachers on Moody radio saying that people always ask why am I here. I don’t think that’s an important question to be asking. I think people know why they’re here. To live. To me that’s the obvious answer. I think the better question that people should be asking in my opinion is how did I get here.

I believe you got here either by the grace of God or His judgment.

 

[Muffled]

I sometimes wonder the same thing. Not just how I got here, but where is "here"? If our planet and solar system and galaxy keep moving, then we're never in the same spot for very long.

Where the heck are we?

I believe it does not matter where we are.

 

[Muffled]

It kind of doesn’t matter. A light year a way or 10 feet. It’s all the same. Although it is neat that we’re moving through the cosmos.

I believe it is a little more sophisticated than that. Our solar system revolves around the center of our galaxy. Most likely our galaxy revolves around the center of the known universe.

 

[RestlessSoul]

I sometimes wonder the same thing. Not just how I got here, but where is "here"? If our planet and solar system and galaxy keep moving, then we're never in the same spot for very long.

Where the heck are we?

In constant flux, ever unfolding, never fixed, never settled

 

[Jimmy]

I believe it is a little more sophisticated than that. Our solar system revolves around the center of our galaxy. Most likely our galaxy revolves around the center of the known universe.

Our galaxy among many others in our universe is being drawn into what scientists call the Great Attractor which they suspect is just a grouping of many galaxies.