What is the Meaning of Life?

Some time ago I watched a TV interview of a Hollywood notable. One of the questions posed was “What was the most important thing you learned from your father?” I do not recall the response or who the notable was. I do recall my own response to the question:

“It is 5:00am and time to milk the cows.”

This brings to mind the following exchange between an acolyte and a guru:

Acolyte: “Oh wise master, what is the meaning of life?”

Guru: “My son, have you had your breakfast?”

Acolyte: “Why yes, great master, I have.”

Guru: “Then do your dishes.”

Memories of my Great Uncle Louis-In-Law

On a lighter note, here is a short memory from my childhood:

Louis Lausten was married to my grandmother’s sister, Mary. (Grandmother Eunice Caltoft Nielsen) Thus “Great Uncle Louis-In-Law”.

Louis was a slight man, about five feet tall. When I knew him he had white hair, brilliant blue eyes, and a grey Vandyke beard.

Louis arrived in San Francisco from Denmark in the 1880’s. For a time after his arrival he slept in the hayloft in the barn of a wealthy family.

For some years Louis owned and operated a sporting goods/cigar store in San Francisco. Among Louis’ loves in life were horse racing and fly-fishing.

When I was a child living on the chicken ranch in Petaluma in the 1940’s, Louis would visit for a month or two every summer. During the day he would busy himself with a hoe and rake, attacking weeds around the house. Unfortunately he could not distinguish between weeds and flowers. Every afternoon Louis would take a nap in the sun on a chair leaning against the south side of the house. During one of these naps, my cousin, Stanley Willis Mikkelsen, painted Louis’ beard with green paint.

Evenings during Louis’ visits were frequently spent playing pinochle.

One of Louis’ favorite expressions was “The whole world has gone crazy!”

God's Ant Farm

My second posting is perhaps more controversial than the first. It's something that I created a couple of months ago.

For those interested, I was baptized and confirmed in the Anglican Communion. As a boy in high school I joined my father, mother, and brother to form the backbone of the choir at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Petaluma, California. My father was the choir and music director for the church.

I have just finished reading Christopher Hitchens’ “god is not Great” and Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion”. They both make valid points, especially concerning the horrors inflicted upon man and beast by adherents to many of the organized religions. However, their arguments (“proofs”, if you like) for the non-existence of God, like those of many arguments for the existence of God that they are trying to refute, suffer from the same, perhaps fatal, flaw. They are based upon faith.

Just one example: The validity of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution in no way proves anything about the validity of Creation. It does, of course, strongly support the argument that the story of Creation as described in the Judeo-Christian bible is allegorical. (Personally I believe that almost all if not all of the stories in the bible, Old and New Testament alike, are allegorical.)

Let me pose a version of Creation and ask whether anyone can disprove it with verifiable and provable observation and fact:

A god (let’s call him/her/it George) became bored. (We cannot say “One day…” or “Once upon a time…“ because day or night or time had not yet been invented.) So George decided to create an ant farm for his amusement. George created the universe in which we now live, with chance playing a large part in its evolution. He (please pardon the use of the masculine. The English language does not have a pronoun to replace he/she/it.) sat back to watch what happened with his Creation. Like a boy watching his ant farm, George, on occasion, pokes sticks into his ant farm (Moses, Abraham, Jesus, Mohamed, Hitler, …) to watch his ants scurry around in response to the stimuli.

I assert that the truth of George and his Creation can no more be proved or disproved than can any of the formal religions or atheism without resort to faith.

ps: I have an answer to the age-old question: “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?” Clearly the answer is “As many as your faith will allow you to imagine.”