The Big Questions
Where did we come from?
Why are we here?
Where do we go when we die?
What lies beyond
And what lay before?
Is anything certain in life?
They say “Life is too short”
“The here and the now”
And “You’re only given one shot”
But could there be more
Have I lived before
Or could this be all that we’ve got?
If I die tomorrow
I’d be alright
Because I believe
That after we’re gone
The spirit carries on
— John Petrucci, “The Spirit Carries On,” from Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory, by Dream Theater. Bold emphasis added.
Well Put, Mr. Petrucci
Great poetry for a fictional story about reincarnation. But....
- We know where we came from. (Anthropology and Natural Sciences.))
- We know where we go when we die—it is normal and not a mystery. (Where does the information on your disk drive go when you throw it into a volcano? God's magical backup drive? And how does that information make it off the device and into magical backup?)
- What lies beyond? (Future generations, hopefully as much better off in a hundred years than we have been in the last hundred years. See Faith in the Earth*.))
- And what lay before? (Our ancestors going back to the origin of life. See Why Evolution Is True*.))
- Nothing is certain in life. (Being OK with Randomness.))
- Life is too short—the here and the now: you are only given one shot. (Make the most of it but don't beat yourself up if you are dealt a poor hand. See Stoicism and Mindfulness Meditation.))
- There could not be more; no one has lived before. This is all that we've got. (Is There Life After Death?)
The only question we cannot have an answer to is: Why are we here? See Optimistic Nihilism.