Success thrives on questions. The arts, the sciences, the humanities are full of questions. The tools we use to get things done, the gadgets that keep us in touch, even the food we eat are all born on the heels of questions.
So, when it comes to understanding life and dealing with its problems, why would it be any different? We need to ask more and better questions.
Strangely, most of us rarely ask the most obvious questions at the foundation of our own lives. What’s behind existence itself? How did it get here in the first place? How do my conscious experiences arise from unconscious bodily materials like meat, chemicals, and nerve bundles? Why do bad things happen to so many people? What can we do about it? Could there be more to life than meets the eye?
How will we find the answers unless we ask the questions?
Many people don’t seem to care about the very questions that make life what it is. But this apathy about reality, about what lies behind life itself can’t be a healthy sign. It seems like life’s real questions are to many of us like spinach is to a kid’s taste buds.
At the same time the awkward facts of our world don’t go away. The problems and suffering of billions of innocent people continue. Many of us yearn for a robust and lasting fulfillment that always seems to beckon just out of reach. To ignore these facts is naive and even elitist.
Could the underlying problem be that we get so busy living we don’t stop to find out what lies behind life in the first place?