Physics and more?

Here is an interesting idea. We can only ask those questions (and find answers) which we know. Where does that leave us? With a large number of questions we do not know, a lot of questions we cannot ask and ultimately a lot of answers we will not hear. This is the limitation of physics, it can take us to the moon but not to the heavens.

Ya know, I have read this post several times....

I keep flashing to \"The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy\"...

What is the \"Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life the Universe and Everything\"

42

What we now need to know is, what is \"The Ultimate Question\"?

I'm sorry.... But I just cannot stop thinking about it... I finally decided to write this...

I am not being flip, I see this quote for what it is, (a few line from a great fictional book), but....

Does art imitate life? Or life, imitate art...

We (humans) ask questions, and then seek the answers... what do we not yet know to ask?

jestor

:laugh: I forgot about that and love that story. Your right that does hit off on what I was getting at.

Physics is what it is basically because of the questions that were asked and are being asked. Anything else other than that is invisible. Gnostics on the other hand provide answers without questions, which like Arthur Dent & co. had no meaning. Philosophy (the amalgamation of all natural and metaphysical sciences) in the old greek sense of the term, came closer to appreciating that answer by putting it in a human setting. Yet no matter which way you look at it we are all in the same boat facing the same problems. Ok! So what is that ultimate question? Instead of it being that end question which tears us out of reality, out of our human context, making us forget what we want to know; maybe just maybe it is that small step for mankind, that next question, which leads to an answer which will lead us to another question. Sound familiar? Well, some of you will recognise it as that \"thesis + antithesis = synthesis\" theory. If you skip over or miss one step you will forget what you were actually asking.

\"Does art imitate life? Or life, imitate art?\"
May be it does, or maybe not? But whatever the answer, the question is what do we need to know after that? Which brings me to another thought. If we have a heart felt question, is there always an answer?

As Socrates said: \"all I know is that I know nothing.\"

The universe itself is forever expanding and growing and there are always new questions to be asked and new things to be discovered. As microcosmic manifestations of the Force, is this not the same of us too? The glittering magnificence of the totality of everything is reflected in each and every part and we are no exception. So a constant desire to question seems to go hand in hand with a constant sense of wonder. At least, that's how I see it!

MTFBWY

to me the quest for knowledge can be summed up in a single one word question.

why?

that simple question is so innocently child like that it easily gets overlooked(or for those that have children, becomes quickly annoying).

why is the sky blue, why is there water drops in the sky, why do they stay up there...anyone with kids knows how these go.

watch a child as they view things in the world. they are always asking that one simple question that always leads to answers that further fuel their curiosity resulting in them asking that same question again but about a different object. as we grow older into adulthood we often neglect that simple question and thus lose interest in learning how things work and why. watching a child stumbling along the path of discovery never ceases to amaze me. i keep that childlike mentality with everything i learn, always asking why and then seeking the answers and then asking why again.

if everyone held on to that, then who knows how much knowledge we could gain.

RyuJin wrote:

to me the quest for knowledge can be summed up in a single one word question.

why?

that simple question is so innocently child like that it easily gets overlooked(or for those that have children, becomes quickly annoying).

why is the sky blue, why is there water drops in the sky, why do they stay up there...anyone with kids knows how these go.

Jasper_Ward wrote:

As to the big bang... if everything was a ball of energy or whatever form of matter that scientists explain... where did that come from, what did it form from? I don't deny the big bang, as scientifically it makes sense, but my big question comes to what came before that?

Great examples of questions rooted in a human setting, take us beyond our experiences, demanding answers. But where if any at all do the answers come from?

answers come from many sources, of course they (for lack of a better term) can also simply be pulled from thin air or fabricated as a way of satisfying our need for answers, and order...this is where many myths and legends come from, mankinds quest to explain the unexplained, place order upon chaos, appease our own curiosity. many of our current answers are based upon experience using the scientific method, which despite being effective at explaining most things, cannot explain all things simply because it's dependent upon our own comprehension of the forces involved.

Reading the posts in this....

I was thinking....

Man has strived to explain everything he can, by the \"scientific\" method of labeling and catagorizing everything it can. Then, labels and catagorizes the labels and catagories.

But, when it runs out of positive answers, it makes them up... wait, I meant theorizes them.... lol...

It seems to me, Jon, (excuse my familiar use of your name, Master Jon? I always am wrong so I never know what to say....), that this is just and example of the thesis, antithesis, and synthesis...

Thesis = we guess about it, (answers, or questions, whichever)
Antithesis = we prove and disprove the points of it (answers or questions)
Synthesis = well, let's combine the truths for now, and call it good....