prof wrote:Hi, SpheresOfBalance
I'm sure it is not just a matter of terminology, as to what is "The Central Question" that you are concerned about. Demerest & Schoof chose that as the title of their book, and I have no control over that. You are raising what you consider to be a more fundamental question.
Just as you were writing down your contribution to this Forum, I was writing this:
You could not possibly know this, but if so, what's the point in mentioning?
People sometimes ask themselves, "Why am I here?"
Wise oracles, such as the authors of that book, may respond:
You are here to
create as much value as you can create. That is why the Universe needs you. That is why intelligent life is found in the Universe.
Ethics - as I understand it - is all about adding value.
(
Everything a business does ought to be adding value - for
business ought to be ethical. This is why they have Business Ethics courses in most schools of business, and in university Colleges of Business.)
And individuals ought to be busy adding value in their personal lives.
It all fits together ...as logical as the solution of a Sudoku puzzle.
I see that your position as you question, is still from the I or me. I do not do this. I try and always ask, when the subject concerns everyone, from the we and us.
so...
It's not why am "I" here, it's why are "we" here? It's not what "I" can do, but what "we" can do.
So let me demonstrate one that may exist and ask the question, as they then answer themselves:
Why am "I" here? TO KILL (Son of Sam, soldier, police officer, etc)!!
Why am "I" here? TO CONTROL ALL THE WORLDS FOOD SUPPLY THROUGH SEEDS THAT YIELD NO SEED SO YOU HAVE TO BUY THROUGH ME (Monsanto).
I'm saying that always putting oneself as the central concern, when asking big questions, that encompass us all, allows one to serve oneself, more readily. Hear it now the other way.
Why are "we" here? TO Kill (seems logically unsound, as it's readily apparent, that the one asking the question, is seen as a victim, instantly.
Why are "we" here? TO CONTROL... (again it seems logically unsound, as the one positing, immediately see his control by another.
Now you may think that I'm splitting hairs, but I say to you that the reason people start with the self, is because they only see/care about the self, while all along it has been an untrue perspective, that they lie to themselves about so that they can be better/above/have more than all the rest, while in fact, we all are, the we, the us, we are one organism, once viewed from the proper perspective. That perspective is out in space, unfortunately only few know of that which I speak; astronauts. Once there, it's very apparent that it is not the I or me that is important, but rather the we and us as we are in fact, only one organism. And the quicker we acknowledge this, the quicker we achieve that which you "CLAIM" to be the crux of your matter. Thus addressing the question of the whole of it, causes all to be included, if all is included then answers are for all. We have to stop asking what I can do, as this leads to all kinds of conflicting answers, and is why we are in the current shape that we're in, it's what we're always done, and wanting to continue is so much going nowhere. "All" of "us," have to come to terms with the "we" of it "all," or our conflicts, born of the "I," shall surely do "us" in. The universal question of the truth of our existence is all encompassing, and places the one organism, on the third metamorphic, from the star, we call sun.
"I" don't know, maybe "I'm" just ahead of "my" time? Maybe "people" shall eventually come to understand how important it is to automatically see things from the "we" perspective. Hopefully before the conflict of all the "I's," seal the "organism's" doom.
