Answer

Introduction

This is another taken from my blog Seven Days In, which has just received its millionth visit. It is very amateur but it is a great way of sort of keeping a diary that will last as long as the internet does. This is the post to celebrate the millionth visit.

The post was written when reading a Richard Dawkins book which got me pondering on the answer to the ultimate question. Then I thought of a few other fiction books that posed similar questions.

And of course

The Original Post

I am enjoying, if that's the right word, "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins but seems to be more against organised controlling religion and by extension the monotheist "god" which is the focus of most religions. I'm a tenth of the way through the book and think that at some point he will take aim and my own belief that evolution won't waste our consciousness but I have no evidence or reason to believe that, but you can never satisfactorily prove the non-existence of something, and also the fact that we cannot explain something means we have not found the answer. I couldn't really explain how a plane flies but it's not supernatural, magic or the will of god.

Also. I wonder if Richard Dawkins would have a problem with people who worshipped the Earth and believed when they die to become one with the Earth. He couldn't really argue with the basic premise.

Often religion is a search for "the answer" and two books spring to mind that provide the solution.

The first being Douglas Adams' "Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy" which gives that answer as 42 but he tells us you need to know what the question was.

The next is "Venus on the Half Shell" written by Philip Jose Farmer under the pseudonym Kilgore Trout, a creation of the amazing Kurt Vonnegut. Basically, the protagonist is searching for God to ask, in his opinion, the ultimate question:

Why are we born to suffer and die?

Through many adventures, he eventually comes face to face with God and asks his question and God answers:

Why Not?

A great ending to the book.

And just a thought, why doesn't the Christian God have a proper name? It's like calling your dog Dog (ironically a palindrome of God) and what the heck is the Holy Ghost?

So what to go with this morning, maybe "Converted" by The Alabama 3 from "Exile on Coldharbour Lane" which my friend Tom glared at me as they broke into the chorus "Let's Go Back To Church* but by the end of the gig even he was converted.

Concluding Observations

I think we are always looking for answers but Kilgore Trout and Douglas Adam s were brilliant with their ultimate questions and answers. Often people don't like the answers they are given and their ultimate question is often rhetorical.

In my job, I am often asked for things that may seem impossible, or at the least very difficult. One of the best managers that I ever had, her name was Ola in case anyone who knows where I work is reading this, almost always asked me to do things that seemed impossible. Sometimes they actually were, but most of the time she made me think and I actually gave her what she wanted, much to my own surprise.

In reality, there is no answer to the ultimate question because there is no real ultimate question. I am sure my friend Randy will have a great observation on this, but for me "42" and "Why Not?" will do,

Maybe every child's favourite question is the ultimate one.

Why?