No Answers

"I should like to insist that nearly all the important questions, the things we ponder in our profoundest moments, have no answers."

-- Jacquetta Hawkes

What is the meaning of life? No answer.
Is there life after death? No answer.
Is there a God? No answer.
Will the Cubs ever win the World Series? No answer, but probably not.

You get the picture. There are no real, true, definitive answers to all of life's really big questions. Oh, sure, there's a whole hell of a lot of speculation, a buttload of belief, and an enormous amount of arguing, fighting, and even killing, but no real, provable answers.

Attempting to provide answers to unanswerable questions is beyond misleading; it's just plain evil. It's also the domain of both religion and philosophy. Many people justify religion by saying that the answers given by the great faiths "console" people. Well, if you can be consoled by stupidity, illogic, and myth, you really don't want to know the true answers, anyway. Academic philosophy, on the other hand, is little more than an intellectual circle jerk that speaks not at all to the general populace, and doesn't even approach the real life questions that intrigue most reasonably intelligent people.

So, what's the logical thing to do when faced with an unanswerable question? Quit trying to answer it! Quit banging your head against the cosmic brick wall, and learn to live comfortably in a space of not knowing. Or as folk singer Iris Dement says in her song of the same name, "let the mystery be."

But is this what religions do? Hell no! They preach, screech, evangelize, and start wars. They attempt to convert the unfaithful to their own favorite brand of half-ass answers. They don't let the mystery be, they package it, sell it, and in so doing destroy it. (Philosophers, generally being a less gregarious lot, merely analyze the mystery to death.)

What's a semi-clear thinking, non-believer to do? Avoid those pre-packaged, freeze dried answers like the plague! Don't get caught up in arguing about the answers to unanswerable questions. Let your life be your answer. Live intuitively from your deepest core, not from shallow beliefs, or sterile intellectual concepts. Mystery is marvelous and oh-so juicy. Enjoy it!