A RELIGIOUS VIEW OF WHY WE ARE HERE

On 23 September 2020 I presented the scientific view of why we are here.  Today, from the religious perspective.  One of Paul Gauguin's most famous paintings is, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are we Going?

At the heart of the issue is the age-old question, what is the meaning of life?  Read this Wikipedia summary, where, after traipsing through all of history with the most eminent philosophers of their day, a passage appears:

In Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, there are several allusions to the meaning of life. At the end of the film, a character played by Michael Palin is handed an envelope containing "the meaning of life", which she opens and reads out to the audience: "Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try to be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try to live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations."^{[213][214][215]}

Good an explanation as any.  The film, incidentally, was rated 86%/83% by Rotten Tomatoes.  

For Christians, here are 78 Bible verses about why you are here.  Other religions fall in among many of them.  My scientific treatment just went into evolution, or how we came to be, not answering the question itself.  You can read between the lines and extract an essence that does not pretend to know the answer, suggesting that we are here because of a random order process.  Using a similar train of thought, from The Bible, it all began with God and Genesis.

But why did he create us?  From Christianity:

Some things cannot be fully comprehended. Infinite things, eternal things, matters of God's sovereignty—these transcend our finite and temporal minds.

The oldest religion, Hindu, suggests something similar:

You cannot constrain limitless into your limited perception i.e., intellect. So if you ask a meaning to this existence, there’s no meaning to this existence. It just happens. That is what this culture and its scriptures continuously say.

Hindu has consistently been in tune with science, and as to why we are here, both answers are remarkably the same.

President Donald Trump indeed contracted COVID-19, has various pre-conditions, is elderly, and has a 10-20% chance of dying.  The White House so obfuscates any information detrimental to their cause that you really don't know how truly sick he is today.  Chances are high, though, that he will survive and generally return to his normal self in a couple of weeks, if not Tuesday.  

If he does not, I provided the succession line yesterday:  Pence, Pelosi and Grassley, in that order.  This legislation was only enacted in 1947 after the death of FDR.  

Mike Pence is only 61, but Pelosi is 80 and Grassley is 87.  Wow he is really old.  I actually knew him when I worked in the U.S. Senate, but that was 40 years ago.  This was because he had a Republican hydrogen bill to match Senator Spark Matsunaga's, and I coordinated with Grassley's staff to form a bi-partisan partnership.  I'm today still trying to figure out how he was so visionary, for he has not shown this tendency since then.

Incidentally, if Trump, for whatever reason, cannot run on November 3, it gets really complicated for Republicans.  It is not automatically Pence as their candidate.  The Republican National Committee would need to come up with a Prexy/Veep slate by involving all 168 national members, three from each state and territory.  But their chairlady, Ronna McDaniel also has this coronavirus...and might have been the one to give it to Hope Hicks and the President.  Ronna is Mitt Romney's niece.

Further, most states have already sent out their ballots, and would each need to figure out a recovery strategy.  This could get into the courts.  In the meantime, the U.S. Senate is in disarray, for at this very moment, three Republican senators have this disease.  Non-mask wearing?  Heck of a Trump strategy to delay the vote into next year when the vaccine becomes a reality.

So back to my reality, I'm at #87, and both songs are linked to personal relationships when I was a student at Stanford:

• A Certain Smile:  Johnny Mathis
• It's All in the Game:  Tommy Edwards

I frankly haven't learned that much more 60 years later, but in those days I was particularly naive and innocent with no experience at all.  I failed twice, and blame myself.

It's All in the Game not only was popular then, but I had bet with a room mate that this song was played on the radio more than his favorite, whatever that was.  Every so often when I saw him entering the dormitory, I put on this song, and invariably, he found a way to delay his entrance.  More so, I remember this song as a negative experience, which is almost as memorable as a positive one.

A Certain Smile was the title of a movie where the lead actress looked just like the person I knew.  I haven't seen this film since college, but will need to look for it in Netflix or Amazon Prime.  Again, not a favorable relationship, but still meaningful.  I more deeply react to A Certain Smile, so that is #87.

I should add that Hurricane Marie at 80 MPH will strengthen into a Category 3.  However, while at one time the track was towards Hawaii, she has sufficiently shifted more northerly and will get nowhere close to my state.

The most active Atlantic hurricane year ever, as Tropical Storm Gamma will brush the Yucatan, and possibly strengthen into a hurricane before making landfall over Mexico:

Note, though, that there are three more disturbances (those Xs) that could become Delta, Epsilon and Zeta.  

Is that the end?  Nope, to follow would be Eta, Theta and Iota, then Kappa Lambda and Mu.

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