Asking the Big Questions

This blog is dedicated to asking the big questions. While it seems doubtful that there will ever be anything like universal consensis concerning "the answers" to life's most passionate and persistent questions, it seems easier to at least agree upon some of life's most interesting and vital questions.

Here's my short list of such questions:

What is the fundamental nature of reality and of the world in which we live? What is the relationship between "essence" and "existence", "mind" and "body", "spirit" and "matter", "being" and "nothingness", "eternity" and "time", "consciousness" and "energy", and so forth.

How can adherents of the different worldviews dialogue with each other in a thoughtful and constructive way? What kind of conversation can agnostics, naturalists, animists, esoterics, deists, theists, panentheists and idealists have with each other? Why do we need to be in dialogue today?

Is there a God (or gods)? What are humanity's various concepts of God (or gods)? How do humanity's various "god concepts" and visions of "infinite reality" express contradiction and paradox?

What does it mean to be a whole and authentic human being?

What is our human nature? How are egoism and altruism, competition and cooperation, aggression and compassion related? Is man basically "a naked ape," "an economic animal," "a sleeping divinity," "a centaur -- half animal, half human," "a fallen creature made in the divine image," or something else?

What is our human origin, purpose and destiny?

What are the implications of "evolutionary theory" for science, religion, psychology, culture, politics and society? How are facts and values related? How are knowledge and meaning related?

What is the relationship between the physical, emotional, social, aesthetic, rational, volitional, ethical and spiritual dimensions of our lives?

To what extent are human beings capable of constructing a truly encompassing and integral vision of Total Reality, and to what extent are our various attempts at an encompassing and integral vision of total reality always partial, limited, historically situated and culturally conditioned?

How are "the reasons of the mind" and "the reasons of the heart" related to each other as we seek to cultivate meaningful and fulfilling lives?

How ought we to live together and learn from each other in today's pluralist society and global age?

Well, this is a brief starter list. Rilke counsels us to "live the questions" and even to "love the questions," to be patient with everything that we cannot answer now, allowing time and experience to let whatever answers there may be to unfold naturally in their due course. And who knows, perhaps it is more important to live the questions with deep reverence, wonder, awe and fascination than to arrive at any definitive answers.

It seems to me that silence, solitude, music, song, myth, poetry, symbols, rituals, stories, art, drama and dance all play a vital part in learning to "Love the Questions" and "Embrace the Mystery." Perhaps if we are patient with life and remain to the sacred depths of Nature we may even be given "moments of epiphany" and "glimpses of grace" along the way. What do you think?