Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Ramblings of a philosophical nature

Today was not overly exciting. You know, just a regular old day, get up, go to work, come home, go out to a movie, come home, write blog post. Yet two things occurred that made me ponder some of the mysteries of the universe.

The first was an incident that happened to my friend Lynette, whom I work with. We work in a rather old building (Over fifty years old!) and there are many people at work who firmly believe the building is haunted. I have heard stories of strange noises and the feeling of a 'presence' but that's as far as it goes. No one has actually said that something happened to them.

Until today.

Lynette went to the bathroom down in clinical to wash her hands after have some delightfully sticky cake I'd bought her. She turned on the hot tap, started to wash her hands and then saw the tap ever so slowly start to turn itself off.

Second - we went to see Prometheus tonight. Probably don't have to say much more, I'm sure everyone is pretty up to speed on what the movie is about. Except for Acci obviously who will make some quip about not having seen a movie since Casablanca was showing at the Talkies and he much prefers to spend his time watching bunnies make nuclear missiles and so he has no idea what it is about. Simply put it's about exploring where we came from, who created us and why the fuck they want to kill us by infecting us with face-hugger infested goo.

Oops. Spoiler alert!

Anyways, so we're driving home and I told Christian about Lynette's encounter.
He scoffed. To be expected I suppose.
I asked him what could be a scientific explanation for what happened. He said he wasn't sure but he's sure it aint no ghost. I then asked him what he thought happened to the energy within a human when we die. He replied that the only energy we have comes from the food we consume and the oxygen we breathe and that any residual energy would just dissipate into the surroundings.

I asked if he believes that humans have a soul. He does not. He firmly believes that this is all we have. He asked if I believe in souls. I said that I'm not sure but I hope we do have one as I'm scared shitless that this may be all there is. I just can't believe that all my memories, my thoughts, my sheer existence will cease to exist because my body gives up.

He then asked me if I believe in ghosts. I told him that I don't believe in them but I also don't not believe in them. There is so much of this world that we don't understand and so I'm not going to discount something because I have no proof. It's like my feelings about God or a divine being. I don't have any proof that they exist but I also won't deny they do exist simply because I have no evidence. I shall keep an open mind.
I also pointed out that science has come so far in recent times that we know so much more than we did fifty years ago. Imagine what we will know in another fifty! I said by then we may have proved that alternate realities exist and ghosts are simply a weak spot where these realities merge for short periods of time.

He grunted at me, completely shocked by this theory. I think he likes it.

Come on science, prove me right!