July 2010
2 posts
We exist because we exist
Oscar Shell: Is the world a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise?
Dad: Excuse me?
Oscar Shell: It's just that why does the earth stay in place instead of falling trough the universe?
Dad: Is this Oscar i'm tucking in? Has an alien stolen his brain for experimentation?
Oscar Shell: We don't believe in aliens.
Dad: The earth does fall down trough the universe. You know that, buddy.It's constantly falling toward the sun. That's what it means to orbit.
Oscar Shell: Obviously, but why is there gravity? What's the reason?
Dad: Who said there had to be a reason?
Oscar Shell: No one did, exactly.
Dad: My question was rhetorical.
Oscar Shell: What's that mean?
Dad: It means i wasn't asking it for an answer, but to make a point.
Oscar Shell: What point?
Dad: That there doesn't have to be a reason.
Oscar Shell: But if there isn't a reason, then why does the universe exist at all?
Dad: Because of sympathetic conditions.
Oscar Shell: So then why am i your son?
Dad: Because mum and i made love and one of my sperm fertilized one of her eggs.
Oscar Shell: Excuse me while i regurgitate.
Dad: Don't act your age.
Oscar Shell: Well, what i don't get is why do we exist? I don't mean how, but why.
Dad: We exist because we exist.
Oscar Shell: What the?
Dad: We could imagine all sorts of universes unlike this one, but this is the one that happened.