>> ^maeric2000:

If the universe is an accident then why should I, an accidental creation of chaos, seek purpose? How is my purpose anything more than an accidental coming together of molecules into a pattern that seems to indicate design but is argued to be mere science?


2 parts to my answer to your question.

First part - who told you that you should seek a purpose? If you feel you should have one or that you need one, you must ask that question of yourself; don't burden others with the responsibility to give you what you decide you need. Some people drive themselves to utter depression, despairing of the fact that there IS no purpose and no meaning, and let's hope there is a god to help you if you reach that conclusion because it's a terrible bottomless pit. Like douglas adams more or less said - the very last thing a human needs is a true universal sense of perspective.

Second part - i think you've answered your own question as to what a human's purpose is - and that is to question "why?" But never be satisfied by any answer, only keep on asking.

Excellent poetry. Made me think of one of my favorite quotations:

"Beethoven tells you what it's like to be Beethoven and Mozart tells you what it's like to be human. Bach tells you what it's like to be the universe." — Douglas Adams

Tags for this video have been changed from 'glimpse, you, are, here, infinately, small, Addams, Jones, hitchikers' to 'glimpse, you, are, here, infinitely, small, Douglas Adams, Jones, hitchhikers' - edited by demon_ix

Douglas Adams reference. I'm sold.

Too bad Douglas Adams can't participate in this show, since he and Mark Carwardine wrote the book "Last Chance to See". But Stephen Fry is a very good stand-in.

I'm currently reading "Freedom Evolves" by Daniel C. Dennett, which is quite interesting but a bit of a challenging read.

The book that I'll never forget, that changed my view of nature and science forever would have to be The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins. I recommend it to absolutely everyone. Up until I read that book, I thought I had this evolution business pretty much right, but TSG explained it for real, and the stunning simplicity and elegance of the concept struck me for the first time in full force.

Prior to reading it, I read a quote by the late, great Douglas Adams saying something very similar to what I just said, and I thought "Huh? didn't Douglas Adams know ANYTHING about evolution before reading Dawkins?" and I thought that reading that book would not reveal anything new to me, but boy was I wrong. Turns out nearly everything I thought I knew about evolution was either wrong, inaccurate or inadequate.

1. Papillon - Henri Charrière
2. Henderson, the rain king - Saul Bellow
3. Less than zero - Bret Easton Ellis
4. Altered carbon - Richard K. Morgan
5. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
6. The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett
7. Fabric of Reality - David Deutsch
8. The Teachings of Don Juan - Carlos Castaneda
9. Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke
10. The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut jr.

>> ^smooman:
>> ^Simple_Man:
See, this is the stuff that make me disbelief any god people have dreamed up on our little blue dot. Their god is so small, so confined to our tiny planet that it in turn is insignificant compared to displays like this. Compared to the majesty of entire stars and galaxies erupting into life, swirling in the cosmic void, and being devoured by forces we don't even fully understand, the universe is grander, more complex, and more beautiful than any religion in humanity's short history.

I suppose that would depend on how "big" you imagine God to be. Your disposition tells me you think very lowly of any god. It's a matter of perspective. You see something much too grand and marvelous for any god to have a hand in. I see something much too grand and marvelous for God NOT to have a hand in.


Douglas Adams: "Isn't it enought to see that the garden is beautiful without having to believe there are faires at the bottom of it too?"

I'm an atheist. I'm not angry.

Pointing fingers is silly, we live in the house/city/country/world our species has built. There's a lot of good stuff, a lot of bad stuff (subjective labels).

Am I alone in believing there is no such thing as utopia? Never was, never will be.

"People are a problem" - Douglas Adams.

Yeah, the Dragonlance series is amazing. I have no patience for Lord of Rings, at least in book form, though.

In reply to this comment by Zifnab:
Well I'll give it a go. In no particular order:

1. Dragonlance Chronicles - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. This is the series that really got me hooked on reading way back in high school and I still really enjoy it today.

2. Wheel of Time - RIP Robert Jordan. Brandon Sanderson is going to complete the final book (A Memory of Light) for RJ as the novel was incomplete at the time of his death.

3. Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein. Along with most of Heinlein's other work.

4. Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling.

5. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien.

Plus many more, as you can see I'm an avid reader of fantasy. I also really enjoy A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin, The Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny, and some other's that I can't think of at the moment...

Well I'll give it a go. In no particular order:

1. Dragonlance Chronicles - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. This is the series that really got me hooked on reading way back in high school and I still really enjoy it today.

2. Wheel of Time - RIP Robert Jordan. Brandon Sanderson is going to complete the final book (A Memory of Light) for RJ as the novel was incomplete at the time of his death.

3. Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein. Along with most of Heinlein's other work.

4. Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling.

5. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien.

Plus many more, as you can see I'm an avid reader of fantasy. I also really enjoy A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin, The Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny, and some other's that I can't think of at the moment...

1. Dune - Frank Herbert
The best exploration of power and control I have read.

2. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
A manual for revolutionary action.

3. Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein
Exploration of militaristic society and fascism.

4. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Don't panic.

5. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint Exupéry
I found this magical when young.

Special mention: Guards Guards Guards by Terry Prachett, Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke, 2001 by Arthur C. Clarke and probably more I cannot recall now.

This list is flexible and totally depended on my largely failing memory of what I read, there was a thread like this before and my answers could be different. My most recent read list has been composed mainly of non fiction dealing with war on terror and the US campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

1. Dune - Frank Herbert
Dune remains amoung my favourite book I've read and the only one I've read multiple times. While I was disappointed by the rest of the series, the first book is a tremendous read and very enjoyable.

2. Deadhouse Gates - Steven Erikson (Book 2 of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series)
The Malazan Empire series by Steven Erikson is one of the hardest to read fantasy books I've ever encountered. The author has a complex web of relations and events going on while writing with a fairly high level of english. The second book stands out for its section call "The Chain of Dogs" which details a group of refugees fleeing to safety under the guidance of a powerful leader.

3. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
A great blend of comedy and science fiction. I still remember the first time I read the passage about the two missles screaming toward the Heart of Gold. I burst out laughing as the petunias came into being.

4. The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett
The fantasy version of Douglas Adams. Equally enjoyable and both love to use footnotes* for off the wall observations.

5. Sword of Shannara - Terry Brooks
While probably not the best written book and it is clearly Tolkien inspired, it is in my top 5 simply because it was the first real book I ever read. Previously I only read a few kids books, this one was a beefy amount of pages that took my 12 year old mind nearly a year to get through.

*Attaching notes to one foot does seem an odd, and potentially painful way (if you use a tac) to do things.

I can never, ever remember the best ones when quizzed like this. Same goes for best movies etc.

Ones I have liked of late are (in no order):
The Dark Tower series: Stephen King
The Book Thief: Marcus Zusak
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: Dave Eggers (Currently reading another of his books actually)
The Mars Trilogy: Kim Stanley Robinson
LOTR: Tolkien
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: Douglas Adams
Many Discworld novels: Terry Pratchett
Dune: Frank Herbert
The Dressmaker: Rosalie Ham (An Australian gothic novel, just brilliant, I'd love to see this made into a film)
2010: Arthur C Clarke (Yeah, I like it better than 2001, sue me)


But inevitably someone will mention some book and I'll go 'AAAH, yeah, LOVED that one'!... so yeah, there are many others that I'm sure should be here, and probably in place of others here... (I just scrolled up and added some that others had put, because I'd forgotten them)...

Catch 22 : I just wanted to say that for all the praise that this book gets, I couldn't get through it. He made his points, set up his things, and then seemed to repeat the same damn jokes/observations over and over and over again to the point where I just stopped reading it... sorry, but it bored me. Good start, lost me soon after.

1. Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke

2. Hamlet - Bill Shakespeare

3. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

4. The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins

5. Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig

honorable mention to The Left Hand of the Electron by Isaac Asimov, and The Dictionary