"... one day while I was sippin' some groove juice, I realized
that in the span of time we're just babies, man"

-- Digable Planets, "Examination of What"

Matthew,

You bring up an interesting point. The universe is almost assuredly much more than we perceive it to be; if only because we are likely not able to perceive all of its' facets. For instance, we live in three-space, so our depth of perception is usually limited by those dimensions. While I feel fortunate to be human insofar as I can contemplate, deduct and reason my way through much of life, I highly doubt that we're able to contemplate all that is contemplatable, deduct all that is deductable, and reason all that is reasonable. In other words, we've been able to figure out a lot about how things work in the (hopefully tiny) slither in the spectrum of experience / knowledge that we live in, but I believe we should be especially wary of applying that knowledge to the entire spectrum.

This is one of my biggest issues with religion, actually -- the premise that we can take what amounts to a static snapshot of the human experience, and then color the entire spectrum of experience with those hues. I don't believe we were "meant" to be here, that we're the goal of some grand process or scheme, that we're bound for oneness with the universe due to our sentience, etc. I tend to view "meaning" as a human invention, born to assuage some of the baggage that we were saddled with when we first became self-aware. In this sense, I agree with your statement -- the universe is _far_ greater than our perceptions of it (and likely very different if viewed from a perspective that we're not privvy to), so we should at least endeavor to remember that our perceptions of the universe are very much limited by our limited ability to perceive it.

At least, I _think_ that's what you're trying to say (hopefully i've not injected too much of my words so as to dilute yours).

Regards,

John

Falling You - exploring the beauty of voice and sound
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