Humans are capable of thought, reason and rational decision making. We have been around for good 400 thousand years. For the good part of those years, we were hunters and gatherers. Our main concern was where the next food is going to come from and how to survive in the wild. After a series or migrations from one place to another, we invented agriculture and domesticated cattle. We started making our own food. This lead into settlements and slowly civilisations grew. When we were not worried about food and security, we started worrying about something else.
"Philosophy was born out of boredom"
Philosophy was born out of boredom. The instance, humans started to have more time at their disposal, whether it was rearing cattle or looking over the produce or just chilling in the newly built settlements, though grew. Questions arose about meaning of life and the inquisition into where we have come from and where are we going. This was the advent of philosophy. The oldest instance of philosophy comes from Romans when they started to have lot of free time after their conquest of Africa. The new territory brought them lots of slaves and freed them of mundane and laborious tasks. They built a square in middle of Rome where anyone could go up and start talking on whatever topic that came to their mind. After a while we started on another quest. After grappling with the questions for a while, we started to look for answers. After all as human beings, we cannot leave a problem unsolved and a question unanswered. it is just not our nature.
"x" is the answer
When we have a defined problem and want to find an answer, we name the solution as "x"; or unknown. Then we proceed to find the value of "x". We hate the idea that there are unsolved problems. So we assign an answer to it at the beginning and later prove it to be right or get the right answer. The solution is said to be achieved when we find the value of "x" or submit enough evidence for the value of "x".
Science and Religion
At this time, Philosophy branched into two more disciplines namely Science and Religion. Both have tried to solve for "x" and have put in answers that explain things around us. Initially Religion took the lead since it requires little effort to explain things when faith is involved. Science delves on reason, logic and evidence. It requires time and effort. Majority of us do not want to put that effort and want ready answers that can make our life easy and thought effortless. Answer from Religion was straightforward, replace "x" with a Creator and make everything around us as part of Creation. Once you have that and you mix it with faith and fear, you can explain almost everything. I say almost everything because as humans we still have a fully grown brain which is not devoid of thought. There is still logic and reasoning built in. It is still hard to believe what we cannot sense through our five senses. There is only so much you can accept with faith as your only recluse. If you take anything for an answer on faith, it becomes blind faith after while. Now we cannot operate in total darkness too. The inquisitive mind turns to Science.
Science too has evolved. From believing Earth is flat and centre of the Universe, we have come to conquering the Moon and sending probes outside of our Solar System. We have also landed on another planet. It is well established fact that the universe as we see started with a Big Bang around 14 billion years ago. Our Sun is relatively young and Earth is about 4 billions years old. For more than 3 billion years, Earth was inhabitable. Life started with single cell organisms and slowly grew complex and here we are in year 2024. If we compress Earth's life of 4 billion years in a one year calendar than human arrive on midday of 31st December. The documented history of humans is only last few minutes in the whole calendar. Growth of Science has been slow but steady. With every new invention, be it telescope or microscope or the modern marvel of genetics, we have found answers to complex problems and have been able to explain life as it is. We know how human body functions. It is still a marvel how 2 very different cell fuse to make another complex cell with DNA and self sustaining life. However, we can explain how our DNA contains a very elaborated code of life that creates a human body in such great precision that we have all toes and fingers as well as each organ at the right place. The code executes at the right time and at right intervals. From puberty till menopause, everything is coded in our DNA. We can explain how our limbs move, how our heart pumps even when brain does not function and how our behaviour shapes with chemical balance and imbalance in our body.
So how does Science solve for "x"? Like any discipline, Science also does not like unsolved problems. But more than that, Science cannot put forward an answer without providing evidence. Needless to say, Science, unlike Religion, does not work based on faith. Newton tried to explain planetary motions and Einstein refined his theories. Stephen Hawking put time and space into perspective and put forth Big Bang theory with great impetus. However, the question remains, even if the universe start with a single point Big Bang, who put it there? How did it all start? Human mind still cannot comprehend the concept of infinity. Time with no start and finish, space that is endless, both are difficult to comprehend.
Are we there yet?
There are people who are still trying to solve for "x" by putting Science and Religion together. However, when you put Science into the mix of any solution, you need evidence to back it. So if both together need to have an answer then there must be evidence to back it. In absence of evidence "x" remains unsolved. Stephen Hawking believed that there must be a Theory of Everything that explains well everything. He also said that we may not be able to find it though.
Human evolution may appear to be a series of accidents in gene mutation. The way life has evolved from one single cell organism to such diverse plan and animal life, it is a welcome accident that humans finally evolved with a brain that can process all information around them and create knowledge. Life existed before humans had Science and Religion. There was no need to explain things before humans existed. We have come to this stage in evolution that we are questioning life itself. So far we have theories and hypothesises and partial answers. I believe we still have not evolved as much to find complete answers. Out of billions of galaxies with billions of stars within them and each star with their own solar systems, we are just one of them. May be the answers lies out there. May be a new species will evolve with new answers. Till then, we have to contend with - "Let the answer be "x" and continue with the quest.
