virus: Re: where did it all come from?

Tyson Vaughan (tvaughan@ux.accesscom.net)
Tue, 7 Nov 1995 00:28:16 +0000


David Leeper replying to Janet:

>>This amorphous soup where we all began--where did it come from?
>
>The ocean. But a step or two beyond that, all matter comes from stars.
> When a star goes super-nova is spews matter out into the universe. This
>eventually becomes solar systems. In other words, as surely as we are
>childern of the apes, we are living, self-aware childern of the stars. We
>are descended from stars.

David, I think Janet is trying to get at the root cause of all these
things. She is asking what humans have asked as long as they've been able.

Janet is having difficulty conceptualizing a universe without a cause.
Hardly an uncommon problem, especially for Westerners. I'm guessing from
your reply that you are implying such a universal history. There was no
ultimate cause. It just happened. (Which reminds me of an amateur
theologist's argument that "'Just happened' is what I call God" -- from the
documentary film Vernon, Florida.)

Note that there is a difference between not having a root cause and not
having a beginning.

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