just be happy, right?

How often do I get the question, 'What's it all about? Is there any meaning in existence?' Well, never, as it turns out. Which doesn't mean that I don't speculate on the matter from time to time.

If for a moment, we can set aside the metaphysics of the question, and focus on the purely rational, material aspects, then the answers (if indeed that's what they are) are unremittingly grim. On the simplest plane, existing, with the obvious rider that one needs to obtain the fundamentals of survival, is one answer. Existence requires no philosophy. It just is. Mr Dawkins would add that getting one's genes into the next generation is another 'meaning', or objective, if you like.

Ultimately and in the fullness of time, whatever the meaning of life is or isn't is futile speculation, born of the mankind's hubris. For starters, whether we achieve a meaning or not, everything as we know it will be swallowed up in a billion years or two by our (formerly) good friend, the sun. Should we somehow migrate to other worlds and escape the solar catastrophe. the evolution of the universe (whether a slow ebbing out or an implosion) will put paid to our hopes, permanently.

Which brings us back to the metaphysical. Whether religious beliefs are true or not, maybe its better to kid ouselves and carry on in the hope than stare at oblivion.

Calling Dr Pangloss.....