S1 E9•May 13, 2023•49 min
Episode 9: (Un)Answerable Questions!
In this episode, we attempt the greatest challenge you, our listeners, have put before us - to answer your unanswerable questions.
In this episode, we attempt the greatest challenge you, our listeners, have put before us - to answer your unanswerable questions.
Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Saturday service.
I am Ademola, your favorite man.
And with me here is.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, good to be back. What are we talking about today?
Today we're just gonna go straight into really talking about, like, ex.
Potential questions.
Over the course of this podcast, we've.
Been able to gather a few questions from so many different people. Just want to say thank you guys for listening to the podcast and letting us know what you think, and we will be doing better as much as we can. We know we've been having a few sound issues here and there, but that's just because we've not yet blown enough.
To pay for studio space and get all the heights to make us the.
Number one podcast worldwide.
Just to say that.
Be better.
Just to let people know.
That would be better. Would be better.
Yeah. But the general theme of these questions.
Have been primarily existential in. In nature. You know, questions like whether or not there is God and why do we even need to do anything? Like what's the point of all of this? And you know, in. In a. In a vast infinite universe, what is the point of faith in anything? So. So we're just going to be taking these questions one by one and, you know, sharing our thoughts on the subjects just so that you guys sort of have our opinions on the matter. Again, we are not posturing as the. As the cosmic objectivity, you know, the one true answer or the secret of the universe.
But we hope that our opinions sort.
Of come for something or they can give you a context with which to view these questions maybe in a different light.
Yeah. So, I mean, there are a lot of interesting questions here that even some of them weak me.
But let's just. Let's just go at it.
The first question that one everybody has asked, I have asked you.
People are still asking the children they are going to give birth tomorrow.
We ask it and the question is, is there God? I want to believe that everybody has asked this question and even if we are not asking it overtly, there's that thought inside your mind like, is there God? So I won't. There's not too much preamble to it. That's the question. Is there God?
What do you think?
I think that that's left to. You know, they say the. The presence of.
The absence of proof is not the presence of. It's not the proof of absence. Does that doesn't.
Yeah. The absence of absence.
Please say this thing. Yoruba. Say this in Yoruba, please.
Just basically means that just. Just to say that even if you don't have proof that something exists.
Yes.
It doesn't mean that that is proof.
That the thing does not exist.
Right. So if you cannot see something, it.
Doesn'T necessarily mean that whether or not it's real.
And I think that's really where. I think that's really the point of.
Faith, to believe in things that you do not see as if they are. And you can see them, because if you truly know that there is a God, it is no longer faith. It's just really knowledge. And I think that's really the crux of, you know, the. The main. The point of it all to have faith in the thing that. In something that's bigger than you are.
And a lot of people, I think.
Need that to get through life. Some people are perfectly content, you know, toiling away, you know, in their sort of roles in this world. So to say yes or no to that question, you know, you. I. I could not say yes for everybody. And not for everybody, but for me, yeah. I would say that there is a God.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I. I do think that there is.
A God, frankly speaking. What about you?
What do you.
What do you think?
Honestly, I. I share that sentiment too, even though a half of my brain questions it constantly. But I share the sentiment that. And this is where I come from. You and I have had this conversation, but just for. For the. For the sake of listeners. I'm a creative. I create things. Right now I'm writing a story about.
A girl who is having a moral dilemma.
And I am writing and rewriting it. I'm deciding what will happen to this.
Character in my story.
And it's not random. Looking at a number of things that influences her decisions, her character development within the story. All of that is creation.
Right?
There can't be. In simple terms, for me, there can't.
Be a creation without a creator.
And that's what I hinge my own answer on.
This question.
That you choose to call it God. I choose to call it something else.
Is a different conversation.
But I think there's a God, and that God, in my own context, is.
The creator of things, the being thing.
Whatever it is that made all of this.
Yeah.
See, my wife is a nurse, and.
When she comes from work, she talks about all of these interesting things. Oh, someone's talking about someone's brain. And then they did this and they did that.
And the body, how it's. How it homeostatically balances itself, how the kidneys kick in to do the work of the heart and you get. It's so intricate, like you said, it's so beautiful that I cannot imagine otherwise that something didn't think through putting it together in the way that is put together and having the balance that it does. So for me, creation is a testament to a creator. It's that simple. And that creator is what I refer to as God. So I believe there's God.
I really love how these answers are. Probably it's because, again, a lot of.
These questions are basically centered around like, whether or not there's a God and like what the point of it all is.
And I think going down to. In that line, one could ask, you.
Know, if there's a God, you know, why did he create us all and was it all on a whim? Or is there some kind of grand plan?
Because, you know, the idea that my life is so beautiful and that the.
Human body is so intricate sort of speaks to perhaps, maybe there's an existence of a grand plan that that makes it all possible.
And if it was, if it was.
If it were whimsical creations, you know, there's no reason why we don't look more animated. Not that we would know if we.
Looked animated, but there's no reason why.
We should not be like two dimensional.
Or, you know, I do think that, you know, like, one needs really to understand why we were created, I think, and that sort of helps us to.
Understand maybe going down the line, purpose for why we're created and like, maybe what we could do with all of this grand planning that maybe a Creator has put in, set in motion. Yeah.
So if there's a God, why do.
You think he created us?
See, let me continue with my creator analogy because it's the only way I have tried to understand this.
Honestly.
I've asked this question in the different ways and shapes and format over my life. And the only one that makes sense.
To me is this creator, creation.
So in the breadth of that same analogy, I believe that creation has purpose. A creation will have purpose, even if its purpose is to be trashed. Or maybe I created something. It didn't come out well. I'm writing a draft. It's not okay, I scrumpled the paper.
And throw it out.
But there was something that prompted me.
To writing the draft in the first place.
Based on that, I want to believe.
I want to believe that if we.
Are indeed creations of a creator, then.
There is a purpose.
Now, whether that purpose makes sense to us or not, whether that purpose is fair or just, is a different conversation entirely. So God can create. For instance, I remember that there are places in the Bible that if I.
Remember it in the course of this conversation, I'll probably find it. But there was a question in the New Testament that.
Will the pot ask the potter, why had thou made me thus? Something like that. Sorry, it sounds like Shakespeare, but King.
James Version for you.
But can the potter, can the creation does know. What right does the creation have to ask the creator that why have you.
Made me this way?
And imagine a potter, which is one of the analogies that use. Then, you know, the Bible goes to from time to time that if I decide to make a clay pot from clay and I make a footstool from that same clay, it's because that's what.
I want to do. Right.
And yeah, I mean, sorry, my thoughts are all over the place, but that's my opinion that indeed there is.
There is purpose. There's a reason why the Creator has made whatever creation it is we're witnessing, including ourselves. What do you think?
I think. I think I quite agree with you.
I think when you hold so much power, in a sense, you and you can do anything.
Far be it from your creation to.
Ask you, guy, what was the point?
Why did you do this? I don't know. I think maybe in a sense, and.
We are human and perhaps our motivations can never be as, say, benevolent or just can maybe cannot be put on the same level as that of like an ultimate creator.
I think, you know, you ask yourself why you.
You create, why you have children.
I've.
I've recently met this girl who's like, oh, I really want to have my own baby or I really want to.
And it's like, you couldn't. Again, coming off, I think the last, you know why Questions are very difficult to answer. And again, the Bible places it as. The Bible places it as, you know.
He has created you for his pleasure. And I don't know, it's maybe, maybe.
That sort of sound selfish. But if you look at it in.
A context where it's like, you know, some people take pleasure in loving others and some people take pleasure in being loved.
And so you could sort of like.
Say, okay, did God create us for the pleasure of loving us?
You know, if you think about it that way, it sounds not as selfish.
As maybe other people might sort of sort of frame it to be.
But.
Demola, can I just throw this part? You know, can I throw this in here? There are two things that are running.
Through my brain right now.
One is that I feel. I feel this is not what I feel. This is what I think. I think that whenever we consider that it's possible our Creator created us for an unfair purpose or something we don't consider just. Or something we don't consider decent or right. For instance, those people that you would say, oh, you know, why did Hitler exist?
What is good? Yeah, you get. Or why should.
Why should a betrayer, you know, among the disciples, you know, why should evil be. Again, our concept of justice makes us feel that if the Creator is good, then everything he creates must be good. So at times, my opinion is creation. Is creation the same way you write a story and write a bad guy or write a Thanos.
Yeah.
His whole purpose is to destroy is.
To snap and make everything burn.
Yeah.
So I feel that we shouldn't. I try not to conflate conflict because we don't ask why when good things happen. Yeah, we're talking this morning when one of our friends passed, and we're saying, if a child is born, we're happy. Oh, my God, this child is born. But if someone dies, oh, why did this person die? So I think that our sense of justice, it impacts our appreciation of the fact that. Look, creation is creation for whatever purpose it requires.
Quickly.
The second one I wanted to say is. Now, you mentioned something that sort of piqued my curiosity. If two people come together, a man and a woman, and their intention is pleasure in intimacy, intimate pleasure. Right. And they have a baby, would we say that they created that baby? And would we say that if we said they created that baby, would it be that they created that baby without that being their intention? And as it applies to this conversation, could God just have created us as a byproduct of something else and God's.
Intention was not to create humans?
That is actually quite deep. And I think for some reason, and I don't know if it's an exact match, but it sort of links to.
Another question that we have here that.
Says if we're the result of a.
Big bang and perhaps the only living creatures in the known and unknown universe, are we a mistake or are we special? And that's.
I think that's very interesting. And I just knew from the beginning that this would be the hardest question to answer. I mean, so say God was trying to create the.
The earth, for instance, or our universe and said, oh, my God, there'll be.
This thing, and then there'll be this thing.
And maybe he did not account for a certain reaction that maybe air would have with water or just dark matter. I would have with, you know, the oxygen in the earth or something. And then by that we're now formed.
And I was like, oh, oh, I've.
I've done it again.
My powers are so great. My powers are so great that I.
Knew he had fucked up.
But yeah, I, I don't know. I, I, I really wonder, like, are we a mistake? Could, Is there a chance that we're a mistake?
And is that why perhaps we have maybe gotten so out of control in terms of.
Because I do think that going back.
To your creator and creation analogy, the.
Author of a novel has, in a sense, absolute control over the choices of a character. Of course, the author will make it.
So that the traits of the character informs the decisions and so that some.
Choices are not don't just come out of left field, but to a point. The creator is also in charge of what are the traits of this character?
You know, what, what, what is this.
Character more likely to do in this.
Scenario or in that scenario and all of that.
Yeah.
And so I think the way the.
World has, the way the world is so, so wild, for lack of a.
Better word, does beg the question, might.
We be a mistake?
And I'm curious about your thoughts. I know you're the one that asked the question, but, like, I have nothing for you there. I have nothing.
See?
Full disclaimer. A lot of the questions.
Excuse me. A lot of questions we're going to.
Be asking, we don't have answers to it. There's no point trying to form Voltron.
On this matter now. On this question, I don't know. And I'm learning to say I don't know things.
I, I really don't know. I don't know.
I can't tell. I can't tell. Do I feel special or do I feel the need to be considered as special? Yes. And I think it's human. We want to feel that, ah, we are important.
Yeah.
Scheme of things.
Oh, we are bigger organisms than apes.
Yeah.
We are on top of the food chain. Whereas it might just be bacteria or cockroaches at the end of the day.
Right.
So I want to believe that each, each organism, each individual considers themselves important. Now, are they important? Honestly, I don't know if I would answer that question or hazard a guest. I don't think we're as important as.
We think we are in the scheme.
Of things, especially in the scale of the world and the scale, scale of the universe at a, at a univ. At a, at a cosmic scale. We, we could have been bacteria. Do you get. Yeah, if you are looking at it, if you put a lens that looked at looks at the whole cosmos, we wouldn't be seen with a microscope.
Yeah.
And something else you said is something I've tried to wonder. How are there so many planets and our life form only exists on one? I want to imagine that oh, there could have been other humans on other planets at the same time. I look at it again that look, this might just be a habitat. There probably other things on other habitats that are unlike us, that our brain cannot even imagine what they are, how they are interacting. The same way an amoeba that thinks that the, you know, it's, it's fauna or flora, wherever he's living is the world.
Do you get.
Yeah.
And does he know that there is.
A whole universe, you know, whole world.
Outside his ecosystem, or do you get an ant? So whenever I keep thinking I go back to that question, I try and see myself as an anti or as an amoeba that I am limited by.
The boundaries of my imagination, by the.
Boundaries of sight, by the boundaries of the physics that confines me to this space. But beyond that is an entirely vast universe that I can never, never fully comprehend.
That's where I choose to stand.
But whether or not we're mistakes, honestly, I don't know.
That's, that's. Does that's beautiful. The, the amoeba or ant analogy I.
Think is it really gives some context and we wish to look at this whole thing especially when we understand that even as we have been on this.
Earth as far as long as space exploration and even any exploration of the.
Earth has been, has been going on.
We'Ve been, we've been finding out new.
Things that we did not originally know, new things.
And, and very, it's very beautiful how.
Science even acknowledges its, its, its limits and says, you know what? Like, much as we know about the universe, there's, we are barely scratching the surface. And so that may even be, it.
May even be that we have discovered.
Something that we did not that maybe.
We have seen something, but have not, or how do you put it?
We have looked at something but we have not observed fully because we are not able to observe that those things maybe until a certain point in our evolution or just because we are simply not capable of observing it.
Apparently there's a telescope that allows us.
To see cloud gases in space, but.
These gas clouds are not observable to.
Our, our own human eye.
And so perhaps there's life. Maybe the universe is teeming with life beyond our own Planets that we cannot.
See and we would not even begin to be able to think about see.
What, what, what if these cloud masses are life forms? Do you get. Yeah, we perceive it as clouds. What if they have their own interaction? Yeah, you get like cloud to cloud.
Doing whatever it is cloud do. It's crazy.
It's crazy.
It's crazy.
It's crazy.
Yeah, yeah.
So, yeah, the next question is, are we different from animals in that?
Do they also have a spirit or soul or life after death?
Because back to the previous question where we're like, oh, human beings like to.
Think that we're special, but according to.
Science, we are all animals here, but we still say, say we are higher animals. Animals have their society, animals have, you know.
Yeah.
Parks and you know, modes of operation.
I think perhaps humans are always even.
Looking to ants, you know, with their own complex structures where they have ant hills and you know, very, very proficient society. Entire cities where they delegate work to these different people and nobody's lazy and there's no missing link.
You know, these societies are probably like 10x 10x better than ours.
How do you know if there are no lazy ads?
I mean, I mean. Well, that's fair. I, I've not done the, I've not done a census on all the ads in the world. Yeah, yeah, but are we different, do.
You think we're different from them? In, in a sense?
I mean, the obvious. There are obvious differences in the way.
Of, say, languages, for instance.
Now maybe they do have their own.
Languages that they are able to communicate in that we just simply cannot possibly.
But I mean, yeah, it doesn't mean.
That it is less, less sophisticated, would I say.
Yeah, you know, there's this, there's this thing between man and dogs and cats.
And all these other domesticated animals where you are able to train them and say. And they're able to understand our language.
But for some reason we cannot understand their language.
If we ask them to sit, they will sit.
But if they ask us to come, let's play.
We can't really tell.
We are just sort of guessing through.
Trial and error until we sort of figure it out.
So I think the question would be.
In two parts in the end is, are we different from them? And even though we think that we are better, are we really better or can difference just be different for the sake of difference without it being a competition? What are your thoughts?
I honestly think it's difference for difference sake. I don't think we're. I don't think we're better of Course, we might argue, because remember, we are the ones arguing in science. It is our science. So it is us humans saying, oh, our brains are more complex. Okay. We have 100 neurons, they have two, all right.
They can't speak.
So, you know, whatever it is, I think it's still a lot of it is justification. And I defer to the scientists listening to this. There's science, there's proof, there's all of that. And I want to believe I'm smarter.
Than a monkey, but I have seen chimps solve some redos that I'm like, if they keep me at this chimp this redo, I might just mess up the whole, you know, I might just misrepresent for humanity if I fail. You get.
Yeah.
But on a more serious note.
I.
Think humans are humans, cats are cats, hyenas are hyenas, plankton is plankton at.
The end of plan.
And we are all here for some kind of balance, and that's about it. We provide as much balance in the government, you know, in governing and social order and balancing the dynamics, whatever it.
Is, of the Earth.
We don't do as much as worms are doing by also ensuring that we don't get swamped in death and decay. You get. Because they are taking their own role, is taking death and decay.
We. And then they're just about doing that. I, I don't think we're different.
I mean, we have. We're different in our biological conversation, but we are equal in the role that we play.
Yeah.
In the balance that is necessary for life and survival.
That's what I. Yeah, I mean, do.
I think I'm higher?
I don't know.
I mean, to your point, I've been having issues with mosquitoes for a couple of nights now where I am. And, you know, I've just been like.
What is the point of this mosquito if not to steal, kill and destroy my sleep?
And somebody. I was having a conversation with this person and she was like that, you.
Know, they probably have like a purpose as well and probably shouldn't discount their entire existence just because, you know, it is inconvenient for me, which is sort of like how the bad people do bad things where they will dis. They would this, they would this, they will invalidate another person's life experience all because it is inconvenient, you know, for them and their doctrines and all of that. Yeah. So next question. Is there karma?
You said something earlier about like, you.
Know, all these other creatures on the planet, apart from human beings, have sort of a Balancing role or a balancing act to play. And if karma is primarily the, the it's.
I don't know, it's a particular phenomenon.
In a particular faith where it says one bad thing balances out one good thing. And universe sort of seeks to be, to be in balance.
And you know, perhaps maybe that is.
Why, you know, it's not just one species of creature that, you know, emerged from the earth, you know, to fill the earth with life. I mean, that's why we have so many different kinds of species. And even in one species, you have so many different kinds of personalities to sort of keep a balance on the operations of the world. What are your thoughts about karma and whether or not it exists and what its purpose is?
To think.
Let me start from just a very quick analytical premise. Karma will only exist if there is a puppet master.
There is something controlling the affairs of men and the order of things beyond us.
Do I think there's something or something?
I think so. At least from the question of God. I think there's a creator.
But this is just me being theorizing. I don't think whoever, whatever that being is, works based on the laws of man the same way that being won't work based on the law of dogs or the law of birds. I think all of creation just serves.
Whatever purpose that being has decided to create for.
And I still think things like justice, which I believe karma is based upon.
Are human machinations.
Even. We will come to that. I saw there's a question on heaven and hell. Even heaven and hell, karma, retribution, all of those things are tied to a notion of justice, justice. And I think justice or notions of justice are human creations because a human feels, ah, if I, if this person has done bad, they shouldn't just go like that now. Yeah, something must happen to them. I think, I think that's a human construct. So heaven, hell. Sorry, I'm not, I don't, I don't intend to jump the gun. But karma, hell, bad people will burn. I think all of that was created in the imagination and the actions of men to enforce social order so that good behavior is rewarded and promoted. Bad behavior is frowned against such that there is some level of civility within the social group to make it continue in that so that there won't be chaos. I believe strongly that a lot of these concepts are human created. I don't think at this cosmic level.
Karma is a thing. But who am I?
Little am I buying this? Grant, what do you think?
I. I honestly, I don't have much thoughts on the subject, except for a.
Conversation I had with a friend who made it his sort of his life's purpose to make sure that he balances out his actions. And so he would have days or weeks where he would do things that leaned on being mean and being negative and being, you know, something of a terrible person.
Yeah.
And he would be like, okay, yeah, I've put out enough evil into the world. Now I'm just gonna put out a bunch of good. And he would be super nice and he'd be super friendly and he'd be super generous and all of that.
And I don't know, for some reason.
It just made him feel at peace with himself and maybe even the rest of the world. Now, I cannot tell you.
Like, obviously he didn't. To my knowledge, he hasn't killed anyone.
Or, you know, done any of.
Really anyone.
That was my next question.
But, yeah, I think some people truly.
Believe it's a thing.
And, you know, again, I think that's.
The point of faith. If you believe in something, you will do anything and everything and nothing because of that. And so, yeah, you know, some people think that the highest expression of karma, in a sense, is the end of the world and the death of human beings in it. And before we get to questions on the end of the world and what that probably looks like, which is how we're going to wrap up this.
Yeah, I was thinking about, you know.
More to the heaven and hell thing. It's basically a place we go after we die, and that's gonna happen ultimately.
But I think before we even go.
To those questions is what happens when we die? You know, there's. There's a few. There's a few options. Are we. Are we reincarnating or are we just going to go back to the earth as manure? You know, and if we're reincarnating, what. What informs our reincarnation? Is it that because we have a soul or a spirit or, you know, all of that? Just what are your thoughts about. Around death, reincarnation, and where we go after we die? That's what I wanted to ask.