Our thoughts are fireworks

It gets cold and dark at night, but I never feel lonely. I enjoy having the time to mull over what it means to be alive. Tonight I was considering the origin of life.

So far, evidence has led the greatest thinkers among men to conclude that this starlit infinity is the result of one really grand explosion. Cosmic in proportions even. The largest observable stars in the depths of space are just sparklers compared to the beginning. I think it is a rather eloquent chain of cosmic events that has led me to this point in time, listening to the wilderness in a chilly tent on an insignificant plot of dirt. However grim life can seem on the surface, there is such much to hold one's mind in joyful awe.

In the beginning, the fundamental particles (electrons, protons, neutrons) were brought together by the strong and weak nuclear forces of physics to form the simplest of elements: hyrdogen. Incidentally, hydrogen is still the most abundant element in the know Universe.

Clouds of hydrogen gas coalesced into what would become the first stellar nurseries. As more hydrogen atoms compacted themselves due to the gravitational forces of physics, pressure created heat. The fires of heaven ignited and There Was Light. The first stellar ovens created enough heat and pressure to forge the heavier elements from the simpler ones. Every part of us, from the iron in our blood to the oxygen we breath, was created somewhere in the depths of space by a star.

These elements were scattered by the stellar explosions of supernovae and eventually compacted themselves to form planets and other stellar debris. Life is the result of combinations of these elements stumbling upon a means of replicating themselves. Thanks to the near infinite variety of cosmic laboratories, some of these replications took hold and were able to grow in complexity. The reactions of chemistry thoughtlessly and blindly competed for the means to continue the chemical reaction until the environment forced them to stop.

Chemical compounds that could codify advantageous chemical reactions arose. In the case of the cosmic laboratory later to be called earth, it was those that could stimulate the production of amino acids and the folding of proteins. This freak chemical strand is DNA. At first, it was a protein building free for all, but soon certain combinations and arrangements of proteins allowed more and more of a particular DNA to replicate itself. Evolution, though already at work, finally begins to take its familiar biological form at this point. Life is an inevitable accident with no direction other than to increase efficiency and order, all in the name of replicating chemical equations.

Our minds arose from these random protein foldings. They are ostensibly advantageous because they allow DNA to interpret external stimuli by proxy, and much more quickly than it can adapt through natural selection. Our minds are greater than DNA, because they allow us, the children of stars, the very eyes and ears of the Universe itself, to comprehend its/our/my fundamental nature. Our minds allow the Universe an avenue to shape its own destiny consciously, whatever that may mean. But we're only a stepping stone to a consciousness more unfathomable than the Judeo-Christian God.

Our thoughts are the afterglow of the Big Bang, the fireworks of stellar explosions. We are part of something huge. How can it ever seem so mundane!?

And yet, we are conscious, whatever that may mean. We have a choice to use our minds and understand truth or forfeit our minds and embrace falsehood. Inquiry into the true nature of reality is the only way to achieve progress. Scientific truth. Objective truth. Philosophical truth. Above all else, honesty is the prime directive. The honesty to admit ignorance and be curious. To ask WHY?

Embracing falsehood is our choice and there is nothing to prevent us from making that choice. We can choose religion and relive a Dark Age in willful ignorance. We can choose Statism and strangle the best among us with the seductive nature of power and the whims of the tyrants who wield it. We can lie to our children and perpetuate these barbaric institutions. We can utter that terrible phrase that will always be on the lips of every frightened and feeble mind: because.

I hope the best among us continue to choose wisely. History shows that there is always a battle to snuff the light of truth. The good guys are too few but the bad guys are fewer. It is the great majority of men who, wishing to be good people, forever enslave us with their misguided attempts at virtue. It is those who commit evil and think it good.

Our thoughts are fireworks, damn it! Let's not let them fizzle out by watering them down with lies. Let's give the Universe/ourselves a grand finale worthy of our heritage! Philosophy makes our lives brighter than a Billion Billion suns! If we love virtue, we will radiate the light of truth. I think you know what I mean.