I don’t believe in god, but I sometimes like to think of some all-knowing omniscient thing in the sky that knows the answer to all the questions everyone has ever asked.
In a sense, the idea of ‘progress’ is the act of moving towards the knowledge this thing has. Every time a scientist thought up some new scientific theory this thing would look at it and shake its head patiently. But it would never get involved.
Every time someone sat a test, this thing would know all the answers. Every decision that anyone makes, this thing would know the inevitable outcomes. Every time people got married it would know whether they were going to get divorced.
It would see everything in the past and everything in the future. It might be watching us all slowly tracking towards our own self destruction, or towards a future where we’re all happy and all our problems have been solved. It would see unrequited love and impossible love and happy love. It would see each little happiness and triumph, and each moment of anguish, amid a huge sea of human experience. But it wouldn’t be cynical, or angry, or ashamed; it would be eternally patient and understanding.
I guess I just like to think that something, somewhere, is keeping the score on the rough and tumble of everyday existence.
Edited October 2013
Howdy stranger 