Yesterday I made gumbo for dinner

[conuly]

I just want to say that the nieces raved about this gumbo and said it is "Connie's best gumbo ever".

RAVED. ABOUT. IT.

Of course, they also rave when I make green beans, and that doesn't require a roux. So what do they know?

Today Evangeline said, as we walked towards her school "Sometimes I wonder how we all got made."

Me: How what all got what?
Evangeline: How everything got made. You know, the trees and people and, and, and planets and stars?
Me: Oh! Well, that's an excellent question. People have been asking that question for ages and ages. Too bad we still aren't entirely clear on it.
Eva: Well, Grandma thinks God just made everything.
Me: That's one answer, but I don't think it's a good one, because then you just have to ask-
Eva: WHO MADE GOD!

I swear, I didn't plant that statement. See, she's not even six, and even SHE can see the serious flaw in the argument there!

Anyway, we talked a bit about various peoples' creation myths, and I gave her a very brief synopsis of the Big Bang. VERY brief, as I find talk about the origin of everything to be boring and pointless* and so don't know that much on the subject.

*Extremely pointless. As far as I'm concerned, we're here, so obviously we exist, and if we didn't we wouldn't care, so why worry about it? I'm more concerned with my missing pint of ice cream. Anyway, the odds of getting a definitive answer (about the universe AND about my ice cream) within our lifetimes are impossibly slim, and unlike curing cancer or fixing poverty answering the question wouldn't help anybody in the here and now, so "impossibly slim" is as good a reason as any not to care. But I'm all for other people researching and thinking on the subject. Whatever makes you happy.

Comments

[redbird]

Never mind what they know, you've got a couple of kids who rave about vegetables, which is good.

I find all the stuff about the Big Bang and all that fascinating, but I agree that it's less practical than biomedical research.

[conuly]

Well, as they say, I make green beans in "a very special way" that I took directly from one of Madhur Jeffrey's cookbooks.

I sautee them with garlic in mustard oil, and then add some pepper, salt, and brown sugar. Mmm.

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, need a recipe... Sounds amazing.

[conuly]

That pretty much IS the recipe. All ingredients are to taste.

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

...my brain hates you right now. I tend to be very OCD about using recipes, especially when I'm making them the first few times. But thinking about this recipe in particular, I could probably muddle through...

[conuly]

I mostly cook by memory and taste. I'll follow the letter for a new recipe I've never done before, but I'm not going to drag the cookbook and scales out for the thousandth time I make those green beans.

And it really is a simple recipe. Just cook the beans in the oil (with pressed garlic!) until soft, add the salt and sugar and pepper.

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

Alright, I'll give that a try.

[inboxfive.livejournal.com]

Her logic is amazing, but I think no matter what theory you use, you run into that problem. It eventually comes down to, "Well, how did THAT get there?"

Granted, I went from being a creationist to an agnostic "I don't really care, whatever happened obviously happened" person in the last year, so none of my thoughts on the subject are particularly sound or well thought out.

[conuly]

Her logic is amazing, but I think no matter what theory you use, you run into that problem. It eventually comes down to, "Well, how did THAT get there?"

Turtles all the way down, right?

That's the other reason I think it's all pointless. You'll give yourself a headache, and for what purpose?

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

Well, it might help to know how the universe was created, just in case there's some chance of a bit of it that matters to us being un-created. I mean, if the universe was set up by some very powerful being with all the ethical sense of a toddler, and a tendency to smite cities, drown the place, and turn people into pillars of salt whenever he throws a tantrum, then either not annoying him or removing him would be a good idea. Alternatively if we're looking at a lot or stars rushing away from each other, it would be a good idea to be sure they're not going to slow down and start coming back again any time soon. (Don't worry. They're not.)

But yeah. Becoming impossibly slim, while also finding and eating the icecream, is of more immediate importance.

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

"I mean, if the universe was set up by some very powerful being with all the ethical sense of a toddler, and a tendency to smite cities, drown the place, and turn people into pillars of salt whenever he throws a tantrum, then either not annoying him or removing him would be a good idea."
LOL!

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

Although I've been more worried that they'll never slow down, and if the universe never eventually collapses... Well, that's the definite end of life in this universe.

[conuly]

Yeah, well, we'll all be dead by then anyway. Worrying about the END of the universe is only slightly more productive than worrying about the START of the universe, imho.

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

Unless of course you have reason to believe that the end of the universe will occur tomorrow?
Doom! Doom! Plagues of locusts will fall upon us! Pass me a sandwich board, that I may go forth into the streets and Warn the People! No, better idea, pass me a sandwich....

[conuly]

If it occurs tomorrow, all the more reason to live it up today! I don't want to waste my last few hours worrying about it being my last few hours, do I?

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

Totally true, but as far as one *does* choose to worry about the end of the universe, I'd rather it eventually contract than expand forever.

[leora.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, it will be. But it won't necessarily be end of life in this ... segment of the universes (sorry total lack of words here), in that there is the possibility that if everything keeps expanding like it looks to, then that will lead to the next singularity (due to relativistic effects), which will cause a new Big Bang for things to start over. But nothing will be alive when that happens, and whether life re-evolves is not really forseeable. Whether or not you call that new Big Bang cycle this universe or not is where I am linguistically unsure, thus the muddling around for words above.

However, that would be extremely far in the future. Far longer than most species make it without going extinct anyway. So, it's not exactly something to worry too much about.

Extremely pointless

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

... word. LOL, you've just basically summed-up the stance of the (fictional) Church of the Irrelevation: "why are we wasting time debating irrelevant academic questions when we've got all these hungry kids to feed?"

I notice that most of the people who take the attitude of "Because it's important to think about these matters!" haven't even bothered to read Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, let alone the more in-depth accounts of current thinking on such questions. Therefore, it seems to me that it's not thinking about these subjects, but rather talking about them which carries the importance. I surmise the truth may be closer to 'it's important to present oneself as the kind of person who thinks it it important to think about such matters'

Re: Extremely pointless

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

I got that as a school prize. Wonderful book, and a lot of the reason why I then aimed my career at astrophysics, and at Cambridge in particular. Sadly, that's one career path that requires a better head for maths than I possess :(