David Lynch

A favored man on one specific current trend, the iPhone.

Unchained Melody and Other Melodrama

Upon visiting such specializations and theories as stem cell research (in China a child was cured of blindness via stem cell), atheism, outer space, and Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel, I’ve come to wonder if I’ve been taking this world for granted. By vainly believing that maybe incarnation is real, or that ghosts exist, I allow myself to slack, because I naively think I’ll have more than one chance, that I will exist longer than my current stay on the planet. This creates purpose, the theories of afterlife, of gods and celestial entities. From what science says about the laws of nature, we each have one shot and there is no invisible man in the sky who’s dictating our actions or predetermining our future (refer now to George Carlin’s theories), it is entirely up to us to make our lives full. And unless anyone can point me in the direction of evidence to a soul, or spirit, or whatever you might call that floating part of your essence that lives after you die, I’d like to spy it, and peer with a microscope. So far, I have not seen a single slice of evidence that soul is real.

Movies like Ghost make death more complicated, when in reality it is simple and melodramatic. It’s good to cry after a person dies, because the likelihood of that person being entirely dead, never to exist again, is very good. As much as I would like to believe in some of the gibberish hocus pocus, the more I learn and read about the world, the more the arrows point towards godlessness, religionlessness. In terms of those I care about, sitting back, falling out of touch, and assuming we have eternity to meet would be tragic. And that expands to my life in general, to do what I love is more important, and there is a universal trend in this aspect. My generation is seeing major fallbacks in religion, unprecedented numbers are dropping out and claiming nothing as their religion, which is fortunate since our current war is largely in thanks to religious clashing. Not only is my generation not going to church anymore, or claiming specific beliefs, they are also looking at the world with a cocked eyebrow, uncertain of what makes it all go ’round. Previous generations have had their answers (make money, live by consumerism, support and add on to the family), whereas the question of spirituality and afterlife are now determining answers in an ethical sense.

I’m losing myself here, though. Let’s go back a bit.

In a way, I find this approach of atheism opens up entirely new ways of accepting the world, accepting science, invention, space travel, because we, as a species, are not attempting to mimic some great man in the sky because he does not exist (and if he did, think about it, why would he decide to not answer anyone’s prayers?), we are attempting to venture beyond this planet and into foreign areas of the universe. Perhaps this sounds far-off, but thirty years ago that was what science fiction meant for our current society. Our filmmakers are obsessed with the idea of communication with other life-forms and major space exploration. And I’m under the guise that if we gave into the creedence of NASA we, as a species, might survive.

I was appalled when I found out Barack Obama will cut NASA funds if he becomes president. It sounds like a fateful move on our species’ part, one that would determine the distant future, further learning and development. I found an article (http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/obamas_nasa_plan_gets_little_p.php) . And I don’t mean to get political, because I like to think of myself as rather apolitical, mostly, but when it comes to my own money and where it goes, and those elected to make the big decisions for us, it seems fundamental to get up in arms if I must.

Since this is full of so many concepts, concerns and issues, I will probably later come back and pick at this or that. For now, though, I am listening to songs like “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers, “O’ My Stars” by Michael Hurley, and “Fistful of Love” by Antony and the Johnstons, and think melodramatically about how to spend what little time I have in the here and now.