Relativity

On April 10^th I happened to hear the Star Date radio spot. They often have some interesting astronomical tidbit of popular interest to share. On that particular day the moon was in the position of it's orbit where it crosses the orbit of the earth around the sun, this time in front. They started out saying we were heading toward the moon, which for a moment in time was true, though by the time we got to that point in space, about three and a half hours later, the moon would be out of the way. Long gone in one way of thinking, though actually no further away nor closer to the earth than ever.

The piece went on to say that the earth (and the moon with it) moves around the sun at about 66,000 miles per hour. “But that's just one of our planet’s many motions through space.” Our entire solar system orbits the center of the Milky Way galaxy at about 500,000 miles per hour. And one revolution takes about 200 million years or would have if all is actually that old. But wait, the Milky Way is moving toward the Andromeda galaxy. And both together are moving toward “a dense cluster of hundreds of galaxies called the Great Attractor.” And all of the above may together be moving somewhere else in a way we aren't able to perceive. So what direction are we really going? And how fast? The relative movements are so complicated that it may be impossible to calculate. In any case both the vector and the velocity are constantly changing as the various types of motion interact with one another.

Our feelings and relationships are similarly relative. They are added and subtracted and multiplied and divided among each other and the vectors are constantly combined. What we like, what annoys, what is pleasant and what is painful all tend to be relative to something else. A horrible tragedy to one person is a relief to another. A thing of no consideration one day is a thing of great value another in the context of contrast with something else. Our loves and hates and the intensity of them is mainly due to how they relate to some other previous experience. The same circumstance or relationship that is just fine to one person may be intolerable to another.

How to sort it out? Who can do it? Nothing stands alone. Everything has a context and that context is inside another context which is inside another.

Our perspectives make things that are the same appear different. A jet plane going 500 miles per hour at 100 feet appears to be moving extremely fast to those in it and those observing on the ground. The same jet going the same speed at 30,000 feet appears to be barely moving.

How in the world can anyone agree on anything? Our basis for knowing seems to have more variables than is possible to calculate. I suppose this is why finding common ground for thinking and understanding is so precious. And when we find in another person a perspective and a mindset that is similar to our own it is very attractive. There's a little bit of peace amid the confusion. So birds of a feather flock together. We just have no idea what direction we are really going or how fast we are going there except as it simply relates to something that is very close to us. That is at the same time truth on one local level and an illusion on a broader one.

The fact that the unfathomable complexity of the system exists and the fact that the immutable laws of entropy exist points me to the inescapable conclusion that an intelligent designer exists who encompasses all. In that I find the only possible link to sanity beyond willingly accepting the illusion. Faith in the Uncaused Cause is the only way to navigate the chaos.