From that previous post on existential questions, I cannot forget Little #2 who had added her own big question to the mix, “What if all life is just a long sleep? What if we are dreaming our all this (she means our reality)? What if….we are someone else’s Minecraft world?”

Now this is an even more abstract question than the first. The first question around “What is life about?”, I feel a little qualified to answer, since I have some experience with living life. A few decades worth of experiences, living in multiple different places, going through a few interesting life stages…yes, I could cover that one about life.

But, this question about the abstract nature of our reality, now this is a big one. In answering the question, I leaned on religion a little more than I normally would have, and my interpretations of Hinduism, Buddhism and to some extent, Christianity ( I did go to a Catholic school!). I told her some people believed that the human experience is part of a changing, material world, anchored deeply by eternal principles that do not change. Others believed that there was another life after death, and we talked about the concepts of heaven and hell. But then, the scientist in me came raging back, and I also offered Little #2 the notion that science, so far, has shown that human existence is part of a giant chain of occurrences from billions of years ago, and life is what it is. We are born, we grow, we procreate and we die.

I think she tuned out after that, and asked for an ice-cream because it was a particularly hot day. Phew. Because I’m not sure I had much more to offer to any follow-up questions!