Some astronomers think that a great, even infinite, number of universes are floating about somewhere out there in space. These worlds, with no real evidence, to be sure, are said to exist in addition to the one in which most of us have but temporary residence. The universe we do find ourselves in does seem vast enough for the purposes for which we exist. And why do we exist? Indeed, one of the chapters of The Universe We Think In is entitled precisely: “Why Do I Exist?” This is a worthy question that we ought, sooner or later, to ask ourselves, even if we choose not to do so because, somehow, we are afraid of the answer.
A second, related, chapter is entitled: “The Universe We Die In”. The unique person, with a specific name and DNA, who is conceived of a man and a woman in this world, is the same one who dies. Sometimes he dies before birth, but most people die at various ages from one to ninety. Some few last for a century of living among others of our kind. We cannot arrive in this world but by conception and birth. We always leave it by death. Some scientists, to be sure, are working doggedly to make us live longer and longer as if increased length of life alone would somehow better explain why we exist in the first place.
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