The paradox is that we are one with a cosmos in which we feel existentially alone
because the foundation of our being, although quite obviously a "given,"
cannot be completely known or revealed in the scientific description.Menas Kafatos and Robert Nadeau
from the Introduction to The Conscious Universe
Welcome to a quest for the illusive foundation of being.
As we probe for the most fundamental essence of existence, the languages of science and mathematics run into things like singularities and infinities, so we must move beyond the scope of conventional physics and objective logic and into the realm of metaphysics, which means literally after the physics. This is a mode of thought common to not only the most deep-thinking scientists, philosophers, and mystics, but to anyone who further ponders the great universal mysteries, such as the undeniable yet mystifying fact that we are even experiencing an existence at all, and the realization that our consciousness is one with a cosmos which is thus mystified with itself. Why are we here? Why do we experience an existence of consciousness and life?
