“Only barbarians are not curious about where they come from, how they came to be where they are, where they appear to be going, whether they wish to go there, and if so, why, and if not, why not.”--Isaiah Berlin 1(English social historian, philosopher, essayist; 1909 - 1997)
Mr. Berlin clearly has a chip on his shoulder toward barbarians, whoever they might be. He fails to understand that even very primitive peoples try to seek an answer to that burning question. But before we know where we are going, we must know where we come from, for every path has a beginning and an end. The path to the truth is a mystery that great figures of the past have attempted to clarify for us mere mortals.
Buddha speaks of the Right Way to live by following the Path to the truth; Jesus tells his disciples to follow Him, for He is the Path to eternal life. Every religion is concerned with our purpose here on Earth; Islam believes as does Christianism, that Judgment Day will come and we will be sent to Paradise or Hell depending on our actions in this world.
We can thus state without a doubt that all human beings, at one time or another, being of sound mind, are concerned about destiny, about what lies beyond. Most of us seek the answer given by our religion. Even atheists and agnostics profess curiosity regarding our origin and final destiny. The famous mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), who eventually became a stout believer, said it all in one of his Pensées (Thoughts):
"For after all what is man in nature? A nothing in relation to infinity, all in relation to nothing, a central point between nothing and all and infinitely far from understanding either. The ends of things and their beginnings are impregnably concealed from him in an impenetrable secret. He is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness out of which he was drawn and the infinite in which he is engulfed." (Wikipedia)
Hardly the kind of statement that can feed our pride in humanity. We are nothing, less than nothing, according to Pascal, a genius in several areas. He, however, later offered us an escape. He stated that we'd better believe in a God, just in case He truly existed. If He didn't, we'd lose nothing; but if He really was there after our death, we had everything to gain. Hardly the kind of faith that sounds sincere and authentic.
A common ground to all religions is our obligation to lead a good life, a life that exudes goodness toward others, humility, sincere love, attachment to beauty and spirituality, and constant progress toward wisdom. A tall order? Of course, that's why we have six or seven decades to come as close as we can to perfection. That is the ideal, that is the Right Way to live.
