326 Self and the Phenomenon of Life
b2726 Self and the Phenomenon of Life: A Biologist Examines Life from Molecules to Humanity “9x6”concrete examples. Turn around and look at the Pyramids of Giza, the
Taj Mahal of India, the Angkor Wat of Cambodia, the Borobudur of
Java, and the countless magnificent mosques, temples and cathedrals
studding every corner of the continents. Are they not erected for the
search of meaning? In all probability, the ultimate answer will never
come, but just the same, the search will continue — till the end of time.
It is through this endeavor that mankind elevated itself from the level of
the animals. It is in this manner that culture and civilization flourished.
The perennial question of existence is best portrayed in Charles
Ives’ unsettlingly beautiful music score, The Unanswered Question
(composed in 1906), in which a continuous contemplative mood in the
background is punctuated seven times by an impatiently inquisitive
trumpet, only to be returned to eternal silence and solitude after a futile
and frantic search for an ultimate answer. The question, Ives seems to
say, is better than the answer.^28
14.5 What is Religion?
Religion is the question raised when our transitory self confronts the
immensity of the universe. It is an endless search without a clear-cut
answer. Nonetheless, while pursuing this, a union is forged between
Fig. 14.3. The meaning of meaning. (A) Meaningfulness; (B) Meaninglessness.