Philosophical Questions

Relying solely on my first-handed experiences, I believe that the Earth is round

and moving, not flat and immobile. Firstly, when a ship is disappearing into the horizon,
the hull of the ship always seemed to be disappearing first, followed by its mast. This
observation could only be explained if the Earth was round; the hull disappears first due
to the Earths downward curvature from us. After a while, we cannot see the ship at all
because it has traveled such a far distance that our straight vision cannot see around the
curvature of the Earth. (Diagram 1) Secondly, we have all experienced the feeling that we
can see farther if we stand on higher ground. This is because the higher ground allows our
straight-line vision to see more around the downward curvature of the Earth from our
perspective. (Diagram 2) In addition, it has been observed since the ancient times that the
Earths shadow during lunar eclipses has always been round instead of rectangular, as it
would be the case if the Earth was flat. Furthermore, we sometimes wonder that if other
celestial bodies are observed to be spherical, it would only be logical that the Earth,
similar to other celestial bodies, is round too.
The flat Earth hypothesis cannot explain the constant difference of flight hours
between two points. On long journey trips from Vancouver to Beijing, I noticed that the
total flight time to and fro the destination point always differed by a 2 hours, no matter
what company or time of day I flew in. Thus, the only plausible conclusion a reasonable
person could reach is that the earth is moving.

If a tree falls in the forest when theres no one around to hear it, I do not believe
that the tree has made a sound.
Firstly, if there was no one around, we cannot be absolutely certain that the tree
did indeed fall. Our logic and reasoning based on decades of experience as humans

instinctively tell us that a tree lying on the ground means that the tree fell and it created
vibrations that our brains would interpret as sound as it fell. Nevertheless, it is possible
that someone or something lay the tree on the ground of the forest, or that the tree never
made any vibrations when it fell. Therefore, we are no more certain of the sound made by
the tree as it fell as we are of the fact that the tree did fell.
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, sound is defined as vibrations
transmitted through an elastic material or a solid, liquid, or gas, with frequencies in the
approximate range of 20 to 20,000 hertz, capable of being detected by human organs of
hearing. It is suggesting sound only exists if the human organ of hearing, namely the ear,
has receive the vibrations caused by the tree as it hit the ground and interpret those
vibration waves as sound. Thus, I do not believe that the tree made a sound for two
reasons: we cannot be absolutely certain that the tree fell in the forest or if it made any
vibrations when it fell, and if it did fell and made vibrations, those vibrations were not
interpreted by the human brain, as no one was around.

The universe itself has no purpose. Like all particles that exists around us, the
universe was, is, will always be present. The universe contains the particles and
electromagnetic forces that merely follow the laws of physics, but has no more purpose
than the dirt on my windowsill or the rocks on the hills. In fact, everything that was
caused by the universe, such as dirt, rocks, and life, has no meaning. Although it is true
that we have wondered since the beginning of time what is the meaning of life is, we
have failed miserably at this task. The only plausible conclusion a reasonable person can
arrive at is that there is no meaning of life; we have tried a long time to find an answer to
something that doesnt have an answer. The firm belief that everything was created for a
purpose is understandable; after all, we create things for a purpose. We create spoons to
eat and clothing to keep warm. But this cause-and-effect theory does not work in nature
and the universe; if everything had to be caused by something, then we would find
ourselves in a helpless infinite loop, trying desperately to find a cause, a pre-existent
thing before an existent thing. The universe an uncaused cause, and therefore, I believe
that anything caused by the uncaused, such as dirt, rocks, and life, and the uncaused
cause have no meaning. Keep in mind, however, that the things we create, like the spoon,
has a meaning because it was not caused directly by an uncaused cause; it was caused by
a cause.