Being too smart might kill you.

Being too smart will kill you.

Recently I talked with a lovely friend from high school. She is a bright, kind, and wonderful lady. She was valedictorian in high school, went to Stanford for her undergrad, and is now in a PhD program at WU. Her and I hadn't talked since high school, and kind of reconnected through the wonders of the internet. Anyways, it was great catching up with her and seeing what she has been up to as an adult.

I was amazed that she remembered a few things I said to her in high school. Such as:

“How can you be so smart and still believe in god?”

“You know, all geniuses go crazy.”

I still stand by those 2 statements. That is not to say that smart people don't believe in god, but certainly all smart people have questioned the existence of one or multiple gods/spirits/powers/etc.

But, what I really stand by is that 2^nd phrase. The smarter you get, the harder things get psychologically. The human condition is complicated enough – emotions, love, instincts, cooperation, language. All of these abilities and unique human characteristics combined with our extreme societal complexity have warped us into beings of war, aggression, and problems. There is a lot of beauty, but there is a lot of pain. Being a human is beautiful and painful.

The more you know and think about all this, the more daunting it all seems. You think more and more, and you realize that there really is no purpose to this life of ours. But, the human brain has not evolved to cope with these understandings and questions. We become depressed about it. Depression is just a product of modern society, seemingly. And it all gets more crazy when you start pondering. `

You can accept all of this madness, or you can really let it get to you. If you don't believe in god and don't believe in purpose, then you view human life as just that – life as a particular species. Evolving, existing, and eventually not existing any more. You have to create your own meaning, your own goals and purposes. But that can be really hard if you know that it is all meaningless, ultimately.

What I know and what I feel is that there is a lot of beauty in my creation of meaning. And it is what keeps me happy as a human. If we are all subject to depression in some form or another, what ever helps us be happy is a good thing in my opinion.

What ever “good” is, anyway...

That's enough nihilism for the day.