The Giant Crossword Puzzle by Jim McGuiggan

https://web.archive.org/web/20160426084523/http://jimmcguiggan.com/nonbelievers2.asp?id=71

The Giant Crossword Puzzle

Jerry Adler wrote, " 'The more the universe seems comprehensible," the physicist Steven Weinberg once wrote, "the more it seems pointless.' " (Newsweek. 18-12-06 issue.) This is the logical end of atheism!

But it's also the end of rational talk about purpose to life, and as famous physicist Paul Davies remarked, it renders science pointless. Okay, so some people continue to pursue neuro-science or geology but it has no more point than playing trivial pursuit or doing crossword puzzles. Well, yes, medical research and such makes life easier for some that benefit but it doesn't make human life any the less pointless. Sea-turtles dig in the sand, birds build nests and spiders spin webs and the only difference between what they do and what we do is that we do it self-consciously but when self-consciousness is explained in terms of matter in motion (changing) then it's just another pointless element that exists in a pointless universe.

There's this giant self-existing crossword puzzle beyond which nothing else exists and some of the pieces in it are self-conscious. These self-conscious pieces know that the giant puzzle is the totality of reality and that there is nothing beyond it. They know it came from nowhere and is going nowhere—it simply is. The self-conscious pieces know that they and their self-consciousness are parts of the crossword puzzle. It isn't as if they stand outside the crossword puzzle and reflect on it—they are the puzzle (part of it) and just happen to be "smart" pieces that differ in shape from the rest.

The self-conscious bits know that given enough time they will get to comprehend how all the pieces fit together and they envision a day when that moment arrives. The day finally comes and the self-conscious bits know all the answers to all the questions. It was stimulating and enjoyable for those pieces while it lasted but now they have a giant self-existing puzzle that understands itself via the self-reflecting bits. The self-conscious bits confess they don't know anything about the origin of the giant puzzle of which they are a part but that doesn't bother them much—why should it? But they know more than that—they know that the entire puzzle exists without purpose because, don't you see, nothing exists but the puzzle and the puzzle simply is.

Morality, goodness, progress, meaning, spiritual, evil, God, joy, compassion, hatred, kindness, generosity, ought, cruelty, guilt, choice, treachery, selfishness, honour—these and a host of other words are only words that refer to pieces of the puzzle. These words refer to certain combinations of atoms that are part of what the puzzle is made of.

Some of the self-conscious parts propose that there is something beyond the giant puzzle but there is nothing beyond it, and the thought that there might be, is itself a part of the puzzle, the product of the workings of the puzzle.

Hmmm.