WHAT'S THE MEANING OF LIFE? And Other Easily Answered Questions

What's the Meaning of Life? and other easily answered questions. The question: What's the Meaning of Life? has nagged at us since Eve took a bite from that fateful apple. It's a question endlessly asked of philosophers, sages, and mountaintop gurus with answers that are often trite and frequently obscure. Some think the answer is a number, with 42, 137, and 9 as leading contenders. Others think there's no answer to be gotten, life just is. And others think that's the wrong question. Maybe so, but the quest for a better question has been hard and elusive. Until now. The other big question: Is There a God? was probably first articulated in the grunts of one of our ancient ancestors, awestruck and quaking in fear as a meteor flashed across the star-strewn heavens. People have found conflicting answers to that question and haven t always been very tolerant of those who don t share their view. Others of us have concluded the answer is no or maybe. And others think God is a verb not a noun. There s no consensus on the answer. And in our modern smartphone-dominated lives, less philosophical but urgent questions badger us incessantly and unsettle our minds: Am I really so inept and out-of-touch? Should I fear Artificial Intelligence? Are climate doomsayers right? Is democracy in peril? Do you need to keep ketchup in the refrigerator? It s a struggle just to cope. Taylor s essays are illuminating and provocative. His off-beat cartoons are clever, but on his own admission, not worthy of The New Yorker.