Thoughts

I just got back from a student faculty meeting on divestment, and unfortunately I was never called on to talk, but there were so many things I wanted to ask. For those of you that don't know, divestment refers to a movement asking universities and other large bodies to take their investments out of the top 200 fossil fuel companies. At the University of Wisconsin at Madison we are asking our foundation (which is worth 2.3 billion dollars) to take their investment out of fossil fuels (the numbers are not given to the public, but nationally a 3% investment in fossil fuels is assumed. For our university that amounts to 69 million dollars). Our foundation gets a variety of donations and then invests that money into a spread of stocks (risk aversion). As mentioned 3% of those stocks are likely in fossil fuel companies. Today the faculty had a forum on the issue, and whether or not they were going to stand as a body and support divestment or not. In particular, my respected teacher G...

I am an atheist. I am a scientific thinker. I do not believe in alternate endings or second chances. I believe the life we have here on this earth is a finite one. When I first came to be atheist, this scared me. Death scared me. The meaning of life scared me. In my fear I frantically grasped for some cold rational meaning to life. Why are we here? Easy, my brain would spit back, because those species whom were motivated to reproduce are still here. But what is the point? I would ask. Easy again, to reproduce. Jesus brain, fine then, what should I find enjoyable about life here? Easy again, all of the things you are prewired to find pleasurable, like eating, sleeping, and sex. From this frustrating loop of logic I came to the melancholy response that the meaning of life was simply to be happy. And one could achieve happiness by living a life our ancestors lived which promotes an increase in serotonin, ending in, voila, feelings of happiness. Now I don't completely disagree with m...