by Alex Tours

Created on: April 19, 2008

All men and women are born thinkers. In our early years we never cease to ask questions about life; in our autumn years we seek answers about death and what might come after.

The baby in the pram puzzling over the bright shapes of toys. The toddler incessantly asking questions. The youth seeking to progress through life. Man in his middle years probing, probing. Even the old man, wailing away the days at the care home. Always thinking, asking questions: about the future, the past, the indefinable.

Thinking pervades all our activities. Anyone who has ever seen even a photograph of Rodin's sculpture "The Thinker" cannot fail to have been impressed by the depiction of this muscular man in what is a universal deep-thinking pose.

It's an impressive work of art and we cannot fail to wonder what question it is that "The Thinker" is pondering. This innate sense of wonder is one that makes us all question everything that is around us, that has led us to progress as a species, able in some small way to shape the environment around us so that our lives may be lived out more comfortably.

This progress has been due to asking ourselves questions that we at first cannot answer then working through the problems. We now take many facts for granted that were unanswerable questions or different, erroneous, facts to our forefathers. For instance, it wasn't long ago that mankind was convinced that the earth is flat and at the center of the universe. These misconceptions were only overcome through people like ourselves asking what, to many, would have seemed unanswerable questions.

So what is the most important question that remains for us to answer? Philosophers and scientists have many contenders for this accolade and we often hear debates about some of the most popular ones. Who or what is God? Why are we here? What is the true nature of reality? Is there life after death? How was the universe created?

These are all very difficult questions to answer but ones that I'm sure we have all, at one time or another, wondered about. However, whilst important, they do not include, for me, the most important question that faces us today.

Looking at the issue from the perspective of potential benefit to mankind there is another, perhaps equally difficult question that remains to be answered. There is so much destructive tension and violent conflict all over the world - how can we all get along peacefully with others of different views, nationalities, races and creeds?

Given the destructive potential of modern weaponry, this seems to me like a question that we need to answer, and quickly, if we are to avoid the devastation of mankind.

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