> > The logical jumping jacks required to answer a "why" question of the universe are pretty much road blocks to any kind of definitive answers. Science, while a great way to explore the world we live in, just doesn't account for the meaning, purpose, or reason *for* the world we live in. Finding the answers to those is a job for a very different art. Religion handles that, actually, or philosophy, or just plain theorizing: whatever you want to call it.
>
> There is, of course, also the distinct (albeit slightly depressing) possibility that the entire question "why?" is meaningless because the universe itself is meaningless.
>
> Ste "In a lovely mood this evening" phen


It may seem like I'm just trying to be cleverly quarrelsome, but I'm genuinely curious... what, precisely, do you mean by 'meaningless'? It (along with 'meaningful') is a word I hear people use over and over, and I never have any clear idea of what they mean by it. I realize that my question is dangerously looped, so perhaps I should rephrase it: Describe to me a meaningless universe, and what that quality of 'meaninglessness' really entails.

(I am reminded of an argument my friend had. He and a girl were talking about justice, and at one point she suggested that they had different definitions of the word 'justice.' They argued about that for a few minutes, and then she suggested that they had different definitions of the word 'define.')

Lire"!"lyn