The Most Important Question

The Grey Robes offer an answer.

Source.

Humans ask a lot of questions. Why is there something rather than nothing? What is the nature of consciousness? Is there a supreme being? One can categorize such questions along two dimensions: importance and fascination.

Importance picks out the urgency and utility of answering the question. Fascination picks out the awe and wonder a question inspires. But when it comes to importance, there is one question that rises above the rest, at least within our order.

In fact, one could argue that all other important and fascinating questions originate from a single question:

The question has some ambiguity built into it, which we can break down into three interpretations.

The first interpretation is more personal, which is to say, an inquiry into the manner in which you or I might conduct our lives.

The second interpretation extends outward to emphasize the we, where one might imply the word together—as in, How are we to live together in groups?

The third interpretation extends to all of humanity, given that we are all earthbound, made of flesh, blood, and bone, and must leave this mortal coil.

The first interpretation runs through every moment of our lives. Whether one wiles away the hours seeking empty pleasures, endeavors to become excellent, or acts as a good steward of his property and offices, one’s behavior at time t is always an answer to this critical question. If one’s hourglass only contains a certain number of grains, what action will he assign to each grain?

The second interpretation is vital to how we configure our communities. Most people either live in proximity to others or would like to organize their lives around others who share values, culture, interests, and needs. Given these considerations, communities need at least some tacit organizational protocols and behavioral norms that create a membrane around their shared values, culture, interests, and needs.

The third interpretation is crucial to humanity’s life on earth. Invariably, as we go about our lives, flowing in and out of communities or countries, we’ll find frictions. And human beings on earth can be divided roughly into two types: those who would mitigate frictions between and among people, and those who would create frictions.

Verily, siblings in our order belong to the former camp.

That is, in some fundamental sense, we dedicate our order to mitigating frictions. That means we are committed to a set of aspirations and ambitions that involve an ongoing exploration of all three interpretations of the most important question. Our operating assumption is that the first two interpretations, iteratively applied, create our community’s membrane—as long as we can derive enough Unquestionable Answers to achieve stable coherence.

While stable coherence within our membrane is necessary for group cohesion, we will not fail to explore questions that inspire awe and wonder. We call these the Unanswerable Questions, even as we seek to answer them. Such is not to argue that the most important question is not also fascinating. Instead, it is to say that it is immediate, unrelenting, and ubiquitous.

But fascinating questions are important, too—in virtue of their tendency to fascinate. To live without fascination invites a life of ennui.

So, to become a member of our order is to be willing to ask both important and fascinating questions—and never stop until death. The more important ones call for Unquestionable Answers. The more fascinating ones are Unanswerable Questions.

Unquestionable Answers are ironically dogmatic, mainly because our answers to these bind us together as a siblinghood, even though we shall always question our priors. Our foundational principles must be tested and annealed.

Unanswerable Questions are playfully serious, mainly because our answers reveal differences that are instructive, interesting, and conducive to inspiring our awe—but, paradoxically, such binds us together as siblings willing to bask in the mystery.

Our order is built upon a set of questions and answers. Our siblinghood’s deepest purpose is to answer the question: How are we to live?