Discussion question: Is something wrong with the world?

[alexandra_thorn]

I just started reading God is Not One by Stephen Prothero. Overall, I like it pretty well, so far. I think it's an interesting perspective.

In particular, I was struck by this paragraph of the introduction:

What the world's religions share is not so much a finish line as a starting point. And where they begin is with this simple observation: something is wrong with the world. In the Hopi language, the word Koyaanisquatsi tells us that life is out of balance. Shakespeare's Hamlet tells us that there is something rotten not only in the state of Denmark but also in the state of human existence. Hindus say that we are living in the kali yuga, the most degenerate age in cosmic history. Buddhists say that human existence is pockmarked by suffering. Jewish, Christian, and Islamic stories tell us that this life is not Eden; Zion, heaven, and Paradise lie out ahead.

This idea that something is not right is certainly familiar to me. I wonder how universal it really is.

So, questions:
1) Do you agree with the idea that something is wrong with the world, or the state of human existence?
2) How would you sum up what (if anything) is wrong? Or is it even possible to sum up what is wrong?

Comments

[frith]

It's not so much that something is wrong with the world than that the world isn't interested in us per se. We are disposable cogs in a huge non-sentient biochemical machine, a machine with as much purpose and destiny as plate techtonics or the polar ice cap. We are a fluke of a 4 billion year old biochemical arms race, the latest thing in a long line of latest things. Here today, gone tomorrow. Pure progress for the sake of progress. So while we put on airs and paint ourselves large against the sky, the machine rolls on, regardless. "Right" is only the continued existence of biochemistry in one form or another. Life is just another energy state. As "right" as Saturn's rings.

[herohigh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, pretty much this.