On The Origin of Xe

Life On Xeron

Chapter Three

If there is one thing that all Xerellians strive for, it's a complete understanding of The Laws of Everything. The Laws of Everything define the very order of their being. They describe what everything is made up of. How everything fits together. How everything is, well, just everything. Ultimately, on Xeron, that's the way it is.

Knowledge of this kind does not come easily. Xerellians spent many hundreds of generations in the accumulation of evidence confirming these laws. Evidence regarding their world and the universe of which it is a part. All in pursuit of answering the ultimate philosophical question of why they were here. It wasn't until just a few hundred generations ago that they realized they were asking the wrong question.

The world of Xeron prior to The Laws of Everything was made up primarily of belief systems. Belief systems that were created with the intent purpose of trying to answer the existential question of why they were here. Belief systems that were necessary because, at the time, knowledge systems were unavailable. Knowledge systems had not come into existence yet, due to the fact that the tools necessary for knowledge of these systems had not been discovered. As these tools became available, the old belief systems tended to fade away as the evidence mounted discounting their efficacy.

But that's not entirely true. The question of "why" was not completely answered by the new knowledge systems. So there remained a substantial number of Xerellians who still held to the belief systems that had always provided comfort to that question. It wasn't until the new knowledge systems were able to dispense with the question of "why" that their full acceptance was realized. Instead of "why", the question became one of "how". It was then they realized they had been asking the wrong question all along.

One may say that just making the "why" question substitutable does not immediately translate to no longer needing to ask the question. It all boils down to believing in something that is not seen versus knowing something that is. A brief digression may be helpful in understanding this seemingly uncharacteristic transformation.

Early on in Xerellian prehistory the stage was set for asking the "why" questions. At some point in their evolutionary history, Xerellians acquired the use of language. A language that helped them communicate things about their world that they had tended to only hold internally within themselves. What those things were, is not important. What is important, is that by developing language they were able to internally verbalize thoughts about their world. Those internal thoughts were then shared, externalized, with others in their group. And information within the group was then shared with those outside of their group. It was their initial foray into becoming what it means to be social.

It wasn't that just some information was shared. It was all information. The opportunity presented itself to talk to others about one's day, one's neighbors, and one's life. That information was then spread to others in the group, who not only shared that talk but created talk of their own. Naturally, when a life ended, information was shared about what might happen after one's life ends. They talked about how important it was to remember those who were deceased. How important it was to continue to talk to their ancestors. To assign them special status and reverence.

It is with this kind of sharing that we began to see Xerellians talking about and accepting things that do not really exist. There began a tendency to make things up that gave meaning to that which they could not see. Simply put, they were called stories. When stories were created to describe everyday occurrences, it was called gossip. But stories were also created to describe events that were not of this world. In these cases, they morphed into more other-worldly stories. Which, as they became larger than life, turned into belief systems. Belief systems that became commonly shared and reinforced by the very people who created the stories in the first place. Why? Because Xerellian stories fed belief systems that fed the need to know "why".

The idea of stories and their relationship to "why" is an interesting one. Maybe an example will help to explain. When you throw an object into the air, it is easy to see that the object moves as a result of your hand giving it thrust. No explanation of "why" is needed because you understand "how" it was moved. You can easily observe it. But if you ask a question about "why" a leaf grows from a plant? What is the power that does this? There is no immediately obvious answer. It just does. But to give meaning to a power that you don't understand, you make up a story that explains "why" it appears. That explanation of "why" then gets propagated to others, who share it with others, until the story becomes widely believed as the "why" behind the leaf''s growth. It is not until you discover "how" something actually occurs, that the "why" then becomes obsolete. It is not until you discover the unique biology of a plant's growth and the idea of photosynthesis, that the story no longer makes sense. The story is replaced by the science of "how".

Over time, Xerellians collectively started to believe in their stories. About those things they did not understand. The stories became myths, if you will. Without any evidence to the contrary, it was easy to believe something that everyone else believed. Peer pressure and that sort of thing. The more they shared, the more the belief system spread. That's what sharing does. Even if the sharing was all about things that did not exist.

Then, a few hundred generations ago, all of this started to change. Some Xerellians started to challenge the existence of these beliefs. They demanded to know where the evidence was to support these beliefs. There began a concerted effort to truly understand the physical nature of the world they lived in. The "how" of their world. So started the transition from belief- based systems to those that were knowledge-based. The transformation didn't take place overnight. It took hundreds of generations to pile up the evidence. Evidence that was empirical, testable, and trustingly verifiable.

That evidence congealed into what is known on Xeron as The Laws of Everything. Evidence that was so convincing that it formulated explanations of how things in their world were the way they perceived them to be. Explanations that created a willingness to tolerate the uncertainty of the unknown. The uncertainty posed by the question of "why". An uncertainty that belief-based systems had tried to address. Xerellians developed a willingness to tolerate ambiguity. A willingness to forgo not knowing the answer now, until a later time when they would be able to discover an answer. Forgo the question of "why" and wait for the certainty of "how".

So it is that The Laws of Everything became the key to Xerellian life. Life on Xeron came to the place that the question of "why" was no longer asked. The answer was simply no longer needed. Knowing the "how" of something was both scientifically and spiritually satisfying. Xerellians became completely comfortable with not knowing "why". Because to believe otherwise would be just making up stories.