03.11.2011 – The Nature of Existence

Last night I attended my first CFI event. It was a screening of the documentary ‘The Nature of Existence‘ by Roger Nygard. The film was followed up by a Skype question and answer session with Roger himself.

The film was very entertaining. I was a little worried about watching a documentary in the evening after having worked a very rough schedule this week and running on very little sleep. However, I ended up not having any trouble at all. A great mixture of humor, insight, and very interesting commentary made for an entertaining viewing.

As expected,  answers to the real question of the movie ‘what is the nature of existence’ were, of course, not forthcoming. But then, I can’t imagine that anyone would have had that expectation to begin with. What was delivered, however, was a ton of great perspectives from some very interesting ‘characters’. Roger seemed to include everyone from a radical, in-your-face street preacher, to a guru from india, to druids in Great Brittain, to a 12 year-old-girl who has an amazing sense of reality and perspective for someone as young as she was.

I found the film to be nicely balanced. While Roger appears to be a free-thinker, I don’t think he let his bias get in the way of allowing all the differing opinions to be relayed. The content was really comprehensive. He travelled the entire world and included a great majority of the major religious views, and quite a few of the not-so-well-known varieties. The religious views were balanced out by including opinions and commentary from several established members of the scientific fields. Leonard Susskind (one of the fathers of string theory) and Richard Dawkins to name a pair.

The follow-up question and answer session was great, too. Roger is extremely well spoken and courteous. He had no problem spending extra time to answer questions.

I would recommend this film to anyone who is looking for answers to the ‘big questions’ of life. While you probably won’t find specific answers here, you will get a sense that you are most certainly not alone in your quest. And there are many MANY differing opinions on the topic. So, check out the film, check out the website, and enjoy!