Mysteries of life

Life is one of the most mysterious things to me, but at the same time it's inspiring. I think one of the most mysterious things to me is how humans and human cultures came to be. In one sense, it's anthropocentric to think that people are testments of the ingenuity of evolution. In another sense, though, it's really amazing when you think about the complexities of culture, the abilities of children to come to comprehend a systems of signs that has developed extrinsic to their biology, yet comes to encompass their whole intellectual selves. Think of all the facets of human interests - art, science, commerce, language, philosophy, entertainment (all of which can be broken down further and further)... and try and find an example in another species. And even considering some of the amazing species on planet Earth, we have yet to find concrete evidence of even bacteria on other planets. How did our planet come to be the dynamic and diverse ecosystem that it is, and all other planets are, so far, not even close? Even more mysterious-and perhaps ironic- is the possibility that we are the only ones in the universe aware of our own uniqueness