equally real at all stages of his life; specifically, the fact that a particular stage is present cannot be regarded as conferring on it any special status.
Thomas NagelLeading a human life is a full-time occupation, to which everyone devotes decades of intense concern.
Thomas NagelPerhaps the belief in God is the belief that the universe is intelligible, but not to us.
Thomas NagelEach of our lives is a part of the lengthy process of the universe gradually waking up and becoming aware of itself.
Thomas NagelIt is prima facie highly implausible that life as we know it is the result of a sequence of physical accidents together with the mechanism of natural selection. We are supposed to abandon this naïve response, not in favor of a fully worked out physical/chemical explanation but in favor of an alternative that is really a schema for explanation, supported by some examples. What is lacking, to my knowledge, is a credible argument that the story has a nonnegligible probability of being true.
Thomas Nagel