Myth of the Eternal Return

Coming off the exhilarating high of Groundhogs Day, we’ve been able to talk more literally about the concept of eternal return. As before we were simply relating police reports and strange happenings to mythological events, we can see now that even normal, everyday things repeat themselves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_return

The basic concept of ‘Eternal Return’ is that there exists a finite amount of matter in the universe, however, time itself is infinite. So with infinite time, the finite matter will eventually run out of configurations and repeat itself.

There are several interpretations of this phenomenon. One is that eternal return makes our world meaningful, because we are imitating preexisting models. So everything that is happening in the present is significant because it automatically parallels something that has happened in the past.

But then again, since matter and events are repeating themselves, wouldn’t it make sense to assert that our world isn’t meaningful so much as it may be predictable? Is anything meaningful or special if it’s occurred countless times before? Or rather is it comforting to know that whatever is happening has indeed already happened?

It is a dilemma for those of us who accept this theory of eternal return. I know I have mixed feelings about it myself. But I always think it’s more fun to contemplate these things than to be one of those people that would rather believe their scrambled egg in the shape of Jesus is truly a universal phenomenon.