Wednesday, November 25, 2009

My Driving is Getting Me Nowhere



"Move over", I said. "I want to drive."
"Sure, you know where you want to go with your life", said God.
Some time later He checked back with me.
"So, How's this going for you?"
"Ummm, I am kinda stuck. Think you can get me out of here?"
"Sure, I know where you need to go, always have, always will." God gave me a wry smile.
"Just one thing" He said. "Don't try to be a backseat driver or I'll pull over and let you out faster than I came back to get you out of this mess."

Why Do We Laugh?
Why Do We Cry?
Why Do We Even Think About It?


Forget Darwinism. Forget creationism. Let's be practical. We don't know the origin of life on earth. We have theories and we have some facts. Some facts are grounded by theories and some theories are grounded by facts. Shall ever the twain meet? I doubt it. Humans have a limited capacity to know everything all at the same time. Unfortunately, our knowledge of the how and why of the universe is limited to the facts we can scientifically prove and the beliefs we believe have been revealed to us by The God, many gods or an inner god we acknowledge but cannot prove. Some say there is no God in response to those who say there is. But beliefs are beliefs. We all have them. If we choose not to believe in something or nothing we are believing in not believing.

Whew, with that circular argument out of the way I will get to the belief I know to be true to myself based upon all the evidence I have gathered for my analysis on November 23, 2009. (My gathering of evidence is limited to what I have limited it to. So I, like so many others who have gone before me have really only scant evidence of all that is out there for me to digest, *Belch*)

We can follow the fossil/geological record and extrapolate certain facts about the so far discovered life on Earth that was able to leave evidence of its existence. Mostly it has been bone that has been turned to rock. But recent discoveries have shown evidence of soft tissue, maybe even DNA (maybe) within the bones. I believe that the evidence of biologic life on earth is older, many times older, than the writers of the Bible or other ancient scholars could have imagined. The Biblical story of Noah saving all the types of animals makes a good narrative that God wanted to save his creations in the animal world but wanted to start over with humans is a good analogy , but not factually practical.

Sorry Creationists, your story doesn't hold, err, water. A single Brontosaurus was bigger than the entire ark as described, let alone a pair of them. Too bad the authors of the Old Testament did not include a Paleontologist with a Star Trek Trimeter that beeps and flashes the secrets of the universe.

It is now known (known by whom?)( The scientists most of us trust, put our belief in, who make these decisions) that over 23 million species discovered and alive today in 2009 have not been named, let alone the ones who have died out. Let's move on...

No one has been able to prove or disprove the point in earth's history where an animal became a human being, if such a distinct example exists to be discovered. I define a human as a being, who is self aware and cognizant of being something beyond his own instinct to survive. As such, humans have a unique desire in the animal world (such as we know it to date) to define, communicate, and have a personal relationship with a being/spirit that is beyond the ability of our own power to create. Yes, we can reproduce other beings similar to ourselves, but not one who transcends it all, whose concept of past, present and future sounds quaint and un-enlightened.

I don't think apes and dolphins spend much time thinking about God, though they do exhibit self awareness. Maybe the discovery of Lucy or Australopithecus’ "Ardi" try to fill in the Darwin model of evolution of human from ape. But, they are only bones of an animal, maybe a self aware being, that exhibited human being like physiology and maybe even mental evolution, but we cannot know what they thought of themselves; If they thought of themselves at all. That link to self consciousness cannot be currently, scientifically proven.

Evolution of humans is more a mental process than a physical one. Our beliefs about what is real and true change more quickly mentally/socially than physically/environmentally.

The more we try to prove through science the origins of life and its manifestations, the more we find unknown and unexplainable questions to answers found based on supposition, dare I say it, faith, that today's theories will be proven true some time later on?

Are we so vain as to claim that our knowledge of life through science in the last few hundred years will not be eclipsed by new discoveries that change reality thousands of years from now? How about 50 years from now? How about tomorrow?

Did Noah have any dinosaurs on the ark? Did the Mayans need supercomputers to predict the alignment of celestial events a thousand years later? Did Galileo need the Hubble space telescope to determine the earth orbited the Sun and be put in prison by the church for his heretical thinking?

Did Paul and most of the disciples of Jesus die horrible deaths because they lied to themselves and everyone else about seeing a man rise from the dead and believing His promises of a life hereafter and a better life while we now live? Did the discovery of nuclear arms and the possibility of creating our own planetary destruction bring peace to the world?

Did you contemplate today what would happen if your next breath or heartbeat was your last one? Why? Why not?

Life on earth does not depend on our theories, experiences, scientific revelations or spiritual beliefs. But, life on earth as we know it does. Were human beings created from scratch as brand new beings? Are we the culmination of billions of years of trial and error? Are we a finished product, or just a new model year refinement from last year? As we evolve mentally and spiritually will we look back on homo sapiens fossils as scientific curiousitys?

I laugh at those who take this argument seriously. I also cry because events like world wars and ethnic cleansing are carried out because of it.

I think the most important questions are the one not asked. They are: Why do humans laugh and cry? Why do humans think about life and death? Why do humans contemplate the possibility or impossibility of life before and after we are born and die? Why do we even feel the need to ask and try to answer these questions?

a Robservation, 11-24-09

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

How Far is God?



Sometimes I have to step back, waaay back, to see God.  I tend to get caught up in the details and forget to see the big picture.  However, at other times I get lost in the clouds and have to look very close to my heart to see Him?  Is there any difference? It depends on my attitude and altitude.