I have tried to harvest from some of the greatest minds an understanding of the nature of God, human existence, and our ability to transcend what is commonly known as self-preservation – the “most powerful” human instinct. Furthermore, I present the argument that debunks the myth that humans are mortal beings, simply living and ultimately dying.
If things were as simple as traditional biology tells us, what explains why a spouse or parent is willing to give their life in exchange for their loved one? Perhaps love and the divine human spirit provide us with the innate spiritual supremacy to rise above our “higher human instinct” and propel a person to overcome our “captive,” that is, the primitive urge to survive. Needless to say, we are back where we started. The question that remains to be answered centers on whether human beings are eternal beings.
I did some research regarding the probability that a person is alive right now, living on the planet we call earth. We will come back to this in a moment.
Note that our universe emerged as a “singularity” about 13.7 billion years ago.
Although I have been flirting with the possibility of eternal life (in some shape or form), and, something or Someone who was the great designer of the cosmos, I have not used the word “religion”, correct?
Comparing apples to apples, I will use the word “faith” when contrasting faith as a higher power vs. faith in the science underlying the Big Bang theory.
We know that our universe was born almost 14 billion years ago, however ask a scientist ‘how the Big Bang happened’. You will probably get an answer that goes something like this, ’14 billion years ago the universe emerged from an unknown cosmic trigger. “Hmm – an unknown cosmic trigger … What is an unknown cosmic trigger? It takes some faith to believe in one!
Logic tells me that faith comes in two opposite forms, faith in the form of a scientific theory and faith in something or Someone, that is, a higher power. I tend to look for convincing evidence to support a certain faith.
The assumption that an unknown cosmic trigger led me to sit at my computer typing would require that I have faith in the existence of a cosmic trigger. So what is a reasonable alternative to an unknown cosmic trigger? Probability and statistics, of course! I will illustrate my point without going too deep into the mathematical discipline.
I noted earlier that I did some research regarding the probability that a person is alive today, living on the planet we call earth. First of all, no matter what faith you adopt, you are a miracle, at least in the eyes of the odds and statistics.
Throughout the violent and turbulent first moments of the Big Bang until the formation of the Earth 4.5 billion years ago, you “survived” hundreds of millions of catastrophic events like the meteor that struck the Earth and killed 80% of the entire Earth. life on Earth, including dinosaurs. that happened 66 million years ago.
From the Big Bang to the time of your conception and birth, you are a miracle given that the statistical probability that you are here is around 1 in 400 billion. I suggest that a person is more likely to win the lottery thousands of times in a row than to be alive.
Is statistical science a fact or a faith? Perhaps the probability (1 in 400 trillion) that you are alive, living on earth, is utter nonsense given that statistical analysis can be quite an overwhelming endeavor when it comes to controlling for critical variables while analyzing and normalizing data.
Frankly, can it be too difficult to come to a valid conclusion? I do not have a good answer, however, I think it is more prudent to hitch a horse to a cart that is missing a wheel, that is, an unknown cosmic trigger.
Einstein continued to hold a deistic concept of God. He was in awe of the beauty and complexity of the cosmos, but could not accept the idea of a God meddling in human history.
Einstein’s concept of beauty is that it resonates with awe at the beauty and complexity of the cosmos. Certainly, something or Someone must have intervened in the beautiful design of the cosmos.
Perhaps Einstein correctly saw that the beauty of the universe reflects the beauty of something or Someone beyond the universe. If God had been silent, we could say no more than Einstein said: that “the vast darkness of the universe presents suggestions of transcendent beauty.”
Earnest Becker wrote: “Man breaks the limits of mere cultural heroism; he destroys the lie of the character who made him act as a hero in the everyday social scheme of things; and in doing so, he opens himself to infinity, to the possibility of heroism … He links his secret inner self, his authentic talent, his deepest feelings of uniqueness … to the very foundation of creation. From the ruins of the broken cultural self remains the mystery of the private, invisible, inner self that he longed for. the ultimate meaning.
This invisible mystery in the heart of [the] The creature now takes on a cosmic meaning by affirming its connection to the invisible mystery at the heart of creation. “This”, he concludes, “is the meaning of faith.”
According to Becker, faith is the belief that despite “insignificance, weakness, one’s death,” one’s existence has meaning in an ultimate sense because it exists within an eternal and infinite scheme of things created and maintained. to design by some creative force.
Becker’s ideas about cosmic design and a creative force are not as bold as Einstein’s cosmic perspective that includes a non-traditional God, or “something or Someone” beyond the universe … I interpret this to mean a higher power.
I’ll end with a quote from Albert Einstein, “science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”