THERE IS AN INFINITE AMOUNT OF SPACE ABOVE US...
...AND AN INFINITE AMOUNT OF DEAD ANCESTORS BENEATH OUR FEET. WHAT, THEN, IS OUR SIGNIFICANCE?
150 (perhaps a little bit longer due to technology) years from now the life that I lead—where I go to school, what I enjoy doing, who I befriend, who I help, what I look like—will be completely irrelevant, if not entirely forgotten, even by members of my own family. I know this is going to happen because none of my relatives of this generation or I can name our great-grandparents. That is just how things are: after more than three generations, it’s so long and thanks for all the genes gramps. Sometimes I think about this and wonder why I get so worked up about things like school-work or financial problems. The accolades and salaries that we accumulate in this lifetime are so small in the grand scheme of this planet that they aren’t even worthy of a shout-out on it’s timeline. For no matter what we accomplished, we all will someday end up in the same dirt. Hell, even the planet whose dirt we will rot in is fairly insignificant in terms of the universe.
THE DETAILS OF MY EXISTENCE WILL NEVER APPEAR ON ANY TYPE OF TIMELINE. I AM OF TOO SMALL IMPORTANCE.
Okay, so since that is over with, is anyone else as bummed out as I am? I don’t particularly enjoy that fact that “mankind [appears] as an incidental and fortuitous episode in the age-long history of the stars.”[3] In fact, it is something that I find very hard to accept. I’m supposed to do all this hard work creating a life for myself while being a good person and then when it’s over I just get decomposed by maggots in the ground? It just ends? Huh? No, no, no. There must be some other reason I am here, a reason that is much more fulfilling. This is where religion comes in. My religion fills me with a sense of purpose, a sense of belonging, and, to be honest, a sense of sanity. I have to believe that we were put on this earth, that our bodies are constructed so efficiently, that we are able to create and contemplate so much, for some reason other than pure coincidence. I have to believe that “Nothing walks with aimless feet; that not one life shall be destroyed, or cast as rubbish to the void, when God hath made the pile complete.”[4] Our lives have purpose and meaning, and as a result our lives are valued by God, no matter how insignificant we may feel while here on Earth.
RELIGION OF ALL KINDS CAN GIVE PEOPLE A SENSE OF PURPOSE, BELONGING, AND MEANING.
However, I would be lying if I said that I have never questioned my faith or wondered why horrible things like natural disasters happen or why people suffer. It leads me to ponder if “God and Nature [are] then at strife”[5], why “Time [can be] a maniac scattering dust, and life [can be] a fury resembling flame.”[6] The truth is I don’t know why these things happen, but can only believe that they are all part of some heavenly plan and hope that I am right. I feel this way because doesn’t everybody want to die for something, to be a part of something bigger than themselves?
Science, with its facts, proof, tangible and visible results, is a hard argument to ignore. Yet, I have always felt like science and religion can coexist—that science can be used to prove religion as much as it can be used to refute it. Perhaps I am just naïve and childish on this subject, but I still steadfastly believe what my Sunday school teachers always told me: that yes, God created the world in six days and then took the seventh day off, and that no, we cannot define how long a day is in God’s mind. A day could by 30 seconds, five years, or even millions of years. Why then can’t evolution and the big bang theory coexist with creationism?
I DON'T PRETEND TO BE AN EXPERT ON SUCH SUBJECTS, BUT I DON'T VIEW THE COEXISTENCE OF CREATIONISM AND EVOLUTION AS BEING ENTIRELY FAR-FETCHED.
As crazy as it may sound, I have always felt that God is still continuing his work, still perfecting us in his image through evolution. I view “God as a loving being who directs evolution toward beneficent ends.”[7] One day we may finally get there, but not yet. Maybe this sounds silly, but I don’t know how else to explain the existence of dinosaurs and their obvious omission from the Bible.
I admit that it can be difficult to believe in something that is cannot be seen, heard, felt, smelled, tasted. However, I find it even more difficult to believe that our planet and its inhabitants (including us), with all of our intricacies, came to be in our present situation by pure, random occurrence. In the end, “[I] know not anything, I can but trust that good shall fall.”[8] That is what faith is all about.
[1] Larry McMurtry, “Living Among Skeletons and Ghosts,”, X603A
[2] Lionel Stevenson, “Darwin among the Poets,” Darwin 653
[3] Lionel Stevenson, “Darwin among the Poets,” Darwin 653
[4] Alfred Tennyson, “In Memoriam,” lyric LIV
[5] Alfred Tennyson, “In Memoriam,” lyric LV
[6] Alfred Tennyson, “In Memoriam,” lyric L
[7] Lionel Stevenson, “Darwin among the Poets,” Darwin 654
[8] Alfred Tennyson, “In Memoriam,” lyric LIV
PHOTOS:
[1] Starry sky, http://www.galaxypix.com/stars/4086.jpg
[2] bones in the ground,
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/1914143/2/istockphoto_1914143_bones_in_the_ground.jpg
[3] timeline, http://www.dinosaurisle.com/images/Timeline%203.gif
[4] women praying,http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3070/2849950885_a84a968628.jpg?v=0
[5] Jesus with Darwin, http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/04/16/darwin_phototennis.jpg
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