The Big Bang Theory..
Or "Did God create the universe?"
A message board i frequent has been talking alot about the big bang and the beginnings of the universe lately. A thread started with the comment "How can you get something from nothing?"
and the debate hasn't stopped.
Mostly the talk has been centred around the philosophical aspects.
While most people are not contesting the actual event itself, some are postulating that God was the cause, that God was there first, because you cant get something from nothing. So next comes the question "Did God create the universe?"
No.. He didn't
Well probably not...
Well i don't really know.
That is the problem- This argument could go on forever, because nobody has the answers for it.
To be honest my opinion is that to assume that God created the universe is just absurd, and reeks of "i believe this because its the easy answer."
So if God created the Universe, then God created everything. Oh wow! isn't he brilliant! and with religion defining everything, we have no reason to think and hypothesize or come up with any answers on our own because God is the answer to everything! Aren't we lucky to have someone there to hold our hand always. Yeah, whatever...
But that is just my opinion- what i see when i think about "the big picture."
That's not to say that i don't believe in God, or that there is nothing out there. I feel that there are many things that we do not understand.
I feel that humanity as a whole is still taking baby steps, and possibly imploding under the weight of the universe. If we should survive- if we don't kill each other first- then i believe that we will move beyond the point where we need religion to fall back on when bad things happen. One day humanity will evolve beyond that.
The problem with the big bang debate is this question- "How can we get something from nothing?" and then consider the big bang itself- Dense hot ball of stuff explodes/expands to create a much cooler universe (be aware that I've used the word "event" to describe this a couple of times- even though nobody knows yet, so its just a theory, event simply felt fitting.. )
Bearing this in mind and the thread starters initial comment, where does it imply that there was ever nothing? It doesn't- Not really.
So the answer to "how can you get something from nothing?" is: You can't.
The ideal that God clicked his omniscient fingers and the universe became is not in keeping with the whole topic. Besides- Even God is something.
Evolution
We seem to live in a perfect world. Everything seems to be... just so.
Perfect. For us.
What i mean to say is that humans seem to be designed to optimise interaction with the surrounding world. We inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, the trees and plants that cover our fair, lush, green planet do it the other way around. It seems that we evolved perfectly to survive on this planet.
Of course we did, we adapt and grow and evolve and mutate to fit our environment, its in our nature. Aren't we brilliant! Isn't nature amazing.
Sometimes i tend to have.. Something of a creationist view on evolution, every now and again this creeps into my head; "But everything is so right, so perfect, designed... Someone must have had a hand in it."
I don't believe that God or any other advanced being created the universe, but I'm not so sure on that score when it comes to evolution.
Darwinism states that all plants/animals developed by changing and adapting to their environment. The origins of species is the result of genetic mutation. We evolve, we mutate, those that are successful survive and those that don't do not. Survival of the fittest?
Does this still apply now that we are no longer killing one another (well not in the same sense that this refers too) and weeding out all of the weak ones?
Today's humanity is a sea of imperfection and weakness, some would say that that is what makes us who we are.
Mutation is supposed to be random. Well why is random so perfect?
Truthfully i still do not believe that God had a hand in evolution. There are just too many questions to be answered and it is difficult to know where to start.
The origins of life on earth might be somewhere.
As a Trekkie, i love the concepts of exogenesis and especially panspermia. (of which an episode of ST:TNG dealt with quite nicely)
Taken from Wikipedia article on "Panspermia":
Panspermia is the hypothesis that "seeds" of life exist already all over the Universe, that life on Earth may have originated through these "seeds", and that they may deliver or have delivered life to other habitable bodies.
Exogenesis is a more limited hypothesis that proposes life on Earth was transferred from elsewhere in the Universe but makes no prediction about how widespread it is. Because the term "panspermia" is more well-known, it tends to be used in reference to what would properly be called exogenesis.
Because of the nature of these ideals, they do seem to drift towards a creationist view on the origins of life in the universe. I believe in panspermia, it seems to be the most logical likely answer. One that is neither pompous nor pretentious and as such does not assume that Earth is the only planet that life evolved on. I believe to assume that we are the only life in the universe is akin to believing that we are the centre of the universe- an absurd notion.To Be Continued... When I'm not exhausted.
No comments:
Post a Comment