Imagine, if you will, the infinite space of the known universe. Well you can’t can you? And that is because your post-monkey brain, given to you through evolution, creation or just indoctrination, is unable to wrap itself around an infinite concept. We are, after all, an enclosed vessel that holds our bio-innards, thought processes and, if you wish, a soul weighing 22 grams or some such thing I recently saw advertised. The point is, we are in a box.
With all that electrical generation within the head, and those billions of impulses that formulate what we recognize to ourselves as feelings and thoughts, condensed, filtered down, simplified into some coherence that we can share with our fellow simians, we are delighted to be able to grasp a pen and paper and write the word “Wow.”
There are those days when the absolute vastness of the scope of life is apparent in one of those illuminated moments that we wish to grapple into print. But we really cannot. We are not capable of really sharing anything more than a rudimentary exchange. We can share a common experience, but even that is as vastly differentiated as is our interpretation of color. Are 
you really sure that the color your ascribe to the name of the color is the same color that I see? In other words, I could be seeing the color blue and calling it red, while you see the color green and calling it red. It is, after all, only what you know and what you know, no matter how intelligent, trained, or educated is extremely miniscule compared to the vastness of the known universe.
Well, despite these limitations, we manage to exist. And despite our violent and self-destructive nature, we have managed to survive. We have inflicted one form or another of religion upon everyone including atheists (who would not be atheists if we did not push religion at them) and have managed to do something truly arrogant – we speak God’s word, Allah's word, Yahweh’s word, Buddha’s word – you can fill in the rest of the deity list. Even though we have no ability to truly understand infinite concepts we can arrogantly presume to speak on behalf of a deity whom we ascribe omnipotence, omnipresence, and the beginning and end of all things. Now that is a “Wow” word if i ever heard it, especially when most of the people speaking on behalf of the universal creator of all things most likely cannot spell universal, monotheistic, omnipresence and aside from rudimentary memorization of biblical verse could not ascribe the origins and dates of the passages chucked out as evidence.
I stand outside at night and look at the stars in the sky and recognize that were I too zoom in on an empty patch measuring one (relative to me) millimeter squared that in there are billions of galaxies all doing their thing. And that is just one tiny patch of seemingly empty space. Imagine all the rest of those empty spaces? Well you cannot – that is an infinite concept. So can you really justify speaking for the creator, assuming you believe in one?
And consider the known age of the universe with that “billions” word added to the years and consider what just one billion years would be? We live about 80 years on the average, and we usually do not have knowledge of our family more than three generations back, or about 150 to 300 years, and yet we can presume to understand the word of the creator?
And the creator puts up with this crap from us?
We just do not get it! We will happily kill people in the name of religion (and in the name of no religion) without apparently being told to do so by the universal oneness and yet with the certainty of “onward Christian soldiers (crusaders) marching off to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before…” as the old hymn goes. And then across the globe we have another band of theologically divined who want to kill us just because. They don’t much like women either. All in the name of one God or another have been the conflicts of humanity from the get go. People quote scripture as inviolable and yet things like “Thou shall no kill” is absolved in the name of whatever war we want to wage (defensive or offensive.)
And despite the marvelous creation of the universe, the absolute complexity of the living bodies of humans and animals that make up part of life on this planet, and our ability to create something out of nothing, we fail the basic premise that we are just not that important to the planet (that has existed for millions of years without us), the galaxy (that does not know we exist) and the creator of all, if you so believe, who should need therapy for creating something as flawed as a human and expect worship and adoration. That’s faith, I guess. I call that a “Wow” word, also. Just in case it is not good enough here and now there is always there and later for those so inclined to await their heavenly suite (the 9/11 terrorists waited on theirs as well replete with naked dancing girls to satisfy them totally.) Funny how that all works.
Atheists think they have it simpler. Believe in nothing. Life is a giant accident. So if all that time and space and complexity of natural balance from galactic to cellular is accidental, and there is no afterlife, no heaven or hell, shouldn’t atheists be doing something more useful than just….existing and bashing believers? An old axiom goes something like: If God had not created man; then man would surely have created God. And the Buddhists believe in balance so you must have the evil with the good, the atheists with the believers and so on; because the nature of the physical world is that it all comes out in the wash in the end - and I do mean all of it down to the last atom in the final cosmic freeze or cosmic crunch (I guess they are leaning to an eternal expansion these days; a sort of fitting metaphor for life on this planet.
Despite what you may think, I am not telling you what you should or should not believe. And frankly, I do not care what you believe. It is your belief and you are welcome to adhere to it with or without an understanding of the way it works or the things it glosses over. Likewise I retain my own beliefs and promise to not wage war on anyone over them, even if the courtesy is not returned. I have friends that cover the theological spectrum and take no issue with those who adhere to the truth of spirituality; that of the personal relationship YOU have with your god. And I have no issue with that if it helps you in your life to find peace and quality and satisfaction and comfort. Just don’t squeeze it out at me like toothpaste and a lecture on fluoride benefits disguised as a friendly concern for my soul, all 22 grams of it, because then I will not be happy.
I got angered by those zealots shooting abortion doctors some years back because it was a sin to commit abortion, and I would bet money that were their god provable he would be the first to deny such an action as falling into the tenets of faith. Likewise, what is happening in the Muslim community where the rights of women are virtually non-existent in a male dominated society, theology and lifestyle, and worse, where life is just a stone’s throw away – a stoning that is. Or the lunacy of those bible thumping protestors of soldiers’ and children's funerals that get to have visibility when they should be left in a dark cave to contemplate their maker.
I am reminded that at the formation of The Constitution of this country that neither women nor blacks had the right to vote as neither fell under the “All men are created equal” verse until much bloodshed with a Civil War and many acts of inhumanity against one or both groups. Similarly we managed to take Americans in the last world war and lock them up as potential enemies in what must have been a cruel shaft to the Japanese who had become legitimate citizens. So when do you really belong here? The correct answer is after you are dead and no one will ever challenge your right, as they have the right of the current President to be in office.
And finally, when I see what corporate greed, espionage and the quest for profit above public safety that has become far more of a religion than any of the others, I see a species that is on the verge of self-extinction whether by chemical pollution, fractured DNA, nuclear exchange, terrorism or just the amazing, self-centered, selfishness that has overtaken the 22 grams of soul of every person on the planet in their quest for a “me” life. We see this throughout the Internet, in the vast social forums of “me” and how everyone has a voice even when vile toxin emerges, or worse, abject illiteracy despite the billions funneled into flawed education systems and a society that allows children to rule first.
Outside my window the sun shines, green trees flourish and the voices of little children playing resonate. In my 52 years on this planet I have seen a brief rise in the nature of our species followed by a long and seemingly endless decline. Believers anticipate the end of times to compensate for their inability to steer this course differently, despite their theological mandate to help themselves if they expect the help of the maker. Were the end to come tomorrow, or 2012, or even when that last nutjob announced it before his stroke, it would be a sad legacy of the millions of years since evolution, or the thousands of years since creation – it would be a sad absolute waste of the time spent regardless what you believe and something we, as a self-described intelligent species should be totally ashamed over.
Last week the last of the shuttle missions took place. While the argument for funding locally rather than in the exploration of space may sound reasonable, it is ridiculous in the face of the waste that takes place at all levels of government, in the face of the vast billions spent on weapons, just in case, and in the face of the self-indulgent credit expenditure that left so many Americans in a tailspin since the start of the recession.
Space offers the hope for the future (thank you @RichardBranson), both in a safety net in case we explode, as much as for our economy in the formation of jobs, expansion and prosperity.
Of course we would have to stop shoving religion down each other’s throats and take some time to allow our kids to suffer Internet withdrawal symptoms from the myriad of Social Media, Porn and Piracy that seems to dominate their lives, and actually create an education system with a modern purpose. Our kids would have to be forced to do something useful that would encourage their life, but of course we would have to recover from being ineffective parents that allow our kids to do what they want.
We would have to start thinking like an advanced species and get away from that instant gratification syndrome we all suffer from. We would have to sleep more, lose all those corporate greed pounds we happily consume and recognize that motorized wheelchairs, whether paid for by Medicare or not, is not the answer to the problem of immobility. I’m tired of watching the line of them heading towards the local WalMart, each bearing a load that exceeds human tolerance.
We need a government and leadership that we do not have to question every second of every day and we need to dump those million mouthpieces we call Reality TV – ignorant big mouths who get paid obscenely for talking crap. They do not report; they regurgitate what some unknown real reporter worked on.
There is so much to do to fix this mess that the task is daunting and beyond the endurance of most of us. The likelihood of us changing is so low that I foresee the return of the creator after the 2000 year hiatus as a more likely event. But by current day standards he would be thrown in the psych ward, overmedicated for delusions of grandeur and maybe, just maybe, be offered a book/movie deal after they get done with the whole Casey Anthony thing.
We get an ‘F’ grade, individually, collectively and against the standards and benchmarks of a universe that would never even know we existed were our little dot of light to blot of quite suddenly one day. It is something to think about – if you believe in thinking.
-MisterWriter
cbs5 (
CNN (
