Science for Thought

What If?

What If?

Im this essay I want to discuss what has led to our present situation both from science t and philosophical viewpoints. I am speaking strictly from a scientific point of reference.

As you must know, the current cosmological theory as to how we came about is called the Big Bang. It's still a theory because the evidence for its occurrence is not yet cast in stone so to speak. What's even more exasperating is that no one can explain why or how the Big Bang occurred. Cosmologists say that it could have been the result of quantum physics principles. Religions say that it was the result of a creator that they call God.

There is no real understanding as to how quantum physics played a role in the inception of the Big Bang. It would definitely require the idea that physical laws always existed, but there is no way to prove that. The word 'always' has no validity because time was created with the Big Bang. Unfortunately, no one can demonstrate what existed before the Big Bang. It could be that our Big Bang was the result of another previous universe's collapsing into a singularity or that we are actually in a supermassive black hole. These are interesting ideas but not provable.

Similarly, there is no real proof for a creator. The concept of God is something that humans have developed to understand how and why we got here. The oldest religions, such as Judaism and Hinduism were more concerned with relationship than with theology. They both have spirituality as the main goal. The rituals and theology that are the mainstays of religions came later in an attempt to regulate and control. This was done in some cases by means of sacred documents. None of the religions offer a proof for God. Instead, they rely on faith, which is belief without proof. They have established authority based on these sacred documents and use them to rule over their followers. Although it makes sense to propose that everything was created by a higher power, we have no definitive proof for it despite the existence of copies of ancient scriptures and testaments. Scholars can't pinpoint the actual authors of these documents, adding to the confusion about their authenticity. They must be accepted on faith.

Before the onset of modern science, humans thought that we were the center of the entire universe. After the invention of the telescope, it became obvious that we are just one tiny part of a very huge universe. Because we have not yet discovered other intelligent life in the universe, we consider ourselves to be the epitome of creation. Unfortunately, we really don't have proof for that grandiose conclusion. We might only be smart apes who have evolved enough to realize that this planet we live on is not the only planet in the universe. I say that we are smart apes because as a species we are related to the great apes like the chimpanzees. One of the reasons that we exist is that we evolved as hominids from the earliest proto ape-like species. This was a very fortunate split because it eventually led to Homo sapiens, which is what we are. The reason that I bring this up is because there is speculation as to whether this kind of evolution could occur on alien planets. The problem with this is that we have no idea what other evolutionary schemes could result in intelligent life. Even more important is the fact that we don't fully understand what intelligence is.

Some religions claim that we humans were placed on Earth directly by God. The problem with that idea is that we are genetically very similar to all other living creatures. Our DNA contains the DNA of all life and our DNA is only a tiny percentage different than that of chimpanzees. Everything about us physically indicates that we evolved just like every other living creature on this planet. If we are the epitome of creation then God screwed up. We are flawed just like everything else. Nothing is perfect.

Sigmund Freud said, "Religion is a system of wishful illusions together with a disavowal of reality, such as we find nowhere else but in a state of blissful hallucinatory confusion. Religion's eleventh commandment is; Thou shalt not question." Maybe this is the main problem with trying to reconcile science with religion.