The last thought that I can remember before falling asleep one night was that about the validity of the existence of religion and of God. The darkness of my room helped me visualize the Earth as from space. The sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars all around me.
It slowly came upon me to ask myself why all of those were created? If God made the universe, it will look like He wasted a lot of effort for the other heavenly beings. What is Venus' purpose? Saturn's? Jupiter's? What about Pluto which isn't even considered a planet anymore? Why were they created? What about the other galaxies which contain other planets?
As I made myself move with the speed of who knows how many light years farther from a picture of our solar system in my mind, it became more obvious how insignificant the Earth is compared to the whole universe. If life was possible on our planet, taking the scientific point of view, then the chance of alien life is also a significant possibility, if not a big one.
I can see a similarity in how Earth was created and how life here is possible. Through biochemistry, I have seen how biomolecules make our cells function. There is no "unknown" or "indescribable" force inside our cells. "Biological life" is simply a matter of immensely-complex chemical reactions. There's also the matter of evolution from the primordial soup to the "thinking man", which to me, makes more sense as I mature as a scientist. But the main question is - how was the cell and its organelles constructed from the simpler chemical compounds present in a younger Earth?
A similar pattern, I think, applies to the universe, although I have much less knowledge about astronomy than biochemistry. Somehow, a planet with ideal conditions for carbon-based life came into being. A yellow sun, liquid water, and a mild atmosphere were made available to one of the myriad planets formed in the universe, making life possible here.
Yet again, a similar question occurs to me - where did the starting material (from the Big Bang) came from? The subsequent formation of other atoms from hydrogen and helium can be explained through physics and chemistry, but how was the energy to start the "explosion" which made the universe as it is today made? What force supplied that?
I have a vague idea that the first cell was made from a combination of evolution and chance (looking at how bacteria evolve fast), and that TIME is a major factor in it. I think humans are biased about what they think are possible because we have a limited notion of time. Given enough time, some things which we may believe almost impossible to occur, can occur. Will occur.
On the other hand, I have neither idea much less a theory on what supplied that Big Bang energy and where all those starting matter came from.
I was just talking to Ate Babeh who is currently working on the other computer here in the faculty room. I told her about my ideas, and she said that God supplied those starting materials, made that first explosion of energy, and guided how life was made possible here on Earth.
But still, I retorted, that that doesn't explain the possibility of alien life, which the Bible doesn't agree on. Her reply, which lit something inside me, is that religion may be false. The Bible is made by men. They might be wrong, but it doesn't mean that God does not exist.
I am about to close this entry (because I need to eat some lunch) and I'll leave you with this thought for the present. Who knows what purposes the other planets have? (Although I believe they might have been there to balance the gravitational forces and keep the Earth in its proper orbit.) Or the other stars like Vega, Antares, Betelgeuse, or Aldebaran? I don't know. I don't believe someone really knows either.
I questioned such things because I want to learn the truth about my life, my significance, but there are times when these "inquisitions" should step aside for acceptance. Just accept that the stars are there. The planets are there. I should just accept that I am here, a living being, and I am given the chance to think about beautiful thoughts such as these.
As much as question why a beautiful flower blooms in a rocky cliff where no insect, bird, or human can gaze on its beauty.
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