My Life with
God In and Out of the Church
excerpt from chapter 5 pages 68-78
showing how nature reveals to the human mind the existence of God
During the next 2 years,
philosophy would teach me what the mind can know about the basic principles of
being without using telescopes, microscopes and divine revelation. Later during
theology, I would acquire knowledge based entirely upon revelations reputedly
from God. For the moment, however, I must rely solely upon reason.
In his opening class, the professor reviewed what humans
believed about the origin of the world for thousands of years before the first
philosophers appeared in Greece during the fourth century BC. Over a million
years ago, humans expressed their thoughts and feelings in spoken language.
Their descendants communicated their beliefs and achievements to future
generations - all by word of mouth.
Around 3000 BC the Sumerians, who lived along the Euphrates
and Tigris rivers, invented the art of writing which spread to other cultures
and races. Now humans could record in stone and clay or on parchment and
papyrus their thoughts including those about the origin of the world.
Without scientific instruments, just from visual
observation, humans found no explanation for the world: lightning and thunder,
earthquakes and typhoons, floods and drought. In society, things happened when
rulers gave orders and when craftspeople got to work. In nature, beings that
were smarter and more powerful than humans must be directing the elements and
forces. To explain the mysteries of the world, the Sumerians created thousands
of deities. So did the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians and most civilizations
for thousands of years.
The first people to seek non-divine explanations for
natural phenomena were Greek thinkers, such as Thales (547 BC), Anaximander
(547 BC), Plato (348 BC), and Aristotle (322 BC). According to Plato, the
universe reveals design, purpose, and therefore a supreme architect.
Aristotle observed that nothing starts to exist by itself.
Its existence depends on something or someone else. An infinite series of
beings, each depending on another for existence, could never get started except
by a being who needs no one or nothing for existence. We call that
self-sufficient being God. Plato and Aristotle blazed a new trail for the
pursuit of knowledge. Instead of running to the temple for answers about the
world, humans should examine nature's elements and forces relying on intellect
rather than on deities. During the next two years, I would follow the lead of
Plato and Aristotle and probe the basic principles of being with my mind.
After much reflection, I reached the certitude that a
powerful, intelligent and good being, who always existed, created the universe
in which we live. This conviction is the foundation of my philosophy of life:
my overall vision of and attitude towards life and the purpose of life. My life
makes sense only because my belief in God is based not on revelations reputedly
from God but on rational reflections upon the wonders of nature. Let me
explain.
Walking through the woods one day, I picked up an acorn - a
lowly nut with a lofty lesson. In the soil, the nut pops its cover. A tender
stem emerges and evolves into a stately oak: trunk, branches and leaves. The
acorn is an organism that, with common plant nutrients, develops not into a
maple or birch or elm but into an oak - nothing else. The acorn is formed and
fashioned that way. By what? Mindless matter or an intelligent force? By chance
or design?
Later I examined a magnificent monarch butterfly. At first
the original cell develops as a lowly caterpillar. After several weeks, the
insect covers itself with a shell, becoming a pupa hanging by a thread from a
branch. Later the insect breaks through its shell and emerges fully developed
with exquisite black and golden wings. These paper-thin wings carry the
butterfly from Texas to Canada every autumn and back again every spring. This
amazing metamorphosis from seed-caterpillar-pupa to butterfly occurs without
fail because the seed is made that way. Again the question: what or who
fashioned the seed? Mindless matter or an intelligent agent? By chance or
design?
I asked myself this question many times. Finally I found
the answer not in universities or libraries, not in observatories or
laboratories, not in synagogues or cathedrals but in a crib. Better than
scholars and scientists, better than preachers and teachers, a baby answered my
question definitively.
A baby originates from a single cell which measures 0.00004
of an inch. Soon the zygote divides into two complete cells, each of which
again separates, and these 4 subdivide into 8 and so on until the process
systematically produces more than 10 trillion cells, of which 500 average-sized
cells can fit within the following period. If each cell measured 1 cubic inch,
a human adult would be as big as a building 1800 feet wide, 1800 feet deep, and
1800 feet tall.
Early in the cell-producing process, certain genes call for
organ-forming proteins. These specialists soon fashion a heart that can pump
blood, carrying nutrients and oxygen, to each of the baby's trillion cells. A
fresh supply is critical. Without renewed oxygen, brain cells suffer damage
within 4-6 minutes and certain death within 10. With a lifetime guarantee, this
marvel of bioengineering beats about 72 times a minute or 103,680 times a day.
And since each heartbeat delivers 2.5 ounces of blood into the arteries, the
heart pumps 2025 gallons each day.
Keeping pace with the heart, the baby's lungs develop, not
for immediate use, but for a surefire start when the newborn gasps for his
first breath. Another masterpiece of engineering, the lungs inhale and store
oxygen in 300,000,000 tiny sacs. Blood rushing from the heart passes through
these sacs to collect fresh oxygen and distribute it to the body's
multi-trillion cells. As the blood courses through the body, it also collects
waste from every cell, flushing solids into the intestines and liquids into the
kidneys, and depositing carbon dioxide in the lungs for exhalation.
But the most amazing and distinctively human organ is the
brain. Only three weeks after conception, a brain appears as a tiny sheet of
nerve cells, called neurons, and grows at a feverish pace creating millions of
new cells each day. At birth they number 14 billion.
Since one neuron may form 5,000-50,000 connections with its
neighbor neurons, the number of possible communication-points in the brain
reaches 20,000,000,000,000. Through this system, the brain operates an
integrated network reaching every organ and every cell deep inside our bowels,
down to our fingertips and toes. The communication systems of AT&T
worldwide cannot compare with the complexities and activities of one human
brain. The brain can communicate not only sound, shapes and color but also
smell, taste, pain, thoughts, love, and especially awareness and consciousness
of them all.
Scientists have discovered that brain activity depends on
chemical reactions and electrochemical energy. Since neurons receive and send
signals not over wires but through organic matter, the messages are encoded in
chemicals. But if a finger touching a hot stove had to wait until chemical reactions
worked their way to the brain and back before receiving the pull-away command,
the whole finger would fry to a frizzle. To speed up transmission, the first
neuron to receive the alarm charges the signal with electrochemical energy.
From that moment on, the message speeds along at 120 miles per hour.
Whoever admires a baby smiling and gurgling in his crib,
whoever feels his heart beat and his lungs breathe, whoever foresees that this
little guy will someday reason and love, whoever looks into his eyes has to
believe that this baby's existence was planned, set in motion and guided by a
supreme, intelligent being whom we call God.
During a philosophy class I asked the professor, "What
impelled God to create the world?"
"For the answer," he replied, "you'll have
to wait until next year. Theology will reveal the reason." But such a
burning question required an immediate answer. I would test my newly found
intellectual powers.
Often in the evening, I would relax alone on the flat roof
and admire the stars, openings into heaven. Through these peepholes I looked
for a glimpse of God. I remember asking him, "Why did you create the
universe? For what reason? For what purpose? "
Before creating the first node of energy that exploded into
our universe, God existed a long time. He got along quite well without us. He
surely did not need us for anything. Then why create us?
For his amusement? I can see creating a few monkeys
for
laughs. But dour donkeys with hollow hee-haws? Humorless hippopotamuses?
Snooty, stiffed-necked giraffes? For fun? NO!.
Did he create this world because he was lonely or bored? To
keep busy? Just for the heck of it? A loud definitive "NO".
Surely not for the praise of flowers and trees, insects and
birds, animals and fish - none of which can recognize God and praise his deeds.
If for human praise, why create a world billions of years before any humans
existed? Why the trillions of stars when a few would have served that purpose?
Why blossoms in the unexplored forests of Brazil? Why fish beneath frozen Artic
seas? Why such a lavish creation beyond human perception? For the praise that
God would receive from humans? If so, we surely let him down.
So many of us fail to admire the wonder of the world before
our very eyes. We do not always see God's glory beyond the dazzling sunsets.
The snowy mountains slopes do not always raise our minds and hearts to him. We
watch graceful gazelles, brilliant butterflies, rainbow trout without seeing
them as his handiwork. And when we do spend a few moments in prayer, our
thoughts often center on our needs and desires. Before creating us, God must
have known what to expect. Therefore, he cannot have created this grand
universe for our scant and faint praise.
If not for our praise, then why did he create us? Could it
be just to share his being? To give others a chance to exist and enjoy life?
The weeping willow does not seem to enjoy life but it does not want to die.
Neither does the cactus which survives in desert sand by absorbing the morning
dew. Salmon enjoy swimming even when they must struggle up waterfalls to reach
their spawning grounds. Who doubts that porpoises enjoy forming graceful arcs
in and out of the water? Monkeys go crazy swinging from tree to tree. Lion cubs
play like kittens. Goats hop for joy. Even we humans have fun and hold on to
life tenaciously. No animal, no bird, no fish commits suicide nor do flowers
and trees. Only a few humans choose suicide, usually in moments of dark
despair. For most of us, life is worthwhile. If sharing his existence and life
was God's purpose in creating the world, he succeeded well beyond our
understanding.
God's purpose in creation is revealed in the way he
fashioned all living creatures. He designed a mechanism in their genes to
reproduce and share their being. The maple tree, besides producing syrup and
colorful leaves, scatters thousands of winged seed every autumn. At the same
time, the oak drops oodles of acorns; and the neighbor tree, its chestnuts.
Watermelons provide seed for next year's crop. Fish lay millions of eggs in
calm water; turtles bury theirs deep and safe in sandy shores. And man, not to
be outdone by his fellow-creatures, deposits millions of sperm every time he
makes love. Turtles and humans, maple trees and oak did not fashion their
individual mechanism of procreation. Through nature, God put it in every living
creature. It bears his imprint, his stamp, his label. It is God's way of
ensuring the continuation of his creation and the realization of its purpose.
On earth, we call someone who gives abundantly to others without personal gain "good, goodhearted, generous and loving". We define love as "an unselfish benevolent concern for the good of others". This definition applies to God eminently since he created the entire universe apparently for no other reason than to share his being with us. To all creatures, he has given the greatest gift of all - EXISTENCE. Without it, we would be NOTHING. We would never enjoy starry skies and sunsets, flowers and animals and children. Nothing would exist without God's creative force, intelligence and goodness. My belief in this powerful, intelligent and good God gives meaning to my life and a purpose that hopefully harmonizes with his.