It is interesting to contemplate how such a tiny part of the universe can end up as a functioning, thinking human being. Consider the odds against 150 pounds or so of matter ending up in a human vessel and for what reason. The seven billion people on our planet have a combined mass of a trillion pounds or so. And the sun converts a trillion pounds or so of mass…every second. And it has done this every second for 5,000,000,000 years, and will continue to do so for 5,000,000,000 more years. On second thought, don’t think too much about the odds. You may be able to write the zeros, but you can never comprehend the magnitude.
And if that’s not enough, also consider that our sun is just one star in our galaxy of 200 to 400 billion stars. And there are billions upon billions of galaxies in our visible universe which contains an estimated 30 billion trillion stars, whatever that number is. It is also estimated that there are thousands of times more stars than grains of sand on the entire earth.
I am a 69 year old man who has spent the better part of the last 45 years of my life attending church as a closed mouth skeptic who believed that the universe was just a marvelous accident. So why did I even bother to go to church? Because being raised in the church, I have seen the peace of mind that faith, regardless of my belief, can give to people, and I did not want to deprive my loved ones of that potential, or anyone else that I might influence for that matter.
However, as the years have gone by, and as convinced as I might have been at one time, it has become ever more difficult to think that our existence is an accident. I have had no epiphanies that have led to a mind change. The sermons I have heard over the years, although instructive, have had little to do with the evolution of my thinking, nor has the thought of abstract retribution or reward. I just experienced a growing awareness that an accidental universe with such mind boggling complexity is simply too farfetched to be credible. From my perspective, the odds against accidental life are great. There has to be a source of supreme intelligence. I’ll not try to flesh that out; to each his own. Would it be a god that knows the number of hairs on our heads? I don’t know, but since we puny humans have supercomputers that now have the capacity to track all of us and make reasonable estimates if we so chose, it’s not as farfetched as it once appeared.
I believe that the stardust from which we are all made contains the seeds of life, although fertile ground for that life is scarce beyond comprehension. So many things have to happen to facilitate life; a planet has to be just the right distance from a star, a strong magnetic field has to be present to protect from solar winds, and in earth’s case, a moon is needed to maintain a favorable orientation toward the sun, ad infinitum. As Dennis Weaver once said, a good planet is hard to find. So true, but with billions of trillions of potential stars and planets, only a geocentric zealot would believe that we are the only life in existence.
Life and evolution seem to me to be universal constants; surely life on other planets has occurred and evolved in the past, and will occur in the future. If given time, which the universe has plenty of, I also think that intelligent life is the ultimate and inevitable evolutionary goal; instinct will become intellect. If DNA replication were the goal, as many have opined, the chambered nautilus would have been a satisfactory culmination. There is no biological reason for an intelligent creature to have evolved. Crocodiles have done quite well for a hundred million years or so. If intelligent life here on earth is not a product of purpose, it is the biggest blunder in the history of life, because we have evolved into a creature that has the capacity to destroy (or in time will have) itself and a big part of all other life on earth.
I define intelligence as the ability to know good and evil, and to recognize one’s mortality. In my opinion, the path to intelligent life is protean but purpose driven, and the ability to subscribe to the concept that intelligence is the result of a single fortuitous event when protohumans left the trees and walked upright, no longer resonates with me. What difference does it make if intelligent life occurs earlier or later and through a different evolutionary conduit? I believe the final goal is an intelligent being which recognizes that it is a product of supreme intelligence. Why would a creator want this? I don’t know, but why wouldn’t it?
Because of our marvelous intellect, and if we don’t destroy ourselves, I think mankind’s descendants will eventually inhabit all the corners of our solar system, although who knows what we’ll look like. But I don’t believe identifiable earthly spawn will ever exit our solar system in a meaningful way. The distances are too great, and the unyielding constraints of time and space are immutable. Because of these same constraints, and because of the extreme rarity of life, I also don’t believe we will ever make contact with intelligent beings from other worlds, even though they surely exist. In keeping with that thought, I find it interesting that many scientists who have the faith to make extraordinary, but inevitably fruitless efforts to detect a faint signal from other intelligent beings, lack the faith to believe that we ourselves could be the product of intelligence.
Life in the universe is unimaginably scarce; comparatively it is but a number of atoms in a single grain of sand in the Sahara Desert, and intelligent life is so much rarer still. If you can read this, you are an intelligent being who has won the universal lottery, against odds which only a computer can quantify. Mr. Rogers was right, you really are special. This comprehension will lead a person to even view a stranger in a different light. On the next clear night, walk outside and look up and marvel at what you see. Our gift is not that we have the answers, but that we are intelligent creatures who can ask questions, who have the ability to conceptualize creation, and who have the intellectual capacity to recognize good and evil. We need to be thankful for these gifts. When we consider humanity’s future potential to destroy itself, the only way we will survive to populate our solar system is for good to prevail.
Stephen D. Carter, D.D.S.
Stone Mountain, GA
2012
skip neiburger says
Obviously something/one created all this….for better word, ‘nature” or “God”. The question is ….does “nature-God” care (in a human way) what happens, to whom, and why?
I think the answer is…..’no’.
Comment?
Steve Carter says
Skip,
Pardon the delay in responding to your comment of 8/21/12. This is a partial response to your comment and it opens the door for dialogue. Obviously the Luckybiped site is not a hot bed of activity, but I only told a handful of people about it, and it seems that folks are hesitant to comment on such esoteric topics, which I can understand.
–
A few months after the Luckybiped site was activated, I heard of a book by Dr. Eben Alexander called Proof of Heaven, which has gotten a lot of publicity. I ordered this most interesting and thought provoking book. Near Death Experiences (NDE) are becoming much more prevalent because of the ability to resuscitate clinically dead patients in the operating room.
–
NDE, which prior to Dr. Alexander were not on my radar screen, dovetail somewhat with Luckybiped, so in responding to your comment, I have included this and the following editorial letter to the Near Death Experience and The Afterlife website. This site seems to be populated with reasonable people who eschew voodoo, and they also tread lightly with sectarianism and any specific religious beliefs or dogma.
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Those of us who have not had a NDE may choose to dismiss them, but the people who experience them have an unshaken belief in their reality, so much so that their lives are profoundly affected, and not always in the best way. Although most adapt to life following their NDE, they are more altruistic and less concerned with the things that typically motivate; i.e. money, power, greed, etc. They simply believe that something far better awaits them after death, and they have no fear of death. As one can imagine, this change in life philosophy can cause problems with family and friends, and sometimes the new incompatibility with post-NDE life can lead to suicide.
Steve
———————————————————————
Editor
Journal of Near Death Studies
–
I recently became interested in near death experiences after hearing about Dr. Eben Alexander and reading his book, Proof of Heaven. Heretofore, I had considered all NDE as simply abnormal brain functions which merited little attention, but now I’m intrigued. In recognizing Dr. Alexander’s credentials and with my interest piqued, I’ve been online and discovered a world of thought and debate.
–
As a dentist, I have a strong appreciation for science, and as an inventor with several science based patents, I also have the greatest respect for the scientific method. Obviously I am skeptical of subjective claims which can’t be proven. Seeking input from science, I was drawn to the September 12, 2011 article in Scientific American which claims that NDE are the result of abnormal functioning of dopamine and oxygen flow in the dying brain. This is the revelation that many biological scientists had been waiting for, because it purports to silence the debate, as is noted in the title of the study, “Near Death Experiences Now Found to Have Scientific Explanation”. Other studies have attributed NDE to carbon dioxide concentrations in the brain at the time of death.
–
In a superficial sense, there would seem to be a correlation between conventional dreams and NDE, because both are constructs of a subconscious/unconscious brain. However, in conventional dreams, I am not aware of dreamlike communication with a deity, even among people who have been religious all their lives. Of course, there is the occasional flake who claims God appeared to him in a dream and directed him to guide the flock in a particular manner, but those are rare.
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If dreams about God were commonplace, we could assume that the brain was conditioned for such, and the NDE/God conundrum would not present itself. However, contrast the typical dream’s absence of deity interaction, and the NDE in which the majority recall vividly having had a meeting with a god of some fashion. How does the absence of oxygen and an excess of carbon dioxide in the dying brain account for the preceding dichotomy? What part of physiology interfaces with a dying brain to create the perception of meeting with God, and for what purpose? Although the NDE is recalled and interpreted through the prism of one’s composite experiences, it can’t be ascribed to religious indoctrination because the phenomenon affects the good, the bad, the atheist, the believer, the child (who neither understands the finality of death, nor the metaphysical concepts of a life after death) and the adult, and it manifests itself in all cultures the world over. What evolutionary purpose is served by a dying brain, which at the last moment of earthly existence, indulges in a fanciful interaction with a deity? What is the biological benefit? None that I can see. Evolution teaches us that life does not expend effort on frivolous endeavors, and a god centered NDE, from a biological perspective appears to be complete frivolity. In arguing that there is no evolutionary/biological benefit from a deity oriented NDE, one could also argue that the NDE is beyond the biological world.
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The burden of proving the validity of the phenomenon is not on the person who experiences the NDE, but the onus is upon the masters of the biological sciences to give a credible explanation for such frivolous final moment dallying with the deities, and I have not seen anything that even remotely approaches an adequate explanation. In the final analysis, we must recognize that there may be phenomena which can’t be explained with bunsen burners and pipettes, or cyclotrons for that matter.
Stephen D. Carter, DDS
Jim says
Very thought provoking and well-said. I enjoyed a book, To Hell and Back, written by a cardiologist. He did not deal with near death experiences. He dealt with patients who had died and whom he had revived from clinical death. He was a skeptic who became a true believer through his experience with his patients.
Dr Maurice Rawlins wrote the book. It is on Amazon.
Steve says
Jim,
I have heard of the book To Hell and Back. With the increasingly sophisticated medical techniques and technologies, more people are being brought back following clinical death. Not surprisingly, the doctors involved with these NDE phenomena are among the most moved. These experiences certainly present some challenges to those of us who have historically been skeptical, if not outright dismissive, of NDEs.
Nina says
Dr. Carter,
A friend told me about Lucky Biped. Did you see the article about Dr. Eben Alexander in Esquire? The long and short of it was that it made him look pretty bad.
Steve says
Nina,
Yes I saw the article and responded with the following letter to the editor. Not surprisingly Esquire did not print it.
“Dr. Eben Alexander, author of Proof of Heaven, is a marked man, because he has credentials, and he has a message which is antithetical to that of influential materialists. Simply stated, he is a threat that must be addressed, and no stone will be left unturned in attempts to diminish his reputation. Luke Dittrich’s diatribe in the August 2013 issue of Esquire Magazine is disingenuously presented as a desire to achieve truth, while his real goal is to discredit Alexander. I do not know what Dittrich’s beliefs are, but I am confident he is firmly entrenched in the materialist’s camp.
As if to imply a character defect in Alexander, Dittrich has taken delight in trumpeting the malpractice lawsuits against him, and in doing so Dittrich demonstrates his prowess as a polemicist and his lack of understanding of medical malpractice. Lawsuits are a common part of the medical landscape, and their prevalence is directly related to the risks of treatment. The risks do not come any higher than those associated with neurosurgery. Moreover, a successful malpractice suit for the patient frequently does not mean that the doctor was negligent. After all, when a juror sees a healthy and successful doctor on one side of the courtroom, and a debilitated patient on the other, it is only human nature to want to find a way to help the patient. This inequity is further exacerbated by the fact that the typical juror knows that the doctor has malpractice insurance (even though such information cannot be introduced), and that the doctor is unlikely to suffer financially in the event of an adverse decision. The courts make an attempt to arrive at a decision based upon the facts, but the doctor defendant in a malpractice suit is still at a distinct disadvantage. That is the primary reason the cost of malpractice insurance is prohibitively high.
As if he has had an epiphany, Dittrich also states, “I think there are some extraordinary claims in that book, and they require investigation”. All people who have had a near death experience (NDE) make extraordinary claims because they are describing extraordinary events. The problem with Dittrich, and those of kindred mind, is that they are ill prepared to explain Dr. Alexander’s self described interaction with a deity, because there is no evolutionary justification for such a biologically useless end of life experience. (The deity facet of the NDE is commonly reported, and it happens without regard to age or prior philosophical disposition.) This is a critical challenge for the materialists, because evolutionary biology argues that every component of our existence must have value or it would be discarded. In the absence of an adequate biological explanation for the deity component of the NDE, they are faced with the disquieting specter of a god.
Dittrich also claims that Alexander wrote the book for money. Alexander had no way of knowing his book would be a best seller. However, he certainly knew he would be disbelieved by friends and foes, and foes would disparage him. Materialists will condescendingly tolerate NDE claims from a layman, but a person of powerful intellect must be exorcised. Money would not motivate a person of Alexander’s stature to subject himself to the perpetual scorn of the world’s cognoscenti. Alexander wrote the book because he wanted to tell people about his extraordinary experience of hope.
If a respected physicist offers a theory, and a gifted mathematician can corroborate that theory with an arcane formula, the possibility of that theory is never questioned by materialist colleagues, no matter how bazaar. Consider for example the theories of the multiverse hypothesis, parallel universe, cyclic model, black hole cosmology, ultimate ensemble, etc. etc. There is a threshold beyond which more faith is required to believe in the scientists than in the duality of brain/mind espoused by Alexander, and that threshold is routinely exceeded. The materialists have their own intense faith; they just don’t have a god. They also have absolutely no explanation for existence. On the other hand, the deity component of the NDE provides one, but materialists respond with a unified voice, impossible.
Dr. Alexander has been courageous. Now he just needs a very thick skin to withstand a lifetime of vilification at the hands of the materialist gatekeepers.”
Steve
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ManneGraner says
Xhdjunms stationary seize in the breath send fared tilt.
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Glen Hilyard says
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Hope all is well…
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Thank you.
Glen
Assistant Manager
The Prospecto
viplady.info says
I had an intense feeling of both our infinitesimal insignificance and our inestimable consequence as a species. (image credit: still from the 2014 movie, Lucy )
Davidtix says
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Всем Удачи
Davidtix says
для вас дорогие
Капперы норм!
точные прогнозы на спорт экспесс
Вот сайт с прогнозами на спрот и просто купил,и вывел не много но…. Да немного психанул но в плюсе!
Суть в том что тут реально крутые Капперы, я бы сказал лучшие и реально отвечают на вопросы!
Не кидалово!
что бы не гадать,проще зайти и увидеть самим!
Лучше самим по пробывать и убедиться!!!
Аналитика на 80%