If what God is makes is good, then why have we screwed it up? It's essentially the query my high school theology teacher, the Reverend Michael Wood, posed I believe during my junior year. It was time for the year-in term paper. The topic? The immorality of the destruction of the environment.
I was and still am a theology and philosophy geek. Delving into topics such as cosmology, creatio ex nihilo (creation out of nothing), transcendentalism, liberation theology, existentialism, metaphysics, Niebuhr was and has been a sort of hobby when I had/have nothing else better to do.
I recall scoring 100 on that term paper. I do believe in God, a loving, all-knowing being that created the universe – and everything we see and do – in what our human cosmological time scale claims is billions of human years ago.
If the idea is that what God makes is good, why screw up a good thing? And what is our true relationship not only amongst ourselves but with other living beings on this planet, the world itself and the universe?
The local Oblate School of Theology hosted a series of lectures that explored that subject in late June. Sandwiched between my occasions of social nihilism and personal debauchery (hey, a few of you pals helped me with that =), I attended three lectures – one on a hangover.
Mathematical cosmetologist Brian Swimme led one lecture, "The Universe Story." The basics of his lecture are this: Science as we know it provides wisdom, not from science itself but from humans reflecting upon their evolution and experience through the ages. Experience is the key word here. Animals evolved and adapted through time. It wasn't not so much DNA, but a built-in "sense" of necessity to change its lifestyle to adapt to changes in their environment.
Like a tiny ancient land-based creature acquiring wings so that it could escape the ground that slowly heated up due to global warming. Or that it took millions of years for us to develop proper use of our hands. The understanding is tied to our brains – and something else. Humans demonstrate their "evolution" not only anatomically, but through our culture and language.
Swimme brought up ideas of primary identity in the universe and genuine creativity. What is our identity? What is genuine creativity? We've "defined" creativity on earth as our ingenuity in building things, coming up with new concepts or art. But there's more to it. Think of the universe as a whole. It took homosapiens about 200,000 years to realize the universe had more than one galaxy.
When we think of creativity, we think of creating art. When we think of God, we see Him as a sort of potter, molding us in His image from the ground up. Not only humans, but animals, plants, mountains, oceans, minerals, stars, other planets, galaxies…that's creative, right? Invisible waves pass through a galaxy, igniting star births.
"What's more creative? A universe that gives birth to billions of galaxies or mathematical cosmetologists who can't figure out exactly how that happened?" Swimme said. In a sense, it's divine creativity. Swimme threw out terms such as quantum vacuum, the space-time foam – the "nothingness" from which something sprang forth. In an instant, no less.
So everything we see and experience, from your own home to the farthest reaches of the universe, is the word of God. The Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy, supernovae, black holes, my performing volunteer work speaks to us, but in a more divine way. It's that built-in sense that kind of gives us the idea that, yes, perhaps the universe is bigger than we thought and develops in a certain way. And we grow along with that development through time.
There was a time when man thought the known universe revolved around the earth, and eons ago thought the sun itself was not what we know it is today. But don't see the sun as simply the solar system's largest object. It enables life on earth in more ways than one. Energy from the sun in the form of sunlight supports almost all life on earth through photosynthesis, and drives our climate and weather.
After we consume plants and animals, we convert energy and use it in various ways. Everything we do in life is using energy. The sun is another form of creativity bestowing its generosity upon us and everything else around us.
We think of our planet as simply a giant round rock with some water and living beings on it. But it's really fluid in a sense, considering the three states of matter – gas, liquid and solid – that all exist on this planet. Earth is alive. It's changing in different ways as time goes along. This "fluidity" enables us to see a variety of flora, fauna, climates and geological formations.
In a larger sense, see what the universe has to offer. So very much. And through our most advanced telescopes and unmanned probes, we've just scratched the surface of what we can see or experience in the universe. Surely a variety of things. "Something" guides the development of the universe, of us.
A newspaper article about Swimme stated: "In the context of cosmological evolution, the human species is a relative newcomer to a system that has developed in such remarkably 'lucky' ways that it appears to have a mind of its own. In fact, scientific theory suggests that it does; and we humans are only a small part of that greater creative intelligence at work." In a way, the universe is as Swimme once said engaged in its own organization and evolution.
"If the universe is the primary revelation of God, wouldn't it be depressing if it were a small, boring universe?" he remarked at the lecture. Man currently has at least three schools of thought about all this:
* The universe was designed at a certain way and rate so life could come forth;
* Our universe is one "bubble" in a vast multi-verse of bubbles, but other bubbles are dead. Ours is somehow the lone one to survive and support life – at least here on earth;
* Our universe is searching and groping for a way forward, guided by wisdom that assures a sense of unfolding beauty that's somewhere between "intelligent design" and Darwin's evolution. A beauty that is and that is still to come.
Swimme wrote in one of his books, "The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos": "The universe is a single multiform event. There is no such thing as a disconnected thing. Each thing emerged from the primeval fireball, and nothing can remove the primordial link this establishes with every other thing in the universe, no matter how distant. You and everything you do and become are further articulations of the primal fireball...
…When we deepen our awareness of the simple truth that we are here through the creativity of the stars, we begin to feel fresh gratitude. When we reflect on the labor required for our life, reverence naturally wells up within us. Then, in the deepest regions of our hearts, we begin to embrace our own creativity."
Whew! I'll quiz you on this later. Sure, this is one man's opinion. And I know many of you either don't believe in God or have differing beliefs in a deity or spiritual force that may or may not surround us. Whatever the case, just think of our surroundings and all that it has to not only offer, but our role as responsible, just beings – perhaps created in a "godly" image – in this world and the universe. I'll blog on that shortly. I know you can't wait.
