Apr
Here We Go Again
A recent 60 Minutes program had a segment on our pending trip back to the Moon and using it as a stepping off place to Mars. Nobody is more intrigued by these visions than I. One of the prime motivations for such a visit is to find inert elements deemed necessary to form “life.” This, apparently, represents giant leap to conclude this thing we loosely call “life” is not unusual throughout the universe. But like all similar programs, the authors neglect giving a definition of just what this thing called “life” is.
Maybe it’s just me, but have any of you heard these intellectuals define just what “life” is? They keep referring to finding little microbes as comprising the right “chemical composition” for life to exist.
One has to draw the assumption that they have concluded that life is a convenient collection of the right chemicals, which somehow react with each other and yield an unidentified something called “life.”
I looked up “life” in the dictionary and find that Webster defines it as, “the quality that distinguishes a vital and functional being from a dead body or inanimate matter.” How can one expect to find that “quality” by observing inert chemical elements and/or microbes?
A “quality” is an intangible characteristic of consciousness, which is defined by Webster as “an awareness known or felt by one’s inner self; the upper levels of mental life of which a person is aware; an awareness known or felt by one’s inner self.”
This had to be the starting point of his search. Life is consciousness and is the intangible quality that distinguishes a functional being from inanimate matter; sort of like “honesty” or “love”, etc. An effect called “life” has nothing to do with inert matter.
Man is inherently an explorer and is naturally curious about the unknown. This includes a search for a primal cause to justify his existence. This comes from an active compulsion within himself. And the search begins.
But rather than looking to the true cause within, he looks outside of himself. He is looking to the effect to find a cause and reasons that if he can find an effect of some kind, he will understand the cause. He is like a fish looking for the ocean.
That intelligence that gave rise to his search and feels it can accurately observe and interpret his findings is not factored into his efforts. Searching space is an intellectual exercise and man will find only that which is contained in his consciousness.
He would do well to consider the observation of Steven Hawking, the guru of intellectual scholars, who said, “The universe depends upon the observer.”
Am I alone in thinking this way?
Did you like this post? Subscribe to the RSS!
