Limited Perception and Comprehension

"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us 'universe', a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

--Albert Einstein


The most limiting factor involving human perception of the universe, is the fact that they have what appears to be a finite existence. Every human is born, lives for an undetermined span of time (though it can sometimes be shortened or lengthened based on the decisions of that individual) and then dies. This tends to color their view of the universe, and leads them to believe that it too must have had a beginning, and therefore, an end.

It is impossible to determine whether or not human beings actually have some part of their conciousness that continues on after death, and may have existed before physical birth. It is interesting to note that while some people belive (based on faith) that they have an 'immortal soul', they continue to have difficulty in comprehending the universe as being infinite. Despite their claims that their 'creator' is infinite, has always been, and will always be, they still believe that there is 'a beginning' in which the creator formed the heavens and the earth, and they believe in 'end times' when judgement will be done on all of mankind.

It is my opinion that all of these concepts are simply the delusions of overactive imaginations, borne out of the inability to accept that there is a very good possibility that when you die you may simply cease to exist. The evidence to the contrary is ALL based in theocratical rhetoric. Based on scientific evidence, the universe is not only infinite, it also contains multiple alternate dimensions. Some scientists will point to events like 'The Big Bang' as the beginning of the universe as we know it, and speculate on the existance of a 'Big Crunch' that will happen after the universe expands to it's full size, and begins to shrink again. This is a plausible explanation for the nature of the way the universe behaves, but it does not place limits on the infinite expanses of the universe, only that it is constantly changing.

The argument of intelligent design is a compelling one. Some people like to have nice, neat, pre-fab explanations given to them so that they don't have to worry about little details (such as their explanation lacking any basis in reality). I do not discredit the idea that there may be some kind of higher intelligence in the universe, I just don't believe that it takes the form of the deities and supernatural forces such as those that the bible portrays. To the believer it sounds ludicrous that order can come out of chaos. They will use the example of it being more likely that dropping a bomb into a junkyard would cause a complete functioning car to form than for life to have formed spontaneously. Unfortunately for the believer, the universe is full of evidence to support this very thing. Too much order causes entropy--you have to have chaos in order for things to continue to exist, grow, and evolve.

The tiny viewing window on time that humans have in their physical lives, even if they take full advantage of the sources of information available to them, is wholely insufficient for them to fully grasp the nature of life and the universe. There are too many unknowns, too many variables, and too many possibilities. It is necessary to continue to expand the reaches of human knowledge, passing on this knowledge from generation to generation, as well as passing on the questions that drive people to continue to learn. Accepting supernatural explanations purely on faith, with little to no actual proof, especially while other much more viable possibilities exist, works directly opposite to growth and learning.

Next Time: Full Blown Crisis Mode