Why Anything - Why Not Nothing: The Goldilocks Paragon
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About this ebook
Cowley, an archetypal on-and-off believer, wrote Why Anything—Why Not Nothing for atheists, theists, scientists, evolutionists, and more. He asks: are humans the remnants of a natural big bang that coalesced into a universe, or might we be the creation of a supernatural God?
Asking difficult questions and challenging the bounds of human reason, logic and intelligence, he reviews Biblical science against modern science and the limitations inherent in matter; he seeks to understand how and why we are here. Cowley searches for answers in the cosmos and in the supernatural philosophy of two monotheistic religions, Judaism and Christianity. He ponders with amazing intelligible lucidity: is evolution or God responsible for life.
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Why Anything - Why Not Nothing - Captain Robert Cowley
WHY ANYTHING -
WHY NOT NOTHING
THE GOLDILOCKS
PARAGON
CAPTAIN ROBERT COWLEY
Copyright © 2019 Captain Robert Cowley.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.
This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.
ISBN: 978-1-6847-1017-1 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6847-1019-5 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6847-1018-8 (e)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019913640
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
Scripture quotations marked (AMP) are taken from the Amplified Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations marked (KJV) taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 09/18/2019
The Goldilocks Paragon – a Prologue
At about 0600 hours June 21 2012 [winter solstice southern hemisphere], the author a retired international pilot, as he did most mornings was walking his dog Zala on a deserted Pacific beach in Caloundra Australia. Without warning; a voice [inaudible externally] but clear inside, said Robert, look up
. He glanced skyward, observed the faint red glow of what he observed as Mars and billions of stars, their incandescent flickering exploding against the dark void of the milky way. Then more utterances, "Robert, Why Anything!
-
Why
Not Nothing
. His intellect confused, he pondered, was this celestial, a spiritual voice? Surely not, it must be his mind. Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted again with more words:
Robert
–
write a book with the title I just gave
you
".
This book is for atheist
non
-b
elievers
, church going believers, believing and
non
-b
elieving
scientists, evolutionists, archaeologists and you.
The author asks, are we just remnants of a big bang that coalesced into a universe, where chemical chaos and primordial slime, stirred by natural phenomena and serendipity, became amino acids, leading to an organic cell, fish, apes and finally the human paradigm. Conversely, is intelligent design evident
, might we be the creation of a supernatural GOD? We review Biblical science from antiquity, against the science of modernity.
We look at Darwinian Evolution, Atheism, Agnosticism, Theism, the limitations inherent in matter and what stands scrutiny to empirical testing. We ask tough questions on our unlikely arrival.
Whether Atheist or Theist? - this book may rock long held beliefs. Our miraculous Universe was once smaller than a sub-atomic particle, so small [under the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle], momentum and position of a particle, cannot be measured at the same time. Then from unseen nothingness, a gargantuan nuclear fusion reaction, the Big Bang; the space time continuum began. Scientists today agree the first cause of our universe was the Big Bang. This is too simplistic though, for it leads to who or what caused the Big Bang
? Third millennium science cannot explain with unambiguous certainty, what caused something smaller than a Hydrogen Atom, [4 million times smaller] than a full stop on these pages, to cause this unbelievable miracle, a vast, almost immeasurable 13.78 billion light year [we believe] universe to exist, [even today this is still science theory]. On current knowledge; what exactly was the
Big
Bang
?
Big Bang: - Scientists admit, our knowledge is insufficient to determine if the big bang singularity was primordial. One thing we do know; all the matter in your body is billions of years old? Formed from stardust – The universe began, scientists believe, with every speck of its energy jammed into a very tiny point. This extremely dense point exploded with unimaginable force, creating matter and propelling it outward to make the billions of galaxies of our vast universe. Astrophysicists dubbed this titanic explosion the Big Bang.
The Big Bang was like no explosion you might witness on earth today. For instance, a hydrogen bomb explosion, whose centre registers approximately 100 million degrees Celsius, moves through the air at about 300 meters per second. In contrast, cosmologists believe the Big Bang flung energy in all directions at the speed of light (300,000,000 meters per second, a million times faster than the H-bomb) and estimate that the temperature of the entire universe was 1000 trillion degrees Celsius at just a tiny fraction of a second after the explosion. Even the cores of the hottest stars in today’s universe are much cooler than that. There’s another important quality of the Big Bang that makes it unique.
While an explosion of a man-made bomb expands through air, the Big Bang did not expand through anything. That’s because there was no space to expand through at the beginning of time. Rather, physicists believe the Big Bang created and stretched space itself, thereby expanding the universe. Astrophysicists have uncovered a great deal of compelling evidence over the past hundred years to support the Big Bang theory.
Among this evidence is the observation that the universe is expanding. Even scientists admit, on current knowledge, it is insufficient to determine if the singularity was primordial. Since Georges Lemaître first noted in 1927 that an expanding universe could be traced back in time to an originating single point, scientists have built on his idea of cosmic expansion.
At 10 to the minus 34 seconds (0.0000000000000000000000000000000001 seconds), the universe underwent exponential expansion, doubling in size at least 90 times. During this stage, matter was in a much different state than it is now. The Big Bang theory envisions the universe beginning from a singularity? a mathematical concept of infinite temperature and infinite density packed into a single point of space. The world’s preeminent scientists admit, neither Big Bang theory or inflationary theory can fully describe what happened. Because of quantum fluctuations, different parts of the universe could inflate at different rates, creating bubble universes
that are much larger than other regions. Our universe may be just one in a multi-verse, where different scales and physical laws reign.
What caused this physical miracle and why are we here?
Until science can produce an infallible answer to this question, no book in all empirical fairness, can exclude God from a plethora of possible external causes
. Some say; ‘if God caused it then who caused God’
. The true reality is simple; for God to exist he must be supernatural, or he cannot be God. He does not need a first cause. God cannot be God unless he is a supernatural spirit [i.e.] He always was. To advocate otherwise is to fall into infinite regression
. Given composition and placement of Cosmos creating elements, what is more remarkable and extraordinary, is that our Universe, of [seemingly trillions of uninhabited worlds], even allows us to be in it
. This book asks; ‘Why Anything - Why Not Nothing’.
The world’s most eminent scientists, [of all persuasions, of belief or non-belief] at least agree on one thing, the universe should not allow us to be in it
. We must ask the question then, how and why are we here?
We search for answers amongst natural phenomena in the Cosmos and in the supernatural philosophy of two monotheistic religions; Judaism and Christianity. People often defend the indefensible, but since Sir Isaac Newton there has always been an equal divide of scientists who believe in supernatural creation by GOD, as there are atheists, who believe in natural evolutionary processes. We examine ruthlessly and fearlessly; continuing the debate - How
did it Ha
ppen
.
We ask difficult questions that challenge the boundaries of human reason, logic and intelligence, questions, churches often obfuscate and atheists sometimes become uncomfortable with
. Forget God being a fanciful notion, for if we take it to the limits of logic, Darwinian evolution can become more fanciful than the notion of a Creator. In the forward of ‘On the Origin of Species
’ Charles Darwin encouraged readers; view his treatise as a ‘Theory Only’ and with candid honesty stated.
‘I cannot prove it
’. We will see later in this book how Darwinian Evolution was turned upside down in 2019. Computers running algorithms have shown since the Milky Way Galaxy formed, insufficient time has elapsed for humankind to have emerged; meaning, we are not here yet
. Even if there was enough time, Darwin himself pointed out, that for his theory to work the earlier adapted life forms must first die out
- for a new better adapted species to emerge.
I pose one question, how did human mammals [babies] emerge into life and survive without parents
? Today, a human baby or any other baby mammal left out in the elements, would surely die within hours.
The Bible did not make this mistake
, the Bible says in Genesis, God created an adult man and woman [not babies] to enable pro-creation. The question must be asked therefore, how did human babies of the species ‘Mammalia’ appear and survive. Female mammals including Humans, Dogs, Rabbits, Whales, et al, have milk secreting organs. No human baby, a chimpanzee, a dog, etc, can begin life without a parent.
More so, if abandoned they would not survive without a female breast with milk to suckle on. Minus a mother or surrogate, science must ask; who made and fed the first baby humans. If all the first mammal species were not placed on Earth as adults by a Creator as the book of Genesis says, then science must offer alternative logic; explanations 3rd millennium human beings can accept. As we have said, how did newly born baby mammals survive without a parent.
If both Genesis and Evolution are Wrong
given algorithms overturned conventional Darwinian Evolution, what is the alternative for a life birth vehicle and survival means of a baby mammal. Did human babies and all animal life forms just appear, fully self-sufficient.
This book is an expose of Science, Evolution and God, written in a manner unlike anything before; this book is symbiotic to scientists, theists, atheists and the human population at large. Science also is unable to tell us how humans distinguish right from wrong; an ability of the human spirit requiring no coded or printed laws. Science has nothing to say on ethics, ethical principles, or morals, or why 97% of humans choose to do right rather than do wrong
. Why we love rather than hate, show compassion to others, rather than hurt fellow human beings. Science is muzzled on this, because science has no ans
wers
.
Are we just Artificial Intelligence ‘AI’, a robot, a mechanical nerve centre, shooting out neural impulses, driven by synapses, firing off to compute and direct mechanical thought and action? If this is all we are, then humankind is just an inanimate
non
-o
rganic
working part, in a
non
-o
rganic
materialist universe
. If all our thoughts and actions are nothing more than molecular manipulation, on what basis do we decide; that any thought is true or false, that decisions by any of us are rational or irrational
. If this is all that makes us human, then who are we really.
Why do we and this beautiful universe even exist? Humans are remarkable, intelligent, thinking, comprehending, a fully cognizant sentient species, able to reason complexity; find solutions to problems where answers seem not to exist. We are the only species on Earth able to comprehend the Cosmos, aware of both our existence and our eventual extinction
. Consider
this, no other life form on earth is able to document the past, evaluate the present, or contemplate the fu
ture
?
Through careful research, you will experience explosive conjecture, cradled in dynamic debate from the world of Evolution, Archaeology, Science, Theology and God as we attempt to define man’s most likely origin and future. This is a bold tour de force,
on the genre, likely to become a standard bearer for discourses on Evolution and God. Can something truly come from nothing? If yes, which method or manner is most likely; Natural Phenomena, Intelligent Design or Crea
tion
.
Civilisation only began with the age of agriculture circa 10,000 years ago. Millennia came and went, yet by the turn of the century in 1900, humans could still only travel as fast as the Chinese, Sumerian or Egyptian Empires did, 5,000 years before. From the 1900s we saw an exponential explosion of mankind’s knowle
dge, horses left behind by rail, cars, aeroplanes, computers and spacecraft. In 100 years, human knowledge grew by more than the entire period human beings had existed. Knowledge was growing in time scales unheard of; advances in the general sciences, Physics, Quantum, Nuclear, Astronomy, Medicine. We ask what is driving this exponential knowledge explosion now in our history; in such a short span of time
. How does knowledge double in 10 years, computers in 2 years and in some fields 6 months: Let us conclude this prologue with extracts of some of Darwin’s w
ords:
Charles Darwin speaking on his own
treatise
- "This Abstract which I now publish, must necessarily be imperfect. I cannot here give references and authorities for my several statements and therefore must trust to the reader reposing some confidence in my accuracy. No doubt errors will have crept in, though I hope I have always been cautious in trusting to good authorities alone. I am well aware that scarcely a single point is discussed in this volume, on which facts cannot be adduced, often apparently leading to conclusions directly opposite to those at which I have arrived".
A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question; and this cannot possibly be here done
. Natural selection and examples from animal breeding along with the idea of descent from some or few common ancestral forms was logical but not entirely reasoned to a final conclusion. Still, there were seeming improbabilities and gaps in the data, and many issues left unexplained. Lingering doubts troubled Darwin, so much so, he edited his Origin of Species from one edition to the
next
.
Doubts and unresolved issues remained, because evolution was still a theory and not established factually. Even today he said, proof is elusive and perhaps ultimately unobtainable. Darwin was right to express his doubts and was right to keep on problem solving as best he could. His doubts have now come to be fully realised with the breakthrough in an algorithm programme, specifically written to deduce, was it even possible in the entire 4.5 billion period our solar system has existed, for life to form. We now know it was not; evolution wise, human beings do not exist yet
. Charles Darwin thought his own theory grievously hypothetical
and gave emotional content to his doubts with his own words;
Quote: The eye to this day gives me a cold shudder.
To believe the eye had evolved by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree." But he thought of the same about something as simple as a peacock’s feather, which, Darwin said, makes me sick.
200 years on with 3rd millennia knowledge of the intricacies of the human eye and other living structures, we can see what aroused Darwin’s doubt.
How could any organ of such intricate magnificence as an eye, ever develop via random chance? We look at the magnificence of the human eye in the chapter ‘Evolution’. In fairness to Darwin, parts of his treatise is brilliant, for while subject to his open expression, he nonetheless saw the potential from what he mentally visualised and grasped, for a myriad of unresolvable problems he confronted. We should expect this from an intellect that seeks to coalesce the big picture into a seamless vision.
Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter in answer to a reader’s question. The reader asked did he believe in God at all. Darwin’s reply sold recently at auction for a large amount; following is that reply.
Dear Sir,
"I should have been very glad to have aided you in any degree if it had been in my power. But to answer your question would require an essay, and for this I have not strength, being much out of health.
Nor, indeed, could I have answered it distinctly and satisfactorily with any amount of strength. The strongest argument for the existence of God, as it seems to me, is the instinct or intuition which we all (as I suppose) feel that there must have been an intelligent beginner of the Universe
; but then comes the doubt and difficulty whether such intuitions are trustworthy. I have touched on one point of difficulty in the two last pages of my "Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication
," but I am forced to leave the problem insoluble. No man who does his duty has anything to fear and may hope for whatever he earnestly desires. - yours faithfully, Ch. Darwin.
This book will provoke emotions and will surely act as a catalyst, perhaps even cause a cardinal re-think by both theists and atheists. The author goes boldly where no book has so incisively gone before, the age-old lingering debate; Creation by Evolution - Natural Phenomena - Random Chance or Perfect Design. How and why do we and this awe-inspiring Universe even exist. Are we simply an accident from a primaeval soup, descendants perhaps of aliens, an intelligent designer, a cosmic architect, or spare the thought, maybe the divine DNA of
God
.
Sailing majestically through space at 108,000 km/hour, perhaps Earth’s people should pause and reflect; this universe miracle that allows us to be in it, is simply nonpareil and our solar system, can only be described as a Goldilocks Paragon, with human beings the apotheosis of it
all
.
CHAPTER 1
THE FERMI PARADOX
It was once said [paraphrasing]; ‘Concerning the existence of life, there are only two possibilities; human beings are alone in the vast swirl of an infinite Cosmos or we are not. Both are equally frightening’.
This book asks; ‘Why Anything
-
Why
Not Nothing
’. God does not force people to believe; scripture says, God provided sufficient proof of his existence. To believe without doubt in anything tangible [i.e.] which exists
, we must accept the factor of contingency.
Something contingent cannot of itself choose to exist or not exist, it must have some external cause that made it exist; an external force which acted upon it to bring about its existence, rather than its non-existence. You and I for example are contingent
, in other words we could easily have missed our existence, so clearly in an evolutionary world we are not that important. At a time prior to our birth, neither you or I existed and sometime in the very near future, we will stop existing. My point being, there had to be a cause for your existence and my existence. What was this cause, was it our parents who brought us into existence or do we look deeper?
Everything we see is contingent upon something else for their existence; be they plants, animals, clouds, rain, lightning, planets, suns, constellations, galaxies. Taken to its zenith, if everything existing in the universe is contingent, then empirical logic says the physical universe itself must also be contingent. Therefore, if we accept the fact; everything in the universe is contingent, science must provide answers to the eternal dilemma of mankind; what was the first external cause, that created our contingent Universe.
Today, it is well accepted amongst the science community virtually 100% of this community agree
, the external cause of the universe creation was the Big Bang. However, to accept this as the answer is too simplistic, for this leads to another question, what caused the Big Bang? Even 3rd millennia science cannot explain with certain unambiguous clarity, what caused something smaller than a Hydrogen Atom, [4 million times smaller] than any full stop on these pages, to self-cause a vast 13.78 billion light year universe; they only have theories. Until science can produce an infallible answer to this question, there is no certainty other than to ponder, could God be that external cause
. I know some may well say here; ‘if God caused it, then who caused God’
. This answer is fundamental; [i.e.] God must be supernatural, or he cannot exist.
God does not need a first cause, for as a supernatural spirit he always was and to advocate otherwise is to fall into infinite regression. Today’s humans grasp the wonder of going from horse and carts to space exploration
[even though a miracle], because advancement is perceived as natural, not supernatural given the time gestation periods. Conversely, we cannot grasp instant manifestation of the apparent supernatural, so it becomes easier to reject it. We do this even though, science, researchers, doctors, surgeons, daily perform wonders that might have seemed like miracles 2000 years
ago
.
My point is; when we allow ourselves to look and consider what is all around us, it can provide an underlying foundation for belief, without God seeming to sound, too fantastic for words or science. Considering everything could just as easily have failed to materialise or come into existence, we ask a good question when we say; - ‘Why Anything
-
Why
Not Not
hing
’?
The answer to this question is profound, because without contingency, unquestionably there would absolutely be nothing.
That there is something; that not everything failed to exist, means something had to exist first
, so everything else could find its way into existence. This something cannot be natural because it would fail on the contingent first cause argument; for something to be non-contingent, it must be supernatural; vis-à-vis as in a ‘GOD’.
Is there any proof God exists? NO!
- is there any proof that once Nothing existed? NO!
Now we are back to square one.
The discussion is not Evolution by Natural Phenomena or Creation by Supernatural Phenomena
, it is about extrinsic contingent factors. For evolution to be correct, something had to cause the first thing that existed, whereby all else was and is contingent on this first cause.
This first contingent factor, must be the parent of Darwinian evolution or some other means of creation, causing everything else to come into existence. The question now; what was this first thing?
This primary cause. If we cannot answer this question, we have only the fall-back position of a supernatural God and our belief by faith in such a God. This might sound like a fairy story to evolutionary atheists but if we follow the logic of contingency, it could be argued, evolution without a proven first cause is a
non
-s
ensical
posi
tion.
The contingent factor argument versus nothing from nothing, is a more rational alternative to explain existence, otherwise there could only be Nothing, no earth to live upon, no solar system for earth to revolve around, no milky way or other galaxies, no universe. Look around and clearly our universe has too much order for our existence to have come from chaos. Humans are complex beyond imagination and if we consider the degree of human complexity, one can see God and creation. We are born with an innate knowledge of right and wrong, even children distinguish between good and evil.
We all have a desire to seek love, we spend our lives seeking fulfillment of gaps which exist in a knowing soul; a gap easily filled with God’s love. No amount of money, drugs, alcohol, sex, houses, cars, boats, planes can ever fill this gap; as the title of this book asks; Why Anything
-
Why
not Nothing?
Imagine no laws of nature, no laws of physics, no laws of math, no universe, no consciousness, literally nothing at all - an empty VOID! – simply Nothing.
Scientists claim the universe came from nothing. But what’s the nature of that kind of nothing? That’s where human confusion lies. We exist but more amazingly we are aware of our existence, the only sentient beings both aware of and intriguingly, able to comprehend our existence. Apes cannot do this, Chimpanzees cannot do this, Birds cannot do this, Whales cannot do this, yet humans can comprehend this vast Universe. No other life form on earth can document the past, evaluate the present or contemplate the future
? We alone know there is definitely not nothing. The big question is
why
?
It seems absurd in a universe with billions of galaxies, billions of constellations, nebula, trillions of stars and trillions of planets, that we are the only intelligent life we can find so far. Where are
they?
By any reasonable standard, there should be evidence of other worlds in the universe, evidence of intelligent life forms but we can see nothing. This question was asked by the Italian Nobel Laureate Enrico Fermi
; and became known as the ‘Fermi Par
adox’
.
CHAPTER 2
CREATION – BY WHAT PROCESS
Modern Science, Biblical Science, Creation by Intelligent Design, Religion, God, are they compatible? To believe in God without finite proof, is this incompatible with 3rd millennia intelligence? Is there any common ground even though some are immune to empirical testing and what is this book about? – I was raised in a church going family, but I hovered continuously between theism and atheism. When in church I always yearned and hoped, creation was more than impersonal mixing of inanimate primordial slime and amino acids by natural phenomena. Science and algorithms uncovered serious flaws in Darwin’s evolutionary paradigm.
As a professional pilot, after 40 years in the air, I retired as check and training Captain on transoceanic jets; I don’t believe I am a religious nut, I can reason. Flying at altitudes of 41,000 feet, [12,500 metres] inside a thin pressurised aluminium tube, requires a reasonably calm, practical human being, in touch with reality and the laws of physics.
Sadly, the intellect that drove me professionally always impeded my belief in the supernatural, [e.g.] God. This book in part was to say, while I now believe in God, it took me a lifetime to arrive there. Having struggled to believe in God, I desired to give my reasons to atheists and others why I [and many scientists today], reversed position. We ask the hard questions, are we a remnant of primordial slime from the big bang that coalesced into an evolutionary living paradigm? Conversely, could natural phenomena and evolution now be flawed as science says; is there an element of the supernat
ural
.
One thing is certain; either God exists
, or God doesn’t Exist
. I use material evidence from scriptures of antiquity with science of modernity. With help from a [blind] lady justice, may truth be balanced on her scales. Reasonable person[s] who finish reading this book, should only need consider two precepts, Belief in a Living God, or Non-belief In a Living God. As we said, modern super computers running algorithm programmes, turned Darwinian evolution upside down. They determined the time needed to match the Darwinian mutation paradigm from primordial slime to humankind, was fatally flawed; we cover this in detail later in this book.
My challenge is this; finish this chapter and you will find this book difficult to put down, you will be drawn irresistibly by content, both provocative and challenging as we straddle Natural Phenomena Science
–
the Universe
-
Evolution
–
and the likelihood of
God
.
This book is not lopsided tales from religious scholars, who thrive on presenting dry biblical argument, using hell’s battering ram to assuage belief. Nor do we try to dispense opposing discourse from the sceptical side of the scientific community, without equal time.
The major Holy writings offer impressive evidence to assist reasonable person[s] to believe in a God and if this were not so, there would not be four [4] billion people on earth who believe in a monotheistic God, more than half the global population in 2019.
Equally, evolutionists offer impressive evidence, to persuade a reasonable person, to believe in natural phenomenon. What is the separator, that extra something which makes Messianic Jews and Judaeo-Christians believe in God without doubt, even though they cannot see or touch God? - Clearly it is one word – FAITH, [i.e.] faith in the irrefutable evidence on the ministry of Jesus, His Crucifixion, Death, Resurrection and visible ascension, observed by scores of people. The Bible says; – Hebrews 11:1 KJV – ‘Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen’.
Some believe out of fear; one foot planted in the amen corner of God; due to a paralysing doubt dilemma. Doubt pushes out hope, unbelief takes hold and faith is abandoned
. Then they turn full circle, the paralysing fear of nothing after death, no awareness, terrifying darkness for eternity. This book is an intellectual journey, we pit the human spirit and wisdom, against third millennium scientific knowledge and put several millennia of biblical writings to the test.
People of all religious persuasion who delve the content of this book will have an opportunity to be challenged, in the sciences, evolution, the spacetime continuum, religion; belief and non-belief. With Darwinian evolution on trial in 2018, we herald in the debate of this millennium. Evolution, science, God; are we now looking for a neo-Darwinian theory, or might one day science prove God exists?
The primary aims
of this book is to focus on natural phenomena; explore the world of evolution, then comparative science of the universe, as we consider the possibility of a supernatural God.
Secondary aims
; whilst we reach out to all faiths, this book is a book about monotheistic faith vis-à-vis, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but we only focus in depth on Judaism and Christianity. Raised in Australia by a Catholic Mother and Church of England Father, from Anglo Irish and Manx heritage, I can only write this book from a Judaeo-Christian perspective, for this is the faith of my parents, but I write in love to all believers and non-believers.
I want to bridge cultural suspicions; that we can believe different things yet live in peace and harmony. If we humans were given a choice, [1] never again to get sick, or suffer injury, never to die, versus [2] at 100 years of age, die, never again to be aware of our existence, I suspect every human being alive, would opt for number [2].
Time and again, the world unites when disaster strikes, [flood – drought – hunger – et al] or acting on climate change. What a miracle, that aboard our spaceship; ‘Starship Earth’, we might all reach consensus on God and stop fighting each other. Why does a Jew believe in God the Eternal One
, Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh; Christians the same Hebrew God ‘I AM’ with Jesus as Messiah. Why do Hindus believe in Hinduism, Buddhists in Buddha and so on? It is because of a child’s innocence, we were raised to the faith of our parents; the same reason we believed in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, until we reached the age of reason. We might well ask, why does a girl born in Mecca speak Arabic rather than English, why a boy born in Tuscany speaks Italian, or is the Pope Catholic, the answer is self- evident. If there is a God; there can only be one, so people who fought so called Holy Wars, were really fighting for the same GOD, with a different name. It is simply nonsensical, rather like siblings fighting against each other in the name of their earthly fa
ther
.
Simply stated, there cannot be multiple gods, vis-à-vis - 3, 7, or 20 gods, there can only be one GOD; you may well ask why? Well if there were multiple gods, the heavens would be at war, as it has been on earth for millennia; could you imagine this? With a modicum of logic, we can deduce; gods would be at war for control of the heavens, the universe, warring over who owns the real estate, Mars, Andromeda, the Magellanic Cloud, Alpha Centauri, Jupiter and all the Gold and Silver from stardust, spread throughout the universe.
The God of the universe if He exists sees our human heart, He could not care less which faith our parents raised us into. He loves all His creation as our parents love us because we are their children. Troubles begin in the human heart; we are deceived by our fellow beings with manmade religious dogma. God knows it is the human heart, the imperfect human condition which causes strife; one religion to hate another religion, to wage wars, to kill in the name of God. Hate though, can only beget hate, whereas love begets
love.
To atheists, agnostics, secularists, humanists and theists, this book is not meant to inflame ill feeling, or alienate, rather it is to reach out, to inspire tolerance and hope; this book splits the atom on Science and GOD. My aspiration is to cross the abyss, to discard the egocentric, intellectually driven dichotomy of opinion: [i.e.] GOD Exists and/or GOD does not Exist. If I asked, ‘Do you believe in God’ I suspect many of you would say NO! You may answer with, ‘I am an atheist, I believe in Darwinian evolutionary theory’, or ‘I am agnostic’. So now let me ask another question, why are you reading this
book
?
Walking through your hometown bookstore or rushing at the airport bookstore, to buy some on-board reading material for your flight, did the title tug at you a little; make you pause, then made you pick it up? Even then, your logical mind was questioning, perhaps berating you for thinking about a book, where even the possibility of God is part of the narrative. One part of your brain was saying, I am an intellectual, I don’t need help to consider my position on evolution or God and yet you bought it. Why would both atheists and theists buy the same book with even a hint of religious genre, albeit, the book has credible science too.
Did your interest rise as you scanned the cover, read the synopsis, read part of a chapter, then slowly, irresistibly, you were drawn to purchase it. Was the quiet innate voice inside every human being speaking to you? Whatever it was, I promise, you will not be disappointed you picked up this book.
It is natural, for human beings to worry about dying, moving into the unknown from life to death; ‘Awareness to
Non
-A
wareness
’ light to darkness
, not for a season, for eternity. Most people will ponder on this thought at some point in their existence. People who do not believe in God might accept this fear as the rational price for life. A person who believes in God might consider this life, a preparation for something greater to follow. Are our feelings; love hate, longing, despair, fear, just rational responses of the mind to a nerve centre, shooting out neural impulses, driven by synapses?
Or could there be a spiritual receiver connected to a spiritual river deep inside our human spiritual being. Something that warns; do not walk down a street, do not drive the car today, do not catch the flight you booked. Then you wake to find, the plane you were booked on crashed with loss of all life on board. You describe to a friend this weird omen you had and finish with, what a lucky break.
The bigger question; was this a lucky break, an omen, or might it have been a spiritual warning from the creator of the universe. Non-believers hear the same inner voice; most of them hear this voice as an omen, a silent witness inside, not God
. Believers would say, they heard an inner voice, not audible but a clear voice, they identify as the Holy Spirit, as clear, as someone speaking to them. A bigger question is, [omen or God], - ‘Are we listening’? This book is written to all people, believers of every faith along with non-believers; atheist, agnostic, evolutionist, apologist, et al; everyone every human, who was given a free will in this life. Whether believer or not, I hope to provide credible evidence, whether presenting a case for a supernatural God or one for natural chemical evolution. This book is an expose of both sides of the divide; I aim to present a mix of the best empirical science, tempered with the best religious writings.
Many say, God is a myth, a crutch for weak human beings. I am not a religious fruitcake I read the science of Physicists, Astrophysicists, Mathematicians. My fertile mind has variously believed in God and disbelieved in God. Reasonably well educated, I trained