Realising I Will Never Touch The Stars

I often find myself saying one simple line to answer certain questions – Never say never.  I am a firm believer in the thought that anything is possible.  How can you say now to what you do not know about tomorrow?  However, I am starting to realise that I will never touch the stars.  The thoughts I had growing up of being able to travel around in space to other worlds always excited me.  Seeing programmes on the TV like Star Trek and Stargate always kept me thinking that one day this could all be possible.  What I could not comprehend back then though was the time it would take to develop a new type of technology like this.  Something completely unknown being invented to propel man further and faster into space than previously achieved before. 

Whilst I have always realised that I would never really be traveling in space myself, it was more mankind as a collective breaking the boundaries and pressing on with discovery that tantalised my mind.  I would love to hear that a new type of spacecraft has been designed that will take a team to a distant earth like planet. I would then be waiting eagerly on the edge of my seat waiting for the results.

However, knowledge has grounded my thoughts of ambition.  Although I can still say that you can never say never, the fact of the matter is that technologically we are nowhere near even creating a prototype, ideas have floated around but at the moment the thought of traveling to a distant planet in a human’s lifetime is impossible.

I have to come to terms with the fact that I will probably live out my life never knowing if there were other possibilities out there.  But does this say more about me than I would care to believe?  I have only just asked myself this question as I have wrote to this point.  It has never previously crossed my mind, but should I be satisfied with what I have?  After all, we are incredibly lucky to have not only evolved but to also be at the top of the food chain.  I have a life that is of better quality than anything before and here I am writing a post about still wanting to reach for more.

Having paused for almost 5 minutes whilst pondering what I have just wrote, I am going to chalk this one down to human nature.  It is not within us to just be content.  Set your mind wondering and it will trigger a world of possibilities in your imagination.  I am the happiest I have ever been in my life but I will still continue to look at the stars and wonder.  This is not because I am unsatisfied in life, but because I am a curious little being who lives on a rock that has helped my species evolve to understand, and more importantly, to dream!

Creation Of Life

Creation of Life

For thousands of years man has looked to the skies for answers, and even now with all of the technology that we possess as a planet, we still have more questions unanswered than answered.

Where did we come from? How did we get here?

Well if you have read my previous post about the meaning of life, then you will already have an idea that I am not a religious man.  I am in no way a disbeliever, I keep an open mind about most things, but the whole concept that God made everything, for me, has been far outweighed by science.

I once had a sit down meeting with a Jehovah’s Whiteness leader.  I was interested in what he had to say and how he would explain his beliefs in regards to the questions I would ask.  He was more than friendly, he took me back to his home to meet his family and I settled in to one of his big comfy chairs with my ears wide open and my brain ready to take notes.  If I had not of known any scientific facts, then he would have sold it all to me that day, his words were compelling and his answers were drawing me in.  He sat across from me with his eyes focused on mine, perhaps he could sense that I could understand his perspective. After he had finished I asked him one final question; "science has gone so far as to prove that the whole universe was created by the big bang.  How does this sit with your views on the creation of life?"  His answer was simple yet compelling.  He said, “I cannot believe that everything so perfectly formed could have been created from the big bang, just as you would not believe me if I said that my watch was created as a result of falling parts fitting together from the explosion of a watch factory, or that my home was built as a result of an explosion at the builders merchants.” 

I went away that day thinking about what he had said, he was right, I would not have believed his watch or house was crafted in that way, and how could the universe have formed all of this from one explosion? 

A few years later I was back on the case after watching a program on TV.  The program was referring to the expansion of the universe.  2 questions started rattling around in my head that I just could not comprehend.  What was before the big bang? And how can the universe be infinite?  Both of those questions on their own are hard enough to wrestle, but the two together started to drive me mad.  Then I had a thought after something was mentioned on another program.  They explained that eventually all of the black holes would consume all of matter in the universe and could leave just one super black hole on its own, harboring so much energy and resources that disaster would surely be imminent.  Thinking logically about it all, and listening to many theories about the universe expanding and then contracting, this black hole theory made sense.

You have to ask the question, if the universe contracted and began to apply pressure to the super black hole, then a possible outcome surely could be a massive explosion, again releasing everything that was once sucked in, out into a brand new universe to start again.

You have to admit, even if you are not a believer in this theory, the argument is there to still be at least possible.  Now rewind back to the watch and the house analogy that was used.  It still seems very difficult to believe that everything could slot together for life to exist on this rock.  Or does it?  Going back to the expansion and contraction theory, this surely means that the universe is stuck in a loop, destined to keep resetting itself over and over again. Take time out of the equation, this constant resetting of the universe could have happened billions and billions of times.  The probability of complex life forming on a planet might be extremely small but never the less it is still possible.  If you had a dice and needed to roll a six, you could do it easy.  If you had 100 and needed to roll a 6 on each one at the same time, it would still possible, but will take many attempts.  The same can be said for the universe, if you throw life building blocks out into space enough times, somewhere along the line they are going to sit together at exactly the right stages and begin to flourish.

I do not believe that a God created this world and then created us.  I believe we are the product of a random course of events that could have been interrupted at any given point, but this time it was not, and we were left to continue untouched.  Life may have even arrived crashing to earth on an asteroid or a comet, but this time everything was in place to help nurture it to grow and evolve.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this post as much as I have enjoyed writing it.  It’s made me think back to many questions that I have asked myself along the way and has set my brain thinking again into the possibilities.  I would love to see your thoughts or views so please comment and let me know.

A Modern Meaning Of Life

Ever since I was able to understand and remember conversations, read the news and generally soak up what the world was saying, there has been one question that has always stood out to me.  What is the meaning of life?  I used to have a little ritual that I would do when meeting new people, I would always ask one question:

If you had to sum up the meaning of life in one word, what would it be?

Needless to say, the answers to my question did not carry as much weight as I had hoped.  Most people do not readily come prepared to answer such an off the cuff question and it normally puts them on the back foot.  However, the most common word spoken back to me was survival.

The meaning of life – survival?

In my opinion, roll back the clock to when the first fire starting sparks were created by man, and sure, I would agree that survival was the meaning of life.  Look around you now and you will see that every other living thing has evolved to be able to survive and keep its species going.

End of discussion? No, I do not believe that the meaning of life stops there.  After man burned his fingers and singed all of his body hair on the fire, we kept evolving and developed one of our most important traits…..Free will.  Free will breaks all of nature’s rules.  Free will gave man the opportunity to say, I do not want children.  As soon as we had the potential to make that decision as an individual then I believe that the meaning of life changed for us as a species.  Just like we had evolved, so must our meaning of life.

So what now?  We have so many different organisations trying to eliminate each other, countries invading other countries and most notably people deciding to take their own life, that the philosophy of ensuring the survival of our species has been disregarded by many.  So what do we live for?  I believe, and this is just my belief, that we as individuals live to “experience”.  The constant need to grasp something beyond our reach has pushed us further and further and has changed the way we are hard wired.  Look around and everyone is experiencing different elements, some feel bad and are never experienced again, others feel great and are made an essential part of daily life!

As you can see, this post is by no means religious. I have just wrote it from my point of view, knowing what I know and speculating nothing.  The meaning of life is a huge topic spanning many different beliefs, I have not attempted to wade in and change anyone’s perspective.  I do hope however, that this may have just perked up your mind somewhat and has set something thinking.

The modern meaning of life – I believe it to be to experience all what we can to satisfy our curiosity as individuals and as part of a collective.  If we do not experience anything then the mind will become dull, clouded and nothing will flourish but negativity!  An excited mind is a primed mind and it is that state that will keep mankind growing from strength to strength.