The Role of Humans in the Universe

More than any other creature on Earth, we are the observers of the universe. We seek to understand it to the fullest extent of our collective capabilities. Some of us are trying to comprehend the smallest things; others focus on the largest. Some of us are generalists; others are specialists. Everyone participates in this great endeavor, knowingly or not, in large ways or small.

Knowledge and Belief

To believe that you have the truth is not the same as knowing that you have the truth. Even strong belief is not the same as knowing. It takes only the slightest bit of humble acknowledgement of the possibility, however slight, that the other person could be right, however partially, to provide a basis for mutual respect.

For example, creationists say that evolution is a theory. They are correct. Evolution is a theory (more accurately a collection of theories) that is consistent with a very large collection of data. Even so, it is possible that data (sometimes called facts) may be found that will require a major adjustment to that theory. It is likely that facts will be found that will require minor adjustments. That is, theories must give way to facts.

The Biblical theory of creation is inconsistent with this large collection of facts. That does not mean that there is no room for the all mighty in the theory of evolution, but it does mean that none has been established. For the most part, this is not something scientists are looking for.

Cloning

Sometime soon, human beings are going to be cloned. First it will be done to show that it is possible. Cloning people won't be done all that often because the old fashioned way works well, over well if anything.

But there will be some good reasons for making a clone, and those will be done. There will also be some created for no good reason for a few folks with a lot of money.

Other than physically, the clone will not be just like the original. They will be born into a different time, a different environment, and have different life experiences. A person produced by way of cloning will be a human being the same as any other. He (or she) will have the same rights, or lack of them, as the rest of us. That's why we don't have to worry about a race of soldiers being produced. We aren't about to reinvent slavery under a doctrine of cloning.

It may make it possible for man to affect his own evolution. Well, ok.

Stem Cell Research

Making a few embryos to collect stem cells is a good reason for cloning. The potential of stem cells in medicine is great enough to be worth the procedure. It is true that the embryo is destroyed in the process. But the embryo is so undeveloped that it is not a sentient being in the same sense as a human being. It is not unlike the many embryos that are lost in the usual course of pregnancy or left over in fertility procedures.

An embryo is life in the same sense that a hair follicle is life. Some people will argue that the embryo has the capability to become a full human being. Well, so does the DNA in the hair follicle if it is used in a cloning procedure.

Randomness in Nature

In the history of science there have been instances when scientists have thought that certain observations were the result of a random process, discovering later the predictable processes and antecedents that cause their observations. The great bulk of scientific evidence suggests that everything is caused, and that nothing is random. Belief in the existence of randomness in nature has the further disadvantage that it tends to discourage investigation, much like believing that some "holy book" is revealed truth and that one need know nothing else.

Cosmology

Assume a space with a large number of very massive objects in motion. Further assume that two of these each with a mass equal to about one half of the mass of our universe and traveling in opposite directions collide at near the speed of light. The combined mass would be violently dispersed by the explosion and, at the same time, pulled out by the gravitational attraction of other massive objects. Theories of inflation and dark energy become unnecessary.

The notion that everything sprang from nothing is so preposterous that it must be rejected. Of course, it is difficult for folks to accept the idea of a reality without beginning or end, but there is no reasonable alternative. Scientists looking forward to using the new Hadron collider say that it will create conditions similar to the beginning of "the universe." That is because that is how the "universe" was created. It's obvious for Gods sake.

Mathematicians, cosmologists and physicists like zero sum. Where no thing lasts forever and only nothing is eternal. Infinity makes people uncomfortable. They prefer a start and a finish. But name the limits and folks inquire: What occurred before the beginning? And what will happen after the end? Science has frequently found that there are smaller things and bigger things than previously thought.

The galaxies of the universe have expanded a considerable distance, but light from the galaxies has traveled much further. How far has this light traveled and what has it expanded into?

Time is a dependent variable derived from measures of systematic change in the universe. That is why it runs in only one direction.

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