It is the ultimate arrogance to believe we are the only living things, & the only planet in the Universe with life, and that life on this planet is less than 10,000 years old. Even to propose an anthropological history of less than 100,000, or even 100,000,000 years is both impossible, and an exceedingly arrogant belief. When we regard the Universe, from the tiniest zircon, fractal, and neutrino, to the Herculean gas giants, and complex Galaxy Groups, and all the dark matter between everything, we see the action of energy and the evidence of life. And that is in this Reality alone. There are many Realities, perhaps even Alternate Realities sitting right next to the one we occupy but barely understand. Overwhelmingly, in this Reality, the evidence is LIFE. In every material thing we observe, there is infinite and irrefutable evidence of life. To assume we are the first planet to have life is simply not even logical, and goes against deductive thinking. To presume that we are the only life because we are chosen and special is arrogant. If there is anything I have learned for certainty in my regrettably short incarnation this time around, it is that arrogance and knowledge do not make good companions.
That we would accept the myth of gods and reject the likelihood of extraterrestrial visitation is simply illogical. That we would bury our heads in the fossil record, looking for the source, and not look up and consider the more likely source is simply illogical.
I was reading the NatGeo article on the new DNA evidence of the origin of the use of the horse, and I realized again how blind and deaf we truly are to not only our anthropological history here on this planet, but to the far more ancient truth about life and the source of our beginnings here on Earth. It’s not a new musing for me, but every “new” discovery (and we have a snowballing landslide of discovery going on right now) only confirms for me how little we know, and how we have repeatedly been enticed by arrogance to the beliefs in our myths and our scientific theories, both of which are just gropings in the dark, hampered by the myths of our preexisting mindsets, and thus, severely myopic.
Religions tell us super non-earth beings had something to do with our existence here, and though religion looks up to heaven, it refuses to acknowledge human life beyond the earth. Science proves that life on this planet is far far older than anyone realizes, but scientists are determined to find that ancient source buried in stone, and rarely, if ever, acknowledge that life on this planet originated beyond the earth. Parts of each of these fundamental beliefs are correct. Most importantly and without prejudice or pre-assumption, we must look up, and out from this small, inconsequential planet to find the bigger, more vast and ancient source of our existence–which is most probably far older than even I imagine.
It comes down to how we are taught to think. When a detective attempts to solve a crime, he can only find the real truth if he doesn’t begin to look at the evidence with preconceived ideas about who, what, where, when, why and how. The problem with both religion and science is the presuppositions. We who subscribe to preexisting notions can make the facts fit our ideology, just as a detective might make facts prove the guilt of an innocent person simply by only using the parts that fit his notion of the crime. If you don’t allow your bias to be a lens you look thru, then what you see is entirely different than what you would see looking through a lens formed from religious dogma, or scientific theory.
Arrogance is the substance that forms the lens we make our world-view spectacles from. It’s time to take those glasses off and see a whole new Cosmos. And that, my friends, is why I write.
If we look at the evidence of life that exists around us, and we peer into stone, and fossils and see the evidence of life past, and we measure bacteria and space debris and see the continued evidence of life, it is only sheer arrogance that would lead us to somehow conclude that life began here on Earth, or that we are the only life in the Cosmos. I have read essays from theoretical scientists and cosmologists who argue that the percent of chance of extraterrestrial travelers happening on earth while zipping around the galaxies in their super fantastical space traveling vehicles are some slim to none calculation less than 1%. But calculations of our earthly scientists are based on the existing understanding of the universe, which is limited to this dimension, and on the math of this Reality which follows the rules & calculations of this reality. Earthly science obviously has zero comprehension of any knowledge an advanced non-earth scientist might have of space travel or detection of life in the cosmos, let alone what part those super-knowledgeable non-earth scientists might have had in the creation, or perpetuation of that life. Just the simple act of zipping around the Cosmos is still impossible for us, even with the help of our super-smart theoretical scientists, so how could we assume any calculations WE HAVE regarding the capabilities of advanced non-earth life might be true?
The overwhelming evidence, in every tiny and huge thing we are presented with, is LIFE. If you look at water, or blood, or even rocks under a microscope you find it teaming with life. Even air if full of living stuff. Life is everywhere. Life preexists us everywhere. Life exists even if we were to vanish completely. We are not the only life in the vast cosmic expanse, we are also not a very key or important part of it. Someday, perhaps, we will gain enough knowledge, and technology to join the greater Universe, but if we don’t, if won’t even matter. If we were to vanish without a trace, it wouldn’t matter at all, nor would it change the fact the the Cosmos is burgeoning with life, and we are such a infinitesimally teensy part of it, whether or not a space traveler has a predictable percentage of chance of happening on us matters not at all.
It is only in our supreme arrogance that we might think that we even matter enough to have an opinion.
