The Blog of dreamdancer

Gases, hydrogen and helium, this is the Big Bang with its CMB (cosmic microwave background), the relic radiation; and then there is redshift. Not sure about that. From the infinitesimal to universe ever growing outward, add in string theory, parallel membranes, and the statement the universe is said to be ninety percent unobservable dark matter, and I really feel nothing is settled, nothing is for sure; how can it be if ninety percent cannot be observed. Now a hole, an enormous void in space; empty of galaxies, stars, and the dark matter, that which is comprised of the stuff which we cannot observe, was discovered with the help of the VLA not too long ago. It is only 6-10 billion light years away. Can I see it, can I grasp that in my mind. Now this is said to be a new form of energy or perhaps a new constant of nature so mysterious it cannot be studied by experiment in a lab. They call it “dark energy” (the most abundant form of energy in the universe and the most mysterious). Two-thirds of the cosmos is said to be comprised of this enigmatic “dark energy”of which science knows little about. I have always been told there is cause and effect to everything. If not a creator, then perhaps a initiator was the culprit that set the bang off. Give it a name whatever you choose did not there have to be a what or who, and then there is always the why. Then there are questions of how you have two-thirds of the cosmos comprised of “dark energy” and not have even a seemingly basic understanding of it, but it is there. Then there is always the ninety percent dark matter which we cannot observe, cannot see it but it is there. That sounds to me like faith, pretty much the dictate of organized religion. Just my thought. I am no more comfortable with this “Bing Bang” being how it all started than I am with creationism or intelligent design. At least with the latter two humans do matter and play a starring role, but then perhaps it is hubris on our part to think we are more than a blip in time. Perhaps “we” are about to become the endangered or extinct species. Perhaps our terminal event is around the corner, much like it was for the dinosaur. I am trying to make some sense of all of this, some raison d’etre. Why consciousness. Why self aware. Happenstance? I am not afraid of death, I have been there once, and letting go was not hard, coming back was. I search. I question. I do feel a spiritual connection, a perhaps collective consciousness, but this is only a feeling. It is no more a surety to me than anything else. I think in living day to day awareness of every minute of hour of every day is the best way to live regardless of the outcome of all of this. I do like Gibran’s take on religion (generic not brand) in how to live and how to perceive if not who, where God might be found…no doctrine, no dogma.

On Religion Kahlil Gibran

Have I spoken this day of aught else?

Is not religion all deeds and all reflection, And that which is neither deed nor reflection, but a wonder and a surprise ever springing in the soul, even while the hands hew the stone or tend the loom?

Who can separate his faith from his actions, or his belief from his occupations?

Who can spread his hours before him, saying, "This for God and this for myself; This for my soul, and this other for my body?"

All your hours are wings that beat through space from self to self.

He who wears his morality but as his best garment were better naked. The wind and the sun will tear no holes in his skin.

And he who defines his conduct by ethics imprisons his song-bird in a cage. The freest song comes not through bars and wires.

And he to whom worshipping is a window, to open but also to shut, has not yet visited the house of his soul whose windows are from dawn to dawn.

Your daily life is your temple and your religion.

Whenever you enter into it take with you your all. Take the plough and the forge and the mallet and the lute, The things you have fashioned in necessity or for delight.

For in revery you cannot rise above your achievements nor fall lower than your failures.

And take with you all men: For in adoration you cannot fly higher than their hopes nor humble yourself lower than their despair.

And if you would know God be not therefore a solver of riddles.

Rather look about you and you shall see Him playing with your children. And look into space; you shall see Him walking in the cloud, outstretching His arms in the lightning and descending in rain.

You shall see Him smiling in flowers, then rising and waving His hands in trees.

Does God exit, I simply do not know.But Gibran's vision is beautiful.

But then again, what Carl Sagan has to say I find true: The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard who sits in the sky and tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous. But if by God one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatisfying... it does not make much sense to pray to the law of gravity. [Carl Sagan]

My mood: very groovy