42-ish

"Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it." - Mohandas Gandhi

Long Story Short: It's not where we come from, it's where we're going.

Long ago, I mean a REALLY long time ago there was literally, in the truest sense of the word, nothing. The universe as we know it was an absolute void. No atomic particles, no gravity, no light, no Starbucks, zippo.

Yet, somehow, "stuff" started to accumulate. Lots of it, and it was exactly the kind of material of which our universe currently consists.

This would be no less remarkable if the known universe had suddenly began to fill up with Snickers Bars. Yes, imagine a Milky Way made of Snickers Bars. But I digress.

Where did it all come from?

Mankind has only within the past hundred years or so gained enough scientific insight into the primal forces of nature to even begin asking the proper questions, let alone formulating a definitive answer. In truth, we may never know The Answer as we'd need a computer powerful enough to reassemble the universe into its pre-Big Bang components and then have it retrogress until all is revealed.

Probably not gonna happen.

But there's always hope. We are, after all, a species that invented Silly Putty, the spork and Pee Wee Herman film festivals.

Religion, on the other hand, puts science in its place by saying "Silly heathen. As we've been telling you for thousands of years God just showed up one day out of a clear blue, unimaginable other sky and instantly created all that you see in them NOVA specials. He just snapped his majestic fingers and VOILA! instant paradise. So sit down, shut up, memorize at least four of these ten rules and drop ten bucks in the collection plate when it comes around. Oh, and ignore those other religions. They so suck."

This is what's popularly known as Creation Science. This is what Sarah Palin believes in. Fuck Sarah Palin.

Let me just say that, in the long run, The Answer is largely immaterial, that we as a race are clearly and completely insignificant in comparison to the whole of Everything Else. We are cosmic mayflies careening through the cosmos on our personal, 80-year (on average) dance of life, love, and death. It makes no difference whether we all take each other by the hand and strive to make the Earth a better place or die in the folly of testosterone-enhanced nuclear devastation.

But, of the two, I know which one I'd pick.

I'm just sayin'.

=mike=