“Miracles”
4 April 2005
I
am not a physicist, nor particularly intelligent but I have always taken a real
interest in science and cosmology in general and studied the mathematics of
probability in college but with all that said and done, I don’t get it. Whenever I open I eyes, all I seem to see is
impossible events, things all around me, which from a probability point of
view, or at least my understand of probabilities, I can only be described as
miracles, impossibilities.
Now
I am aware that most folks do not see the world this way and although I have
never really been a protestor or one to carry a banner or flag and wave it for
any one cause, be it saving the whales or protesting a war, I think I really
need to start a campaign to make people understand and see what an incredible,
miraculous place we call living really is.
Perhaps
the first step to seeing what I see is to take a step back. If there ever was a case of not being able
to see the forest for the trees, it is in the case of everyone taking the world
around them for granted. How many
people give the weeds growing along a highway any thought at all or even
notices them or a spider’s web in a window or shadows? But if all about us was once all compressed
into the space of about a grapefruit and that is what scientists now say the
initial point was of the big bang (really the big expansion), then how did all
the stuff around us come to be? Doesn’t
it seem impossible that out of nothing but energy, evolution, even given 14
billion years or however the universe is old, would result in a spider web or a
chrome bummer on a car, or an oak tree or the little finger on my left
hand? If you could stand at a point, on
that grapefruit and look out, you would say that the of odds of a chrome car
bumper ever appearing in the universe would be infinitely small. The Las Vegas odds would have to be billions
and billions to one. I mean how could
just quarks, atoms, etc make there way into chrome bummers or happy meals at
McDonald’s? Just not possible using any
sort of logic or probability theory at all and yet, no denying that chrome
bumpers or happy meals exist.
I
reach for a set of headphones and the wire, which attaches the headphones to
the CD player, gets caught on the bed frame or the coat cuff caught on a
doorknob as you exit. Could move either
another 1 million times and would never get caught again, yet it happened. And what would be the Vegas odds of that
happening be? And yet, things like this
happen all the time.
I
watch a tree leaf let go from a limb and drift slowly down, only to land in a
spider’s web some enterprising spider has built in one corner of the
garage. One leaf falls and hits a
spider web and gets caught. 100,000,000
to one odds on that happening and yet, there it is, right in front of my
eyes. To my way of thinking, the
probability, the odds of that leaf falling right into that spider’s web has to
be millions to one and yet it happened.
Miracles all around me.
Now
recently in my science readings, I came across the concept that the universe is
infinite and thus the probability of any thing happening which no specific
physical law of the universe rules out, is exactly one. That is, if it is possible it will happen! Ok.
Then why don’t I hit the lottery every time I play or get struck by
lightening whenever there is a lightening storm? Certainly there is some time element to probability and I
understand that if I stand long enough in an open field, I could well be hit by
lightening although it might take many, many years before the first hit. But the fact that anything, which is not
physical law impossible, will happen with 100 percent certainty does not take
the edge off my amazement with this earth, sky, and living.
Think
of any one thing; make it easy like a hair comb. Suppose one of our space probes landed on some planet and
immediately found a comb lying there on the ground. What a freak show that would be for all the scientists of the world
trying to explain that one and yet, right here, right now, you can get a plastic
comb for a dollar just about around any corner. And consider the comb and its life. First it is probably plastic and thus based on oil and so oil had
to be found, then pumped out of the ground, then transported over seas, land,
etc to some refinery where the liquid oil was converted to some sort of raw
stock plastic which was then transported to another factory where the comb was
actually made and packaged which then was sent on down the distribution system
until it finally appear in your local store.
How many people where involved from start to finish in the making one a
comb? Insurances on the boats, trucks
used to transport, the building of the machines to refine oil into plastic,
etc. and in the end, you have this funny shaped thing, which somehow came into
existence after 14 billion universe years.
If one steps back and looks at the comb, it would seem impossible that
the universe could evolve such a thing in no matter how much time. Just a miracle and only a comb at that.
I
am not doing a good job of waving my banner.
Moisture
is drawn up from the oceans and moved around the globe to fall on my lawn and
nourish in the form of rain. Take some
sun, dirt and some invisible chemical forces and you have the miracle of an
apple or pear. Again, step back. From just some much energy, after 14 billion
years, an apple hanging on a tree.
So
ok, one aspect of this must be creationism versus evolution. One answer which dims my miracle view is
that God created everything and there is no magic, miracle to anything. On the other hand, evolution says that from
organization, comes more organization and as organization progresses, changes
are made which allow for environment adaptation. I seem to have problems with both explanations. For sure, God could surely have created
everything we see and that is amazing in itself. On the other hand, it seems hard to accept that through evolution
we would “end” up with 5 fingers on one hand.
What environment would result in 5 fingers instead of 4 or not 10?
The
banner, the flag, the cause.
Flip
a switch and there is light. Coal dug
from some deep mine and transported and burned and converted to electricity,
sent down wires strung along streets and into your house and connected to that
switch and light and at your command.
Think of anyone 100, 200 years ago and how improbable that would have
seemed to him or her. Light at the flip
of a switch.
14
Billion years and it all from something the size of a grapefruit and from what
I can tell, when this “grapefruit” exploded, expanded, had it been a little bit
hotter, it would have expanded so fast that stuff could never have collected
into stars and galaxies and planets or if a little bit and I mean a little bit
too cool to start with, it would not have expanded fast enough to over come
gravity and would have simply contracted back into the grapefruit thing again,
again without forming the universe we now see all around us. Just a very little bit change one-way or the
other, and this place, all of it, does not exist. A miracle to me although some say, no miracle at all, as lots of
grapefruit things around all the time and like cherry bombs going “off”, some
too hot and some too cool and some just right like in the Goldie Locks and the
Three Bears story and we in a “just right” grapefruit expansion. OK. Sort of like the “give a million monkeys
typewriters a million years and they will eventually write all the works of
Shakespeare”. Ever hear that one? Have trouble believing it but then again, do
not know of any physical law, which rules it out and thus, “they” say
probability is exactly one that it will or could happen.
Waving
the banner now for all it is worth.
Now
I know it is asking a lot, but step outside yourself for a moment and imagine
being in far, far away in the universe, distant from any star or planet, where
it is very, very dark. Now hold there
for a moment in the emptiness and nothingness of that space and time.
Now,
bring yourself back. Back to the blue
sky, clouds, trees, grass, weeds, birds, animals, rain, snow, wind and yourself
here, here on this bright blue ball we call home, earth. Doesn’t all this seem like the most complex
place in the universe? So much complexity. So much diversity. So many miracles, improbabilities.
And
we speak, communicate, write books to be shared, move about despite the laws of
gravity, ponder all sorts of questions, peer into the depths of the universe,
shake each other’s hands, grow vegetables, ride subways, build subways, love
each other and kill each other.
What a place this living is. Waving and waving in the summer’s sun. So happy to be here and you should be too. A miracle that either of us is here, even for the few universe moments we have to breath in and out.