Universal Theory Part II

2003-12-18 - 1:51 p.m.

Ok....I’ve slept, I’ve eaten, and I am ready to spit out the rest of my brain onto my computer screen. Where did I leave off? Oh yeah, I was a little frustrated with the fact that I can reduce....well, basically everything I believe and feel......to the firing of neurons in my brain, which are controlled and affected by various chemical reactions. I was actually pretty upset because I had got myself thinking that maybe everything was just about randomness and chemicals. I mean, if I somehow came to believe that the only thing Raj and Christie are sharing is a simultaneous neurotransmitter imbalance......life just seems cheapened. I am not sure how to get from where I left off to the place that I know I should be......unless it’s by going deeper. I said at the beginning that this wasn’t going to be about chemistry and physics, but I think they’re about to come in somewhere. It’s like the X-Files thing......the truth is out there. So let’s go.

Let’s establish, for now, that all the processes that govern the functioning of our minds and bodies really are controlled by complex chemical reactions. It’s true. In my freshman biology class, I came away with a very interesting concept of how cells work. We actually spent a great deal of our time learning about mitosis, organelles, membranes, etc, so I am fairly confident in my imaginary model. When you look closely at a cell....I mean molecule by molecule.....you can see that there is absolutely nothing that makes the cell work. The fact that it does work is inarguable, but there is no driving force, no reason why a cell is alive. To live, the cell’s different parts must participate in hundreds of molecular interactions, which require energy. Scientists have determined that almost all life forms get the energy for these chemical reactions from breaking off a phosphate group from molecules of adenine triphosphate (ATP). This is not the force I’m talking about.

Think about it this way......what if it were possible for a group of scientists to construct a human cell? They could create the exact structure necessary for survival, molecule by molecule, but what would happen? I don’t know why, but I am absolutely certain that if this was attempted, the natural properties of the various chemicals would not simply start the cell to work. The cell would sit there, totally complete, but without the driving force.....without a reason to be alive. Extend it to a whole brain......a whole human body. Science can build and copy, but it cannot create. Every engine needs a spark, or (more accurately) a starter motor. Ultimately, though chemistry and physics can explain the mechanism of life, they are powerless to show the reason for things, the “why” behind the “how.” Something makes DNA replicate itself. Something makes the enzymes produced by RNA and the ribosomes float around and do things. Something is the difference between a human being just before and just after death. The body contains exactly the same atoms and molecules that it did before, but something is missing and no one has a clue what it actually is.

This is where I get my hope, my friends. The very fact that there is this something that cannot be explained means that not everything boils down to dry, cold science. It means that we are not alone. No, not aliens.......God. There are theories of how nucleic acids joined together randomly to make the first self-replicating DNA and gradually through more random joinings life was created in the infamous “primordial ooze.” Well, I don’t buy that at all. It’s ridiculous. Maybe I am prejudiced by my Christian upbringing, but I simply am unsatisfied by this explanation of our origins. Evolution I don’t mind. I don’t claim to know the mechanism of Creation, and natural selection is basically a proven fact, so I’ll buy that, Darwin. What I don’t buy is the idea that life is exactly equal to the sum of its molecules.

So it comes down to this........The root of my Universal Theory is that there is a force I call God, which is responsible for life. It’s not even faith, yet. I just don’t see any other possible explanation. Maybe when someone comes to me with a theory that I can accept, then I’ll have to rely on faith for this founding principle. Until then, I know that God exists because I exist. Renee Descartes, when he wasn’t inventing the xy coordinate plane, was a really innovative philosopher. He’s the guy who said, “I think, therefore I am.” It’s true. All of our senses could be an illusion, but the fact that I (since I don’t know about you.....you could be an illusion, too) am aware of my own ability to think and imagine proves my existence to myself. Descartes’ problem was that he took the existence of God for granted and tried to prove it through word tricks and logical exercises. Then, he tried to use his proofs of God to show that our reality is not an illusion. Well, it didn’t work too well and people didn’t buy it. That’s why I went about it from the other way. I used the things I know and the things I see around me to search for the reason. There is no reason that we can find or explain, so there’s only one option left.........a God.

This conclusion is pretty remarkable in itself......to me, at least. However, this is not the end. It builds up from here. Remember how frustrated I was about the nature of emotions? Well, I’m feeling a lot better about it now because I decided that the mechanism of emotions isn’t important. Instead, I decided that there is a force that started it going. I don’t really care about exact relationship.......you know, the doctrines about free will and salvation........that’s what I use faith for. It works for me, but I can’t exactly put it in my Universal Theory. The important part is that emotions, especially love, have a point. Raj and Christie are sharing a chemical experience for sure, but they also have a connection on that other level, the one way deeper than biology. That driving force extends upward through all the levels. It has to, or else life is still dependent on the cause/effect relationships of cells and organs. No, the reason they have this connection has a lot more to do with God (God is love, remember?) than with adenine triphosphate, or even serotonin.

Here is how we get back to the starting point..........Once we feel that our psychology works with, not because of our brain’s chemical mechanisms, every way in which we connect outward from ourselves has meaning. It’s not just love anymore, folks, these connections are any possible way to communicate any emotion. From here, I can only speak for myself. First, because I don’t know if my readers actually buy my basic thesis on the existence of God. Second, because I am most familiar with the way I am affected and can’t speak with any authority about anyone else.

The fact that other people’s emotions and psychology have meaning on a spiritual level affects me deeply because it changes the way I perceive others and their opinions. I no longer have the right to simply dismiss people I think are wrong or stupid, because their psychological profile is just as certainly created by the God force. This actually kind of bothers me because it means that God may possibly have wanted people to be conservative or, even worse, Republicans. Well, I don’t know about that. I can explain that away by saying things like......People chose to create unjust policies and prejudices, God just made folks who were psychologically compatible with the feelings underlying those policies and prejudices. But that sounds a lot like academic bullshit, and it probably is. Either way, I still have to respect the opinions of others as if I actually thought they were worth anything.

Have you ever heard someone say that idealists look at the world through rose-tinted glasses? It just means that people interpret their surroundings in the context of their beliefs. It’s not such a far out concept, and most of us would admit do doing it ourselves. I certainly do. It makes even more sense when you go back to the things I was saying about politics in Part I. Those psychological profiles that make people more receptive to one side or the other are just like glasses that are tinted differently. Carrie Colborn sees W, through her glasses, as a determined leader who doesn’t compromise his beliefs. Through my glasses, he looks more like a stubborn jackass who thinks everyone has to be just like him or at least love America enough to kill people. My question now is what to do with the thought that God gave each of us our own glasses. I’d much rather believe that I have 20/20 vision, but I don’t think that’s realistic. [Side note - Literally speaking, I often have to call people to help me find my glasses because they are too skinny for me to see from more than 2 or 3 feet away. My mother has the same problem.]

Now I have to search deeper, painfully deep, to find the reason why it’s worth fighting (nonviolently) for what my beliefs. If even Bush’s beliefs are acceptable in God’s sight, then why should I bother? This is where faith takes over. Actually, it’s not so much faith as just acknowledging that I’m never going to figure it out so I might as well give up. My faith is that God has a great plan by which everything’s going to work out. I certainly hope that there’s room in this plan for everyone to find happiness in eternity, in whatever form it may be. I also hope that this plan includes those of us who don’t have all the answers. Despite my greatest hopes, I can never actually find out.......at least not here. So here’s my solution......I’m just going to keep on fighting. As far as I can tell, I can figure out what God wants from the Bible and from what He reveals to me through his supercrazybadass powers. Now, I haven’t been struck by lightening or seen a divine apparition, but I have felt the Spirit. And I can read the Bible, even if I have to use my corrective lenses (both literal and metaphorical). So far, everything I have felt or read from God has pointed me in the direction I’m trying to go. Obviously, I fail occasionally (actually a lot), but my beliefs, whether I manage to follow them or not, are still intact. Maybe everyone else is right, too, but for now I’m just going to go with what I know is true. I think it’s called covering my bases.

That last part sounds like a conservative kind of thing to say (God forbid lol). It’s actually not, though because I at least acknowledge that other people might be right. I’m just saying that whatever God’s plan for them may be, His plan for me includes striving for peace, justice, and loving everyone I come in contact with. It also includes playing a million instruments, writing poems, falling in love a lot, and loving everything and everyone on my love list. Now I’m back full circle so I guess you can say that this is the end of my Universal Theory. But you’d be wrong because this theory is almost certainly going to change and shift as I learn more things and meet more people. For all my pretended scientific style in this entry, I really am not educated enough to claim to have written anything brilliant or noteworthy. It’s just my thoughts on things, rolled all together into a small, convenient (ok maybe not very small) verbal bundle. I’m pretty proud of it.........for now. Love to everyone.

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