Life, Death and Time It’s funny, scientists can’t tell us what electricity really is, but even stranger might be the question of what life is. We think we know what life is and it is the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter and includes the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity and continual change preceding death. This is the dictionary definition of life and precedes the word death which is another term for which we could get a dictionary definition for, but really don’t understand. Some say life is a condition which we only see a part of and we exist in many different instances because time doesn’t really flow in a straight line which many of us believe. Ironically time could be another term we really don’t understand even though some of us believe we do. So what does all this seem to mean? To me it means there are three parts to our existence which are life, death and time and maybe there could be more. There is a belief by some that life is a two-part experience. They believe even though are bodies are alive our consciousness comes from somewhere else. They don’t seem to be able to tell us where and this seems to be a recent belief at least in western culture. Is there a big brain somewhere which is sending out individual consciousnesses to each one of us? Could there be some sort of super computer which is handling the job or some natural phenomena which we are yet to find which is handling this job? Perhaps this is how God set things up. It seems we have found another mystery and that is what is consciousness and where does it come from? The dictionary defines consciousness as being awake and aware of one’s surroundings. The question is how do we know we are awake? Some say everything we see, hear and touch could be only some sort of dream and ceases to exist once we walk away from it. Wow it is beginning to seem we really don’t know much about life, do we? When the movie “The Matrix” came out it made a lot of people think about their state of being and some of them thought it might be possible we are all dreaming we are alive. On the other hand, a good story line might leave an impression on some people especially if there is the tiniest chance it could be true. There are those who have said for years we are nothing more than programs in some incredibly complex computer and we only think we are alive. When they are asked who is running this computer simulation they will tell you aliens are. Aliens have been blamed for things we don’t understand for years. Not many of these people want to give God credit for anything, but if all possibilities are considered how can He be left out? Moving on to the point where we seem to eventually die, we really don’t know what this means. Some say death is final and there is nothing else, we just cease to exist. Doesn’t it seem wasteful to be created and then disappear. Science says energy never disappears and many believe we have souls which are energy and if energy never disappears these souls would live forever. There are even those who claim we are all energy beings and this energy is put into a temporary body and when that body can no longer function and ceases to live, that energy is released and still contains our consciousness and we move on to another life which is better, is reincarnated or we are punished for the bad things we did while on earth. Many of the religions of the world think we are judged when we die and our fate is decided by God at that time and we might even be sent to a place to atone for a period of time before being allowed into heaven. If this is true than death is only a transitional step in life and it doesn’t really exist. When we think of life we tend to judge if something is alive by comparing it to what we know. Life may not be able to be judged this way if we find alien life on other worlds. For all we know a planet could be alive in some instances and we would never know it. There is no universal agreed definition of life among the scientific community so this leaves the door open to some things being alive we never thought about and one of them could be a planet. Some scientists say we should look at earth as a living thing. What I thought was interesting was the fact after we start exploring space and depending on what we find we may have to revamp our definition of life. The Gaia Hypothesis states the earth is one organism. If we think this way than maybe we have to think about the solar system being one organism, the galaxy or even the universe being one organism. Perhaps when something happens on one object it effects every other object in some way we are yet able to perceive. We may not be advanced enough to realize yet. Taking this a step further some believe the universe is just part of some other organism which is incredibly larger. There are so many mysteries about our lives that it is beginning to seem almost anything could be true in the future when we finally find out what life is about, if we ever do. As I said before time is also part of the equation. When we are studying so many things we don’t truly understand which are inter-related in some way the mystery only thickens. It is hard enough trying to figure out one mystery, but when that mystery is a mystery wrapped in an enigma it is almost impossible and with the state of our knowledge today about these subjects it is impossible.
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