When Six Days Mean Eternity December 26, 2006
Posted by soniadomain in : Uncategorized , trackbackVancouver columnist Douglas Todd presents an intriguing view on the creation theory from the scientific prospective (”"Science-based spirituality”, Vancouver Sun, 12/23/2006). He interviews Jack and Alice Newton - a couple of amateur astronomers, who spend their winter months in Arizona Sky Village running 10 high powered telescopes. Some of these telescopes are located on site in Arizona and the others in their summer home in Osoyoos, BC are operated remotely. Jack Newton is a widely published author whose articles and photos appeared in Newsweek, Canadian Geographics, Life and Astronomy magazines and a popularizer of the astronomy worldwide.
Comparing the scientific theory of the Universe creation also known as Big Bang to Genesis in Bible, Jack Newton does find an agreement between the two. “Scientific understanding of creation”, he notes, ” just changes dates a bit”. Indeed, who cares if the Creation lasted 13.7 billion years or six days. The main point is that we are humans and citizens of the earth live now and should do something with a time alotted to us given the means we have.
What fascinated me the most is comparing living and non-living things based on their survival instinct. On this scale a fish can not be compared to a tree for example. Jack also explains that “ordering principle” that stops Universe from spinning into the chaos is guided by some form of intelligence. The question that is left unanswered from my point of view is how that great intelligence is bridged with a survival instinct of living things. Both a science and a theology agree that a supernatural intelligence created living creatures and these are in turn have a survival instinct. But what part is a core of survival in living creatures?
A simplistic answer for that question would be a heart.
I dived into Wikipedia to find out more details. Apparently humans’ cardiac muscle is very special in a sense that it can relax and contract on its own whereas sceletal muscle requires some kind of stimuli. The same goes for fish gills. But an earthworm does not have a heart for example. Another observation is that a heart rate changes by doing exercise or due to a perception of a danger.
So, to summarize we can conclude that the first words G-d said to Adam were:” Have a heart and get to work now or I will punish you”.
“What about brain?” some people may ask. “Isn’t a brain a reason that humans superior by far beyond all living creatures?” First of all, studies showed that some sea mammals, such as dolphins have even more developed brain organization than humans. Second of all a human intelligence is not given at birth, but developed during the lifetime as a result of a life activity. According to Wikipedia, a newborn child brain mass is only 25% of the adult. Brain controls many finest motor functions, such as hand movements. Who knows, may be that was the reason that for ages men offered a heart and a hand to women of their choice. That offering must have symbolized their vitality as well as a highly developed brain organization.
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