Notwithstanding being a man living alone for the better part of the last twenty years without benefit of the influence of the distaff side, I have been very careful about not allowing new life forms a chance to get started in my refrigerator. I’m an organized and tidy man, a civilized man having been raised to clean and pick up after myself. Even now, you won’t find dirty dishes left in my sink or outdated foodstuffs of any kind in either pantry or refrigerator. But this does not lessen my curiosity about what might “grow” if such things are left unattended. There is much of the Dr. Frankenstein in my imagination, much of wondering what will happen if I press that button, wondering if the Fates intervene when I must decide whether to turn left or right?

Because of what some believe to be the “spark of divinity” in human beings consisting of conscience, self-awareness, imagination, creativity and curiosity among other attributes, I consider that to the untrained eye a mixture of various small seeds give no indication of what might result from the planting and tending of them. The miracle of life is that the smallest of seeds contains all the information to become a daisy or the greatest and tallest redwood. Jesus used the parable of the mustard seed as an example of faith, and it is truly miraculous small seeds hold the promise of life, and life in such diversity. And life, what it is and its origin, continues to be the great mystery it has ever been.

However, our planet may be reaching the maximum it can support of life in the form of human beings. A surplus population of billions is destroying and consuming natural resources at an alarmingly accelerating rate and even polluting our oceans. There are some that may argue the potential for disaster this surplus population portends, but there is no argument these surplus billions are not for the greater part realizing anything like what some call “life as it should be,” free of appalling ignorance and poverty.

But is humankind an aberration of Nature or part of a divine plan? Either way there is no making logical sense of our species, whether of mindless mechanistic forces or Intelligent Design, both are beyond our comprehension. The age of the universe is presently thought to be about 13.7 billion years. The earth is thought to be about 4.5 billion years. The first signs of civilization have been estimated at 75,000 years ago with bead jewelry being used, to the Sumerians of 3,500 BC where cities and writing, Cuneiform script, with a system of laws originated.

Imagine a number line showing the age of the universe, the age of the earth, then the age of Modern Man. The latter would be an infinitesimal mark on such a number line by comparison; even compared to the hundreds of millions of years when life first originated on earth, the comparison would be infinitesimal. Small wonder the Psalmist was moved while looking at the stars to question God in Psalm 8:4: What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

The same question has occurred to me each time I look at the stars, but it is a question that has remained unanswered, and while the Psalmist believed God had visited men I have had no such visitation, at least none that I am aware of. I have that kind of “knowing” within myself, but it admits of no empirical proof. Yet, the sense of wonder remains with me each time I look at the stars. But when I dwell on the two greatest mysteries that confront our species, life and death, I seem never able to reach any satisfactory conclusion. At that, science is in no better case than the philosopher concerning these two greatest mysteries of all.

It is a great source of consternation to me that the madness throughout our world, a madness rooted in religious superstitions, greed and avarice should so dominate our species that the world becomes an increasingly dangerous place for humankind, as well as all other species of life. If one were to credit the various religions the inescapable conclusion would be the gods must be crazy, at war with one another and have infected all living creatures with their madness. Not only is Nature red in tooth and claw, the same would seem to be true of too many among the human species where the stronger prey on the weaker, and people are separated and alienated from one another because of languages, geography, religion and politics. Is this the madness of an uncaring cosmos or some kind of “plan?”

But I remind myself that life is only the tiniest blip on the number line of the age of the universe, and even of our earth, and that civilization as we know it is an even tinier blip on the number line of life on earth. It is as though at some moment in the relatively near past a “decision” was made that resulted in civilization and what came to be called Modern Man in the scheme of cosmological history. And despite the astronomical possibilities, I remain of the opinion our solar system and earth remains unique in the “all” of the universe. The statistical possibilities against our solar system and earth, of life as we know it outweigh all other considerations no matter how many “feel” it just can’t be so. Not all the science presently available to us can explain life and death, and without an explanation of these all else is theory, not fact.

However, the various life forms that have appeared on earth through the millions of years seem more like the experiments of Dr. Frankenstein than those of any Intelligent Design bent on perfecting civilization and Modern Man. To view the results today is to wonder if the gods were in fact crazy, in competition, or whether by chance of some kind unknown and perhaps unknowable it all came together in a species where the wicked prosper and the innocent suffer, and despite every scientific effort life and death remain the two greatest mysteries they ever were.

The pyramids and the Sphinx, Nazca lines and giant figures only intelligible at a great altitude, so many winged creatures in stone and ancient manuscripts remain mysteries. The why of such things remain unexplained, though spawning so many theories not the least of which is extraterrestrial influences. The constellations, none of the ancients could possibly have come up with these by their unaided eyes; and in outer space only appear as a jumble of stars with no relationship to each other. But the fact that they are drawn as a “map” used by astronomers to orient those of us on earth to our galaxy and beyond has proven to be very helpful; and there remain many millions of people that still credit Astrology, so much so that many a disbeliever may sneak a look at their daily horoscope “just for fun.”

We weren’t there, so at this season of the year when that “Star of Bethlehem” and the following wise men are prominent I have cause to wonder. If the story is to be credited at all, just what was it these men saw and followed? What caused ancient astrologers to find any meaning whatsoever in stars of any kind, what was the basis of the warning to Herod that such a thing even be mentioned or credited? The modern critical and logical mind rejects such “superstitions,” but the critical and logical mind leaves room for many a question notwithstanding such superstitions; and even the greatest of skeptics must acknowledge the presence of smoke may indicate fire.

Going back to that number line of billions of years, in a blink quicker than the eye modern science leaps into view, the stars are seen through telescopes, the atom is split, men walk on the moon, the human genome is mapped and genetic engineering opens the way to “improved” human beings. But the seeming madness of it all remains, and for billions of people on earth life is something to only be endured and suffer on the way to inevitable death. The scales are tipped from madly grotesque wealth and privilege beyond imagination for a very few, to living like animals for many billions that are doomed to living in abject ignorance and poverty without hope.

As a species, given enough time science may build a better mousetrap, may deliver our species from its seemingly headlong, hell-bent rush to destruction. Yet I never think of this but what that line from the film “Gettysburg” comes to mind where General Robert E. Lee is telling Jeb Stuart: “There is no time!” And as I consider those leading nations, those posturing for the cameras attempting to gain the most powerful office in the world as President of the United States, I can be excused for believing we are running out of time. In the cosmic scheme of things this would seem of little consequence. But the great “What If?” of our species remains. What if we are unique in the universe? And if so, to what end?

Admittedly these are not the kinds of questions that tear at the fabric of sleep for many, but for those of us given to speculate about such things it is a never-ending source of consternation and confounding questions seemingly without answers. But I suppose they are the kinds of questions that must be asked if for no other reason than to give some of us pause when we are attempting to order the priorities in our lives and separate what is of importance and real value from what will only perish in the end whether one is rich or poor, seemingly favored or cursed of the gods of whatever kind.

There are many mysteries confronting us right here on planet earth; these and the mysteries of the universe are the things that in my opinion should help us mortals to keep a perspective of the priorities. The earth may be an experimental garden of the gods, and perhaps this is what it is all about in preparation for the next stage of our species. But whether or not, the future of life for our species will be determined by whether we run out of time before we reach the next stage of our development. And for now, looking at the present leaders of nations and those pandering for votes here in America, the future for our species does not look very promising.