Sunday, November 11, 2012

It Might Get Messy


So here’s the thing. All of the stuff we can see, hear, feel, smell, measure or otherwise sense and know something about, from subnuclear particles to galaxy clusters and the great swirl of matter, energy and time that is the universe itself is only about 4% of what’s out there. The remaining 96% is “dark matter” and “dark energy”, which we know exist because of their clear and accountable impacts on gravity and material kinetics. But that’s all we know about it. It exists.

Everything that we understand, that we know anything about, that we can describe, catalog, manipulate, utilize, or otherwise deal with knowledgably comprises less than 5% of the total manner and energy of the universe. We know nothing whatsoever about 95% of it.

Where does that leave us? Well, I can tell you where it leaves ME. It leaves me in a philosophical quandary of major proportions. Assuming that the “hidden” 96% of the universe is at least as complex and interactive as the 4% we can experience (and I see no reason to hypothesize otherwise), we know damned near nothin’ about nothin’ in terms of reality. In other words, “reality” is almost completely made up of stuff that we do not understand and have no conceptual foundation for defining, delimiting, or categorizing. 

And why does this concern us in the blunt-force context of, say, cancer and cancer treatment? To me it suggests that what we can perceive only in the uncertain terms of probability might well have simple, direct and deterministic causality. Just not related to anything in the tiny bit of the universe we know about. The causality for cancer—the biophysical and biochemical misfunctions in molecular production pathways—might well arise as effects with simple and singular causes. We just have no way to see it, if it originates in the big hunks of universe we don’t sense.

This also brings theological questions into focus. Old friend and colleague Linda from a former professional life admonished me not be blaming deities for human failings. Pre-cancer, I would have dismissed any interest in me on the part of any meaningful deity out of hand, as a pipe-dream driven by anachronist hopes of unlikely connections.

Now, I’m not so sure. If we know nothing about 96% of what’s going on, it seems to me that what happens over here on “our” side of the plane of understanding might well...or far more than likely…arise from causes over there on the “other” side. 

Unknowable cause, deterministic outcome? Sounds like a definition of a hand of god, God or gods to me. Which means  I’ve moved my chess pieces from the “nominal nonbelievers” board to that of the “nominal believers”. THERE’S a profound effect of cancer for you. An objectivist cynic like me acknowledging the likely existence of god, God or gods? Mein Got (so to speak, auf Deutsch)! What are things coming to?

Well, they’re not coming quite as far as my truly religious friends and relatives would recognize I suspect. I am prepared, based on my experience with cancer and the matrix of human knowledge, to be a believer. I am not prepared to be a worshiper. Things still break down at my “children going to bed cold, hungry, sick, alone or abused” test. Which is simply this. I may believe in a deity or deities who can cause and cure cancer at their whim, given that they have the power of more than 95% of the universe at their disposal. But I’ll be damned (literally, I guess) if I’m going to worship such deity(ies). If something out there in the cold and the dark vastness between galaxy clusters has the power to make innocent children whole until they (the children) can know enough to be responsible for themselves, and doesn’t do so, that is not a something I’m prepared to worship in any way, shape or form. In fact, it’s something I’d like to meet so I could have a good solid discussion regarding priorities and imperatives. You want worship, big guy/gal? Do something to earn it. Take those kids in the slums of Rio and Delhi and Singapore and Cairo, tonight, this very night, give them some comfort and food and a blanket and hope. If you vested in me beating cancer and left some kid sick and alone in a shithole on the edges of Shanghai City, you got some re-thinking to do. Seriously. You want belief? You want worship? Earn it, dammit. Or live without it. Over there on the dark side of that 96% plane dividing the known from the unknown universe. We’ll muddle our way through just fine over here, thank you. 

Take that. So there. Thanks for putting up with my ranting, my friends. See professional weblog at http://aehsfoundation.org/ . Working on getting more stuff up and going in time for the holdays. Thanksgiving coming up, and for one reason or another, primarily having to do with fast doctors and good technology, I’m here to see it. Can’t wait!

1 comment:

  1. What makes you think the god, gods or deities WANT to be worshipped? Hope you have a fabulous Thanksgiving!

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