Idle Talks

Dear Shiv…

Imagine for a while that God (whether or not in our image) has this habit of hitting those humongous balls of gas and fire that we call stars, against each other. Don’t ask me why, whether it is a job or pursuit – just picture that God does it. God has created this universe, and probably several others, and this is what he does for a living – blowing spaces, suspending them with particles and hitting them against each other. Even if it is for the fun of it. This grand activity would sure have loads of characters, and outcomes. New minerals, metals, gas, gravity, supernova, black holes, galaxies, solar systems etc. suspended throughout the universe, billions of years old, covering large areas. Upfront, pretty drab and uninteresting hobby/habit/job for someone as great as God – no glitz, no glamour or gossip, but hey, that’s the way he likes it.

We mortals however, are presented with unnecessary complications because of this. Guess what Mr Stephen Hawkins just told us? He has said that life is probably an accident in this universe. If that is true, then this would also be true that we don’t feature at all in the grand design of things. Out of those bumping stars, chip goes a fragment, sails somewhere, cools off; and has ideal constituents for breeding life. Would anyone even notice!? Guess not – at least immediately.

Ok, so we probably are not desired – life was an accident. Few thousand years hence, a blink-and-miss period according to cosmic standards, and the way things stand here, with or without a Barack Obama wearing his silk tie talking about humanity and peace, we have pretty much chewed up our planet. This earth is nearly ripping from its seams.

Complication is – corroborating to the above two criteria, what does that make us? A) Accidental beings, not intended in the plan of things, coming into existence and B) Within a short time plaguing the host to near-death?

Virus? Or Bacteria? Or would you like to call a friend?

Dear Mr Stephen Hawkins

I guess I am a bit confused now.

Because even though I have had phases when I did or did not believe in God, this time would particularly be different. Essentially because I have a lot of respect for you. And your recent conclusions of the fact that the creation of universe may be a random act – throws things off balance for me.

I have never been religious. I think I have been spiritual, but again, I am not quite sure. I mean, to me God has never been the way Abrahamic religions interpret, you know our look alike (or we being his look alike, whichever), and who creates sons and spirits and angels etc. When some power has a job of birth-maintenance-destruction of this universe – and God-knows-how-many-other universes, with so many billions of planets and galaxies and stars, so many dimensions, black holes and the whole work… I have always believed that creating sons and spirits would not normally be a priority. And I have always been happy to think of ourselves as insignificant little pieces of creation of a mighty power, lost in the huge cosmos, trying to steer through this complex phase called life while trying to make meaning of a few things – significant or not.

And now Sir, you have deduced that this might be a random act of creation. No God behind it all. NO GOD? I mean, how can this universe be like this if there weren’t any power behind to start it in the first place? Come on sir; I understand that The Power (or God) must love to play with huge balls of gas, hydrogen, helium and all those yet to be discovered metals and rocks and fire, hitting them against each other from time to time, creating new stuffs and breaking them, altering gravitational forces and all those super scientific stuffs that we can’t even think of – and normally creation of life in this insignificant solar system, as probably a random result of all those cosmic experimentation, might have escaped notice or might not have interested The Power sufficiently… but to overrule the fact that there isn’t any power behind creation of universe – that is pretty demoralising.

My petty mind thought that to initiate a process, there must be an initiator. But now, I seriously don’t know what to think.