Somehow ... this is my thesis on consciousness. It is weak, uninformed, still...

 This is how I answer Stephen Barr, after having sent him a letter. He answered me, which was too kind, without a single touch of sarcasm. I was very appreciative of his kindness, and it was a great help to me. I sent him a letter relating that I had a theory about the way life exists, that it comes into being when the conditions are right. He sent me back a sort of quick rejection letter, something to the effect of, well, I'll post it. I'll repost this letter I wrote again, too. Mr. Barr

 

Years ago I read your book about religion and ancient faith. I was very interested in science at that time and found it to be the object of much of my fantasy life. I have been rewarded in life with a very great sense of wonder, and for that I will always be grateful, even if I am wrong about what I am about to share with you.

 

In 2012, I purchased H.G. Wells book on the history of the world. It was H.G. Wells who I thought was so great a genius as to put me in this frame of mind. You see, reading his book, I saw something that began a ten years long look into all things scholarly, I read each line as if it were written by someone of great knowledge, and his being a fiction writer gave me license to think freely.

 

In the opening chapter, Wells tells in detail the whole sag of our Earth’s birth. I was reading when as I pictured the not uncommonly seen skeletal remains of the first organisms to remain visible in the geological record. It was then that I said to myself, “Life imitates non life”. As this may sound kind of silly to a man of your level of knowing, and as my preliminary thought sounds “strange”, I will explain in detail in a moment. But first, at this point, I was intrigued by the idea of bones and shells when life began in the lifelessness of the materials that exist outside our own little shell.

 

Last night, I marveled at the idea that although I am inside the world, I am still in space. I was watching an incense burn and I will have to share my crazy ideas at the end of this explanation. My only hope is that you dare take it seriously.

 

You see, recently, my being a sarcastic person, I joked to my friends that I would complete my idea on the origin of life, because the problem remains and I once had insight into this. It becomes the most amazing of stories. The next morning I awoke and decided that life exists everywhere, so long as the right conditions are present.

 

You see, it really is this simple. I have decided that there are no scientific discoveries that are opposed to this idea. For us to exist in space/time, that life could have come from a former system, we will as Christians call it Heaven, and that the remainder was a matter of the opportunities, note it is plural, to present themselves for life to arise, was a most interesting idea.

 

I like to write and this has afforded me the opportunity to come up with dozens of interesting ideas. But more importantly, it made me see things in a whole new way. Please allow me to explain in part with artistic license.

 

For one, Darwin is no longer the enemy of the faith. His ideas are pretty simple really. Looking outside, seeing the planets and the colors they have been recognized for, helped me to realize that the miracle of life on Earth is just beginning to unfold. When we look at life as a matter of the compilation of the substances of Earth, through anthropic coincidences, an idea I learned about from your book, I am left to wonder if there isn’t more to existence than we think, looking around us as we do with tunnel vision. If we are to believe that there is an explanation for Life, why not at least consider the possibility that it has been ordained to come to fruition where and when it is possible.

 

Further, as if I was some scientist who was blessed with inspiration, I considered that this is the whole picture, that with this problems such as Dark Matter and gravity would no longer be, because to plug into the new equations” life”, the problems that are unsolvable will no longer be.

 

If God allowed these things to be expelled from heaven, than at that point, at the big bang, there would be such energy as would erase much of the matching of the space matter ( dark matter?). In my mind, and imagine this, life leaving the heavenly realm to come into this created space, what disturbance that would be. And to this we might add a long history of preparedness for Gods creation. Atop the space is a billowing cloud of smoke, which to me is necessary for the existence of black holes, or as I pictured them upon reading your book, snags in the radiant light of our self sustaining cosmos, much like our self sustaining planet.

 

I have had a tremendously entertaining year thinking on these things. But more than anything, that life needed a shell in order to grow and thrive has been beyond this world. And finally, the bible agrees with me completely, from beginning to end. I read Revelations ten days ago after asking God if I was right.

 

This is my gift to myself for my birthday, I am 43 today. It would mean so much to me if you even looked at this for me.

 

Sincerely ,

Mary Tapp

 

p.s. Your book is a masterpiece, no one explains as well as you.

 

Dear Mary,

Thank you for the kind statement about my book.  If I understand your

idea, it is that life in some way pre-existed in some other realm before

entering this universe.  My own thinking does not quite go in that direction,

though I do agree that the universe was created with the potentiality

to give rise to life already built into or implanted in it. One example is

the anthropic coincidences. Another is the strange power of material

things to evolve into living forms that have consciousness, which is

very mysterious.  But I do not think that the life that appeared in our world

first existed beyond it --- with one exception:  God entered the world in

the Incarnation, which we are celebrating this Christmas season.

Best regards,

Steve

Of course something I wrote in my letter I saw in the bible cannot be found again, which may be somewhere in there or not. Regardless, I decided to say something about consciousness. That it is my belief that God created the universe with us in mind and that his intention was to give us the ability to use our intelligence for the greater good of our race. We have for millennia had the capabilities we have now but have only just been able to make use of the material which lay before us. Yesterday. as I was looking at my hands, trying to fathom, not God, not my own capabilities, but the ignorance of mankind to see what we have out our disposal, and all because of our minds! Or hands, and our minds, ... Whenever I consider the idea of creation, I am in awe of the fact that we are capable of creation ourselves. It comes as no surprise to me that human beings would be awed by their very existence for a very long time. It is also not surprising that we have become jaded and demoralized and given up on God. No bother, it gives me something to feel superior about.

Which leads me to my conclusion, bump-badada! Here goes nothing. As you can see, I firmly believe that we all just popped up here cause gods Achilles heal slipped into the dark void of space, and when he pulled it back in, he left that nasty red devil in this stuff, to sort out his business until he was ready for him. 

Consciousness, like life, is a product of this evolution. It is indeed an aspect of what we call life. These things, as have always been told to us by the greatest minds in history, are near impossible to explain. Just imagine what heaven is like, we cannot. But the bible does tell us, and I've checked twice so I am good on this one, that God is the light in heaven. There will be no sun there.

If that is true, than there is more to life than I will ever be able to imagine.

So, strictly speaking, it is entirely possible that to a greater extent, knowledge is almost a kind of higher consciousness. Consciousness is a gift, but so is life. I watched Avatar last night and I was like, Ive had all these intuitions before. I've tried to be a tree hugger to the fourth degree. 

My notes about this read as follows:

This thing we call life includes consciousness; it is a facet of life. But by degrees, this consciousness evolved into knowing and knowing into creating and creating into something higher, better and best. I knew this this past summer when I realized that I'd come up with an amazing genius idea, it's very simple and I am not alone in thinking it, but I can positively use it most advantageously. I am sure Darwin was not first in his beliefs, check out his grandfather or father for the birth of his idea.* I realized, though, that this was the second highest thing. Being the man of God is highest. It is like bypassing all the things that we needed along the way in. It is prodigious.

So when Stephen Barr said this, I was taken aback, but now I am fine with what I have learned. I was also lucky to be stumped a bit longer because you see, I remembered about the problem of matter being what all the atheists were so excited to claim, which one day, not too far off, maybe we can all admit that, like the bible says, comes from some place. You cannot create something from nothing, and supposedly, we will all be taken in body to heaven one day. If not us, at least a couple people. Elijah for one.

*Darwin is also a nice help to my idea. Although I have said it before, I say it again. And my new book with its intro from Stephen Jay Gould said something of a geologist who he disagreed with, one who said the world was different before, maybe I read it wrong, but really, why is evolution not a part of creation? Why could Gods seven days not have been like the time we see passing in revelations? It's all very strange to me.