What is Life?
A conversation With Dad
As written on 1-31-2021
This week I was helping out my dad with his new house and as lunch time was approaching he hit me with the ultimate question:
‘Hey Z, do you believe in life after death? I would like to talk to Mommy (my Grandma), but she’s long gone. I would like to see Grandma one more time.’
‘If truly there is a life after death, then is there a death in the first place?’
But that was another entire question in itself only opening a door to a myriad of other questions. I had to be really careful in the crafting of my answer, as my dad is not religious nor spiritual minded in any fashion.
'Let’s go back to the beginning. At its simplest expression, the universe and the whole of its components can be reduced to mathematical equations. Are those equations gone once Grandma is gone?
Quantum theory states that before physical manifestation as a single point in time and space, particles exist in a cloud like state of infinite probabilities. Could it be that Grandma is everywhere at the same time?
Even if you were to ask a classical physicist, such as Newton, he would tell you that all the matter of Grandma’s body has been redistributed to the universe. If you were to look at your body through an electronic microscope, you would notice how it completely loose, as if composed of grains of sand. H20, the universe’s most stable molecule, rearranges itself more than 2 billions time every second. Aside from an optical illusion, nothing separates your body from the air surrounding it. So maybe Grandma is within you, part of you?’
But then my dad, being a chemistry graduate, threw a wrench into my plans, and stopped my answer short.
‘But Z, without those atoms arranging themselves in complex bonds and forming molecules which made Grandma’s body, then how could I talk to her? Why don’t you just straight tell me if you believe in life after death?’
Checkmate. Obviously, I wouldn’t be able to satisfy my dad’s curiosity. It was clear he wouldn’t derogate from his chemist perspective that Grandma could only exist in the flesh, as a bunch of molecules. He wanted to speak to Grandma the way he spoke with her when we used to visit for dinner on the weekends. But maybe that was the key? I thought about changing my response, but something told me I was still on the right path. So I continued:
‘Hey Dad, do you know about the Parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant?’
The Blind Men and the Elephant is a parable from India that has been adapted by many religions and published in various stories for adults and children. It is about a group of blind men who attempt to learn what an elephant is, each touching a different part, and disagreeing on their findings. Their collective wisdom leads to the truth.
'The story of the Blind Men and the Elephant reminds us of the various competing branches of scientific inquiry. Any prominent scientist considers is branch of study to be the ultimate avenue of inquiry of what ultimately boils down to the search of the presence or non presence of the Creator. They are all looking for clues into the beginning of it all. But what if they worked together? The very foundation of science is the scientific method, and the first step of the scientific method is observation. The outcome of any scientific experiment is directly influenced by the observer. Those experiences you have conducted in college, do you think you would arrive to the same conclusions today with all the knowledge you have gained ever since?
So let’s continue. What is life?
If you were to ask a biologist, he would tell you that all living things are made up of numerous cells working together as a team to accomplish a common goal.
If you were to ask a heart surgeon, whom has studied physiology and your anatomy for his whole career, he would tell you that life is a steady heartbeat.
If you were to ask a neuroscientist, he would tell you that without the electrical impulses in your brain, you would be a vegetable without a conscience.
If you were to ask an astronomer, he would tell you that life is an earth like planet and that your are incredibly lucky to be here.
So what is life, really? It seems that nobody is able to give a definite answer. However, there is one common thread linking all of the above responses and it leads to such a simple truth. If you change the way you look at things, then the things around you start to change too!
Maybe, afterall, life is what you make it to be?
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Always so glad when I wake up and realise it’s not the case! 