Ask yourself: Is it possible for there to be nothing?
Was there a time when there was absolutely nothing?
Don’t limit the question to the known universe!
Was there a time when there just was nothing?!?!?
It’s difficult to consider because your brain knows it is impossible for something to come from nothing and there seem to be a lot of somethings so obviously there was never nothing.
Cool. You and I just logically proved that there is something somewhere that was always there.
It had no beginning so it will have no end.
I know it’s popular these days to believe that very complex things can be formed spontaneously, given enough time and the right conditions.
This is all true:
Our universe had a beginning.
It cooled.
Stars formed.
The stars crunched matter into bigger chunks of matter, including carbon.
Carbon has this freaky way of joining with itself.
Stars exploded, dumping their payload into space, including carbon.
Planets.
Earth.
Carbon on Earth.
Freaky carbon masturbation — felt so good, had to do it again.
Life.
Then, 2.2 billion years later, I’m wondering if I really should use the word masturbation while I’m trying to get something done.
It’s only been 13 billion years (and change) since this universe began.
When people build something impressive, they start with a detailed plan, right? When you build an awesome bridge, you draw up a plan.
Someone says, “Hey! You built a great bridge!!” They’re impressed because you thought up all the steps to build the bridge and wrote them down and people carried the plan out and now we can drive across it.
Don’t you see that it wasn’t the plan that got the bridge built?!?!
The plan could be written because of knowledge gained from executing prior plans.
Bridge building goes all the way back to walking on a fallen tree to cross a creek.
13 billion years seems like a long time, I know. But it’s not long enough to randomly come up with something as complex and wonderful as you on the first try.
If you flip coins, it is ABSOLUTELY possible to get 1,000,000 heads in a row on your first try. I’m willing to bet against you doing it… I’m not being negative, I’m just saying it’s pretty unlikely.
Some will say: “Joe!! You’re a nut. It’s obvious that it’s possible for human beings to come into existence in just 13 billions years because we are here.”
Some will say: “Joe!! You’re a nut. If anyone can flip a coin 1,000,000 times and get heads every time, it’s God.”
Modern man is just 300,000 years old. They say we have some common ancestor with other primates back there, about 7 million years ago.
Chimpanzees and humans have about 99.9% the same DNA.
Humans have more than 3 billion base pairs in the DNA.
0.1% of 3 billion pairs is 3 million pairs.
So, in 7 million years we had 3 million little improvements that caused us to be able to write knock-knock jokes and make popcorn in a microwave.
I’m sure we did that because it made it easier to survive.
Those other primates are slackers… Sitting around all day… Running from predators… Beating their chests…
If only they were smarter.
Ok, so we aren’t smart because of a need to survive. Bacteria seems to do just fine… and it doesn’t know anything.
Random mutations!! Cosmic radiation!!! RNA transcription errors!!!
Ok, fine. 7 million years.
Obviously something happened perfectly and here we are.
It makes perfect sense that we are the result of many attempts to get it right.
The first thing (actually, the only thing) in the universe was consciousness.
It was alone. It knew only it.
Even if you could copy your thoughts, you wouldn’t be much fun to talk to, would you?? It would be BORING. The copy of you would keep finishing your sentences and that’s only cute between couples when they’re greater than 72 years of age.
So, it needed someone different from it.
Who you are is completely dependent on your experiences.
You and I are different not because of the color of our skin, but because every moment of our lives was completely different from the other’s moment.
To have separate experiences, we need to be separated….
So, space was created.
From our perspective, time started when space was created — the Big Bang.
But the first time there was no life.
Adjustments were made.
The second time there was no life.
Adjustments were made.
The third time there was no life.
It doesn’t matter how long it took, because the thing was always there. It doesn’t experience time like we do. It doesn’t wait — it just IS.
Eventually, it flipped the coin a million times in a row — all heads.
You were born.
You became conscious of yourself.
You learned to appreciate sushi.
You kissed your wife.
You invested for your retirement.
You died in the company of your children.
And now you’re going home to tell the story to an eager audience.
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