I am currently reading Teilhard de Chardin’s book entitled The Phenomenon of Man, which undertakes the explanation of his theory for the spiritual (or inner) origins of life. I am currently reading the beginning chapters discussing the origin of life via pre-life, and how scientists of Chardin’s day hypothesized that the primordial milieu may have progressed to form the initial biomass on our planet.
But now, with the recent breaking news on the discovery of a potentially habitable planet nearby, my reading of Chardin’s book is even more intriguing. I have found myself wondering what life might be like on this new planet—is it simply a green, slimy carpet covering the hospitable regions of the planet?…or does it contain intelligent life?…or is the life there somewhere in between these two points?
I was also pleasantly surprised to hear these scientists estimate that perhaps 40 billion other life-harboring planets could be out there in our universe. Star Trek, anyone? Now we just have to invent warp-speed travel.
This theory of life “out there” somewhere is comforting because—even though there are plenty of people here on Earth to hang out with—when I think of the vast distances between our planet and others, I feel a growing sense of loneliness and isolation.
But then I snap out of it.
On my morning commute to work, I looked at the trees, their leaves, the grass, and the people, and pondered on the amazing complexity of life we have here on this planet. It truly is amazing. It’s something we should not take for granted, and we should preserve it without question.
I’d like to keep my earth clean and pristine.
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Hey Nick,
Thanks for your thoughts. de Chardin is indeed an interesting thinker from within the Catholic Church. I have read some of him myself. Pretty heady stuff.
I wholeheartedly agree with you that we must take “creation care” as a matter of human stewardship.
In my sermon preparation for this Sunday I came across this quote, which I thought you might find interesting:
“The French Mathematician, Lecompte de Nouy, examined the laws of probability for a single molecule of high dissymmetry to be formed by the action of chance. De Nouy found that, on an average, the time needed to form one such molecule of our terrestrial globe would be about 10 to the 253 power, i.e. billions of years.
‘But,’ continued de Nouy ironically, ‘let us admit that no matter how small the chance it could happen, one molecule could be created by such astronomical odds of chance. However, one molecule is of no use. Hundreds of millions of identical ones are necessary. Thus we either admit the miracle or doubt the absolute truth of science.’”
Quoted in; “Is Science Moving Toward Belief in God?” Paul A. Fisher, The Wanderer, (Nov 7, 1985), cited in Kingdoms In Conflict, C. Colson, p. 66.