I know I shall never persuade the Big Bang theorists of much of what I'm about to write, but I do know this: whoever, whatever, is true will be revealed in due time and that time can be at any moment for anyone. I think, too, that although a moment of truth may come like a big bang of sudden understanding to any one of us, it does not come at the same moment to all of us. Individually, it may seem like a bright and shining star. Collectively, it comes as gradually as the dawn of a new day.
If I may be so presumptive as to challenge the Big Bang theorists, I think they are in the wrong business. That is, they start from the assumption that you can reason out from the premise of what is seen, felt, proven, by physical sense testimony or empirical knowledge. Working with what they seem to know seems logical and yet what can a drop of water reveal about clouds and oceans? What can a candy heart say about affection? I think the physicists should get off their empirical pedestals and come back to Mind, not matter, as the one basic ground to build on. Theory, and even theology to some extent, start from brain. Fact starts from something outside the perimeters of brain, blood, bones, etc. just as intelligence starts from something more than a computer. I submit we should start with the subjective rather than the objective.
Maybe then we could realize that intelligence is universal, not something to be doled out in a classroom. Oh, classrooms can be useful in tracing history, promoting invention, exercising reason, but it takes more than the brain to reveal reality.
So, getting back to the Big Bang, I say a big bang takes place every day whenever someone leaps out of his skin and sees something spectacular that is entirely different from his former presumptions and says, "This is the truth!" Just as there is a world beyond the womb, a universe beyond our vision, an origin and ultimate of Being that is nothing less than infinitely perfect, so we should start there rather than from the one-celled conception, the sub-atomic particle. In other words, why not start from the whole rather than the part?
An old song put what I'm saying in this way, "Ah, sweet mystery of life, at last I've found you! Ah, at last I know the secret of it all, ...For it is Love and Love alone that rules the day!" From the big bang of this discovery we can reach out to find and express truths that form reality and occupy infinity. When love graduates from the personal to the universal and the ultimate answers we seek, then there's a big bang of Spirit and it can happen every day!
So, how does this relate to getting older? Only in that each day is a gift which can be put to use for more than mere perpetuation of a temporal body. Most of us have more time to think now, to start reasoning on our own and challenging the generally accepted premises we've been fed. Getting older should never result in dementia but rather in keener appreciation and discovery of good ideas. If gratitude accompanies our days, we'll have many "big bangs" along the way. We can contribute to the harmony that will come with world peace. Every right thought and deed will do that.
So, I have only this to add, Fellow seniors, Big Bangs to you today!
That was fun to read! I read a book by physicist, Patrick Glynn called "God: The Evidence." In it, he said that the "Big Bang" theory was about as plausible as a huge bomb going off in a junk yard, and when the debris came back down, the result might be a new automobile dealership with new cars falling into place there! Your piece takes a different tack, and is very stimulating to thought, and should be on our minds every day as we think! And that comment, "...each day is a gift..." I saw in a greeting card once. It added to the idea of the preciousness of the gift of each new day by stating, "That's why it's called 'The Present!'"
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