VV Raman/IRAS: Genesis According to Science

[Alex]

Genesis According to Science
Varadaraja Raman
30 July 2017
Institute on Religion in an Age of Science
Google Groups "IRASnet" group
http://groups.google.com/group/irasnet
http://groups.google.com/d/msg/irasnet/4cquheUA2K0/CHiOcRgjAgAJ


Opening chapter of my book:
History of Science in Rhymes: From ancient to modern times
September 20, 2015
www.amazon.com/dp/1517298571


I. GENESIS ACCORDING TO SCIENCE
 
Hydrogen, helium, interstellar dust,
Rarefied matter was what came first.
They were all of the Big Bang born,
Or from supernovae rudely shorn.

Particles, charges, atoms, ions,
Drawn closer and closer during endless eons,
Were by gravitational enticements
Brought within huge confinements.

Celestial globules, large and small,
Drops and droplets of the Cosmic Ball:
The massive ones grew hot and more,
Caused nuclear fusion at their core.

So it was that stars were made,
To shine for long, and then to fade.
Of these billions there was one
That slowly became our shining sun.

In its realm and under its sway
Lesser bodies came to play:
Planets, satellites are what they are,
Moving for ever around their star.

Sun’s family is itself bound
To the spiral galaxy it whirls around.
Here a speck we call the earth
Is where we all have had our birth.

In this our home in the cosmos vast
All life we know has had its past.
Life evolved on the temporal span
From molecules to the mind of Man.

Lands were barren, arid, waste,
Landscape perhaps not to our taste.
Volcanic fumes spread far and near,
While ocean waters were pure and clear.

Ammonia, methane, hydrogen were there
In what was then the planet’s air.
Gigantic clouds rose and fell,
Abundant rains caused rivers to swell.

Flowing waters brought salts to sea,
Affecting the ocean’s purity.
Elements from every chemical group
Made the sea into a primordial soup.

Kindled by light, heat, and lightning,
And by factors that could be frightening,
Turbulent chemistry did eons take
The first organic units to make.

From inert matter in simpler states
Came amino acids, carbohydrates.
Further reactions now gave rise
To complex systems of greater size.

Self-replicating systems came
To launch life on its random game.
Once the spark of life was lit,
Its range and kind had no limit.

Some trapped energy from heat and light,
Though possessing neither touch nor sight.
Evolving patters of molecules
Brought to life new animalicules.

Events thus far were like children’s stories
Compared to the planet’s future glories.
There was still no hint of all the creatures
Yet to emerge with far stranger features.

Fish and freak of all forms and shapes,
Plants and trees and worms and apes:
All sorts of things now could rise
From germs and birds and humans wise.

Nucleic acids held the secret code.
They slipped and strayed and changed their mode.
By mistakes and unforeseen means
Were mutations made of the genes.          

Genetic twists set in motion
The meandering course of evolution.
As fossil evidence makes one see
All sorts of creatures came to be.

They answered to every chance and change
That occurred within the planet’s range,
In air and water, and on the land,
In polar regions and desert sand.

Amphibians, insects, reptiles, mammals,
From frogs and flies to snakes and camels,
With a plethora of trees and plants,
As various as bees and ants

Were formed like a Master’s work of art:
Many and mind-boggling from the start.
After many beings like mare and bear,
One emerged that was self-aware.

It could love and mate and kill and hate;
With hands and mind, great things create.
To itself it could questions ask,
With joy complete a chosen task.

It could be noble, it could be mean,
And it could be much in between.
This modest bundle with intelligence
Named itself Homo sapiens.

Is the earth a corner of a cosmic slate
Where an Artist draws things small and great?
Is a Super Doodler without reason or rhyme
Just scribbling away to pass the Time?

Is all this a Divine Plan?
Or physico-chemistry resulting in Man?
Those who on this do firmly swear
Are of their ignorance unaware.                      

With all our knowledge, no one can
Precisely date the birth of Man.
Dryopithecus and Ramapithecus
Were followed by the Australopithecus

These apes their problems on trees did  solve.
From them, some think did Man evolve.
Others feel that it's a shame
If Man from monkeys really came.

Science tries to find how we came about.
Though on this there may be doubt,
It’s not for science to just suggest
What to us may seem the best.

As a witty one reminded us
We must look upon the question thus:
If Creation's ex-ape is you and me,
We also happen its apex to be.                      

Mystics and science both do claim
That all life is of the family same.
Four million years or maybe three
Have passed since the biped's arms were free.

It roamed the land in search of foods,
Ate and slept, explored the woods.
It mated, it procreated,
No arts or craft, it yet created.

Lice and mice, Man ate them well,
Frogs and worms, he liked their smell.
Every creature that moved in sight
Was fit for a catch, then for a bite.

'Twas perhaps of a deer or ass,
Man stumbled on its raw carcass.
Might have been old, might have been fresh,
Man formed a taste for massive flesh.

And it became, to say the least,
A thrill to slay or tame a beast.
In the new age that we now enter
Man becomes an expert hunter.

Hunting, wild though it seems,
Calls for plans and secret schemes.
In plans and schemes to engage
Man required a language.

Spoken words were great and mighty
They sowed the seeds for society.
Not too harsh are Man's teeth and jaws,
Not too piercing are his claws.

And so his games to fully kill
Man had to use some other skill.
After trying many a trick
He forged his tools with stone and stick.

Technology thus came to fore,
Its first goal was just to gore.
A lightning flash that caused much fright
Did perhaps a forest light.

Or the scorching sun on a summer day
Burnt perhaps a leaf away.
Or random strokes of rocks in dark
Did produce a fiery spark.

Through some such event did Man acquire
His knowledge of insubstantial fire.
That, in truth, was a great event,
Alas, it unrecorded went.

So we know not how or when or where
Man first of fire became aware.
Subtle fire was ever so helpful,
Strange sometimes, but also hurtful.

Warmth it gave in wintry weather,
Man at night moved hither and thither.
It protected him from beasts of prey
Which by fire were turned away.

It fell not down, and defied touch,
'Twas not feared, for it did so much.
When cities, temples, and prayers came,
Man began to worship flame.

Seeking food, every month of the year,
He hunted foxes, yaks and deer.
Man was restless and nomadic
The food he found was sporadic.

Then ten thousand years ago
Man began some grains to grow.
He had learnt to sow and reap
And harness beasts like cow and sheep.

When Man grew plants, greens and grains
And learnt the role of falling rains,
He knew there was no further need
To move and search, himself to feed.

Now he started settling down,
Building roads from town to town.
The great Agro-Revolution
Slowed and stopped Man's constant motion.

More creatures were domesticated,
Life became more complicated.
But while he sat and he did wait
For seeds to sprout and germinate

He'd watch the sky or tell a star
"How I wonder what you are!"
He'd sing and dance or take a ride
On his mind fertile, so far and wide.

Unchained thoughts, when free to rise,
Often tend to civilize.
When society tries to curb free thought
Civilization will begin to rot.

[Alex]

God/Nature
Gene Troxell
29 July 2017
Institute on Religion in an Age of Science
Google Groups "IRASnet" group
http://groups.google.com/group/irasnet
http://groups.google.com/d/msg/irasnet/4cquheUA2K0/qXRWI1URAgAJ

I would like to present my idea of nature/god in a way that I never have.  I start with the assumption that "nature" is all that exists.
           
The Nature of Nature.  As far as I am concerned talk of "absolute beginnings" of Nature or of What Is, make no sense unless that is expressed as the beginning of "this phase" of What Is.  So I use the notion of the Big Bang to begin my account.  If I make any mistakes in my presentation of this scientific notion I would appreciate my attention being called to these mistakes.
           
The Big Bang was a tremendous release of energy, which condensed primarily into hydrogen.  The hydrogen became stars fusing the hydrogen into different elements by altering the atomic structure of the hydrogen.  Eventually that hydrogen became everything that exists at this time, and there is no good reason to think we are at a "final stage" of the development of that hydrogen.  Eventually that beginning hydrogen is likely to develop into types of being that are as different from what exists now as a wolf is different from a stone, both of which came from the original hydrogen.
           
What is particularly important to me is the fact that the original hydrogen had the Potential to become alive as it first came into being.  All it needed to do was go through a few billion years of changes.  As far as we know nothing was added to it.  In other words that original "stuff" was very special matter.  Hydrogen by itself seems pretty simple to us.  But it has the potential to develop into everything that now exists.  That seems more like magic to me.  Much of how it develops is now understood by science.  I assume much is not yet fully understood also.  The fact that the original hydrogen has the potential to develop into everything that now exists along with whatever else develops in the next few billion years makes it seem like very special "Stuff" to me.  It makes it seem to be, in a sense, "alive" in a different sense from which a tree is alive, as it originally condensed from the primordial energy.
           
So that is what I call God.  It is more commonly known as Nature.  But this Nature is every bit as creative as what I formerly regarded as God.  However, I see no good reason to endow it with all the anthropomorphic qualities that it has received through the ages that people have regarded God as existing.  Does it have a type of consciousness?  Well it has some type in all the humans and many other animals and/or living things that now exist.  Is  it possible that we merely share in the consciousness that is part of the whole?  The Buddhists regard at least the individuation of our individual consciousnesses to be illusory.  When we die the illusion of separate beings that we have vanishes as we once again become integral features of the creative whole.  (That last sentence is my addition to what the Buddhists say.)