Manhard Schlifni
Abstract
This article covers scientific subjects including the origins of life and a
perspective of our place in the universe. The author disproves the assumption
that the human species springs from the nation states, provides evidence for
our cosmic origins, for “cosmic citizenship”, and explains the cosmic
consciousness on the basis of cosmic evolution. Furthermore, this article
presents cosmology from an atheistic perspective. A growing number of scientists have been
formulating and developing a series of hypothesis that the concept of God – as
understood by the world’s leading theologians and major religions – is
logically contradictory, and therefore God not only does not exist but, more
significantly, cannot exist. In short, God is impossible.
Introduction
Cosmology uses the scientific method to
understand the origin, evolution and ultimate fate of the universe. We do not
stand apart from the universe, but rather we are evolving in it. The term
"universe" is defined as the whole space-time continuum in which we
exist, together with all the energy and matter within it. The cosmos is all
that is or ever was or ever will be (Sagan, 1980).
Thus, humankind is a part of the cosmos.
Attempts to define consciousness can be traced
back to the writings of William James. He saw consciousness as the
"function of knowing". Consciousness has also been defined as the
totality of the impressions, thoughts, and feelings which make up a person's
conscious being. It can be seen as a quality of the mind and the ability to
perceive the relationship between oneself and an environment. Due to the
dynamic nature of consciousness the recent definitions consider it to exist at
many levels - defining consciousness as the processing of information at
various levels of awareness.
Self consciousness, by virtue of which
woman/man becomes conscious of herself/himself as a distinct entity apart from
the rest of the universe, seems to be a kind of optical delusion of
consciousness. The prime characteristic of "cosmic consciousness" is,
as its term implies, a consciousness of the cosmos. We, who embody the local
eyes and ears and thoughts and feelings of the cosmos, have begun, at least, to
wonder about our origins (Sagan, 1980).
Cosmic Evolution
In cosmology, the big bang is the standard
scientific theory of the origin of the universe. It was in the mid-1960s - two
scientists, Arno Penzius
and Robert Wilson, identified background radiation from the big bang and were able to extrapolate backward in time to the first
events. The universe began approximately 13.7 billion years ago with the mightiest explosion of all time.
Very shortly after the big bang, the universe was composed of hot plasma of
elementary particles. The big bang nucleosynthesis
produced only the lightest elements (hydrogen, helium, deuterium, lithium).
This was the process of element generation during the early phases of the
universe, shortly after the big bang. Energy condensed into matter, mostly
hydrogen atoms, and these atoms accumulated into vast cosmic clouds; rushing
away from each other. The big bang explosion created not only fundamental
subatomic particles and thus matter and energy but space and time. The universe
expanded, cooled and darkened. The first galaxies formed as early as about 600
million years after the big bang. Within these galaxies the first generation of
stars was created, “flooding” the cosmos with light. Star formation was the
process by which gas in cosmic clouds transformed into stars. Hydrogen atoms
made suns and starlight. There were in those times no planets and no
life-forms. Deep in the stars nuclear fusion created the heavier atoms –
carbon, oxygen, silicon, iron, etc. Stellar nucleosynthesis
generated the elements by thermonuclear reactions within stars. These elements
were the raw materials from which planets and life later arrived. Elements
were ejected into space by massive star explosion (e.g., supernova), where they mixed
with other matter and formed new stars, some with planets such as earth. The
universe has been evolving in time toward complex systems with greater
consciousness. There has been a cosmological phase, from the big-bang to the
first cells; a phase, from the first cells to the first humans; a phase, from the
first humans to the present world population. This was only a short description
of the evolution of the cosmos as revealed by science in our time.
We are related to the cosmos and the stars: (1)
The awareness of the cosmic origins of matter or atoms
came from scientific discoveries. Atoms are further divisible into smaller
subatomic particles. Willy Fowler is associated with nuclear astrophysics, a
field he and his colleagues created in the 1950s. Because of their
investigations, we now know that all the elements in the universe, except for
the elements without stellar origins, were originally generated in the insides
of stars. Fowler’s paper "Synthesis of the Elements in Stars"
(Reviews of Modern Physics. vol. 29, Issue 4, 547–650), co-authored with Burbidge, E. M, Burbidge, G. R.,
and Hoyle, F., was published in 1957. Further evidences exist for stellar nucleosynthesis. (2) Our solar system formed from a Solar nebula, a collapsing cloud of gas and dust. (3) Our
planet formed around 4.57 billion years ago. After the sun turned on, its
ultraviolet light came into the earth’s atmosphere. Its warmth generated
lightening. These energy sources sparked the origin of life. The first
life-form appeared more than 3.5 billion years ago. (4) The evolution of life on
earth is driven by mutations. They are partially caused by natural
radioactivity and cosmic rays. (5) The existence of plants depends on sunlight.
Since animals and humans obtain their food supply by eating plants,
photosynthesis is a source of our life.
A human body of 70
kg consists of approximately 7*1027 atoms. Atoms are microscopic structures found in all
matter. An atom is the smallest particle differentiable as a certain element. The human species is, as Carl Sagan used to express, "starstuff".
About 98.5% of the
matter of the human body is made up of just six elements: oxygen, carbon,
hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. Most of a human body's matter is
oxygen (65%). Carbon, the basic unit for organic molecules, comes in second
(18%). The following
table 1 presents the elements sorted by their presence in human body.
During the countercultural revolt against the
establishment, millions could relate to Joni Mitchell’s chorus in her hippie
anthem "
Table 1: Chemical
Elements sorted by their presence in human body.
|
Presence
in human Body (%) |
|
|
Oxygen |
65 % |
|
Carbon |
18 % |
|
Hydrogen |
10% |
|
Nitrogen |
3% |
|
Calcium |
1,5% |
|
Phosphorus |
1% |
|
Potassium |
0,35% |
|
Sulphur |
0,25% |
|
Sodium |
0,15% |
|
Magnesium |
0,05% |
|
Other Elements [1] |
0.7 % |
Cosmic Citizenship
Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning
awareness that we are members of a larger group. Initially our loyalties were to
ourselves and to the immediate family, to hunter-gatherers, then to tribes,
small settlements, city-states, nations. One development in history is that all
humans are divided into groups called “nations”. Nationality is the legal
relationship between an individual and a country. The national identity usually
refers to the assumption of distinguishing features of the group. Citizenship
is membership in a political system (state). A person having such membership is
a citizen – e.g., he/she has the right to political participation.
Atomism is the theory that all subjects and
objects in the universe are composed of very small particles. Thus, all the
atoms of human bodies, the matter that makes each of us up, were not generated
in nation states. A set of scientists consider consciousness to be linked to
the neural functioning of the brain. Human brains are composed of matter. In
this sense, the brain is composed of different atoms, such as carbon and
nitrogen, interlocking to form structures. The structures of the brain give it
the capability of consciousness. The knowledge of language, culture, values,
citizenship, and nationality depends on the data stored in the memories.
Knowledge and consciousness consist of atoms. The consciousness origin lies in
the cosmos.
The concept of holism implies that the human
body is an organic whole and that human beings are interrelated with nature.
People are perceived as undivided and more than the “sum” of their
descriptions. This implies the assumption that a human being cannot be
completely explained by the study of atoms or subatomic particles alone. Human
beings define themselves in different terms (e.g., psychological, biological,
social, belief-system). Every possible definition of the human being can be
transformed into the cosmological truth that she/he is a part of the cosmos.
All human origins lie in the cosmos.
This article deals with the development of
cosmic consciousness and citizenship; the identity is broadened further, to
include the whole human community, the entire planet earth, the
cosmic perspective. Individual cosmic
consciousness is defined as the ability of the person to identify with humanity
as a whole and with the cosmos. Collective cosmic consciousness is dependent to
a certain extent on individual cosmic consciousness. The higher the number of
individuals who are universally conscious, the better chance we have to reach a
collective cosmic consciousness. Societies may enter an accelerated transition
phase, leading to a chain reaction, in which the majority starts making the
transition to cosmic consciousness.
The present concept of citizenship usually
relates to membership of a nation state. But the term “citizen” can be defined
for the cosmic level – e.g., a cosmic citizen is an inhabitant of the universe.
National boundaries are not evidenced when we view the earth from space (Sagan, 1980). The old appeals to racial chauvinism and/or
to nationalism do not work in a society that has cosmic consciousness and
beyond divisive, boundary-based loyalties.
Hypothetical forms of cosmic life, or life on
other planets, or on space settlements, range from the humanoid to other
life-forms. There is no published scientific evidence for intelligent
extraterrestrial life or for cosmic citizenship outside the planet earth,
nevertheless, numerous hypotheses have been developed to validate the
possibility that it could exist. To put it in Carl Sagan's
terms: The nature of life on earth and the search for life elsewhere are two
perspectives of a single question. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence
is a search for who we are? We come from the cosmos and belong to the universe.
We are inhabitants of the cosmos and members of the human species. All objects
and subjects we see, touch, smell and breathe, are consequences of cosmic
evolution. Our matter and form are determined by the cosmos of which we are a
part (Sagan, 1980). We are the “children of the cosmos”
(Sagan, 1980).
Humankind is a local embodiment of the cosmos
developed to self-awareness. We are a way for the universe to know itself (Sagan, 1980).
We have begun to contemplate our
origins: We are starstuff researching the stars;
organised collections of about seven billion billion
billion atoms considering the evolution of atoms;
tracing the long path by which, here on earth, consciousness arose. According
to the definition of cosmos, every generation of the human species was born in
the cosmos.
Human evolution is a multidisciplinary
scientific field which seeks to research origins and development of the human
species. Hominids (Hominidae)
are a biological family which includes humans, extinct species of humanlike and
other mixed forms (mixture of human and ape features). Biologically, humans are defined as hominids of the species Homo sapiens.
In 2001, a 6-7 million year old fossil skull
named "Toumaï" by its discoverers, and
formally classified as Sahelanthropus tchadensis, was discovered in
The Edge of Forever
One theory in cosmology implies that the
universe will continue to expand forever. Currently the hypothesis, supported
by observations, suggests that there is insufficient mass/energy to cause a recollapse. On the other hand, the theory of the
oscillating universe states that the gravitational attraction of the mass
within the universe will possibly slow down and stop the expansion phase of the
universe. The motions of galaxies will then be reversed, possibly resulting in
a “big crunch” where all the matter in the universe will be contracted into a
small “volume” of high density. A new big bang could happen, thereby creating
another expansion phase. According to this theory, the universe will
alternately expand and collapse through “big bangs” and “big crunches”. Either
what we see as the big bang was a unique event, about which the universe
expands indefinitely; or it was one occurrence in an infinitely repeating cycle
of expansions and recontractions.
Other cosmologies hypothesize an evolving
universe without beginning or end. The steady-state theory implies that the
universe has no origin, but is expanding because new matter is being
continually created. The steady-state theory is also a basis for another theory
known as the quasi-steady state theory which is based on a set of big
explosions occurring over time, the universe itself being without a beginning.
A set of theories postulate the existence of
many universes, possibly even an infinite number. A parallel universe is a
hypothetical universe which exists separately from our universe. Other theories
presented the hypothesis that multiple universes exist in a universe, our
universe being a part of this hypothetical universe.
If the general view, however, big bang followed
by expanding universe is correct, what happened before that? Was the universe
devoid of all matter and then the matter suddenly somehow existed? How did that
happen? In many cultures/religions the answer is that God or gods created the
universe. If we wish to pursue this question scientifically, we have to ask the
next question. Where did God come from? If we decide that this is an
unanswerable question, why not save a step and conclude that the origin of the
universe is an unanswerable question? If we decide that God’s origin is unanswerable
by science, why not save a step and conclude that the universe has always
existed? Sagan’s representation of cosmologies allows
the conclusion that the cosmos is all that ever was (Sagan,
1980).
The Disproofs of God’s existence
By the 20th century, along with the spread of
rationalism and humanism, atheism had become a theory, predominant among a set
of scientists. Most people, believers and non-believers alike, are usually
unacquainted with the scientific disproofs of God’s
existence. Weak atheism is the lack or absence of belief in God or gods. Strong
atheism or positive atheism is here the postulate that God or gods do not
exist. Indeed, how can there be scientific arguments for the nonexistence of
God, let alone for the impossibility of God, when so many people simply assume
that God would exist?
Since 1948, a growing number of scientists have
been formulating and developing a series of hypothesis that the concept of God
– as understood by the world’s leading theologians and major religions – is
logically contradictory, and therefore God not only does not exist but, more
significantly, cannot exist. In short, God is impossible. For instance, the study “The
impossibility of God” presents the most important arguments for the
impossibility of God as well as the disproofs of God (Martin/Monnier,
2003). These arguments are grouped into five areas focusing on definitional,
deductive evil, doctrinal, multiple attributes, and single attributes disproofs of God. Part one of the study, definitional disproofs, comprises arguments for the impossibility of God
based on a contradiction within the definition of God. Deductive evil disproofs – based on a contradiction between the attributes
of God and the existence of evil – compose part two. Part three contains doctrinal
disproofs, each based on a contradiction between
God’s attributes and a particular religious doctrine or story. In part four,
multiple attributes disproofs expose a variety of
unexpected contradictions between different divine attributes. The last part
comprises single attribute disproofs, each based on a
self-contradiction within just one divine attribute. Although the theoretical ramifications of disproofs of God are not fully explicated, the
insights into this field are likely to come from more detailed and explicit
theoretical scientific papers.
Conclusion
We know that the politicians speak for the
nations; but who speaks for the human species and for earth? We, who embody a consciousness of
the cosmos, have researched our origins - we are starstuff
contemplating the stars, organized collections of about seven billion billion billion atoms, disproving
national identifications based on matter origin, postulating the impossibility
of God, contemplating the evolution of atoms, tracing that long path by which
consciousness arrived here on the earth, and perhaps on other planets. People that have cosmic consciousness and beyond
divisive, boundary-based loyalties claim to speak for the species, for earth,
for the cosmos (e.g., Schlifni, 2005). We are one species. We are one cosmos,
together with all the energy and matter within it. Our obligation to promote
cosmic consciousness is owed not just to ourselves but also to that cosmos,
ancient and vast, from which we spring.
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Footnotes
[1] other elements: e.g., Copper, Zinc, Selenium,
Molybdenum, Fluorine, Chlorine, Iodine, Manganese, Cobalt, Iron, Lithium,
Strontium, Aluminium, Silicon, Lead, Vanadium, Arsenic, Bromine.
August 2005