Time’s A Wasting

I’m sure most Celtics fans gathered with some of their favorite people to watch game seven in hopes of seeing a big win; I did no such thing. I turned on the game with a little over 5 minutes remaining in the first half. The team looked as if they flew to Miami with a purpose, but I’ve watched too many NBA games to believe the game was over.

I had no desire to witness the meaningless third quarter so I waited for an hour to switch back to the game. After seeing the score I immediately turned the game off. Call me a fake fan if you will, but I am no longer superstitious so me watching has absolutely nothing to do with the final results. The Celtics lost and I had an enjoyable Saturday. (The way things should be!)

While Celtics’ nation watched their team’s season end, I watched reruns of Seinfeld; I don’t have to tell you that I laughed my ass off! (Sorry for telling you!) I guess I’m just not into the NBA anymore. That being said, I will watch some of the Finals in hopes of witnessing Miami lose.

While flipping through the channels, I found a great documentary, Stephen Hawking’s Grand Design: Did God Create The Universe? The brilliant physicist explained why the universe was not created by “god.” (Great documentary, but I didn’t need a genius to speak on the matter in order to arrive at that conclusion!)

The film began with the Vikings. (Not the mediocre team from Minnesota! Go Broncos!) It was interesting to see that the real Vikings believed solar eclipses happened when one of their gods attempted to eat the sun. The warriors would scream and threaten the starving god, which they believed would caused him to stop and the sun would reappear. (Silly, I know!)

When scientists discovered the laws of nature, the Church attempted to stop the progress by calling such thought “heresy.” After realizing that they were fighting a losing battle, the Church switched their views. Instead of denying the laws of nature, they decided that “god” governed the laws of nature. (How fitting!) I’m not going to get into every detail; I’m sure most people who have an interest in the subject will be able to find the film on the Discovery Channel.

I definitely agree with Hawking’s statement that the discovery of a heliocentric solar system and how it works is human kind’s greatest achievement. It’s amazing how many ridiculous notions have been disproved by science. The religions of the world should fear the future because soon, humans will look back and find it impossible to believe that people actually prayed to “god.” (The stars were once thought to be chinks in the floor of Heaven! YIKES!)

It was interesting to hear about a 1985 meeting between Pope John Paul II and a group of scientists in which the Pope said it was OK for scientists to study how the universe works as long as they do not attempt to seek out its origin. (I’m sure he was considering the Vatican’s vast wealth and thinking “god help us if they discover it’s all a bunch of bullshit!”)

I believe a world devoid of religion would lead to great discoveries. If people stop fighting over nonsensical beliefs and stopped wasting time worrying about being judged by “nothing,” we could pool all of our resources on earth and use them to search the universe. There is so much out there and we continue to retard our progress because there is a strong, albeit ridiculous, belief that the mysteries of the universe will be revealed by “god,” in the afterlife. It sucks that humans continue to waste precious time with such nonsense. We are so far behind in our goal of uncovering the mysteries of the universe, but I guess it’s better to be alive today rather than in the days when “the sun revolved around the earth!”

The conclusion of the documentary provided me with the answer I’ve been searching for. I realize that the universe created itself and I have a basic understanding of how energy works, but I always wondered what came prior; the answer was explained perfectly. Time didn’t exist before the universe. (The statement will make perfect sense after watching the film!)

“Asking the question: did ‘god’ create the universe, doesn’t make any sense! It’s like asking for directions to the edge of the earth; the earth is a sphere and has no edge. It would be futile to search for one!” – Stephen Hawking

The way I see it, I’m going to agree with the genius, but I understand if others decide to agree with a book that has two beginnings and an unknown number of authors, written over the span of a century, about three thousand years ago! Sadly, faith continues to be the biggest enemy of education!

If you earned a degree and you still believe in a higher power, you should contact your institute of higher learning and demand your money back; you may have passed but the professors failed you!

@PeteTeix617