Of Relative Unimportance

There are a couple of questions over which the discussion can become rather heated, and as such I generally avoid them. No, they are not religion and politics, although one should tread carefully in those areas. I am learning to address those either strictly on my own as in this blog (which you may avoid or ignore as you wish) or only when invited and confident in a serious, charitable talk. What I'm thinking about are more scientific queries: life elsewhere in the Universe, and evolution here on Earth. The fact is that I don't consider either to be particularly important questions. Oh, they may well be important from a scientific point of view. Yet philosophically and certainly theologically I can't see any reason to fret over them too much.

To the one, evolution, God creates any way He wants to create. He is God after all. If that means over a long drawn out period, that's His pleasure. It wouldn't make humanity any less special nor any less touched by the Divine. At some point consciousness was breathed into the human animal and that's that. What we do now that we're here becomes the important point.

As to sentient life, or indeed any other life at all elsewhere in the cosmos, I believe the same basic argument applies. Either there is other life or there is not; either it is self aware or it is not. In either instance that question too is up to the will of the Almighty and that also is that. If there are other such beings it doesn't make humanity any less special. It simply means that God shared Himself with someone besides us. And I don't think they would be all that different from we denizens of Earth. Seeing as the Universe is imperfect, they would be afflicted with the same needs which challenge us: their daily bread and the like. Other than as an opportunity to learn proper tolerance and charity should we each (or all) meet, (just as we ought to be kind and considerate of who we meet here at home) it isn't all that important who might be out there, and where.

That's my take on the questions anyway. I would tell you my personal beliefs, but I think it would take away from the overall point I'm trying to make.