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Big Bang

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We got here from the big bang. That, and some - quite a lot, actually - of evolution along the way. Why do so many have such a problem with this? Why is the answer a question as to God's existance? The big bang does not refute the existance of God. Or Goddess...

The big bang is a scientific explanation. It is as good an explanation as we can come up with. Myths, stories, legends, and faiths cannot explain - do not explain - how we got where we are. They explain why we are here. Science cannot explain why. But it can explain how.

In elementary school I was so excited to find out that we would learn how the ear worked. By the end of our lessons, I was dissapointed. We never learned how the ear worked. We learned how the ear was this Rube Goldburge device where one thing vibrated against another, ultimately sending that vibration on to the brain. Yes, and then what? No explanation. Science hadn't even shown me to my satisfaction how the ear worked. But, what I didn't realize is that what I really wanted to know was why the ear worked. I wasn't going to learn that in science class. They also didn't give me the answers in the Catholic school that I went to later on, but that's another story.

Why would God, this incredible beyond-your-ability-to-compreh end being, put reality together in a way that is less than extremely complex and fascinating? And can one story answer the question of how God put this and that together? And is the big bang a sound theory that is, in fact, beautiful in its ability to understand so complex an event as the creation of our reality? Science is not explaining why this reality exists. It is explaining how, and doing so as beautifuly and honestly as it can.

God is not some guy in the sky. And to the extent that He (She, It) is, that is a metaphore. Right? I really hope you are on the same page with me. Metaphors can be powerful, but they are metaphors. Sometimes all we have are metaphors. Perhaps the big bang is a metaphor. Just as this world is a metaphor. Just as our reality is a metaphor...

When you understand God, when you see God, that's not a metaphor. That's what everything else is a metaphor for. But can you talk about seeing God? Not without metaphors. So let's find the best metaphors we can. I would suggest they are not simple ones. God is not simple. Loving, yes, willing to speak directly to us, yes. But simple? No. So why would the explanation of God be simple? Is God a big man? Yes. Is God the Big Bang? Again, yes. The answer is not simple. It is complex.

The question of God or Big Bang is a dychotomy that can resolve itself if we understand that both are correct. The Big Bang is how we got here. God is the why. Did God create the Big Bang? Sure, but not in a way we can understand. We can, however, understand the how of the Big Bang.

I am on the Big Bang side mainly because I disagree with creationism trumping science. We evolve. We came from apes. We did. We just...did. But I would have to say, in all fairness, that I disagree with science trumping God. It's not one or the other. To believe in God is not to disbelieve in sound science and incredibly obvious facts. Why is it that so many scientists are atheists? I don't get that. How can you observe and observe all the time and then not accept that something beyond your scope of ability to observe is creating you and allowing you to make the very observations you are making?

I don't see a division between science and religion - or rather, spirituality, or whatever you want to call our quest for infinity. The division is there because of our inability as a culture to grasp balance and wholeness within us and without us. So we must try the best we can individually to find it for ourselves.

Learn more about this author, Beau Smith.
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