Subsistence by God denotes that the servant of God regards all existence, including him or herself, as being non-existent in and of itself, and discovers in his or her consciousness that every being, living and non-living, is a manifestation or shadow of the light of the Divine Knowledge and Existence. Initiates who experience destruction and effacement with respect to their corporeal self and gain a new existence by God’s permanence or subsistence exist by His Existence, subsist by His Subsistence, live by His Life, know by His Knowledge, will by His Will, and hear and see by His Hearing and Seeing. They see and hear what other (normal) people cannot see or hear, and receive favors that come as a result of such hearing and seeing. Initiates who have reached this rank, which marks the near completion of the journey, and where they feel themselves to be in the most pleasurable state of being freed of their name and existence, are in relative terms qualified and mentioned with any of God’s Attributes in the heavens and earth. Those who have contact with the spiritual realms can feel in their consciousness a reflection of this favor. This state is also regarded as persons of heart being called according to their own perception of themselves. Only those with purified souls who see and think of nothing but the Truly Beloved One, and whose hearts always beat by His Existence and Subsistence, and whose spirits are continuously reanimated with a new flash of His manifestation, can experience this state. So long as they can keep their relation with the Ultimate Truth at the level which has carried them to this summit, and the Ultimate Truth continues to treat them in this way, do they perceive even the slightest falling under the influence of others in knowledge, perception, feelings, and consciousness as a spiritual eclipse, which may end in their spiritual spark being extinguished. If they feel they have suffered such a falling-off, they will, in order to save themselves from it, be on the lookout for the All-Beloved’s opening a window in their spirits from His special consideration.

From another perspective, subsistence is, after the total disappearance of things that are transient and visible in the sight of an initiate, either a temporary permanence dependent on its own conditions, or an uninterrupted continuity due to the extraordinary confirmation of Divine grace. That is, while a traveler continues his or her journey in the light of the signposts or traffic lights along the way, after a certain point, which is determined by the impressions and discernment of the traveler, the signposts will no longer be needed and are no longer visible. This stage, where the One Who is indicated by the signs and proofs shows Himself with the lights of His Existence, making signs and proofs no longer visible, and where His witnesses are the only instruments for His praise and exaltation, is a different point of breathing and turning to a different angle. If the initiate has the ability and resolution to continue journeying toward further goals, the breezes of annihilation will begin to blow in both the person’s inner and outer world. When the journey is almost exceeding time and space, the initiate feels in the consciousness complete annihilation ready to turn into subsistence. One cannot say anything, nor think of anything, nor attempt to perceive anything. Despite the brilliance of the witnesses that point to Him throughout the universe, they disappear when faced by the lights of His Existence, like stars sinking when the sun rises. As stated in (55:27), There remains forever the “Face” of your Lord, the One of Majesty and Munificence, only the Divine Being continues to exist beyond the scope of human perception, understanding and feeling.

Initiates can view His subsistence or permanence in three stages: the first is based on knowledge, the second on vision, and the third on the pleasure of experiencing His Existence. While traveling through these stages, any information that has been acquired by the known means of acquiring knowledge loses its significance and utterly disappears into what is known. All instances of seeing and feeling vanish while the meaning and content based on or reached through seeing, feeling and knowing remain intact. While all relative truths no longer exist, the absolute truth prevails and the natures of existents, each differ­ent from the other, are surrounded by the lights that emanate from their annihilation in the True Existence. In all of these stag­es, annihilation provides a way to subsistence and wherever an initiate attains subsistence, it can address itself to different levels of feeling and perception, producing relative effects of its own on things. For this reason, this rank has usually been called “subsistence by God with or in the company of God,” and not only “subsistence by God.”

We can view this stage from two angles:

• Travelers find and feel things and events annihilated with respect to their own selves and existence. Nothing exists any longer with respect to its own being. When the travel­ers are surrounded by the atmosphere produced by this, they no longer feel the existence of anything except Him and find everything annihilated in Him.
• A wakeful initiate can always distinguish between the essential, absolutely true Self-Existence and relative instances of existence. So, all things have relative exis­tence dependent on the unique Self-Existence in the initi­ate’s sight. Concerning these two kinds of feeling, percep­tion, and experience, the leading Sufi scholars comment that for a traveler who feels all things annihilated in Him everything ceases to exist, while for one who has the abili­ty to distinguish between the Absolute Existence and the relative existence all things continue to exist.

If we deal with the matter from the approach of the Com­panions, nothing exists by itself nor does it have any essential existence. Everything has relative, insubstantial and accidental existence as a manifestation of the Existence of the Eternal Truth, according to its receptivity. Things, as dependent on the Absolute Truth, have a constant but relative truth. In the begin­ning, this consideration is doctrinal belief based on acceptance, and in the end it is based on the certainty that comes from knowledge and vision.

In the spiritual journey, the whole of existence no longer has any value or significance in the heart of an initiate and vanishes in the infinite light of the True Existence in the same way that the light of a firefly fades when the sun rises. The initiate gives no place to anything else but God in his or her heart, and leaves him or herself in the cataracts of his or her spiritual pleasures immersed in the ownership and guidance of His Will and the lights of His Existence. The utterance always on the initiate’s lips is “He.”

Travelers who feel themselves in a state of pleasure when they find themselves annihilated with respect to their own acts, advance toward the attainment of a new existence and perma­nence in the Acts of the Ultimate Truth. By feeling transience in their own attributes, they taste the pleasure of permanence in the Attributes of God. By forgetting their own selves—though for­getting has been interpreted in different ways—they attain a new existence by the lights of the Ultimate Truth’s Existence. While they sometimes refer to the relative, existential truth of things and emphasize its difference from the absolute, True Existence, they sometimes can find everything annihilated in the absolute, True Existence. There is left only one rank to be reached by the travelers who have arrived at this point, namely God’s company. Every initiate who has attained subsistence by God can attain this rank according to the individual’s capacity. Attainment of this rank sometimes brings with it a feeling of wonder and sometimes an intoxication and sometimes astonishment. Mawla­na Jami expresses this feeling of wonder beautifully as follows:

Love is not without the flute-player, and we are not without Him.
He without us and we without Him, this cannot be.
The flute always beautifies its tunes, but in fact
the beauty of the tune comes from the breathing of the flute-player.
The following verses, belonging to another hero of subsistence by and with God, are concerned with a feeling of wonder and astonishment:
The lights of my eyes are He, and the direction for my reason is He;
my tongue always utters He, and I sigh and groan with He.
My heart goes on an excursion in He; the love of my soul is He.
My greatest secret is He, and my brightest sun is He.
Those who are lovers and intoxicated are always with He.
Their fasting is He, their festive day is He, and their rituals are He.
My soul has sacrificed itself in the way of its Beloved;
its union is with He, its parting is with He,
and its cure, as well as its afflictions, is He.

Those who have attained subsistence by and with God always feel and think of Him alone, they are always with Him alone, and they begin with Him alone. Attracted by Him, they leave themselves in the overflowing pleasures that come from experiencing Him throughout the universe, and always act according to His good pleasure and approval. In the face of the rays of His Knowledge and Existence, which totally eliminate all others save Him and His friends from their hearts and sight, they cannot help but utter “O the All-Living!” and feel as if they are talking about themselves. They utter “O the Ultimate Truth!” and melt away in the light of His Existence.

O God, O the All-Living and the Self-Subsisting! O the One with Majesty and Munificence! Pour unto us knowledge of You and give us from the drink of Paradise, and enable us to be steadfast on the Prophet’s way and true guidance. And bestow blessings and peace on our master Muhammad, who teaches the true way, and on his Companions, the noble, hon­orable and godly ones.

Galaxy and the Sun

The 21 cm long radio wave radiation emitted from the hydrogen gas within the dense dust and gas clouds of the arms of the galaxy enables us to know about the structure of the galaxy. This information led us to conclude that our galaxy is indeed not a solid object and displays a circular motion of 250 km per second. The Solar system is estimated to complete one revolution around the galaxy in approximately 200 million years. At this point the critical question that comes to mind is how a solar system orbit is maintained and protected during these journeys where the solar system bypasses the gravitation and effects of strong heavenly bodies without causing disruption and collisions. The Earth just won’t become a habitable place only by considering planetary solutions. We may have to consider measures regarding our solar system and other galaxies, since the solar system has a very sensitive relation with the other heavenly systems in our galaxy.

The Sun’s position in the Milky Way

Trillions of comets in the Milky Way galaxy fill the outer space and encompass the solar system in a globular fashion. One of the comet groups orbiting the solar system is called Oort or Opic-Oort cloud. A hundred billion comets is estimated to exist in the Oort cloud.

These comets follow the designated orbits until they deorbit with gravity of another strong heavenly body other that the sun. Stars and masses of the Milky Way constitute a globular center with spiral arms where these arms extend out of the center in the same galactic plane. There are a limited number of systems located in the space between these spiral galactic arms. In fact, this is where our solar system exists. In other words, it deserves attention that the sun does not reside in the dense centric part of the galactic arm Orion (Hunter) but exists in the nearby sparsely populated galactic mid space. The solar system that has been placed in the most appropriate position within the Milky Way also needs to be protected from possible dangers it may encounter (like crossing paths with dense spiral arms) during its journey around center of the Milky Way.

Scientist who study the place of our solar system in galactic maps particularly point out that we are far away and safe from the devastating effects of cosmic storms.

If the solar system did exist in the arm where stars are densely populated and near each other, gravitational forces could result in changes in planetary orbits. For instance, in the spiral arms of the galaxy, comets would easily deorbit and bombard the earth momentarily under the strong gravitational force of these arms. Yet remarkable measures have been taken to protect against this as well! One of them is the velocity value of the Sun. For example, in order to provide an effective communication, a satellite positioned in the earth orbit is given a speed equal to the one earth has for rotating around its axis. Our sun is given a suitable velocity to move with almost the same speed of galactic arms without intercepting each other, thus providing a safe passage. However this is not the case in 95% of the stars and the spiral arms in our galaxy unlike the one determined for our solar system. This is something to reflect and think about. Another measure that prevents the sun from intersecting with the spiral arms is that it has a circular orbit rather than in the form of an ellipse like stars of the same age. Also in this regard, we observe that our sun is given a special movement allowing Earth to become a habitable place for life. The All-Wise and All-Mighty Creator works the galaxies just like a giant machinery wheel with his established laws.

The stars in the spiral arms may in time get sucked into the inner parts of the structure, not being able to hold on to their position for a long period of time. This is also applicable for the sun. Divine measures also intervene here and leave the sun in the protective zone. The sun is located in the “galactic common rotational radius” where strong spiral arm effects do not exist. Furthermore, when Supernova explosions take place, giant star debris can reach a couple thousand light years away, enabling the sun not to be negatively affected from these explosions since it exists in the outer regions of the arms.

Cosmic dangers in the galactic center

The solar system is 28,000 light years away from galaxy center. If our galaxy is considered to be 200 thousand light years wide, one can say that we are relatively close to the center.

This location in the galaxy is distant enough to be protected from the negative effects that could arise from the galaxy center. What would happen if the solar system was closer?

In this case we would constantly be exposed to dangerous gamma, X-ray, and cosmic radiations, therefore no life on Earth! Not to mention the black hole in the galaxy center which has a mass 3 million times as much as the sun. If the sun were to exist near the black hole, life on earth would again be negatively affected from the strong gravity of it. The extraordinary measures that have been taken for our solar system, the sensitive adjustments that are put in place, and the maintenance of such balance and complexity all displays a perfect science and a Divine power in the background. All these events demonstrate clearly that no single event of randomness and chaos exists in the universe. The most complicated and sensitive tasks are resolved in the best possible way, therefore revealing a perfect organization. We see this perfect organization between the Milky Way, the solar system and the earth!

Reference

Mishurov, Y.N. and L.A. Zenina. 1999. Yes, The Sun is Located Near the Corotation Circle. Astronomy & Astrophsica 341: s. 81–85.

Dirac’s discovery

Dirac had the honor of being the first scientist in history to demonstrate the principle that all particles in the universe must exist in pairs, that for each particle there must exist a corresponding anti-particle of exactly the same mass but with an opposite electrical charge. For all matter in the universe, in other words, there must exist an equal amount of anti-matter. Thus the existence of a proton must imply the possible existence of an anti-proton; if a hydrogen atom exists, there must equally exist an atom of anti-hydrogen, perhaps in some distant corner of the universe.

Equal amounts of matter and anti-matter must have been produced in the first moments of the Big Bang. In our present universe, however, a particle will not be found co-existing peacefully side by side with its corresponding anti-particle. To understand this, we could recall the old European myth of the doppelganger, the perfect double of the unlucky hero. The message of the stories is always to avoid the doppelganger: if you meet your double you will be destroyed.

Just so, if matter and anti-matter meet they annihilate each other, their energy and momentum dissolving into heat and light. According to Dr. Abdus Salam of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, “In Dirac’s language, anti-matter is ‘minus matter’; matter and anti-matter just cannot co-exist in the same part of the universe without the ever-impending catastrophe of annihilation; and indeed some astronomers do believe that just this type of annihilation of galaxies and anti-galaxies is taking place at the sites of powerful X-ray sources in the heavens” (See Abdus Salam 1966).

Dirac predicted the existence of anti-matter in 1934, and the discoveries of specific anti-particles in the following years confirmed his prediction.

The Fish Problem

According to an apocryphal story, the germ of Dirac’s breakthrough materialized from a mathematical brainteaser seemingly unrelated to theoretical physics. During a meeting of the Cambridge Undergraduate Mathematical Society, the Archimedians, the following problem was presented. Those who like a challenge can try working it out for themselves. The answer is provided below for those whose brains become tangled by figures.

After a long day, three fishermen have caught a good amount of fish. They are about to set sail for home when a storm suddenly builds up. Under raging skies, they decide to seek shelter on a nearby island. They unload their catch and set a fire before falling asleep. A few hours later, one fisherman wakes up to find that the weather has settled enough for a safe return to be possible. Not wanting to disturb his friends, he divides the haul into three equal parts. There is one fish remaining, and this the fisherman throws back into the sea. He then leaves with his share.

A little later, the second fisherman awakes, also with the desire to get back home. Unaware that one of his friends has already left, he too divides the catch into three equal parts. Again there is one fish remaining, and again this is thrown back into the sea. The fisherman rows off with his portion. Finally, the third fisherman arises and goes through the same process, dividing the remaining fish into three parts, finding one fish remaining, which he then throws back into the sea. He leaves the island with his portion.

And now for the problem: What is the minimum number of fish in the original catch? To put it another way, what is the smallest number which can be subdivided three times, leaving one fish outstanding each time?

Dirac’s answer

Dirac thought for a while before arriving at the answer: minus two. If you divide minus two fish three times, each third will contain minus one fish, with plus one fish outstanding. Each time a fisherman throws the plus one fish into the sea, and rows off with the minus one fish. Expressed in an equation, it looks like this: -2 = -1-1-1+1.

Minus one fish is obviously no use to anyone, and this is certainly a brainteaser. It is important only in that it gave birth to the notion of anti-particles in Dirac’s mind and can help us to understand the mathematical principle behind his discovery. It led him to the conclusion that all particles exist in opposing pairs and allowed him to see the symmetry of matter and anti-matter.

The Holy Qur’an and Dirac’s theory

As we have already noted, Dirac was the first man in the history of science to make this profound discovery. For this he must be congratulated, and so must the modern scientific methods which have brought us so much practical information about ourselves and the universe in which we live.

Many centuries before Dirac, however, a text was revealed to an unlettered man in the Arabian desert. Its primary message was of the existence of one Creator and of an Afterlife in which human beings would account for their conduct while on earth. But this was no ordinary religious book, for it continually exhorted its readers to examine the natural world around them for the signs of God, to develop logical and objective thinking, and to place a crucial emphasis on education. This Book broke down the artificial boundaries which divide material and spiritual study. In the Holy Qur’an, science and religion are entirely compatible. Indeed, they cannot be distinguished.

In the Qur’an, we find the following verses, which may be considered relevant to Dirac’s discoveries of the pairings and symmetries of the universe’s structure, and in fact much more:

Glory to God
Who created all things in pairs,
Those that the earth produces,
As well as their own (human) kind,
And things of which
They have no knowledge
(Ya Sin 36:36)

The line “Who created all things in pairs” clearly shows that the Qur’an is referring to a law of nature; all things on earth and in the heavens-animal, vegetable or mineral (and even sub-atomic)-have been created in pairs. (Modern science has evolved around the study of pairs, from the male/female pair which generates animal and plant life to the pairings of quarks and leptons which are the most basic building blocks of the universe.) The line “Things of which they have no knowledge” suggests that the theory of pairs is of universal scope. It applies equally at all points in time and space; even in worlds of which we have no knowledge.

Elsewhere in the Qur’an we find a statement which modern science has spent its history confirming:

Verily all things (without exception),
We have created,
In exact measures and proportions.
(Hadid 57:49)

The line “In exact measures and proportions” is most revealing from a scientific point of view. The Qur’an contains the unambiguous lesson that as well as having perfect symmetry, every force in the universe is definite, of exact measurement and proportion following precise laws:

And there is not a thing,
But its storehouse is with Us,
And We send them down,
But in definite ascertainable measures.
(Hijr 15:21)
God, the Absolute Singularity
The Holy Qur’an tells us of God:
He is the First,
And the Last,
He is the Outermost,
And the Innermost,
And He is the knower of all things.
(Hadid 57:3)

In this verse “the First” and “the Last” relate to the time domain, and “the Outermost” and “the Innermost” to the space domain. As such time and space are the first pair of nature. By extension all pairs are finally unified in the only Singularity in the universe-God. All pairs are aspects of the same reality, to which they all must return-the oneness of God.

But the Qur’an does not only give us information about the universe. It goes a step further, requiring us to use this information to develop our thinking. As always, the Qur’an demands the active participation of its reader:

And of everything,
We have created in pairs,
That you may reflect.
(Dhariyat 51:49)

The Qur’an asks us to think, offering both a mental challenge and a proof of God’s existence. If we reflect on the paired structure of the universe by using the methods of scientific reductionism, breaking a complex system down into its simplest units, we will finally come back to a single point of origin, an absolute singularity, the one source of time and space: God (See Mahmood 1987). As the Qur’an says,

And all that is in the heavens,
And all that is in the earth,
It is from God;
And (in the final analysis)
Everything will return to Him.
(Al Imran 3:109)

Guidance for the modern age

The Qur’an comments on many areas of interest to modern science, from medicine to geology. Many verses of the Qur’an have taken on added significance as new scientific discoveries have been made. In fact, it seems that science has been following the Qur’an’s lead for centuries.

Furthermore, in an age when progress in such fields as genetic engineering and chemical weaponry has raised complex ethical questions, the Qur’an teaches the salutary lesson that science should be the servant of humankind, not vice versa. It provides a model for all our endeavors in which symmetry is a prime value. Technological progress must be balanced by a symmetrical spiritual development. The new freedoms that we have won through our expanding knowledge must be balanced by an awareness of our new responsibilities. Otherwise our achievements will turn upon us, polluting our environment and increasing rather than diminishing our suffering. Without the guidance of Islam through the Qur’an, humankind with its scientific achievements will be like a child surrounded by dangerous toys.

This Book provided the light by which a great scientific culture once thrived. The Muslim world today, cursed as it is by illiteracy, intolerance and superstition, is a poor reflection of that former glory. This is the fault of human beings, not of the message of Islam, whose light continues to shine. Its light is every bit as available to a non-Muslim as it is to someone who has grown up in a Muslim environment. Once we move beyond our habitual beliefs and prejudices, all of us can profit from the message of the Qur’an. An independent and freethinking mind is all that is necessary to see its light. If we read, discuss and reflect upon the Qur’an, we can use that light to guide us now in our explorations of the universe and ourselves.

For this reason, we appeal to you to read the Qur’an. The example of the Qur’an’s truth presented in this paper is only one starting point. The Qur’an reveals further riches with each reading. The light of this Book, which spoke to seventh-century Arabs of things of which they had no knowledge, can teach modern humankind too.

Dr. Sultan Bashir Mahmood is the founder of the Holy Quran Research Foundation in Islamabad. Mr. Robin Yasin Qusab is a graduate of Cambridge University and a freelance journalist.

References

• The Holy Qur’an: with English translation and commentary by Yusuf Ali, Muhammad Asad, Maulana Darya Abadi, Ali Ünal.
• Maurice Bucaille. The Bible, the Qur’an and Science, New York: Tahrike Tarsile Qur’an, Inc., 2003.
• Bashir-ud-Din Mahmood. Doomsday and Life After Death, Islamabad: Holy Qur’an Research Foundation, 1991.
• Bashir-ud-Din Mahmood, “Symmetry of the Universe and the Qur’an,” Science and Technology in the Islamic World, Vol. 5, No. 1, Jan. 1987. National Science Council of Pakistan.
• Abdus Salam. Symmetry Concepts in Modern Science, Lahore: Atomic Energy Centre, 1966.
• Sultan Bashir Mahmood
• Robin Yasin Qusab

Is this not the mysterious truth of human life? Will we not find ourselves in a similar place to the one in the fable one day? Maybe our world is made more bearable with the atmosphere that we need to breathe, with the beauty of nature, pleasant flowers, the magnificence of the sea, the fruit of the trees… These sound pleasant, but why are we here? Where are we going? And what will happen at the end? Who knows the truth behind everything?

Life and death are two concepts that cannot be thought of as being separate from one another. The moment we are born is also the moment we start to approach death. The world we find ourselves in may be full of potential pleasures and beauty, but in all cases the idea of an approaching end is everywhere, making every pleasure bitter. When people become aware of this contradiction they ask themselves, “If I will cease to exist, then why do I exist now, what is my purpose?” “What is the vocation of a human as a human, and what are the surest ways in which people can fulfill this?”

The questions on the meaning of life, the mission assigned to humanity, and its definition are unavoidable questions, and may be the most frequently studied problems of philosophy. It would not be stretching the point to state that these questions are in fact the questions of human life.

Philosophical Perspectives

Philosophy has generally adopted two approaches to the problem of trying to find the “meaning” of life: pessimistic and optimistic. Some people prefer an optimistic outlook, thinking that life has a meaning, while others are pessimistic, believing that everything is meaningless, thus making life not worthwhile.

I would like to start this discussion by looking first at the pessimists and their arguments. One of the most famous Pessimists is Schopenhauer. He thinks it would be better if the world did not exist at all. He expresses this idea in the following words: “We have not to rejoice but rather mourn at the existence of the world; that is non-existence would be preferable to its existence; that it is something which ought not to be.” Schopenhauer believes in the impossibility of happiness. For Schopenhauer, nothing is worth pursuing, and in any case, the things which may be worthwhile are impossible to reach. Moreover, people deceive themselves by thinking that in the past they were happy or that in the future they will be happy. He says, “The present may be compared to a small dark cloud which the wind drives over the sunny plain: before and behind it all is bright, only it itself always casts a shadow. The present is therefore always insufficient; but the future is uncertain and the past is irrevocable.”

There are people who were more pessimistic than Schopenhauer, like Clarince Darrow. He even becomes angry with the fact of existing. He sees life as being an “awful joke.”

The Pessimists consider the meaninglessness of life as being the unchangeable truth, and according to them there are few solutions to escape this painful fact; these can be briefly listed below:

a) We should ignore everything that is meaningless and we should not ask any questions, like “what is the meaning of life, if any” or “why do I exist?”

b) We should disregard death and try to make the most of time. We should enjoy life, have fun and not miss out on any opportunity to take pleasure. This idea has been so popular that it affected many English poets, called “Cavalier Poets,” who always encouraged people to enjoy themselves before they die.

c) The exact opposite solution is that we should commit suicide. According to most pessimists, this is the best solution, because in a meaningless world, it is meaningless to live. They even think, “It is better to be dead than alive; best of all is not to exist.”

d) We should accept that life is meaningless, yet learn to live with this fact and behave rationally.

Is Happiness Really an Unattainable Emotion?

I think the significant point here is to reconstruct our lives so that we can evaluate the events. If we have the ability to look on the bright side of every event then we will be able to see well and even take pleasure at the reality of death.

The Optimists commenting on the meaning of life argue that there is a reason to live. Life exists for a purpose. In other words, it has a meaning. The Optimist view is based on two suppositions: one, that God exists and that the promised afterlife will happen. However, some philosophers think that without God and immortality, life can still be meaningful. Providing that you choose an aim for your life or if you devote yourself to something, your life will become meaningful and you will have a reason to live. To put it more bluntly, supporting the superiority of a race, or of an idea, or the pursuit of science, or a career in a certain occupation and many similar goals can be an aim for life that makes it meaningful. Nonetheless, when we look for an absolute meaning which is valid for everyone, the optimist position invites us to presuppose the existence of God and afterlife. We can liken the Optimist understanding of life to the following situation: A fish still in its egg cannot see anything. Let us suppose that a young boy buys the egg from the pet shop. He wonders where he can put the egg. He takes a mixing bowl from the kitchen and spreads sand on the bottom, so that he can bury the egg. Then the boy plants a water plant in the aquarium and fills it up with water that has been given a chance to oxygenate. Having prepared this small aquarium, the boy puts the egg in the bowl. The new aquarium is a welcoming environment as everything in it meets the needs of the fish and is an indicator of the boy’s intentions and knowledge.

According to the Optimists, the situation of the fish in the example is not very different from that of humans. When we are born, we find a welcoming environment; an atmosphere that meets our respiratory needs, soil that produces food, sun that gives heat and light, plus many more wonderful features. Humankind found the Earth ready and waiting, it has always been in harmony with our needs. Such a design causes the Optimists to imply the necessity of a reason for existence and the necessity of the Creator of that reason, God, and the afterlife.

Of course, neither the Pessimist nor the Optimist view can dominate the other unless people want to believe in a Creator and an afterlife. If one chooses to believe in a Creator, then the interpretation of the fable changes directly; the Islamic thinker, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi says in the “Eighth Word” of his great work The Words, that the allegory in the fable is reality for all humans. It is only the individual perspective of everyone that can change the meaning of the allegory. The desert is the Earth, and the pursuing beast is death. The well is a person’s life, sixty meters being sixty years; the average life expectancy. The gnawing mice are day and night. The mouth of the dragon in the well is the mouth of the grave. For believers it is the door to the eternal Garden and the beast becomes a disciplined and well-trained horse that brings us to the eternal Garden.

Therefore, one whose goal is eternal life will find peace and happiness, despite all the darkness of life.

Why Men Search for the Meaning of Life

Whatever our preferences are, either optimist or pessimist, I think first we must answer the question as to why we search for the meaning of life. It may well be that most people are tired of looking for a meaning in life and simply continue to live without direction. On the other hand, some people make a decision and side with either the Pessimists or the Optimists. Before we adopt one of these views, however, the important thing is that we should begin with the question, what leads people to look for a purpose? This is the key question that proves that our lives are not meaningless; the question itself has the power to prove that we have a reason to live a meaningful life. If this were not the case, it would not have become the most frequently asked question in the history of the world.

Maybe people want to feel safe, to welcome the future by knowing about it in advance. They may want to use this knowledge to discover the importance or the meaning in their lives. Maybe it is something similar to the instinct that causes people to find food or plants that are useful and nourishing; it may be an instinct that is leading us to find the answer.

“Why Do I Exist?”

I think that people try to find an answer to this question because they want to decide how they should live. Different answers to this question will affect people in how they determine the way that they will live their life or the shape of their future. There are millions of people and all lead different lives. People observe others around them; they see their ways of life. While observing they search “How should I live?” “What am I to live for?” To make this a bit clearer, we can say that when people observe other people, they wonder, sometimes even worrying, “What should I do?” “Where should I go?” People want to avoid the uncertainty of the future and to make up their minds. To choose a way of life, they need an objective to attain, a reason to live for, and it is at this point that they ask if there is an absolute meaning of life that is worthwhile or even obligatory.

To clarify our point, I want to give an example that has much affected me and which illustrates the need of people to decide how to live. Fritjof Capra, in his book, Uncommon Wisdom, relates that he had serious questions about whether he should become a scientist, a hippie, or a Buddhist priest. He was trying to decide a way of life, but he had several choices and did not know which would be the correct one for him, which one would be the most worthwhile. His hesitation can be summed up like this: He was living as a part-time hippie and a part-time physicist. To be a complete hippie, he should have left behind physics and dropped out of school, because all hippies were dropping out and taking up a craft to earn their lives. They were cooking their own bread and living a communal life in tents. They had long hair and wore colorful clothes with flowers on them to protest against the rich businessmen who wore suits. They held special rituals, concerts, poetry readings… This was an ideology that protested against modern capitalist America and thus required a certain way of life. However, he enjoyed his scientific work, so science was important for him as well. He was offered a scholarship to do research and was invited to conferences. Apart from all these, he was interested in Eastern philosophy. Finally, he went to a conference given by J. Krishnamurti, a famous Buddhist master. He was talking about the basic problems of existence, such as fear, death, loneliness, love, etc. After the conference, he asked Krishnamurti about the contradiction he was in, and he received the following reply: “First, we are humans, then we are something else.” He was told about the meaning of being a human.

This is a good example that strikingly reflects the situation. Even if not to this degree, people, one way or another, live through doubts and try to choose the true way of life. Finding a way of life requires finding the meaning of life that will shape our future. The Taoist thinker Chuang Tzu says that he looked for a king to employ him for many years; that is, he looked for a fact to shape his destiny.

A second reason, which may cause people to ask, “Why do I exist?” may be the habit of living in a comfortable environment. When the sea is rough, people ask, “Why is the sea rough?” and they get the explanation: “There is a difference of pressure between two regions, so a breeze occurs which in turn forms a wind and the wind causes the water to be rough.” People expect an explanation for every event, a reason. To make this clearer, we can refer to the “formula of concrete,” invented by Claude Levi Strausse. He talks about this formula in his book Savage Mind. According to him, the human mind needs order and obtains this order by giving a role to everything that makes up its environment. For example, in a primitive African tribe the green leaf is a symbol of evil, while in another tribe it is the symbol of good. This is not because the green leaf actually has evil or good in it, but rather it is seen as such because people have imbued it with a role in order to make a network of relation and order in their world. As a result, we can conclude that as people tend to give a role or a meaning to such simple things as leaves, they cannot do this without asking, “What is the role of life?” and subsequently, life must be given a role as well.

A third reason may be the notion of death. The fact that everything has an end leads people to ask why there is existence. In every incident of death, people feel its coldness. Existence becomes an absurdity if we are to consider death as the end.

In conclusion we can say that no matter which answer people find, whether they cling to ideologies or they become people indulging in passing pleasures, they must be able to say “I lived for this or that reason.” Human beings have to be able to make this statement if they are to justify their battle to live in a causal world. 

References

• Bubner, Rudiger, The German Idealist Philosophy, Penguin Books, London, 1997.
• Edwards, Paul, Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Macmillan & Free Press, New York, 1967, Vol.4.
• Kapra, Fritjof, Yeni Bir Dusunce, Iz Yayinlari, Istanbul, 1991. Originally published as Uncommon Wisdom.
• Levi-Strauss, Claude, Yaban Dusunce, Yapi Kredi Yayinlari, Istanbul, 2000. Translated by Tahsin Yucel. Originally published as The Savage Mind, University of Chicago Press, 1972.
• Nursi, Said, The Words 1, Kaynak A.S., Izmir, 1997.

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam teach that such an outlook is the most serious affliction that can strike a person. The Prophets and Messengers of these religions taught that everything must have importance and value, for an intentional will preserves it in the most beneficial manner. If this were not so, nothing could exist. For a variety of reasons, many people ignore this fact and so look at themselves and their surroundings without really seeing what is there. After all, why should that which is deemed unimportant and simple be noticed? Unfortunately, large numbers of people consider what they need for their mental and moral health to be unimportant.

What we see in ourselves and in nature indicates that each thing’s existence, no matter how small, is important. Has the sun ever failed to rise in the morning, or the oxygen that we need to survive been denied? Such a perpetual meeting of our needs, even though we do not even know all of them, indicates that a very important message is being sent to us.

These events demand our appreciation, praise, and respect, for all of us know that nothing happens without a reason. Each event contains its own wisdom, for if it did not, how could it occur in a very precise and accurate manner and at the most appropriate time and place in order to fulfill its specific purpose? Upon reflection, we can see that these events inform us of the existence of an all-seeing, all-hearing, and all-knowing power that meets and fulfils all of our needs despite our ignorance of them.

The mistaken assumption that existence arises from what is physically apparent has caused many to regard life and the entire universe as mere coincidence.1 But how can such a view be upheld? Does this supposed “law of coincidence” have the ability to choose what will and will not happen in nature? The events we see in nature can only be the results of a conscious choice (will), for coincidence cannot guide existence to behave in a perfect manner. It has no such power to do so. Only conscious choice can do that.

Unfortunately, this unaccounted-for idea of giving power to something that can be present only in a being with conscious choice has led to a general loss of appreciation for the value of nature and life. The former is unjustly exploited for the interest of a tiny minority, while the latter engenders even worse personal behavior. The end result of such thought processes is a superficial view of life and all existence.

We cannot afford to ignore what everyday events show us: If our current life is given importance and value, it cannot be temporary. Rather, this life must be a precursor of the eternal life to come. Just as the end of pleasure brings pain, the end of separation from loved ones brings pleasure.2 If life is so important and valuable, it cannot just end in such separation, as this is contrary to care and compassion. Care and value necessitate that loved ones will never be separated. This means that a universal re-union achieved through a universal resurrection must occur, for eternal separation and non-existence would violate care and value. Such a resurrection would re-unite the beloved and the lover and ensure that everyone receives exactly what he or she deserves, be it a reward or a punishment.

Many events in our everyday lives indicate that an eternal re-union and hence life after death exist. By “reading” these messages, our lives are both lived with and end with peace. Ignoring these messages or pretending that they do not exist empties our lives of meaning, value, or care. All that is left is a blind consciousness. In short, we can no longer call ourselves human, for we deny that which makes us human.

Signs of the Afterlife

Alternating Periods of Sleep and Wakefulness. The onset of night heralds a simultaneous decrease in the productivity and activity of daily occupations. This principle applies to all human, animal, and plant life located within night’s sphere. Sleep, like being half-dead, is a physiological condition that allows growth, renewal, and the storing of new information to take place. We cannot remain healthy without rest and sleep. Waking up from a good sleep allows us to make a fresh start and deal with the responsibilities that life entails. Just as the need for sleep follows a day of work, there is a need for death (a form of discharge) after life. Just as there is a need to wake up after sleep so that we will be refreshed to face the next day’s activities, there is a need to re-awaken after death so that we will be ready for our eternal life. Hence, there is resurrection after death.

Alternating Seasons. Many animals hibernate during winter. Their waking up and “resuming” their lives in the spring indicate that we will be resurrected after death. We can “read” the same message in new flowers blooming, new leaves appearing on previously dry and dead branches, and seeds sending up new shoots through the ground after being buried and germinating all winter. Seeds, which contain the plant’s or tree’s “hidden” program, are endowed with the ability to survive until the appropriate conditions for germination arise. The resulting plant or tree is a clear challenge to gravity’s downward pull and to those forces that prevent the seed’s development.

In an analogous manner, we will be resurrected after our present bodies have died and been buried (planted) and decomposed into its constituent elements. These elements will serve as the seed from which our new and fresh bodies will be created during the resurrection. Given this, we can understand the value and importance of all life, especially of human life. 

Creating a Live Body from the “Lifeless” Molecules of Digested Food. This continuous process occurs every day of our lives. All of the food that we consume must be reduced to its constituent particles so that it may be absorbed directly into our bloodstream. From there, each particle is directed and distributed to cells according to their individual needs. Before we can eat any plant or animal, each one must be killed and then reduced to its lifeless constituents so that it may be promoted to a higher and more complex entity after it enters a person’s body. All non-living food molecules then are sent to and incorporated into the appropriate living cells, where they function in the best possible way to meet the body’s needs. Just as lifeless food molecules are promoted to a better existence in a person’s body, so will our death represent the beginning of a more worthy and complex life.

Other Signs

The Manifestation of Renewal. We see this clearly in the monthly destruction and re-construction of a woman’s womb (uterus) wall. Although clearly a biological event, it has a much higher message: Just as this wall must be renewed and prepared continuously so that a fertilized egg will be able to develop in the future, there must be a fresh preparation for each individual’s resurrection after his or her death.

The Manifestation of Utmost Care and Compassion. Giving endless value and importance to the existence and life of even the smallest entities, while ignoring humanity’s needs, violates wisdom and compassion. Even the smallest living organisms, such as bacteria, are designed with a most bewildering detail and intricacy and have their needs met with the utmost regard and care. This indicates that our needs, especially for continual security and happiness, cannot be left unfulfilled.

What could be a greater injustice than not meeting the needs of the most complex member of creation after meeting those of the most simple? We were not created to play and enjoy ourselves here, but to appreciate, know, understand, and respect that which makes us human. The Manifestation of Endless Wisdom, Power, and Justice in Meeting All Needs and Causing Things To Move from Simplicity to Complexity. Each entity and individual receives, in a just and equal distribution, exactly what it requires to survive. Manifestations of this universal wisdom can be seen everywhere. For example, mothers produce a warm, liquid milk that is the best possible food for their newborns. Even before the baby is born, the mother’s breast is prepared for milk production. In addition, this organ is located in the most convenient place for this very weak and fragile being who needs warmth and close protection. A mother’s arms and her warm breast, along with her sweet and warm milk, is the best way to welcome a new person to this world!

The tiniest life forms, such as bacteria, worms, ants, and flies, are the most blessed when it comes to being provided with the best and excessive bounties. Our material needs are met promptly and precisely. For example, electrical impulses transit our nerve cells so quickly that our intention to move, talk, or look sets all the necessary processes in motion instantly and simultaneously -without any conscious decision on our part. Such a miraculously appropriate response to the vast variety of needs found within each entity indicate that we will receive our just and equal provision as well. If all other entities are dealt with from a position of perfect justice and respect, excluding us from that provision would be a violation of that same justice and respect.

When we observe nature, we notice a continual progression and development from a condensed (simple) “hidden” program to a more intricate and complex one. For example, a fully grown oak tree will emerge, eventually, from the program lying within its respective seed. Likewise, a single fertilized egg cell will develop, eventually, into a deeply complex multi-organ body consisting of 100 trillion cells working in concert!3 Scientists have proven that all of our physical characteristics are encoded in a two meter-long DNA molecule that is fitted into a human cell whose nucleus has a diameter of 5 to 8 microns.4 Astronomers have proven that the universe has continued to expand since the Big Bang.5

All of these processes indicate that this expanding and developing complexity is caused by the same principle pervading the universe. Hence, if this is the case for the present universe, this life must be a condensed program or an index of another eternal and more complex life to come.

The Endless Benefits for Human Life

Attaining certainty in the afterlife enlightens us. Today, humanity needs such enlightenment, for this will give all people a real aim and purpose in life and assure them of eventual victory (in the afterlife) and eternal justice. By nature, we desire good and justice.

Once we realize that we will be treated with perfect justice after we die, we will strive to subjugate our ego through our God-given willpower so that we may benefit other people, our community, and life in general. In this way, our ego will be trained to do good while it is raised to higher levels of purity.

Understanding that the entire universe serves humanity and life, and that an eternally just life is waiting for us after death, we will direct our ego to engage in the same service. In short, everybody benefits from the realization that both life and existence have inherent value and meaning

Footnotes

1. www.angelfire.com/in3/creationvsevolution/
2. www.nur.org/treatise/collection/ (the Fourth Truth of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi’s Tenth Word).
3. www.mc.manicopa.edu/academic/psychology/dev/prenatal
4. B. Alberts et al., Essential Cell Biology (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998), p. 246.
5. infidel.org/library/modern/vicstenger.

Project Phoenix, launched by NASA in 1992, is an effort to pick up artificial radio signals from space; the project is also known as SETI-search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Davies does give some historical and technical information about SETI in this book. However, most of it is taken up with (a) arguments for and against the expectation that there are life-forms somewhere else than earth; and (b) discussion of how our worldviews would be affected by the discovery of alien intelligence or alien life.

The book is preceded by a long text from De Rerum Natura by Lucretius who, along with many ancients, believed that neither earth nor life upon it are unique. All beings belong to a kind; they come into being as the result of random associations of free-moving atoms. Therefore: life on earth must be one of a kind; the universal stuff of existence must have associated itself into other living forms.

Believers have also proposed existences in other realms. Why would God have created so many other worlds if they are uninhabited? Could the infinite majesty of God be content with the worship of only the conscious inhabitants of the earth? A Muslim thinker of this century argued that celestial bodies may be the dwellings or vehicles of angels and other spirit beings fulfilling God s commands and glorifying Him.

Would extra-terrestrial life be like the terrestrial one we know? The panspermia theory (pp.13-14) holds that the ‘seeds of life’ were blown about in space after the ‘big bang,’ landing here and there, and successfully on earth. Subsequent bombardments by inter-stellar material could also carry these ‘seeds’ around the universe. Thus, potential for life may lie buried belo

Davies regards science-fictional accounts of aliens as re-workings, in contemporary terms, of the supernatural beings that feature in the religious and pseudo-religious heritage of most human societies. That heritage is fiction undisciplined by reference to what is really, objectively, in the world. Scientific speculation, on the other hand, Davies regards as a quest for the reality independent of humans, waiting to be discovered by them. The laws of physics are not fictions; they are statements in the language of mathematics, as exact as we can make them, of what really is there. Do these laws require that there should be, or only that there could be, life-forms elsewhere than on earth? Alternatively, do they tell us that life on earth is an incident so utterly improbable that, even with billions of light-years and possible locations, no amount of re-shuffling of molecules could ever result in another, similar incident?

Attempts to tackle these questions turn upon our general worldview of what life is. Davies gives some attention to three such worldviews: (i) [life] was a miracle; (ii) it was stupendously improbable accident; and (iii) it was an inevitable consequence of the outworking of the laws of physics and chemistry, given the right conditions (p.15). He favours the third position on the basis of three philosophical principles: uniformity-the laws of nature are the same everywhere; they produced life on earth, they can do so elsewhere; plenitude-what can exist according to the laws of nature will exist, given the right conditions. For example, if physicists are able to describe the existence of a certain sort of particle within a mathematical scheme, they will (and do) find it to actually exist; mediocrity (or the Copernican principle, supportive of uniformity) the earth enjoys no privileged status; it is a typical planet in a typical star system in a typical galaxy.

The discovery of an alien microbe with chemistry different from ours would demolish, Davies thinks, the view that life is an accident. Life (already improbable) could not happen twice within the portion of the universe visible from earth (an immense region but finite owing to the constraint of the speed of light). Similarly, he argues, the view of life as a Divine miracle which privileges the earth and its human inhabitants, would be demolished. If, however, the alien microbe shared enough features of earth chemistry, both these views could survive: believers would invoke the unquestionable omnipotence of God and non-believers some version of the panspermia theory.

Davies devotes a whole chapter (pp.41-58) to the anthropic principle. This principle is in effect a version, palatable to modern scientific culture, of the argument for design. It holds that the universe runs according to specific laws and values (the so-called constants in nature) whose outcome is human consciousness capable of decoding those specific laws. Just any laws of nature will not result in conscious life; only these actual laws of this actual universe. Rigorously argued, the anthropic principle denies the possibility of conscious life elsewhere in the universe.

Diverging from the anthropic argument, Davies proposes that the coming-to-be of consciousness is a general law of nature-not a law expressible mathematically, nevertheless a real, reliable propensity. Consciousness is an emergent phenomenon. He explains by analogy: individual water molecules are not ‘wet’; the property of ‘wetness’ is a real, emergent phenomenon that comes-to-be from the association of water molecules. The observed tendency in nature towards increasing complexity emerges in life which, with more of the same increasing complexity, emerges in consciousness.

Davies is at pains to stress that he does not claim that the universe exists for human beings, only that they belong to it and it to them. He is glad to restore to human beings not a position of unique privilege but one of significance. The universe is a process of cosmic self-awareness; therefore, the emergence of consciousness elsewhere than on earth is to be expected to happen, not randomly, but as something really probable given conditions in which the laws of nature can operate.

Believers may find this conclusion comfortingly like the often-repeated saying that God is a hidden treasure that longed to be known; His coming-to-be known is the reason that existence exists. But Davies is not seeking, nor expressing, any religious sentiment-unless the plea for ‘significance’ is reckoned a religious aspiration. His argument relates to only that part of human consciousness manifested in modem-scientific curiosity about the structures of the material universe.

But human consciousness is more and other than this. It belongs to the inwardness of individual life, shaped by its experiences and reflections, of which the quest for scientific laws is (by volume) an almost negligibly small fragment. Further, consciousness is experienced by each person from within as responsibility, as questioning and answering about what he or she wills to do. This responsibility is more familiarly known as conscience. Its quest is not for scientific knowledge only but for value generally, and moral value in particular. Just as the language of science (i.e. descriptive language) is a very small part of the full potential of human language, so too the consciousness which Davies describes as an emergent property of intelligent life is a very small part of full human consciousness.

The Qur’an criticizes those who want the issue of their lives settled once-for-all after they have said that they believe or do not believe. They fear the trials of experience and thought, action and imagination, through which their individual will to achieve value is proven. All religions have a cosmology, a view of how the universe came to be. But the objective of this cosmology (certainly in the Qur’an) is not to equip human beings with intellectual power in the universe but to locate them (individually) with a purpose and meaningfulness within it. That purpose and meaningfulness are, in Davies’ sense, emergent qualities, and their emergence depends emphatically on the will to achieve value as well as the will to achieve knowledge-the latter being best addressed as a part of the former. Our mortality guarantees the suspensefulness of the search for value, and challenges us to believe that there is a yet higher consciousness, a further emergence, elsewhere than in this earthly life.

God is left out of modem-scientific speculation. Recourse to the concept of Divine Will is unhelpful for knowledge about the operations of the universe if, as is the case, knowledge is defined as a predictive (then manipulative) power to intervene in those operations. That definition of knowledge is simply inadequate to what human beings come to know of themselves and of there being a world to know themselves in.

Because scientific knowledge is too narrowly conceived, it may be that SETI scientists will no more recognize the communications of aliens than we can ordinarily recognize the presence of angels. By Divine permission, angels or spirit beings can make themselves known to humans-in visions of some kind. No doubt, with the same permission, aliens too, if they exist, can make themselves known to us. Project Phoenix could be rather an expensive way to be waiting for such a miracle.

Viking I was launched from earth orbit in August 1975. It traced seven hundred million kilometres in an interplanetary spiral to reach Martian orbit the following June. In July 1976 a car size tripod lander, dropped from the space craft, alighted on the rocky surface of Mars some 1200 miles from the Martian Mariner canyon system. This was the location of man’s first on-site search for life on another planet.

The successful Viking missions to Mars supplied us with most valuable scientific information. Although Mars is a rock-strewn desert, its rocks are enriched with minerals that may support life forms with water, air, and raw materials. This was the verdict of the Viking 1 and 2 missions to Mars. Mars may once have had rivers and lakes, but now the temperatures and the atmospheric pressures are so low that water can only exist in the form of vapour or ice. Scientists also suspect that the planet’s giant volcano, Olympus Mons, overlies a hot spot. Although this volcano may still erupt every 10,000 years, the red planet has essentially been frozen to death. However, there is still hope, because the experiments conducted with Martian soil produced significant results. During the experiments, Martian soil was fed with nutrients and water. The results were most surprising. Unlike the lunar dust, Martian soil consumed the nutrients. Not only did apparent consumption of the nutrients give ‘rise to a steady rate of carbon dioxide production but the introduction of water vapour resulted in a most unexpected surge in oxygen levels.

Eighteen years have passed since these experiments and mankind has not taken a step on Mars yet. Will it ever be possible for man to achieve a settlement on Mars in the future? Firstly, such settlements on the planet need to be as self-sufficient as possible. The first Mars invaders will need to begin a search for crucial supplies such as water and oxygen. Since Mars has little nitrogen in its soil to sustain plants, scientists would need to inject the soil with earthly micro-organisms to free up the crucial element. A base independent from earth is impossible without these necessities of life, particularly water and power sources and raw materials for building an ecosystem. Although the atmosphere is only 0.03 % water, the air is saturated with water most of the time, due to the low temperature. However, rain is impossible because the atmosphere is too thin and it is generally cloudless.

A Martian day is 24 hours and 37 minutes, which is very close to earth’s. The fact that gravity is one third of earth’s, is also an advantage. However, what is important is to produce resources like ammonia (a plant nutrient), hydrazine (for rocket fuel), formic acid (for storing electricity), nitric acid (for oxygen storage) and methane (natural gas). We do not know what will actually be found on Mars when it is completely explored, but the important fact about Mars is that, unlike the moon, it contains all the raw materials that are crucial for a Martian base.

At present the planet is an Arctic wasteland, but scientists say this has not always been the case. Much can be learned from a small core sample of the planet’s polar ice. Scientists need to know what happened to its climate, if it resembled the earth’s in the distant past. The topographical features and the river channels suggest that a few million years ago Mars was a warm planet and probably had a thick atmosphere. The Viking findings and the analysis of some of the data suggest that Mars contains more water than once thought. We must also keep in mind that the Viking probes did not completely rule out the possibility of life on the planet. It might still be possible that Mars supports some kind of microbes. It may be that we have not yet looked in the right place. There are many questions about Mars that remain to be answered. For example: we do not know anything about the interior of the planet, whether its core is liquid or frozen or maybe an earth-like core or if the largest volcanoes in the solar system are still alive. A manned mission to Mars and building bases on its surface is quite possible but we are not sure when it will actually take place.

When we think about the planets in our solar system and their conditions, it is impossible to overlook the fact that the earth was designed purposely for life forms to exist. One has to be out of one’s mind to assume that all this order and harmony is completely coincidental. One important thing we have to understand is that we (living organisms) need the earth and its conditions to survive. It is the only planet in the solar system that could support us. For all we know, it might even be the only one in the galaxy. It is obvious that the earth was specifically designed for human beings, because all other life forms on earth serve mankind. By this token we can even claim that the whole universe was created for the benefit of man. The only reason for this claim is that everything would be completely meaningless without an intelligent thinking being.

Our neighbour, the red planet, might be a hope for the future. Whether we will indeed be able to build bases, grow plants, produce valuable gases and materials, begin settlements and colonies or maybe even achieve the birth of the first human being on Mars, remains to be seen, but until then we have to take care of this blue planet of ours and its inhabitants, since we are its trustees.