Look up

When we look up, you and I, we see very different things. As I ponder over the equations that keep us ticking, you mull over the wonder that is the universe. Our eyes follow the trail of the same meteor as it tears through the sky, but I compute its datas and the casualties that it may cause while you stop and stare in marvel. Does it make sense for us to label each other based on this completely personal opinions of ours?

This time, I'm intrigued to share my thoughts on something I've been hearing often these days. Religion and science, these two never went hand-in-hand since the beginning of time, did they?  I am most intrigued by the 'why's.

Religion, through a skeptic's eyes, is an excuse. A lazy conclusion to problems that we've never found answers to. The crusaders of this religion boat tend to always make their point strong by pointing out how certain things cannot be explained by logic. What lies beyond the edge of the universe? How did we come to be? Are humans merely genetic mutations of primates? But instead of trying to figure out an answer to the questions that boggle them, the religious ones are prepared to give in, satisfied with the idea of an omnipotent being, capable of even the unimaginable.

It doesn't help that religious affairs have been causing destruction in some parts of the world, further fuelling the skeptics'... well, skepticism.

On the other bead-spinning hand, religious ones would go to such extents to prove their point that atheists will burn in hell, because science is not their saviour. There are more religions in the world already than what can be counted and whoever is still going around defying the fact that a superior being exists and orchestrates our lives, is plain 'ole dumb.  Science is for the foolish; the real answer lies in their respective god's hands.

Of course, this is a crude generalisation and no one deserves to be put in a drawer with a label saying 'Ignorant fools'. But sometimes we have to acknowledge this is the kind of world we live in, a world that loves a label for everything.

This is my problem; what if I'm stuck in between? I'm not the most religious person out there, you see. But I have never denied that there is a Big Guy up there somewhere. We give Him different names, human attributes, stories, legends, traditions and build our whole system of beliefs based on these things. But I've always felt His presence as a comforting warmth, ever patient, ever loving. Perhaps this too is part of those human characteristics we've given Him that has been planted deep within my conscience. Now, I realise some might feel very compelled to refute me at this point. You could, I would love to hash this out with people (I've only ever done it in my head, but I'd love a third party to join in besides me and my head.) But I cannot stand it when these religious people throw things like 'Because God is Almighty, what else do you need to know?' in answer to scientific questions.

And the other half of the equation is that I feel very... umm... uneasy (?) when scientists call themselves atheists because they know there is an explanation for everything, just waiting to be discovered. Or maybe that's just me unable to understand why they would feel so, what with my limited knowledge. Dr. Niel Degrasse Tyson has said that he neither believed in nor refuted the existence of God. But he often asked himself if the benevolent God that everyone spoke of could exist, when all he saw was millions of ways of doom coming upon us when he looked up into a starry sky?

My little theory in my perfect little world would be that God existed. But we do not know what he (or It) is exactly, we lack the ability to comprehend that. We have every possibility to uncover truths about anything at all in the universe. We may figure out how everything works one day. And on that day that we have nothing left to wonder about, we will finally wonder about this unseen force that had been waiting for us to find our way to Him. He would be the only thing we could never understand. It's something like saying that someone gave you a treasure map filled with unknown symbols that you crack one by one until you've cracked it all and you still do not know where your loot lies. A paradox in itself, a wonder in itself. Gives you something to think about, doesn't it?

So what if I am a believer, just not in the conventional way? So what if I am a skeptic that's asking all the wrong questions? Where do I fit in? Do I even need to fit in? Because our perceptions may be different, but it's the same sky above our heads, isn't it?