Coincidence and Acidents
So I've been thinking a bit about "meant to be".
Lets think about coincidence. Technically we could say
co·in·ci·dence : n.
- The state or fact of occupying the same relative position or area in space.
- A sequence of events that although accidental seems to have been planned or arranged.
But what kind of jerkass would want to put it that way? We say something is a coincidence when something that may be completely random gains some type of significance through various associations we make. Are we fooling ourselves into thinking this connections have any type of significance or in the end does everything matter? Now I think this topic can really get to the core of people, we all really want the universe to revolve around us. Naturally from our subjective position it must. The stars revolve around you, the planet isn't moviing you, you're moving with the planet, and all of this was made for you. This is a selfish perspective to take but it also can give you a lot of joy. All you have is your own consciousness, how wonderful to think the intricacies of the universe exist for you.
We have another choice though. We could say, nothing matters. Its all choas, its all coincidence and any connection that we make is fabricated and only exists within our own meaningless minds. The flowers bloom for no one, the rain falls for no one, and things exist for the sake of existence. The only things that matter in life are pleasure and survival. Pretty bleak.
But that can't be all we have, can it? Everything or nothing? What a lame decision to make (you don't really have to make it). Can you reconcile the two? I have to believe that our minds are gifts, that we were granted intellect for a reason. And as I am typing this I know I have already made my decision. Can reason and choas exist together? Now for some reason this whole Evolution vs. Design debate has come to the foreground and suddenly controversial again (tell me why.) So it seems to me this is the line of fusion between choas and connection.
This man is Arthur Peacocke, a smart british dude, not a crazy old coot. Well, he's old but he's not a coot. He started his life in science, biology particularily evolutionary theory, and later became a preist in the anglican church. He recently won a well deserved award for progress in regligion, something that seems pretty sparce lately. Check out what he says about Creationism:
"Well I suppose one of the things that catches people think about creation as something that happened if they're creationists and people who are called literalists they think 4,004 B.C. and even scientists talk about the creation of the universe in 10 or 12 billion B.C. but what the general vista of science shows is the world is created all the time, new forms keep coming into existence and in particular we see this most strikingly in the whole epic of evolution particularly biological evolution on the surface of the earth and this show that God as it were made thing make themselves so the process of creation is an ongoing process and that God just wasn't a creator in the past but is still creator now. God is creating in the present tense and this restores to our understanding of God's relation to it in the sense of God's presence with in and under the processes of the world. God is creating through the processes that science unveils."
Need chaos and creation be at odds? According to my good man Mr. Peacocke, unequivically, no. If you enjoy Mr. Peacocke, check out the full interview.
Wait a minute, I have a piece of cake here... and I'm eating it too.*
*cake is delicious