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Originally Posted by REASON  Interesting. So do you have any ideas of who the intelligent and purposeful beings were that brought the seeds of life to this planet? Who may have created them? How did all this agriculture, if you will, begin? Was it really their intention to wait four billion years for us, as intelligent and purposeful beings, to recognize their important contribution? Why not simply colonize?
Sorry. I always end up with all these questions.  |
No need to be sorry (though I'm quite sure you were being rhetorical).
I suspect we all love the discussion/debate. I know I do.
By the way, nothing I write is purposefully meant to be presumptuous or authoritative. Sometimes I think people can inadvertently alienate each other, particularly on sensitive topics like religion or politics (and yes, even science), due to misperceptions of delivery. I think it's important to note since I'm not a proponent of dogma in any form and sincerely enjoy hearing others' views.
I believe that intelligent beings carried life to this planet much as an earthly farmer carries seeds to a newly prepared field. Obviously, the time scales are wildly differential, but it's my view that an intelligent mechanism is in place in the universe whereby newly modified life forms (I suspect as defined/contained in DNA) are 'implanted', if you will, on previously prepped planets not dissimilarly to the way we conduct agriculture on Earth.
Sometimes a 'crop' goes bad, too, just like it does here. Also, sometimes the 'agriculture' goes awry (if that word is meaningful) when a previously seeded world's evolved life gets technologically advanced enough to start doing their own seeding, perhaps using their own form as a baseline. Much like a rogue farmer, or maybe more analogous to the way that humans are now working with cloning technology and/or genetic engineering.
So, in a nutshell I'm of the view that colonization is also plausible and even a hybrid of seeding/colonization. Essentially, I believe the crude parallels of what we do on earth in terms of agriculture and genetics make sense.
Why wait huge amounts of time to see the fruit of seeding? I think it's a combination of the requirement for experience in the universe (I don't think we are the only experiential life by any means) and the plan of 'regulation', if you will. Certain orders of creatures are tasked with modifying and carrying life to the new spheres, while other certain existing previously evolved life forms are endowed with the dynamic freewill to do so as well (perhaps seeding and/or colonization) even though maybe they shouldn't be doing so. In any event, the seeding process shouldn't (and doesn't in my view) necessarily exclude the a later quasi-colonization scenario by way of genetic manipulation and/or integration...
I'll cut to the chase (though I do enjoy the debate in any context - whether focusing or not on the foundational beliefs of myself or others) and tell you that I believe in the Urantia Book. I'm glad to debate/discuss it here or elsewhere if it furthers the topic, but I mention it because it's very clear and concise on these matters. Thus referencing it as the foundation of my views should help clarify them as well.
- or an actual miracle from the heavens would still leave you guessing that what you experienced was of a material nature. The reality of our binding to time, space, and the material realm in this life by defintion make it extremely difficult to experience that which transcends all three of those constructs. Perhaps those with a more spiritual nature, thus capable of transcending the otherwise wholly material existence on Earth, are indeed capable of discerning the existence of something real beyond just the people and environment around us. In that case it probably isn't too hard to extrapolate further to God. I think that's a lot of why religion (at the risk of having the word misconstrued to be associated with the many backward religions espoused these days) is such a personal experience. If you truly believe as an individual then who is to say that you are wrong and the non-believers are right? Conversely, to push the feelings/beliefs of a believer on a non-believer clearly is never going to work...
