Read an Excerpt
The Reality of Human Life
A Home for Life on God's Earth
By Bedrich V. Hettich
iUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2012 Bedrich V. Hettich
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-8336-7
Chapter One
Diversity: A Problem for Humankind
So the stars we see in the night sky above us are power plants, are they? Yes! They supply the energy that creates the ever-changing conditions for all activities and their results throughout the Universe right down to God's Earth with human life on, in and above it. Those conditions are responsible for the diversity of the results we can perceive associated with each and every activity in it. It is only from science that we are enabled to understand these realities. What do I mean by diversity?
Human life, the late comer to the Earth, creates its own ever-changing conditions for its activities and their results. As part of the activities in the Universe, we are also subject to the ever-changing results that the Earth's activities create. The results of both these activities reveal the diversity of existence that we can perceive in the skies above us as well as in human life on the Earth that surround us.
The Earth is actually a Home for Life. It is clear that Life on Earth is a totally different process from the process that created the Earth. Both processes were created from the energy coming from out of the Universe.
The process that created the Environments for Life on Earth, the Home for Life comes from a star within the Solar system, the Sun that shines on us from the Milky Way galaxy. This was and still is the ongoing process within this "infinitely tiny speck" within the Universe and thus creating from it the necessary and essential conditions for the "birth" of Life to occur.
These condition include: 1) the Earth's distance from the Sun with its time of rotation and its north/south axis set at an angle from the plane of its orbit around the Sun, 2) its daily balance of heat gains from the Universe, especially the Sun that shines on us, and its heat loss into the cosmos of the Universe, 3) its gravitational force balances with the moon and Sun and with their masses all reconciled with each other's orbits.
These ever-changing conditions created the distribution of the substances within the Earth and over time lowered the Earth's temperature to a level necessary and essential for biological life to "blossom". These activities occurred between the time the molten Earth was created and Life could first appear on it. They were the origin for the creation of the Environments for Life on Earth. From within it, do we not see the diversity of the whole process of Life integrated into the unity of its ability to exist? Beyond the Earth, do we not also perceive the unity of the Universe's activities in the night skies above us, along with the diversity they created?
Yes, the creation of Life comes from the resources of the Earth and is sustained to present day, driven only from the power of the Sun that shines on us. The diversity of the results in Life comes from ever-changing necessary and essential natural conditions that created the Environments for Life. Life exists on, in, and within the shell of the Earth and in its waters and atmospheres above it.
All life forms right down to microscopic forms are power plants. The Sun's power gives Life power, as the Force for Life, which becomes an extension of the power in the Universe and sucks up the Earth's resources to create Life. Yes, Life's forms are miniature power plants for as long as the Sun keeps shinning and the resources necessary and essential for Life continue to be available to be sucked up by Life from the Earth. How about that for the origins of the diversity we perceive in all of Life's activities and the ever-changing conditions that these activities create on, in and above the Earth?
The conditions that made Life possible on Earth came 5 billion years after the Sun and its solar system were formed. The Earth became Home for Life starting 3.8 billion years ago in the waters of the Earth. Check with the geologists and paleontologists.
We perceive the diversity of Life in our Earthly Home every moment, every day and every year of our lives from on, in and above its shell. Life superimposes the results of its activities onto the Earth, which in today's human world sometimes even goes beyond the Environments for Life - our space programs for example.
Humankind's ability to set conditions to control its own activities creates its own diversity. This is at the heart of humankind's problems with respect to how we get along with each other and how we adapt to the environment within the Environments for Life. How then can we solve our problems? Like any problem, we need to understand the conditions that create them, a scientific approach - the object of this essay
We also need to realize that Life's propagation is a natural process. The Earth is just the resource for the embodiment of Life. Life continues to exist only from out of "Seeds" that each and every "generation" of Life creates from each and every form in Life, except microorganisms that recreate themselves without seeds. Life's activities are an innate process. Just look at the diversity of all their different attributes of forms and their behavior, as well as their different origins within the Environments for Life over the face of the Earth ever since Life came into existence.
Not all life forms have independence to control the conditions needed for them to remain stable and viable within any environment. Nonetheless there are many that can create conditions that allow them to control how they adapt to the environments in which each exists.
Humankind, however, is a uniquely "civilized", separating itself from all other life forms. We control the conditions over the activities we create to meet our needs and desires, and for how we get along with one another. This brings into light the questions: What do we mean civilized? What is its content? How far advanced are we from our primitive state of being? How does this affect the value we place on our humanness? How does human diversity affect this process?
Science, created from within the human mind, has given us the ability to understand much of the technology that drives the processes of the Earth as well as the separate processes of Life within its Environments for Life. There are also many other forms of Life that are able to make their own homes.
Over the history of human life, technology gave us the ability to become civilized. Science is the late comer for our ability to understand the technology for how we and all other life forms exist and for how we manage to adapt individually and collectively to its environments within the Environments for Life. Only within the past few centuries has science significantly contributed to understanding these technologies.
The activities of the Earth's natural processes along with the activities of Life's natural processes within its Environments for Life depend entirely on the continuously ever- changing conditions both sets create along with their corresponding results. This is how God's power plants of the stars in the Universe also function right down to God's Earth with Life on it.
All the above conditions are the reality of the technology that exists in the Universe; a technology that existed long before humankind thought about any kind of technology much less any science to explain it. I conclude from all of the above that there is the potential for Life to exist elsewhere throughout the Universe, possibly even similar to Life on Earth.
Since Life first formed, the evolution of Life and its diversity of forms appear to have been a roller-coaster ride of ups and downs over the face of the Earth, and Life threatening at times. Ask the scientists: paleontologists, geologists, archaeologists, anthropologists, physicists, chemists, biologist, etc.!
The ongoing activities within the Earth, however, affect the viability and stability of Life to survive. These include not only the weather, but volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and meteorites.
The weather, however, despite the disasters it creates, is necessary and essential to the existence of Life. The ever changing-conditions of the weather are created from a combination of energy from the Sun shining on the Earth along with the gravitational force between the Earth and especially with the moon and a little more from the Sun. These conditions stir up the activities in atmospheres and the waters over the Earth bringing the beneficial "watering cans" for Life's ability on the Earth to exist.
On the other hand, drought, hurricanes and tornados are unwelcome activities. Are not these activities also part of the diversity within the Earth's behavioral attributes that significantly upset the conditions for Life to survive? There is a unity, however, in the way weather systems function, both good and bad. How does this compare with human life's activities?
How Life utilizes the resources of the Earth is entirely up to each form's ability to survive. Life is not a selective process; it is an adaptive process and totally dependent upon its ever-changing environmental conditions surrounding it to exist and survive.
With today's human knowledge we are now aware of the physical and behavioral characteristics of most existing forms of Life and especially with respect to how the diversity of each form is capable to exist. They range from no control of its own activities to that of human life's systems of control over its activities. Presumably civilized?
The above conditions that led to the creation of Life are really miracles. These are miracles in the Universe beyond any miracle that otherwise may happen to any of us humans. Human miracles are conceptions created from the human mind when unexpected positive results ensue within any given activity in which we are involved, whether or not from 1) human created activities or 2) activities related to natural functions within our bodies or 3) expectations we may have about occurrences that happen to us in the natural world surrounding us. Even a lack of understanding about an unresolved problem may wind up a miracle. The opposite is "bad luck" or "tough luck" or "sorry about that" or "too bad." The opposite of miracle is disaster.
What do we see in the forms of Life? Humankind has defined over its history as much as possible the diversity of all forms of Life. Yes, each form is a species and within each species a further diversity of genera may occur, like that in animal life (cats, dogs, etc.) and plant life (wheat, corn, flowers, etc.) for example. Every species had its origins within the many diverse environments that existed and still exist within the Environments for Life.
It should not be surprising that many forms of Life, though biologically similar, are not otherwise similar in their physical appearances or behavioral patterns. Their environmental origins within the Environments for Life are significant factors that create such differences. Despite the diversity within humankind, however, we define ourselves only as a species, which is related to the structural biological form of our bodies. And today presumably well civilized?
All Life is, however, integrated into a unity of its biological diversity for its existence to prevail. Life is a God process created out of the resources of the Earth. Life is a system of interdependence. Humankind is not separated from the so-called natural world; we are totally dependent on it. Is this not the unity of the whole process for the miracle of Life? Ask the biologists and medical professions.
Human life, the late comer, is a natural process integrated within all Life. We are as much a part of all nature as is the whole process of Life within the Environments for Life. The conditions of the physical environments surrounding us wherever we may live determine how we respond to them. They affect our physical appearance and our behavioral responses. We are just one of the many diversified forms of Life created from the Power of God in the Universe that provides the power in us with the Force for Life.
One of the basic roots of human diversity comes from the significant diversity of our origins – our ethnicity. It reflects the true nature of human diversity even within diversified societal structures of nations in whatever their forms. It has been and today remains a critical barrier for realizing a meaningful unity of our diversity for our living together peacefully and harmoniously.
The reality of humankind is a unique form of Life that is responsible for its own destiny within its abilities to survive. Human life is bound to the ever-changing conditions within the Environments for Life, its Home within the Earth that surrounds us.
The process of human procreation is a biological unity. Our general form, its bodily content, and its biological functionalities define us as a species, despite the diversity of its origins. It is only our minds, however, that create the conditions affecting our behavioral patterns during life. They are the major source of human diversity and the problems they create for how we get along with each other.
When we come into life, it is not of our own choosing. It is our progenitors who first choose each other or otherwise were chosen; after which it is their choice at one time or another to complete the process that brings a child into life. Their ova and sperms (gametes) are an inheritance carrying the code for the fertilized egg (or eggs) to assemble the fetus within a woman's uterus –the "human factory" for the creation of a human life. The building blocks that start with the genes are the code coming from the progenitors. They may even carry over and affect the results either at or after birth. Can you imagine how this whole process may affect the diversity of its results in the populations of humankind? Whose, when and what ova and sperms?
There is even diversity in humankind's natural sexual behavior, considering the deviations that obviously exist within the components of our bodies that make up this process. This includes the behavior of our mind and its ability to control the built in urge of this process. Is it any better than our ability to control the weather? I leave that up to the medical profession.
The local environment that surrounded her before and during pregnancy may affect the conditions for development of the fetus. The result may be either good or bad or combination of both. The whole system of human birth creates an initial biological diversity in our bodies - a whole range of condition that may later relate to the child's health, abilities and behavioral patterns.
Also, there is the possibility that the birth may not be successful, a threat to both the woman and the fetus. Although the process for human procreation is the same for all human life, the results are not equal. As already noted above, the conditions we create surrounding the birthing process can influence the results, and that includes the genes of the initiators. How about that for diversity? Is there a unity to the process? The results are presumably the same for each birth. If otherwise, ask our biologists and medical doctors!
Our bodies are formatted during the birthing process for their organs to exist, both internal and external, and their structure, hopefully all assembled and hopefully functioning "properly" at birth. We come into life totally unaware of the realities that will surround us after birth, if it occurs.
Our minds are formatted only with the ability to respond to internal and external sensory organs. The "Tree of Knowledge", however, is out there waiting for us, filled with the diversity within the ongoing activities of humankind already created, both good and bad. This was obvious to prior generation of humankind going back to the beginnings of human recorded history.
We are not born with original sin. The original sin presented in the first chapter of Genesis in the Christian Bible occurred only after Adam and Eve were created, not before. We create our own behavioral patterns from how we are nurtured, educated and molded from within the environments into which we each enter at birth and continue to live, but subject to the conditions of our health and abilities. Today's environments of our humanness are undoubtedly and significantly different from those of past generations, and continue to be highly diversified, if not even more highly.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Reality of Human Life by Bedrich V. Hettich Copyright © 2012 by Bedrich V. Hettich. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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