Believing in the Tooth Fairy

Science has nothing to say about the spiritual

Believing science’s description of our universe and how it began seems almost like believing in the tooth fairy.

The following descriptions are based on accepted science.

To get a feeling of just how much observable matter is in our universe, begin with our sun, which is so large it could contain 330,000 Earths. Mash all the planets in the solar system together into one big ball and the sun could contain 743 of them.

As big as our sun is, though, it is only an average size star, and it’s a pinhead compared with the largest star we know, the UY Scuti, which could contain approximately 5 billion suns. If UY Scuti were placed at the center of our Solar System, its outer edge would reach somewhere between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn.

But that’s just two stars. To get an idea of how big the universe is, consider this: The universe is approximately 93 billion to 156 billion light years across, but it could be much bigger, or even infinite, and it contains more stars than there are grains of sand on all the beaches in the world. There are 10 times more stars in the universe than there are cups of water in every ocean in the world.

And yet, all of them put together would amount to a measly 5 percent of the universe’s matter. The rest is composed of dark matter and dark energy. Dark matter, which is material that is postulated to exist but that is not observable by visible light, contributes 27 percent, and dark energy, mass-energy that dominates the universe, contributes 68 percent.

But even that 5 percent makes a stupefying whole. Recognizing that most things are made up largely or mostly of air, consider what would result if all the atoms in the observable universe were jammed so tightly against one another that absolutely nothing separated them. The resulting ball would completely fill our solar system. You can only try to imagine what the other 95 percent would fill.

Now, while keeping that brain-frying mass in mind, consider this: 13.8 billion years ago, every bit of it was contained in an entity, called a singularity. that was so small it had no mass. In plain words, it did not exist, but it existed. There is no singularity except that there is. It is a conjecture that no one has ever seen and cannot be explained by any known theory. It is an infinitely hot, non-existing existence that can only be expressed as infinity.

In other words, before the universe was born, there was no observable matter, no dark matter, no dark energy, no time, no space, no anything! Then, approximately 13.8 billion Earth-years ago, that non-existing existence began to expand, an event we call the Big Bang. It didn’t expand into anything because there was nothing for it to expand into. It just expanded. And, thus, here we are, the universe and all its observable matter, dark matter, dark energy, time, space — and us.

Let’s consider “us” for a moment. In order for life to exist in the universe, the ratio between the gravitational force and the electronic force had to have been established in the first one-millionth of a second after the expansion began. Had that ratio been off by one part in10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, life could never have developed.

To understand those odds, former Cal Tech astrophysicist Dr. Hugh Ross once suggested doing this: Imagine yourself covering the United States with dimes. When you are finished, do it again. And again and again and again until your pile of dimes reaches 5,000 miles beyond the moon’s average distance from Earth. Once that’s done, dive into the stack and pick out one dime, paint it red, and exit the stack. Once out, ask a friend to dive in and do the same. The odds that he will pick the same dime that you did are the same odds that the ratio between the gravitational force and the electromagnetic force could be precisely that exact.

But even that pales into insignificance when it’s realized that getting that ratio right was just one of more than 200 events that had to have happened simultaneously at the beginning or we would not be here.

Had Earth been only slightly larger than it is the increased gravity would have pulled all the ammonia out of the air, leaving it impossible for life to develop here. Had Earth been slightly smaller than it is, the weakened gravity would not have been able to hold water vapor in the air, also eliminating the possibility of life on Earth.

Had Earth’s rotation been any faster than it is there would not be enough sunlight for plants to grow. If it were any slower, the longer days would allow the sun to scorch plant life.

And on, and on, and on it goes. More than 200 of them. Add them all together and the possibility of life existing on Earth would be one in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, which Dr. Ross said would be tantamount to running that dime experiment several times and your friend finding the painted dime every time.

And remember, this is science speaking. Not me.

See what I mean about the tooth fairy?

Now, how did we get here? And I’m not talking about the physical we. I mean the deeper we, our soul, our spirit, our essence, our quintessence, whatever name you want to call it. The aware we. Where did that we come from if not from within that non-existing existence that existed before the Big Bang?

Let me interrupt myself here for just a moment to try an experiment. Right now, take your index finger and point it at yourself. Done? Okay. If you are like 99.99 percent of the rest of us, you’re pointing at your chest, but not at your brain-holding head. Rarely does anyone think the “real me” is our brain.

Nor should we. The brain is a piece of meat; forgive the crudeness, but it is. And regardless of how complicated that piece of meat is, how can a piece of meat experience love, anger, remorse, joy, disgust or any other emotion? It can’t, so there must be something more to us, something spiritual. The brain tells the body what to do, but the soul, spirit, whatever, must tell the brain what to do.

And here we leave science, for science has nothing to say about the spiritual.

But the idea that there is a spiritual side of us, while supported by religion, has nothing to do with religion. The idea is backed up by, among others, the thousands of people who have experienced the so-called near-death phenomenon. Typically, a person is pronounced dead, but suddenly she/he feels herself/himself floating above her/his body and looking down at it. Then that person feels herself/himself being pulled through a dark tunnel toward a bright light at its end, which ends with an eruption into a loving reception. Doesn’t that perfectly describe the birth process? And then they are suddenly back in their bodies. Doesn’t that describe a stillbirth?

Some scientists agree with that; others say the experience is nothing more than the brain stem fading away. There is no proof either way, but there is evidence that it happened just the way they remember it.

For example, after returning to their bodies, some recall seeing something that happened during that brief moment when they floated over their bodies, such as seeing a nurse reach over their bodies to pick up something, and the nurse confirming that it did happen.

Also, a panel at the University of Virginia takes the possibility of life after death seriously enough to confirm reports that more than a thousand toddlers, as soon as they are able to speak and long before they can be taught to say anything, have referred to their past lives. One Jewish girl spoke of numbers on her arm.

Perhaps most important, though, people who have experienced a near-death event insist they did not imagine it, it was not a dream, but it was a very, very real happening. And their words are backed up by what happens next: they are changed in deep, permanent, and strongly positive ways. They become better, more caring persons.

I realize that all this will sound like so much hogwash to some people, and I understand that. After all, believing that our universe — and we — originated as a non-existing existence does seem a bit cock-eyed.

To those who think it’s all hogwash, both science’s explanation of how we got here and the observation that we are essentially spiritual, I ask of you one favor. Give me a logical explanation of how you think the universe — and we — got here.

But before you answer, be aware that whatever your answer is, it will make you sound like you believe in the tooth fairy.

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