Day Three Is Ending

"Life As We Know It"

What does this phrase mean?

It's frequently used, but do many of us really understand what is "life as we know it."? Fortunately, we already learned what we need to know to technically answer this question from high school biology class. And Sunday School gave us some needed perspective. We are well equipped to tackle this question. To find the answer, we just need a refresher now and then.

I found an intriguing article online in Discover Magazine, here, that begins with the most succinct scientific summation of that answer I have seen in decades. (I must be getting old since I seem to be using the term "decades" frequently nowadays) It has just the right balance of big-picture persepective and nuts and bolts action. Here is the pithy introductory paragraph, answering the too-little comprehended question, what is "life as we know it?":

Every living thing on Earth shares a long, colorful history. Our planet was born into a maelstrom 4.5 billion years ago, and for the next 600 million years a steady bombardment of primordial debris made the surface uninhabitable. The blitz finally tapered off 3.8 billion years ago. Then within about 50 million years later—practically an instant in geologic time—life irrevocably established itself. Since then, it has evolved into everything from bacteria to toadstools to mudskippers to humans. Outwardly these species vary wildly, but at the molecular level they are staggeringly uniform. They all use DNA to encode genetic information. They all use RNA molecules as messengers to transfer the information from DNA to cellular factories called ribosomes, which then build proteins, which in turn drive our metabolisms and form the structures of our cells. In short, every species seems descended from a common ancestor whose attributes define what scientists mean when they say “life as we know it.”

There are exciting perspectives framed by this simple story. I am awed at the deep connection among all of the life on earth. And by the equally deep connection between life and the earth itself. The earth was and is an essential part of us. Mankind has only recently (last few hundred years) learned some of the basics of our connection to the history of life on earth. I think this must mark the first time in 3.8 billion years that a tiny piece of that life on Earth, just one of the late-arriving species of this "life as we know it", became consciously aware of these facts. Time. Life. Humans. Conciousness. Awesome! Knowledge, technology, and science. Oh my!

Our amazing planet, endlessly spinning like a top and flying around the sun once a year, has always been full of excitement and plot changes. The suspense is killing me.

Just for fun: imagine that the whole 4.5 billion year existence of our humble planet was represented as just one 24 hour day. Now get this: The universe exploded into existence to begin Day One. On Day Three, our Sun was born. Earth was then formed at a moment after midnight on Day Three, immediately falling into line around the sun, and continuing it's ceaseless march forward ever since. Life suddenly came into existence at around 3:45 am on Day Three. Humans pop into existence at 11:59 and 59 seconds pm as Day Three winds down. We have gained our current, complex, scientific understanding of reality in just our last few moments. The sun has another 4.5 billion years left, and that's when it all goes dark for poor Earth, at the end of Day Four. It's the end of "life as we know it." Sounds bleak, right?

But it may not be the end for humanity, for we have recently gained the self-awareness and the cooperative culture required to transcend our self-destructive human behaviors. And we have harnessed the technology to escape our imprisonment by the gravity of earth. We may soon be able to transcend the great distances of our solar system, our galaxy and our universe. On the one hand, we are just a form of life, one of many, easily understood, a humble product of this earth. Yet, on the other hand, we may soon be able to choose, if we want, to live peacefully enough, and travel far enough, to create for ourselves, another day. If we can make it through the last few moments of Day Three, then we can look forward to nice long Day Four, and if we can prosper, then we can choose to live forever. More days, more years, it never has to end. (or does it?)

Stunning. Yet, why do so many find this so boring? Or so tedious (biology class)? Or wrong (creationists)? I have no right to complain; I have doubts, it gets too complicated, and it sometimes does get quite boring hearing the same old trite questions which I thought were so meaningful and important in my first year of college: What was before Day One? How did Life begin? Is Life only on earth? Where is ET's home? How many angels can fit on the head of a pin?Give me a break. Same old stuff; never any answers. In the long run, I'm dead, we are all dead. So what's the point?

Well, I got my bio-mojo back: I found some new questions. I've been thinking big too much. I've always been an earthling but I keep looking up to the stars. I need to look back down to the ground more often. Gotta have some balance. Sure, let's search the skys, read the past and predict our future with all of our sophisticated tools. But let's not forget to look for some answers right here at home. From the sub-headline of the article lies the invigorating question:

Aliens Among Us
Do we share Earth with alternative life forms?

We've been looking all over the universe for signs of life. Turns out that we should be looking for "alternative life" right here on our strange and beautiful planet, our home, our Earth. Do we have company right here, under our noses, in our own house? Do these aliens, perhaps, live in our own bodies? That's an interesting article.

But back to the broad question: What is "life as we know it"? Let's approach the question with some balance - we should not only study what it is and where it is, but what and where it could be. Why? Because as humans, by god, we are our own brand new category. We have gained a power that no other life form has. It doesn't matter so much how we came to be or who or what gave us this power. What is undeniable is that we now have influence on life itself in a way no other life can. Just when we discovered our past reality and how it works, we find that we can now actually create a future reality, based on the past and built on our dreams. We can imagine it and then we can make it.

While we have long held strong beliefs and upheld lasting traditions that tend to attribute the whole of our past and, in many cases, our eternal future, to the course pre-determined by our Creator, this thinking is not scientific. I can't say that it's wrong, I can only assert that it sometimes gets in the way of a more useful reality. There are always going to be unexplainable stirrings in our souls, an aching in our gut, and a grace in our hearts. Seems good to me. There are always gaps in our scientific knowledge, but those are all different issues. Most people believe in a Creater, and when they become educated they sometimes end up struggling to trust in the state of our scientific knowledge. Or they struggle to trust in the very faith-beliefs they have always held. Sunday school and biology class don't always get along. Uh oh. Cognitive dissonance. Debates. Emotions. Wars. The madness. Whatever - the conflict is futile. The struggle is wasting energy and distracting us. Believe, or don't believe. What is important is how the sum of our beliefs informs how we behave from here on out. All the real action is in the future. And the important thing, to me, is that we have become a Creator, one I believe in. It's an intellectual faith. It doesn't have to be in conflict with other beliefs. But it must coexist with them.

An intellectual faith is honest and informed. It learns. It is a faith that is moral and optimistic, because those are human characteristics. It is striving to gain more knowledge and to be more useful. It is the same faith in ourselves and in our ability to improve that our ancestors had. And it is a faith that recognizes a long-term responsibility in our actions. It finds a mature way to reconcile our collective intellect with our feelings and traditions. We are Creators, and we are creating now, shaping our current reality, in good ways and bad. We are on a course that we created. And we've only just begun (where have I heard that?) Day Three is ending. Day Four is dawning. What will come next for us? It's all up to us. This is all good, clean fun. We may as well engage and figure it out together.

What is "life as we know it?" What do we want it to be? Where do we want it to be? What choices can we make or should we make to start life on places other than earth? So far, we are only three days in to this whole wonderful experience. Shouldn't we make plans to stay around for a few weeks at least?

Days like these make me want to go back to college.