The origin of human beings questioning the existence of God might be traced back to the first cave dweller who gazed upon the moon. Today, as I ponder, I have the benefit of incorporating into my thoughts a multitude of scientific facts generated by thousands of great minds before me who in turn, but admittedly with far greater intellect, had built their own knowledge from earlier masters like brick upon brick. My own knowledge without studying the books of scientists and philosophers would probably be no greater than the cave dweller’s, but my place in the advancement of human intelligence over the past 200,000 years gives me a far greater advantage.

Those who do not believe in God’s existence, Atheist and agnostic, cannot produce the scientific evidence to support their claim. Likewise, those who believe in an almighty God similar to the one depicted by various religions around the world have yet to provide a single shred of solid evidence since the inception of organized religion. The result of these two polar opposite schools of thinking has been the cause of many heated debates over the past two millennia which continue to this day in stalemate.

The theory of abiogenesis, or the origin of life from non-living substances, is not a proven fact at this time, yet continues to progress as scientists in 2002 created a viral substance from non-living matter that was powerful enough to kill laboratory mice. One day, scientists may be able to unlock the secrets to the origins of life that will explain how civilization came from non-living substances. If they succeed, they still do not disprove God’s existence.

Perhaps they will simply justify it.

In 1964, the Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev first introduced a general method for classifying intelligent civilizations. Type I civilizations, he proposed, could harness all the power of a single planet. Type II civilizations could harness all the power of a star. Type III civilizations, Kardashev suggested, could harness all the power of a galaxy.

Regardless of the details of Kardashev’s scale, the basic point of his theory illustrating the advancement of civilization brings to mind the scientific fact that, aside from catastrophic events that might bring about our extinction, human beings are on course to becoming God-like in power and intelligence.

Philosopher Bertrand Russell once noted, “All the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins”.

Yet, beyond Nikolai Kardashev’s Type III civilization, according to logic, would be Type IV, Type V, and beyond to the power of infinity. Somewhere in that time frame of advancing civilization is intelligence that today we can only perceive as “God”. It is intelligence beyond our current comprehension, and possibly a solution to Russell’s “inevitable” dilemma: Perhaps we will harness the power to escape a dying universe — or simply create a new one.

At some point in time, humans may cease to die due to the advancement of medical and scientific technology, but regardless of our fate as individuals, as a collective whole we can be immortal. With our ability to harness the power of an entire galaxy, perhaps we will also possess the ability to create new life forms in galaxies beyond the Milky Way. The possibilities are endless, but the combination of intelligence plus time is a simple mathematical certainty.

On the other hand, science fiction has shown us the fantastic possibilities of the universe through great theorists such as Carl Sagan, who pondered the possibility of a civilization millions of years more advanced than our own. How about the possibility of billions?

Earth is generally believed to be 4.5 billion years old in a universe that has existed for 13.7 billion years — meaning 9.2 billion pre-Earth years. Great civilizations might have existed long before Earth was formed. Perhaps one of those civilizations is what we perceive to be “God”.

Even if one does not believe in such civilizations, one cannot deny the existence of our own. The evidence has been right under our noses since the first cave dweller gazed upon the moon…The evidence of God is in us.

Merry Christmas 2008 — Political Pyro