Some
of the things that pop up regularly on my Facebook page are
posted from Big Think which popularizes advanced scientific
research and speculation for the reasonably literate lay person. Most often I glance at the summary but
delve into the articles from time to time. Frankly, most sail over my head. Sometimes articles contradict each
other as scientists advance different hypotheses. An awful lot sails right over my
head.
I am
no scientist, philosopher, or theologian—some of the most speculative
stuff seems to demand that, too. I
am a humanities major who dropped out of college and spent
most of my working life as a blue collar worker, janitor,
and gas station clerk—manifestly incompetent to understand
much of what I read.
But
in my head I strung together a fragile paper chain from different
posts unrelated to each other.
Blame me, not science, by my perhaps bizarre take away. Thus. this new verse.
Cosmos, Consciousness,
and Creator—Me!
April 6, 2022
Those scientists are
at it again!
According to what I
read,
some of them think that maybe
the cosmos, everything,
can be explained by quantum mechanics,
so can consciousness,
and everything might be
the creation of the consciousness
that observes it.
That’s me, if I get
this straight.
Whew!
If somehow you are
reading this
I guess it means you too,
but damned if I know if
your universe is anything like mine.
It also means I am responsible
for the whole shebang—
the Big Bang, the Milky Way sky
from a Montana mountain top,
super novas, and galaxy devouring black
holes,
the extinction of the dinosaurs,
and Krakatoa East of Java.
And for all the works
of Shakespeare,
even the ones I never read,
the Mona Lisa and Van Gogh’s Starry
Night,
Hieronymus Bosch, your toddler’s
finger paint smears.
Fill in the blanks for the other noble
arts.
Then there are the people,
every blesséd and blasted one of
them
since Lucy in that African gorge,
all of their stories and quirks
from knuckle dragging hunters and
gathers
to walking on the Moon.
And if I die, which
seems likely,
will they go pffft with me
or will they go on screwing and
dying
because having set this thing a-spinning
it just goes on and on out of habit?
All the beauty and grandeur
of all those folks
but also the Black Death, the
Inquisition,
slavery, the Holocaust,
and
every babe mowed down
in
yet another school shooting.
It’s all too much.
I can’t stand it.
Which is why I
evidently invented God,
who I don’t really believe in at all,
just so I would have someone
to point to and say—
“It’s not me,
It’s him/her/they/it.”
Am I off the hook?
—Patrick Murfin
No comments:
Post a Comment