human destiny and the cosmos
CHAPTER XXXXX
part IV - Freemasonry, Science and Mankind
THE SQUARE AND COMPASSES
W.
M. Don Falconer PM, PDGDC
The fact that objects from outer space
could impact the earth catastrophically at any time and without
warning, brings human destiny and the purpose of human life sharply
into focus.
The wondrous heavens have had
an important place in the thoughts of every human being from the
most ancient of our predecessors to the present day. The vastness of
the heavens, the seemingly constant relationships between the
heavenly bodies and the regularity of their orbits in relation to
the earth, have always suggested a permanence that is not manifest
in daily life on earth. Every ancient culture pondered how the
universe came into being and whether it would ever end, developing a
distinctive cosmology to satisfy its yearning for a knowledge of the
past and security in the future. Cosmology is the most ancient of
the speculative arts and the foundation on which nearly all of the
ancient religions were established. Nowadays astronomy and the whole
spectrum of physical sciences have combined in the study of
cosmology, which has become a distinguished speculative science that
should be of particular interest to speculative freemasons who are
enjoined to make a special study of the liberal arts and sciences.
Although cosmology is now based on science, it must continue to
probe the same questions that were posed by our primeval ancestors
concerning the origin and ultimate destiny of the universe and
therefore its findings impinge on science, philosophy and religion
alike. Alan Lightman gives a lucid and interesting explanation of
cosmology in Ancient Light, aptly
subtitled Our Changing View of the
Universe.
One of the most important
cosmological theories is that the universe was created by what is
commonly called the big bang. It is a
logical outcome of the theory of gravity developed by Albert
Einstein (1879‑1955), called the theory of relativity, on which his
cosmological equations are based. In essence the big bang model assumes
that before the primeval explosion all matter was concentrated at a
point under infinite pressure and temperature, a singularity. Since the
big bang all matter has been expanding, thinning out
and cooling. A refined form of the theory, referred to as the
inflationary universe model, appears to reflect the observed results
more accurately over the total spectrum of evolution. This model
postulates that initially the expansion rate was explosive and took
place during a minuscule period defined by the Planck time discussed
later, then slowed down to the rate of the standard big bang model.
Whichever model of the big bang is assumed, a
significant outcome of the evolutionary process is that the material
of the universe should be uniformly distributed throughout space.
This has been found to be true on the grand scale, although there
are many clusters of galaxies dispersed randomly through the vast
regions of space. An important discovery that affects the
interpretation of this model is that at least 90 percent the
material dispersed throughout the universe emits no light and is
called dark matter. Only
gravitational effects reveal the presence of this invisible mass,
but its physical structure and its behaviour under the forces of
nature especially at the subatomic level, which is the realm of
quantum mechanics, are not yet known. A classical example of dark matter is the black hole that
observations indicate is near the centre of the Milky Way.
The big bang theory is
supported by several facts that have been determined by observation.
The first, which establishes a fundamental element in the theory, is
that the universe is expanding and that all observable galaxies are
moving away from each other at a velocity that is increasing at the
rate of 32 kilometres per second per million light years,
called Hubble's Law.
Observations completed early in 2002 indicate that the rate of
expansion of the universe is accelerating and that some time in the
distant future the rate of expansion will exceed the velocity of
light. The application of Hubble’s Law indicates that
all matter in space would have begun to move outwards from a central
point about 15,000 million years ago. Cosmic background radiation is
a pervasive shower of microwave radiations with wavelengths of
3.2 centimetres, the wavelengths of radio waves travelling in
an ambient temperature of -270ºC, only 3 degrees above absolute
zero. This radiation will be discussed later. However, the fact that
it is virtually constant and reaches the earth uniformly from every
direction supports the big bang theory. It has
been determined from the radioactive disintegration of uranium ore
that the age of the earth is about 4,500 million years, which is
consistent with its evolution according to the big bang model. Finally,
the overall chemical composition of the universe is about 25 percent
helium and 75 percent hydrogen, which conform to the predicted
outcome of the initial atomic processes of the big bang.
In their order of strength,
the four fundamental forces of nature are the strong nuclear force
that holds protons and neutrons together, the electromagnetic force
from which electricity and magnetism arise, the weak nuclear force
that produces certain kinds of radioactivity and weakest which is
the gravitational force. Entropy is an important factor affecting
the conditions under which all things exist, whether as an entity or
as part of a system. Entropy is a measure of the degree of disorder
that exists in a physical system. One of the laws of physics called
the second law of thermodynamics, which has been proven
unequivocally by observation, is that the entropy of any physical
system increases with time, so that inevitably the transition that
takes place in any physical system is from order towards chaos. This
is clearly illustrated in the natural world by the development of
deserts under the forces of erosion. The interaction of the
fundamental forces of nature plays a crucial part in the development
of disorder in the cosmos. There are many fundamental constants in
nature, but several are vitally important in any consideration of
cosmology and the behaviour of matter.
First constant is the velocity
of light, which is approximately 300,000 kilometres per second
through space. Another constant is the mass of an electron, the
stable negatively charged basic particle of electricity that is a
constituent of all atoms. The electron has a mass of about
10-27 grams
and carries an electrical charge of 1.602192 x 10-19 coulomb, where a
coulomb is the quantity of electricity conveyed by a current of one
ampere in one second. Yet another is the gravitational constant,
which is a measure of the strength of the gravitational force. A
body falling freely under gravity, in a vacuum at the surface of the
earth, accelerates 9.806 metres per second per second. At the
beginning of the big bang all of the
processes would have been controlled by quantum mechanical effects,
when Planck's constant was of
the greatest importance. This constant of nature is the energy of
one quantum of electromagnetic radiation, which is the smallest
possible parcel of energy that can exist, divided by the frequency
of its radiation. Planck's constant has a
value of 6.626196 x 10-34 joule seconds, where
a joule is the amount of work done in one second by a current of one
ampere with a potential difference of one volt.
When Planck's
constant is combined with the gravitational constant and the
speed of light, Planck units are obtained, which are
used to define the critical densities and times during the big bang process.
Initially quantum mechanical effects controlled the structure of
space and time, when both quantum mechanics and gravity were
extremely important. When the universe was about 10-43 second old the
density of matter was about 1093 grams per cubic
centimetre. These are the values of the Planck time and Planck density
respectively. The temperature was then about 1022 degrees centigrade and
the mean energy of a particle was about 10-5 grams, which is the Planck mass. The
temperature had fallen to about 1010 degrees
centigrade by the end of the first second, when the universe was a
superheated gas of subatomic particles at a density of about
105 grams per
cubic centimetre. During the early stages of evolution, the densely
packed particles filled the expanding space uniformly and collided
constantly, thus producing intense radiation. These collisions
continued for about 300,000 years, when electrons and atomic nuclei
began to combine and form atoms. Ever since then the radiation has
been travelling through space and it is now detected as cosmic
background radiation, in the form of radio waves that are isotropic,
having the same intensity from all directions. The Cosmic Background
Explorer was launched near the end of 1989 and has made the most
precise measurements of the cosmic background radiation yet
available. The values obtained correlate closely with those
predicted using either big bang model, which
proves that the young universe must have been very homogeneous. At
present the cosmic temperature as measured is about ‑270ºC, or
3 degrees above absolute zero, consistent with the required
ambient temperature for the observed cosmic background radiation. It
is estimated that the galaxies would have begun forming about 30
million years after the big bang, when the
density of the universe had reduced to about 10-25 grams per cubic
centimetre and the temperature had fallen to about freezing point,
almost 270ºC warmer than it is in outer space now.
Huge volumes of space have
been examined by telescope and the present average density of the
universe has been assessed by estimating the amount of mass in those
volumes, taking into account the dark matter as determined on the
basis of the observed gravitational effects. Although it is
difficult to allow for the clusters of galaxies and dark matter that
disturb the uniform distribution of matter through the universe and
there are uncertainties in measuring cosmic distances, these studies
indicate that the density of the universe is about 10-30 grams per cubic
centimetre, about one tenth of the critical mass density
that would ultimately bring the outward expansion of the universe to
a halt. The ratio that the density of the universe has to the critical mass density is
called omega, which is a
measure of whether the universe is open, closed or flat. Even if
very large errors were made when assessing the present mass of the
universe, it seems unlikely that the density of the universe would
reach the critical mass density of 10-29 grams per cubic
centimetre, as determined on the basis of the current rate of
expansion of the universe. Therefore omega probably is less
than the critical value of one, so that the universe almost
certainly is open. It is of interest to know that the inflationary
universe model predicts that over infinite time omega should approach
one, which is the value for a flat universe, after which there would
be no further expansion, although the effects of entropy would not
allow conditions to remain static. An open universe can be expected
to continue expanding and growing colder for an indefinite period,
which ultimately will result in the death of the cosmos.
Life in the present context
means life in the animal kingdom and its associated micro‑organisms,
as distinct from plant life. Whether plants and the myriad of
apparently inert materials that make up the universe are or are not
some form of life is not relevant to the present discussion, even
though people through all ages have attributed spirits to them. The
constituent elements of which animal life is composed are well known
to scientists, who can work miracles when repairing injuries,
producing cures for ailments and cloning animal parts. However, no
one has been able to introduce the breath of life into
an appropriate collection of elements and thereby create a living
biological organism. We are concerned with the breath of
life, or "the spirit that shall return
unto God who gave it" that the preacher refers to in
Ecclesiastes 12:7, which typifies human life in the cosmos. Although
the earth is about 4,500 million years old, the tenure of human life
on earth has been very brief in comparison. Prochloron cells are the
oldest known living things from about 3,500 million years ago.
Primitive marine life began almost 600 million years ago, then
primitive plant life and vertebrate fish from about 400 million
years ago. Although plants, insects, dinosaurs, marine reptiles,
birds and primitive mammals flourished from about 200 million years
ago, the earliest primates did not appear until about 60 million
years ago. Although the earliest primitive anthropoids have lived
from about 35 million years ago, the oldest known fossils of Homo sapiens are little
more than 100,000 years old.
The observed time scale of
evolution and the specific environmental factors associated with the
appearance of human life have led some eminent physicists and
cosmologists to consider what initial cosmological conditions must
prevail to permit the creation of life. A theory called the anthropic principle has
been developed during the last sixty years and advanced in two
forms. The weak form says that life can only arise and exist during
a certain epoch of our universe, whereas the strong form says that a
special configuration of universe is required for life to arise and
exist in any epoch. The elements of the theory were put forward in
general form by Paul Dirac (1902-1984), an English mathematical
physicist whose work on quantum mechanics led to a complete
mathematical formulation of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.
Paul Dirac pointed out that when certain fundamental constants of
nature are multiplied and divided in an appropriate way they equal
the present age of the universe, which he considered too unlikely to
be a chance occurrence. Robert Dicke, an American physicist,
modified the anthropic principle to
what is called the weak form, which was further modified by, Brandon
Carter, an English astrophysicist who established the strong form.
The anthropic argument contravenes the long accepted rule of
ontological economy that "entities are not to be
multiplied beyond necessity", established by William of
Ockham (1286-1349), an English philosopher and theologian.
Notwithstanding Paul Dirac’s belief that his combination of certain
fundamental constants of nature did not equal the age of the
universe by chance, there must inevitably be inherent deficiencies
in an argument based solely on a hypothetical mathematical
arrangement of several numbers, whatever those numbers may be.
Nevertheless the environmental parameters required for the existence
of life obviously are very restricted.
The purpose of human life is a
subject that has been debated intensely throughout recorded history
and probably long before. Any consideration of the purpose of life
must necessarily have regard to the purpose of the universe, which
in turn is related to the concept of God and the creation process
itself. A tenet of most ancient and modern religions alike is a
belief that the universe has a purpose, which is known to God who is
regarded as the creator, even if that purpose is beyond human
comprehension. This belief is recorded in the scriptures of all
religions and has been enunciated and developed repeatedly by
philosophers and theologians at least from as early as the fourth
century BCE. The ancient vision of God in human form should not
cloud our present thinking, because the actual form of God is not
relevant to the concept. Nor is there any special relevance in the
concept of God as a separate all-knowing, all-powerful being that
has neither beginning nor end in time, who created the universe as a
separate entity. As it is not conceivable that matter could exist
without either space or time, which are not separable entities but
function as a composite space-time union, it seems
reasonable to assume that both matter and space-time
could have come into existence concurrently. It has been proposed by
some philosophers that matter could have come into existence out of
nothing and of its own volition at the beginning of the big bang, but no
evidence has been produced to suggest how this could possibly occur.
If such an origin could have taken place, it would have been no less
a miracle than the creation of the universe by a God already in
existence and would necessarily imply the pre-existence of some
force or power that is beyond human comprehension.
Whether the creative force or
power that was responsible for the genesis of the universe came into
existence at the time of the big bang, or had already
been in existence, is not relevant to whether it can be regarded as
God. Indeed, the concept that God is the motive force or power that
underlies the existence and evolution of the cosmos and of life
within it, whereby God is an integral and living part of the cosmos
itself, seems completely logical and has not been refuted by the
discoveries of science. That concept is not inherently incompatible
with any of the beliefs on which the major religions of the world
are founded, nor is it inconsistent with the ancient animistic
beliefs. If God is not outside the universe, but is the underlying
force of and within it, we no longer need to search for the purpose
of human life because the very existence of God is the reason for
life, in which the souls or spirits of human individuals are a part
of that force which is God. In several of his books Paul Davies
gives illuminating accounts of important physical aspects of
cosmology and related considerations, such as the place of God in
the creation and the purpose of human life. Two of his books are of
special interest, entitled God and the New Physics
and The Mind of God that is
sub-titled Science and the Search for
Ultimate Meaning.
Consciousness is an inherent
and fundamental element of reality in the universe. If God is the
motivating force and the foundation of all existence within the
universe, then consciousness could be regarded as a vital component
of the mind of God. The proposition that the purpose of human life
is as an extension of the mind of God is illustrated by one of the
fundamental differences between humans and all other animals. That
difference is the ability of the human brain to differentiate
between measurable qualities and the primary qualities of existence
that are all sensual. No other animal can do this. The human brain
has achieved the greatest of all physical developments that have
been observed in animal life, even though the period of evolution
during which it has taken place is extremely brief on the cosmic
scale. The human brain is still developing, but it already is
considerably more complex than any other object in the known
universe. This development of the human brain is the primary reason
why humanity has survived on earth and has ascended to the paramount
position it occupies. However there is a disadvantage to this
survival instinct.
In common with all of life's
self support systems, the rational function of the brain was created
to serve as a filter element. In the course of their evolution,
humans have become so self-centred that they now regard the human
brain as the source of the vital sensual element of reality, which
is erroneous. In fact the converse is true, because it is the
sensual element of reality that provides the vital input that
activates the brain. We know that mortal death is our ultimate
destiny on earth, but in faith we believe that death provides the
transition to life eternal. It has been shown conclusively in all
reported aspects of the Near Death Experience
that one aspect cannot be attributed either to the recalling of
memory held images or to hallucinations. Statements by survivors of
the Near Death Experience,
whose brains have been observed clinically to have ceased to
function, invariably reveal that at the time of the experience their
sensual awareness has been magnified and cognition greatly enhanced.
This supports the concept that God is the inherent force in the
universe and that the human soul or spirit is a part of the force
that is God. David Darling gives a compelling explanation of these
phenomena and other relevant aspects related to the survival of
consciousness after death in his book Soul Search,
appropriately sub-titled A Scientist Explores the
Afterlife.
As human existence ends in
mortal death, so also is the universe destined to decay away as its
constituent matter becomes progressively more disordered and
ultimately subsides into utter chaos. On the cosmic scale, stars
gradually use up all of the available nuclear fuel. Their denser
cores shrink more and more as they endeavour to sustain energy
production, while their lighter mantles swell up and form huge red
giants which often engulf all of the nearer planets and other
heavenly bodies within their system, stripping away their
atmospheres and melting or vaporising their solid materials. When
all of the hydrogen in the star has been burnt quantum effects take
over, after which helium and the progressively heavier elements are
burnt with a steadily decreasing efficiency. While these events are
taking place the core temperature of the star increases inexorably
until all of the fuel has been burnt, when quantum effects cease and
the internal pressure falters. When the internal pressure falters
gravity takes command and the star collapses under its own weight,
while the core density increases enormously. The shrunken burnt out
star continues to cool for billions of years and ultimately becomes
a black dwarf star. The demise of most stars takes place in this
fashion, but some will implode catastrophically as supernovae,
releasing tremendous energy and temporarily attaining a brightness
of one hundred million suns or more. Their remnants sometimes become
neutron stars.
Other much heavier dead stars
may continue to shrink at an escalating rate until they become black
holes. As the dead stars continue to mill around within their
galaxies, their orbits decay and become erratic. This is the final
stage when collisions become frequent and the black holes
progressively enlarge as they swallow up all of the material.
Finally, after about 1032 years the
remaining debris in the galaxy will become unstable and evaporate
away. Ultimately all galaxies will suffer a similar death and the
cosmos will cease to exist in its present form. The sun at the
centre of our solar system will follow a similar course to all other
stars. Because the sun is only a small star, its fuel is estimated
to be sufficient for not more than another four or five billion
years, which is about as long again as the solar system has been in
existence.
With regard to human life, the
earth may become uninhabitable long before the sun's fuel is
exhausted, because of the delicate balance of our climate. For
example, only a marginal reduction in the sun's temperature could
induce another ice age, but a similar increase in its temperature
could overheat the earth's surface. Our climate can also be
seriously affected by minor changes in either the earth's orbit or
the inclination of its axis, by a high level dispersion of dust from
volcanoes and impacting asteroids and meteorites, by changes in the
ozone layer and by tectonic plate movements. Clark R Chapman, an
eminent planetologist and David Morrison, previously Chairman of the
Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical
Society, discuss all these factors very lucidly in Cosmic
Catastrophes.
Events such as these have
already occurred many times and several of them have had a dramatic
effect on the earth in the recent past. Some typical examples are
the bombardment of the earth by comets between 13,000 and 12,000
years ago, which initiated the retreat of the glaciers. This was
followed by a further bombardment between 11,000 and 10,000 years
ago, which ended the last great ice age and caused a rise of about
200 metres in the level of the oceans, which submerged most of the
present continental shelves and caused worldwide floods. Scientists
studying the sudden demise of many widely dispersed civilisations,
during the period 2500 BCE to 2000 BCE, have discovered
that all of the affected civilisations suffered sudden and dramatic
changes in climate. Parallel research has found that at least eight
different impact craters around the world were formed within a
century of 2350 BCE, while studies of tree rings confirm
widespread ecological catastrophes at the same time. Scientists who
have made detailed studies of temperature records have found
evidence of rapid climate changes and consequential chaos and
disruption that lasted for several decades as recently as about
1000 BCE and 500 CE.
A well-known recent impact
with earth was the Tunguska Event, which on
30 June 1908 fortuitously occurred in an uninhabited area
of the Siberian plains. It was an aerial explosion of a fragment of
a comet only about 70 metres across and travelling at about 100,000
kilometres per hour. Although the explosion is estimated to have
taken place at an elevation of about 6 kilometres in the atmosphere,
it flattened about 2,000 square kilometres of forest, incinerating
about 1,000 square kilometres at the centre and igniting the
clothing of people as far away as 500 kilometres. Sufficient dust
was thrown into the atmosphere to block out the sunlight and to
reduce the temperature measurably for several years. Most of us have
seen on television the impact of several fragments of the comet
Shoemaker-Levy 9 when it struck Jupiter during July 1994. One
fragment a little more than 4 kilometres across was travelling at
about 60 kilometres per second and is estimated to have had energy
on impact equal to 100,000 million tonnes of TNT, which would
have destroyed all life on earth if the comet had collided with the
earth instead of Jupiter. By contrast the energy of the atomic bomb
that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945 was only equal to 13,000 tonnes of
TNT.
A major danger to earth is the
Taurid stream, of which the comet Encke is the most
visible object and passes near to us in June and November each year.
In June 1178 a fragment of the comet, estimated to have been be
about 2 kilometres across, struck the moon with sufficient impact to
have destroyed humanity had it struck the earth instead. It created
the Giordano Bruno crater now visible on the moon, with a radius of
13 kilometres. Scientists consider that the impact forming the
Giordano Bruno crater caused the 15 metres oscillation of the
moon's surface now taking place about its polar axis on a three
yearly cycle. During June 1975 the moon was again struck by a
sustained barrage of tonne sized boulders, which also would have
destroyed our civilisation had they struck the earth. In each of
these events the cosmic bodies passed so close to the earth that it
might have been struck instead of the moon. Nevertheless those
impacts were minuscule when compared with the many impacts that have
laid waste to Mars. Graham Hancock, Robert Bauval and John Grigsby
give an interesting and highly informative account of the
bombardment of Mars in their book entitled The Mars Mystery and
sub-titled A Tale of the End of Two
Worlds. They indicate the
short-term possibility and long-term probability of similar impacts
on earth.
The fact that objects from
outer space could impact the earth catastrophically at any time and
without warning brings human destiny and the purpose of human life
sharply into focus. There might be some individuals who would regard
the possibility of a cataclysmic end to the earth as proof that God
does not exist. Such a conclusion cannot be sustained logically when
taking into account the manner in which the universe has evolved,
the formation of the solar system and the evolution of human life on
earth. When considering the superiority of human intelligence over
that of other animal life and the relationship that we believe
exists between the human spirit and the spirit of God, the view
could be advanced that one of the purposes of human life is to
determine and overcome the problems associated with apocalyptic
events like those described. The possibility of a cataclysmic end to
civilisation highlights the fallacies inherent in medieval teachings
concerning heaven, purgatory and hell, introduced by the Church of
Rome as a forceful mechanism of coercion to maintain strict
ecclesiastical control over the population. Those medieval teachings
are in stark contrast with the ancient views expressed by the
preacher in Ecclesiastes 12:7, who said that on mortal death "the spirit shall return unto
God who gave it".
It might be suggested that
because the earth has been spared the cataclysmic bombardments,
which have decimated the other planets in our solar system and
rendered them uninhabitable by humans, the earth will continue to be
spared. Knowing the extreme desolation that has been inflicted on
our two nearest neighbours, the moon and the planet Mars, it would
seem to be a forlorn hope for the earth never again to be struck by
an extra-terrestrial object with sufficient force to cause
life-threatening damage. In any event the life span of our solar
system can only be a very small fraction of the life of the universe
as a whole, so that human life under the present circumstances must
cease long before the end of the universe. Whatever the Creator's
grand plan might be, the event that ultimately brings humanity to an
end on earth must be relatively unimportant, because we believe that
the spirits of all human beings who obey the laws of God and are
faithful to their trust are destined to reunite with the spirit of
the Creator, which is the Mind of God. This belief
that we cherish is supported by the statement in Genesis 1:27 that
"God created man in his own
image" and by the scriptures of all major religions. This
concept puts into its proper perspective the important message
conveyed by the story of the brutal and untimely death of the chief
architect of the temple, which is dramatically portrayed in the
third degree. It also highlights the immorality and utter impotence
of all those who have perpetrated barbaric depravities upon sections
of the world’s population when trying to subjugate the liberty and
free thought of the people.
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