No People, No Point
Recently a spacecraft landed successfully on Mars. Its job being to study the planet on a number of fronts. As the November 26th NASA news report stated, “Mars has just received its newest robotic resident. NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander successfully touched down on the Red Planet after an almost seven-month, 300-million-mile (485-million-kilometer) journey from Earth.” Congratulation NASA! An incredible achievement. Amazing… Our quest and passion to explore seems wired into our DNA. We long to look out beyond ourselves to see, touch, taste, feel and smell the world we live in. And even worlds far, far from our own if we can but get there.
We learned of many explorers growing up in school. Like Marco Polo, Megellan, and Captain Cook. Columbus, Amelia Earhart, and Charles Lindbergh. We remember the adventures of Lewis and Clark as they pushed west across a young America seeking a northwest passage to Asia. Some of us are even old enough to remember Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon. Adventure and discovery are a part of each of our stories. This can’t be avoided. Life IS adventure! We’re made for it. And what a place we have to discover!
Mountains, valleys, rivers and lakes full of life in all it’s glory! Reds, greens, yellows and blues! Flowers, trees, and innumerable numbers of plants each with its own aroma to tickle or torture our noses! We witness sunrises and sunsets that inspire awe. And sights and sounds that blow our minds and take our breath away! Earth is indeed an unbelievably spectacular place!
But what would happen if there were no people? No one to witness all that earth is? No one to feel the warmth of the sun or the splash of an ocean? The truth is that without people there is no meaning to any of it. None whatsoever. Like a museum or gallery with priceless treasures that never opens it’s doors, NO PEOPLE equals NO POINT. There is no point to a museum that never let’s people in. And there’s no point to earth if there are no people to experience it.
PEOPLE
Some people believe that we are the result of time and chance. That humans have come into being from a very, very, very long collection of random accidents. Even going from an inorganic substance to an organic one. “From the goo, to the zoo, to you” it’s been called. That there is no meaning to anything except that which we humans decide to place upon it. No other intelligence that’s involved here.
Well I never really accepted this notion. Even in my “rebel days” when I wanted to be my own little god. Living by my own standards and rule book accountable to no one but myself, (and law enforcement of course). I still knew that there was/is something else going on. It was not logical that everything was an accident. That all that I saw on earth “just happened”. I then learned about the Cambrian explosion, irreducible complexity and the nature of the DNA code, (codes need a code Writer).
GOD
It became abundantly clear that there was and is a designer, an architect or intelligence behind everything. Including me. I discovered that I was not an accident. I am in fact the recipient of an incredible gift. The gift of life. That the Designer had planned this whole thing way before I showed up. And that the earth was and is made for me to be in. To live in. And to experience and enjoy like everyone else. It’s also clear that all of us are to care for and cherish our home: This blue globe spinning through the universe. And I agree. We must be good stewards.
Ultimately however mankind is not the problem of earth… we are actually it’s purpose. A place God made for people. You and Me. For if there were no people, there wouldn’t be any point to earth…or anything else for that matter. No point at all…
- Dave