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Basic Science:  To view life as plants and animals is to miss the vast majority of what life is.   Life is bio-chemical, bio-electrical in nature and  occurs at the level of atoms, molecules, and cells -- at a level outside the everyday consciousness of most people.  

Evolution:  The scientific evidence indicates that life began on Earth several billions of years ago and has continued uninterrupted ever since.   Scientists speculate that life started on Earth in one of two ways:**  either life originated here on Earth from a single cell that had the ability to duplicate itself or life came to earth as a micro-organism via a comet or meteor.  

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As the original cells grew and evolved, they came together for mutual support.  These mutual-support groups evolved into plants and animals.   Life on Earth has evolved into a myriad of independent, yet completely interdependent life forms.   The trillions of finely-tuned eco-systems (plants and animals) are interdependent pieces of the entire Earth's ecological system.

Each system has a independent, cellular consciousness, a collective consciousness and a consciousness of itself as separate from and, at the same time, as part of a greater collection of life forms.  We call these systems (these life forms)  plants and animals.  Life forms occur as small as a single cell and as large as the entire earth itself.  

The Big Question:  This raises a question the answer to which brings with it profound implications:  Are we our physical bodies as the Christians so ardently believe  or  are we eternal, non-physical  beings (the consciousness)  that animates physical matter as the reincarnationists believe?   

                                   See page Three:  The Reincarnation Theory

A Few Relevant Facts:

1)   Some life forms produce hundreds of thousand of copies of themselves so that one or two will survive to reach the adult stage.   It would be ludicrous to think that every copy produced by a parent survives to adulthood.   The universe/nature (or "God," if you prefer that term) just doesn’t work that way.

2)   Regarding life on Earth, the human species as we know it came along as a relatively newcomer -- about 60,000 years ago.   

3)   99.9% of all life forms that have ever existed on planet Earth are now extinct.   

4)   Any life form that destroys its environment is headed toward extinction.

5)   Humans are rapidly destroying their environment.

the rules of scientific evidence    ...

On What Authority is the Theory of Evolution Based?   In the scientific community, all theories are just that -- theories.   Their acceptability or their rejection is based on the rules of scientific evidence.   All theories are adjustable and/or replaceable when additional evidence so indicates.   The evidence is the authority.  Every theory is mercilessly subjected to scrutiny.   Question after question is asked about its authenticity.   Prior to being accepted as fact, all evidence must be peer-reviewed, testable, repeatable, and physically provable.  

Let's Get Physical -- Smaller Than Small:  Although this theory draws no conclusions regarding what the spiritual nature of a human being actually is, sub-atomic physics has come up with two rather astounding findings.  First, regarding the search for smaller and smaller building blocks for physical matter, the present conclusions are that physical matter is made up of nothing.   Physical matter is not physical at all.  It's only energy.  Second, at the level of sub-atomic physics, the observer affects the observed -- the observer affects the experiment.

Bigger Than Big:  Think for a moment of size as another dimension.   Then think in the opposite direction from sub-atomic physics.   If you take an astronomer's perspective of physical reality, some additional and equally astounding finding are presently being reported.  

When Does Life Begin:  In Biological terms, life doesn’t begin anymore.   It began several billion years ago and just keeps changing form.   When you consider the individual members of a life form such as humans, there are indeed beginnings and endings.   With regard to the question of when does a human life begin, the correct question to ask is:

Given the context that life is made up of never-ending, ever-moving, ever-changing cycles of birth, life, and death, another way to ask the above the question is:  

Placing that distinct dividing line in this endlessly repeating cycle of life can be done only by arbitrary choice.   It's like declaring that at 5:06 p.m. day becomes night, or declaring an exact point where hot becomes cold, or where fast becomes slow.   Next time you see a rainbow, look for the exact dividing lines where red becomes orange, where orange becomes yellow or where yellow becomes green.    Regarding human beings, the suggested answers to "the independence question"  range all the way from conception to twenty-one years after birth.

The Physical Body:  Although there is considerable circumstantial evidence and some scientific evidence that a human being is more than (or something other than) simply a physical body, the scientific theory makes no judgments about whether a human being is or is not his or her physical body.   Neither does it make any claims about what role "God" played in the creation of the universe or the creation of human beings.     See the reference:  Am I My Physical Body?

Life After the Death of the Physical Body:  The scientific theory of evolution makes no comment about life after death.   It says that life after death is still an unsolved mystery. 

Additional Assumptions:  The believers in this theory have a tendency to look at the fundamentalist Christians who preach  "The Six Days of Creation" theory and say:  1) Their belief is so far from anything provable that it can't possibly be true.  2) Religious people make wild and absurd claims about all kinds of things; therefore, everything about religion is ridiculous hocus-pocus.  

They then declare themselves to be atheists and, refuse to give serious consideration to anything that could be labeled as religion.   In so doing, they ignore a great deal of circumstantial evidence that points toward the third possible theory regarding the origin and nature of man -- reincarnation.   Although strongly at odds with many of the Christian beliefs, the reincarnation theory is quite compatible with the evidence put fourth by scientific evolution.

The evolution story continues on   Page 3

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