Above is an image of a galaxy taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. To be precise, it's a barred spiral galaxy called NGC 5398, and it's about 55 million light-years away.
Now imagine upwards of two trillion of these. Seems unfathomable, right? But this is actually the latest estimate that astronomers give for the number of galaxies in the observable universe.
Factoring in this number, ask yourself this: Is it possible that we earthlings are the only intelligent life in the entire universe?
I think I'd have to say, sure, it's possible, but not bloody-likely.
But for sake of discussion, let's say that religion had it right and that we are alone in the universe. Done.
So, whether you believe that we are here because a god set things up this way, or whether you believe that we essentially won the cosmic lotto, one thing we must agree on is that the life-giving energy from our sun is limited. The sun, like any other star, will eventually succumb to star death.
When the sun has burned off all of its hydrogen, it will go through an expansion process in which it will eventually become a red giant. When this happens, scientists say that this could actually swallow "near by" planets like Venus and Mercury.
Bottom line, though, is that at some point the earth will no longer support human life. Humans, who are presumably the crowning jewel of the universe if one accepts religion's explanation for how and why we got here, will become extinct. Gone. Kapoot. If one holds to a naturalistic view, the same---nature will have simply run its course, and death will have become the final result of life, as it is for every other living thing.
But again, regardless of which position one holds, one thing is for certain and that is that a virtual infinite list of potential humans will be ixnayed. Think of it as trillions upon trillions of potential human beings who will never see the light of day(literally), meaning that trillions upon trillions of people will never exist to experience what I, and you the reader, have experienced. They will never experience childhood. They will never experience the unconditional love of a pet. They will never experience a good book, a good moive, an orgasm, having children, eating, sleeping........none of it.
When it comes to the human experience, another thing we can likely agree on is that there are bad experiences along with the good. On the one hand, we are here, when in fact so many potential people just like us will never even get that chance. This is something that, when I sit back and really think about it, it makes me feel extremely lucky. And if you're religious, you might say "blessed". Either way, it's one of the good things to know while we're here.
Conversely, one of the bad things about our human experience here is that the longer we live, the more we will become witness to our loved ones vanishing before our eyes. There is, of course, this idea that our dearly departed aren't really dead at all, but are still "alive" in some otherworldly realm. But so far there is no objective confirmation for this. In fact, the current scientific data on the subject tells us that it's wish-thinking at best.
In my case, I would say that I am cursed to go where the evidence leads when it comes to this subject. I mean, if it was just a matter of willing myself to believe that which I find unbelievable? Hell, I would do just that, and then maybe my human experience would be a little more bearable when it comes to this topic. As it stands, however, I'm left to believe that at some point I will never again see those whom I love the most. And upon my own death, all my achievements and memories, including the memories of the people gone before me, will end up in the abyss of nothingness.
As one might imagine, this doesn't make for very pleasant subject matter on which to ruminate. And if it's not bad enough that I'll never see friends and family members ever again, in many cases I will first watch them wither away from despicable diseases such as cancer or Alzheimer's. That, or they may become witnesses to my suffering the same fate.
That this is unsettling is the understatement of the century. But of course, reality does not give a rat's patooty about what you or I think, nor does it care about what we hope or feel. Nope. Reality will go about its business of being reality. If there's any saving grace at all, the day will come when I, too, vanish, at which point, I won't even know that I'm dead nor that I had ever lived. My "existence" will be on par with those from the infinite list I mentioned earlier, that is, non-existence. And let's be honest, none of us were sad or inconvenienced before we were born, so there's no reason to think it'll be any different after we've died.
But back to our relatively short stay on this earth---another thing that I find unsettling, especially lately, is how the legacies that we may leave behind could be overshadowed by a simple lapse of judgment while we're here. Subsequently, any and all good that we have done in our lives is, for all intents and purposes, for nothing. And no, I don't mean guys like our 45th President who was caught on tape talking about grabbing women's nether regions, the same guy who gives a nod of approval when his daughter is regarded as a "piece of ass".
So, no, I don't mean people who have a long trail of instances when their credibility and ethics were called into question. I mean people who are seemingly decent, caring, smart, talented individuals who slip up and who use poor judgement a time or two throughout their lives.
It's almost like, in the blink of an eye, any goodness that we do in our lives can be wiped off the table. It doesn't seem quite fair. But as mentioned before, life isn't about fairness, and reality doesn't care about how we feel, so I've more or less answered my own question.
We are suppose to be an intelligent race of beings, so I can only hope that the intelligent among us will continue to see the good in people even in spite of our imperfect nature. And I should point out that this is provided that we're not talking about those who are amoral(without morals)...e.g...John Wayne Gacy, Charles Mansion, and the like. The former was an artist, so most certainly his artistic accomplishments will be overshadowed by the fact that he was a serial murderer.
In closing, I want to point out that I do understand that people who choose to be in the public eye have to be more careful. I also understand that there are real victims out there, as in the case of the current situation where women are coming forth and making allegations about certain celebrities and politicians. So none of this is an attempt to trivialize or delegitimize any victim's experiences. But alas, we are all victims of someone else's error in judgment at some point in our lives. Perfection is unobtainable. It's a myth, and chasing myths is a form of insanity. So it seems that doing our best and hoping for the best is all we can do. It's what I will do.
