I do not buy the creationist ‘theory’ about the origins of our universe. However, this does not mean that I would think that the universe did come into being simply by accident. In the end, the whole universe is deep down a property of energy. All matter is in the end just energy in different, condensed form. However, I think that I need to explain this idea a bit deeper.
Yes, our universe was not created by accident. It happened because certain inherent properties of energy made this birth inevitable under certain circumstances. On the other hand, there needs not to be some kind of mysterious universal DNA in the matter. Matter just has certain universal properties that will always lead to a certain end results when it is been born initiated in certain conditions.
The reason why energy has these properties is a thing that we can still just guess. However, in the end we are just starting our long quest in solving the deepest mysteries of our universe and taking the first tentative steps towards it.
Many religious people like to say that if the universe was not ‘created’ on purpose it needs to have happened through accident. However, many people seem to be just confused in the use human ideas of "accident" and "purpose". That Earth goes around the sun is not an accident but a result of properties of large masses of matter, where masses draw other masses with a certain force. Similarly, the nature of our universe is not "accident", but follows form certain properties that are inherent in of the things that do make it up.
At the very moment of its birth of our universe the matter that it contains did take a certain form. This was a result of the properties of how energy will always behave in such a situation. The very first forms of matter were extremely uniform and simple. However, when things progressed, there was more and more diversity. This happened because extremely small differences in local conditions did create the first extremely small local differences also in the matter.
When these a little different particles did interact with other particles in different ways, the complexity did steadily rise. The level of differences between different kinds of matter did also rise steadily. Again, there needs not to be any kind of planning, or hidden DNA. The inevitable properties of particles and matter at then prevailing conditions just made things go to a certain direction that was quite inevitable, even if it was not planned.
The history of our universe in the story of the rise in complexity. When things do get more complex, the more there are rules that define how things progress. Again, these rules need not to planned or result of a mysterious matter-DNA. They are a result of the rules that were simply derived from the rules that were present in the earlier incarnations of matter.
With the rise in complexity, also the rules do steadily get more complex. This happens when earlier, simpler rules are combined when different layers of matter do interact with other layers.
There really needs not be any kind of planning when the relentless interactions between differentiating forms of matter create new versions of matter. The results are not accidents. They are always based on the different inherent properties of the parties that did take part in the interactions.
This interaction did create new and all time more complex forms of matter until a level of complexity was reached where the first lifelike forms did see their birth. Their structure and functionality are decided by the different forms of matter that did take part in the interactions that did create them. They are not any kind of random ‘accident’.
A human idea of accident includes very often also idea of intent, which is not at all present in nature. If a comet hits the planet Earth and wipes out all life, it is not an accident in a way accidents happen to people who are careless.
It is a result of the universe being such as it is. A fact is that comets and planets do exist and from time to time they will collide. There is nothing accidental in this, but all follows from the nature of our universe.
We are of course lucky that no such incident has not razed life from the earth. We do exist. However, this is not because of planning. It is because such incident just are very rare at this stage of maturity in our planetary system.
In the end, we cannot know how many struggling life forms have been wiped out in different stages of their development all over the universe, just because they were not as lucky as we have been. Here, the idea of a accident has of course a role.
The narrow and extremely restricted way of seeing all things from the perspective of human species. This is extremely prevalent in religious circles. It leads into curious way of thinking where things in nature happen just to please or cause consternation among humans.
The basic thing is that the birth and the nature of our universe are no accident. It follows from the basic properties of the matter that does build it up.
Accident is something that can happen or not happen by chance. However, our universe is as it because its building blocks have certain properties that did necessarily lead into its creation. It was no accident but an inevitability.
This just is a thing that is seemingly too hard to grasp for people who want to see human-like motivations and intentions also in nature. Accidents do happen randomly, but inevitable things do not. How does a 'inevitable accident' sound to you?
Of course this piece is based mostly on creative thinking. However there are many competing old theories that are very similar. We just know so much more than the people who did write some "holy books" 2000 or 3000 years ago.
(This piece was completely refurbished on 8th of March, 2013)
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