The purpose of life

"We are the witness through which the universe becomes conscious of its own glory."

I'm not sure if this is Alan Watts' exact phrasing, because I've never read Alan Watts. But this is how the line is quoted in Werner Herzog's documentary about Antarctica, Encounters at the End of the World. The documentary is really more about those who choose to live in Antarctica, and the utterer of the quote is introduced as only a heavy machinery operator, working a Cat payloader. The film's shallower questions - about how an individual defines himself, or is defined, or what they do, or their relationship with nature - I will ignore, in favor of the deeper question of man's definition and roles and relationships.

Watts' words are beautiful in terms of the Universe as a rational series of particles and energies, and the found footage that Herzog shows, of the otherworldly environments beneath the Antarctic floes, and the space-age sounds that seals use to communicate with each other, only heightens the connection to what we think of as "outer" space. Hubble space telescope images are only a small cognitive step away.

However, they are almost more applicable in terms of a classic Christian interpretation of God - though it shatters some of the faith's most precious, unchanging tenants. In the Eastern Orthodox church, the priest is required to say prayers as he removes his vestments. It is common that an altar boy will read the prayers for him. As a former altar boy, I had done this a fair share. One of the lines thanks the lord "for allowing me to witness the beauty of your mysteries" or something of that nature. But the word "witness" is there. In the framework of Watts' quote, we have the answer to the question that I believe most people would ask God, given the chance: "Why are we here?" To see how good God is at making planets.

Imagine God is - whether alone, or one of many celestial beings - qutie insecure. He creates Angels to serve him, but he knows they only praise him because they have to. So he creates a world and peoples it, then sends envoys and prophets to prove his existence and get people to pray to him, thanking him for the gifts he has given, and otherwise inflating his ego. The large amount of prophets throughout history is probably a sign that God really is new at this game, or, like so many self-concious people, he's never satisfied. The first time he tried to directly influence humans, Adam and Eve only had to say "Ok, we won't eat the fruit. Now go away so we can go forth and multiply", and they could disobey him. Ever since, human life has been defined by punishments for disobeying God's will, and demand for various prayers and sacrifices to give God his oh-so-sought after validation.

"But," you may ask, "isn't God perfect? And all-powerful? And all knowing? Does he really need all this praise? Doesn't he have a plan for us, beyond just demanding blind praise?"

Is God perfect? My answer would be no. But also yes. Any God of this sort is, as far as humans can understand, perfect and all powerful. He had the power to create us, so why not make us just dumb enough and unaware enough to not be able to discern His shortcomings. He's in the back of the limo and we're the drivers. He leaves the partition down just long enough to see the hottie back there with him take off her dress, but then he puts it up and he won't answer the phone. So we don't see when he cries over his E.D. (I mean, think about it. He insisted that one of his most popular prophets was billed as his "son", finally proving his virility). He is greater than us, and can choose what we see. It doesn't make him perfect.

As I may have said before, the Creation story we are given attributes all of humanity's woes on its quest for knowledge (and on women). It was when we ate from the tree of knowledge that sin began, and it is through the advance of knowledge that it continues (which may explain the distrust of intellectualism among evangelicals). The closer we get to truly understanding God and the mysteries of the Universe, the less we depend on him, and the less we are impressed by him. So perhaps there is a built-in failsafe here. The more we "advance", the closer we get to annihilating ourselves ("we" being all mankind - also, see my previous post on the LHC). Then we, assumedly, all go to hell to suffer because God is frustrated with us trying to become actualized without his help, or we get reincarnated in another universe and we are all more reverent because we don't want punished again. Or we get 72 virgins, I'm not sure.

And so we are the eyes through which the universe sees itself. Should we not learn? I'm not sure. Does learning lead to knowing, or for a yearning to know more? I feel only yearning, and I'm not sure I will ever stop. But I also try not to forget to just look, and appreciate the world that I am part of and is therefore made of me.