There is no doubt that our fable could have been expanded far beyond the four parts previous to this chapter.  I may not have told the exact version you have heard or may have left out some of the details, but even amongst adamant believers there is disagreement on some of the major points.  The key to this science fiction based disillusion is that regardless of how each tale is told, the story skips over some pretty important questions and not only jumps to conclusions but absolutely vaults, all for the sole purpose of developing a creation story that excludes any mention of God.

Mankind would have become extinct long ago if we had conducted our medical research by the same alleged scientific standards that the Big Bangers propose as truth.  But the more this fantastic fable gets passed around from scientific atheist to lay agnostic the more it is taken as a scientifically proven account of universal creation.  It has even morphed its way into a coupling with the other commonly accepted piece of science fiction theory commonly known as Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.

Darwin never used the term “evolution” and even though his best known writing is titled “On The Origin of Species” he also never theorized the origin of anything, either geologic or living.  The entire premise of Darwin’s far less than scientific study is that species tend to adapt to changes in their environments or they die off.  That’s it.  No theory on the creation of the universe and certainly no theory on the creation of life itself.  Just that plants and animals tend to change as their environments change.

I read an interesting book on how evolution became the standard teaching of creation with the author proposing that it was actually the fault of religious lawmakers and their supporters who insisted on only teaching the story of Divine Creation and were willing to bet all or nothing at the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1926.  Had they agreed at that time that both ideas could be taught it may well have remained that way to this day.  But a Creator God lost in court and has been bearing the brunt of that loss ever since.

While I agree to a point with that assessment I have always felt there was something else that made evolution such a desirable fantasy.  After running the story through my head it became apparent why so many were willing to believe this unbelievable story and call it science.

The Big Bang theory, with its something from nothing logic, along with its creation of life from inanimate objects and the evolution of a single life form into every life form ever to inhabit the planet is in fact every heartwarming fairytale we have ever enjoyed.

We accept this story because it’s Cinderella overcoming her evil stepsisters to become a princess,  it’s the three little pigs outsmarting the big bad wolf, it’s Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Prince Valliant, Sinbad, The Frog Prince and Pinocchio all rolled into one.   It’s the Phoenix rising from the ashes and the ugly duckling becoming a swan.  It is the story we cherish of the underdog succeeding against all odds to sit on the throne of power.

Most lay people accept the big bang and much elaborated theory of evolution because they feel an omnipresent all-powerful Creator is more than they can believe.  But the fact is that to believe the Big Bang is to believe that in the beginning there was nothing and then it blew up.  To believe the expanded version of evolution is to believe that life came from rock and evolved in such great numbers that it turned into every living thing that has ever lived.  Quite frankly, I simply do not possess that degree of blind faith and unquestioning imagination.

Scientists will always accuse monotheistic believers of being fools unwilling to accept science fact.  I guess if anyone could show me any hard facts in the scientific explanation of creation I may listen, but those alleged scientific facts are always filled the caveats. 

The more we move away from God the worse conditions become.  We teach evolution but no longer allow God in our schools.  Have they gotten better or worse?  We no longer have God as a focal point in our communities.  Are our communities getting better or worse?  We no longer honor God in our homes, in our marriages or in our interactions with each other.  Have things gotten better or worse?  You can draw your own conclusions as to why, but I doubt anybody could show where things are getting better.  Unlike the Big Bang or evolutionary creation, it is indeed a fact.  In every situation where we push God out we are the ones who suffer the loss.  Even an unevolved monkey can figure that out.

But Christmas is coming and if we can at least remember what we are celebrating and why it’s important we have a chance.

It had been billions upon billions of years since the Alpha Electron made its maiden journey through the endless void starting a series of fantastic events that eventually led to creation of living breathing animals inhabiting a small blue planet circling a bright yellow sun.

There had been no blueprint for this marvelous journey.  Only the natural law that requires all objects, both animate and inanimate to become more.

The earth had survived over 5 billion years, growing, evolving, changing, from a desolate gray rock to a vibrant lush paradise.  Plant life abounded and an ever increasing roster of strange and beautiful animals inhabited this abundant garden.

Although still in its infancy, the earth was enjoying a matured and developed hierarchy within the ranks of its herbivore and carnivore population.  Natures call to become more had created massive beasts with equally massive appetites.  Animals had evolved into every shape and size, each enjoying their place in the pecking order.  As if driven by the same natural instinct that caused the aggressive life cells to devour the passive life cells in Mother Pangaea’s primordial pools, the aggressive carnivores consumed the passive herbivores.  Life seemed simple and sure until that fateful day when a huge asteroid slammed into the earth sending up a cloud of dust and debris that encircled the planet and blotted out the sun.  As the plants began to wither and die from a lack of life giving sunlight the herbivores that feasted on them became malnourished and died as well.  So too the carnivores that feasted on the passive herbivores became weak and eventually died off.  All life forms on planet earth were in jeopardy but still the encoded calling of the ancient ancestors drove those that survived to adapt, evolve and become more.  The law of life fulfilled, death with purpose still rang true as the survivors were indeed the fittest of the fit and best suited to endure the coming evolutionary journey to become more.

Among them was a small group within the primate family.  These beasts that had lived their life in the now-dying treetops were driven to the ground to scrounge for food.  At first crawling on four legs they developed the ability to reach higher by standing erect, eventually learning to walk erect as well.   Their physical makeup including paws with opposable thumbs allowed them the ability to make and use tools for both shelter and food gathering.  Within the heart of each beat that natural instinct to become more.  And the more they became the more apparent it was that they could dominate their environment and their peers by using their uniquely evolved gifts.  Stick tool turned into stone tools and stone tools turned into weapons allowing this growing group of primates to not only protect themselves from predators but to become hunting predators as well.

Each new development brought with it new knowledge and with this knowledge new brain development.  In only a few thousand years this new species had evolved into the ruler of the animal kingdom.  Growing in both intelligence and in population this new animal was now prepared to not only meet the future but to shape it.  For from nothing developed life and from life developed man.  And man was now the king of all his domain and all that inhabited it.  The circle was now completed and all of nature hailed this new king.  While other plants and animals continued to evolve through adaptation, none dared to become equal to the majesty of man.

Man’s natural instincts continued to develop and he learned how to wear clothing to protect himself against the inhospitable environment.  He learned how to make shelters and plant his own food and most importantly he learned how to make and use fire.  No other animal had evolved to such a great degree.

Through matter of mere centuries man went from a tree dwelling primate to a master of his universe.  It was this unbridled mental development that has allowed man alone to adapt and evolve to the beings we are today.  Every development, every advancement, every discovery all thanks to that encoded natural law to become more.

For who needs talk of a god when we are gods?  Who needs faith in a creator when we have our own proven abilities to depend upon?

Our myth concludes tomorrow.

As the sun rose on that fateful day over the now disassembling Mother Pangaea it was indeed a brave new world. For within the once-inorganic pools that Pangaea held within her bosom the first sign of life began to spring forth.

A single Mother cell, having been animated by the inanimate chemicals and elements of the newly formed earth, began to multiply and divide into more living cells. The unwritten law of natural progression which had forced a single electron to create more electrons was now being fulfilled once again in the creation of life itself. No longer would this barren, inhospitable planet house nothing more than rock and rain, element and gas. Slowly but surely, over perhaps hundreds of millennia the once dead pools of the dying Mother Pangaea began to teem with life.

Some of these life cells fell to the cold dark bottom of the pool while others remained afloat in the warm sunlit waters. Each cell, affected by its chosen environment, began to react in different ways. As the cells multiplied it was as if the spirits of the Alpha Electron, Mother Rock and Mother Pangaea dwelled within their very soul, coaxing and prodding, urging and calling in unison the natural law that had driven their very existence, “Become more” they said “You must become more.” It was this simple instruction that was the genesis of the DNA helix. Each cell needed to adapt to its surroundings, multiply and carry copies of this now-encoded law to further the process of evolution.

As these original life cells died their remains were used to nourish new forming cells. Their life and fate fulfilled their remains, once consumed, now served to further evolve the DNA strands creating yet more new life forms. Life fulfilled, death with purpose. The cells continued to multiply but their altered DNA instructed them to become more. No longer driven to separate they began to form simple multi-cell organisms. Much like Mother Rock had accumulated the atomic debris, these multi-celled organisms began to join together exponentially creating a multitude of life forms filling each pool of the now separating land masses.

Driven by their altered DNA strands some were destined to remain docile while others were driven to become aggressive. It had taken millions of years, but an actual order began to take shape in the primordial ooze of the life giving pools. The aggressive life forms feasted on their passive partners, growing stronger and continuing to evolve. The passive organisms found refuge in the cold dark depths of the pool, keeping them safe from the ravenous feeding frenzy occurring in the warmer waters. These passive life forms accumulated on the rocky bottom. They eventually evolved into plant life and grew to such great numbers that they began to expand up the side walls of the pool toward the water’s edge. Many were lost in the struggle but their population was so vast and the environment so fertile that enough survived to actually begin to populate the rocks above the waterline.

The aggressive organisms evolved as well becoming many forms of aquatic life. The expansion of plants into the sunlight caused some of the famished aquatics to follow, eventually adapting sufficiently that they too could live above water. Driven by the inner call to become more the plants developed wide leaves to catch sunlight and the now land based animals developed teeth to eat the leaves and eventually each other.

The newly created plant life spread through simple expansion, but the aquatics needed to further evolve, first to exchange their gills for oxygen breathing lungs and then to develop a strong skeletal frame to support their growing weight on land. At first they slithered in the mud but the drive to become more was too strong to ignore and eventually legs replaced fins, eyes grew sharp and tiny brains developed to control the movements. No longer tied to simply reflex the evolving animals became superior to the plants.

That superiority allowed the animals to flourish, no longer shackled to the boundaries of the water. As plant life expanded and grew taller, so too the hungry animal life adapted and grew taller along with it. It seemed as though nothing could stop this express train of evolution all driven by an unceasing inner calling to become more.

What had started as a simple static charge in the vast void of space had now turned into a crowded array of living plants, fish, reptiles and eventually mammals. It was as if the earth had been created as a kingdom in search of a king. Who would become the absolute ruler over all this bounty? It would be the species that best followed natures call to become more.

Thick skin, fur and feathers replaced scales and now able to survive the sun’s heat and the evening cool animals found refuge in every conceivable area. As small fur bearing tree dwellers gazed over the fertile plane it was as if they knew that those who could become more and control their own destiny would certainly be the supreme leaders of this evolving food chain. Though now filled with countless varieties of life, the canvas was once again blank waiting for a master painter who could use intellect to create a new picture.

The sun would continue to rise and set hundreds of millions of times, but one dawn was coming that would not be like any other.

For it would be the dawn of man.

Our myth continues tomorrow.

Our newborn earth was a far different place then the one we call home today.  On a smaller scale, but similar to the emptiness of pre-atomic space, it was a canvas void of life, hope and god.  The molten surface hissed with noxious gasses and ebbed and flowed at the will of the gravitational big brother sun.  As it spun on it’s newly created axis it cooled creating a rocky crust, carrying the maternal resemblance given it by Mother Rock.

Gasses continued to be created and released by the still forming planet.  Sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen were just some of the byproducts of this raging torrent struggling to survive in its earliest phase of planetary infancy.   The heat of the still flowing magma and the cooling of the infant shell caused the hydrogen and oxygen molecules to join, almost as if in tribute to the ancestral electrons trillions of years earlier.  Moisture developed in the newly established atmosphere and for the first time in all time water formed and fell on the still smoldering surface in the form of rain.  It was as if tears of joy were flowing from the spirit of Mother Rock on her proud descendent planet earth.   And flow they did.

Great rivers formed which fed even greater lakes.  Lakes grew into oceans and after billions of years of constant torrents the oceans joined together, uniting until much of the young planet was covered with water.  Only one rocky crag remained jutting out of the almost all-consuming master ocean known as Panthalassa.  For a new mother had survived and risen above this ocean’s caustic waves.  The earth had existed some 4 billion years but now witnessed the birth of the mother continent of Pangaea.

Mother Pangaea was stark and desolate, her only inhabitants were her self-made mountains which grew to great heights only to tumble into the sea and increase her rocky shore.  While made of rock she remained as unstable as the chaos that created her.  Huge scars formed across her barren landscape from massive quakes which broke her apart into movable plates floating on the earth’s molten core.  Perhaps it was the hopeless desolation that caused Pangaea to nearly self destruct before she even had a chance to fulfill her destiny.  Or perhaps it was the spirit of Mother Rock that dwelled deep within her; guiding her to the eternal truth that only through destruction can we create life.

As Mother Pangaea continued to shift and move pools of caustic rain formed in her deep scars.  These pools were heated by the still-escaping gasses trapped deep in the earth’s core.  The pools heated to steam and rained back down onto the rocky plane.  The heat of day and cool of night caused changes in atmospheric pressure creating winds of mixing gasses.  There were great storms and hurricanes which battered Mother Pangaea before they moved out to sea.  The pools grew in size and as they did gasses and chemical elements mixed as if in a massive cauldron.  But this was no ordinary brew.

Within the pools lay all the elements of life, waiting as if for a cue to reach the exact temperature and mixture to begin their most remarkable transformation.  For Mother Pangaea was indeed doomed to the destruction of her moving plates.  Soon she would die in childbirth like Mother Rock before her, and become but a memory as each of her offspring traveled in their own direction creating the firmaments we now know as continents.

But before her final quake she surrendered her very soul to the nurturing pools of primordial ooze held within her bosom.  For it was her chemical elements and her loving heat that would incubate the inanimate into something other than just another new element.  As her pools reached their ideal temperature and the winds of toxic gasses swirled into the atmosphere replaced by an air supply rich in oxygen the elements combined into a single cell.  A cell so new, so unique, so infinitely hopeful that Mother Pangaea no longer rued her own demise. 

Having faithfully fulfilled her destiny Mother Pangaea willfully drifted into pieces having not only created the seven great continents but also having created the Mother Cell of life itself.

Our modern myth continues tomorrow.