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If universe is one big thought...

Narayani Ganesh, TNN May 19, 2005, 01.43am IST

If you think that the universe is just one big thought, whose thought do you think it is? In Kansas, USA, the evolution vs intelligent design debate is on the front burner once again, with anti-Darwinists arguing against scientific deduction.

And scientists who consider the evidence of the chemical and biological origins of life to be beyond dispute refuse to be part of what they say is essentially nothing more than a diatribe against atheism.

Should Darwin's theory of natural selection be struck off from school curricula as something that undermines the theory of Divine Creation? Are we creatures born of Divine Grace or are we, Matrix-like, simulated creations of more scientifically advanced minds? In all likelihood, we're just unplanned by-products of repeated experiments in a cosmic kitchen where the primordial soup forms the basis for a range of beautiful life forms.

Whatever our origins - by choice or chance - every one of us across species is an intrinsic part of the dynamics of constant evolution.

Call it the Big Thought, the Big Illusion, or the Grand Experiment, our existence is a given: illusory or real. So why not make the most of it? Why do children have to be taught only one theory of creation?

Often, children pick up several languages simultaneously as naturally as they are able to relate to the different value systems of adults they relate to at home and in school. Learning or understanding multiple theories of creation and evolution shouldn't be a problem.

To them, any story, whether fact or fiction, is only one of two things: interesting or boring. Either it holds their attention or it doesn't. And once it does, the story is never the same. It is just a spark that fuels the child's imagination, and in the process, acts as a catalyst of ideas.

Out shopping with his father, my eight-year old nephew in San Francisco picked up a DVD whose cover had pictures of animals, humans and birds. Titled 'The future is wild,' it offered a peek into the future - several millions of years - into the habitat, flora and fauna of Earth.

The time when the human species become extinct, taken over by a new species. Discussing the film after he'd seen it, the little one said it ended with a suggestion that humans might appear again in the evolutionary cycle.

"Did it say whether we will we carry the memory of our extinction and why it happened?" I asked him. "Don't be silly," he replied. "You're taking all the fun out of it!"