Why Are We Here

John Francis, your question is not a small one. In fact it is a very BIG ONE. I do not pretend to know the answer thoroughly, but I will try from my insights and prayers. God lives in an ineffable mystery, and we can never really know and understand him, because he is beyond human understanding. When we say God is a loving Father, omniscient, omnipresent, all powerful, etc.: these do not even begin to describe Him as he really is, because all these are human terms and in describing him thus, we are only "antrhomorphizing" him, or describing him as if he were a human person, because that is the best that we can do. As a comparison, a dog can never really understand a human being, because of his limited canine capability. If he were to understand the human mind, he would then be human, not a dog. Similarly, if we would understand the Divine Mind, we would be God. Hence we cannot fully understand his ways and acts. Hence we cannot really understand why he created us and why we live on this earth. Theologians say that God is self-sufficient, and does not need any other Being or thing for his happiness or completeness. So why did he create intelligent beings like us or the angels in the first place if he is supremely self-sufficient? He certainly does not need us, because if he does, then he would not be all-perfect, and therefore would be a contingent being a being contingent on another for his self-sufficiency, which God certainly is not. Yet God created us. Why? Again theologians will say that out of the pure goodness of his being, God chose to share his happiness and perfection with intelligent beings who can recognize it, appreciate it, and share this perfect happiness and fullness with him. Thus the stock catechetical answer as to why God created us, is: to love him, serve him, and be happy with him forever in heaven. In other words, we are really contingent beings, who can find true, perfect and everlasting happiness only in God. In the process, we wander thru earth, finding substitutes for God - money, knowledge, power, love from other beings, authority, influence, possessions, sex, drugs, etc., etc. only to find each one wanting and not perfectly fulfilling once you have obtained or attained it. This is exquisitely expressed by Francis Thompson in his Hound of Heaven (Google this to read it), and by what St. Augustine said that The human heart is forever restless, until it rests on Thee, O Lord. But for me, this is only one side of the equation, because it concerns only God and me. What about my family, my neighbors, my country, the world, the galaxies, the universe, the whole of creation? Are these excluded from me and my God? Is salvation only personal?

Let us to turn to science, to see if it can help provide an answer to this and your question. Because many times the Bible helps Science, and Science helps the Bible in making things clear. Most serious scientists today agree that our present Universe came from a so-called Big Bang explosion around 13 billion years ago. Time and space began 13 B years ago from an very very small amount of extremely condensed matter that exploded outwards at a very precise rate, so that if it were a billion billionth of a second faster, it would have exploded outwards vanishing without trace; or if it were a billion billionth of a second slower, it would have imploded inwards, and there would be no universe. Present science cannot achieve these extremely small tolerances, which is an indirect proof of Gods existence. The other indirect proof is that, if scientists estimate the age of the Universe to be around 13 Billion years, what was there before the time of the Big Bang?

The Big Bang Sequence The sequence of creation or the emergence of the Universe according to science and the Bible are uncanningly similar:
Bible Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Let there be light!" God created the heavens, stars God created the earth God created plants God created animals God create Adam and Eve God "rested" Billion Years Ago 13 13 - 5 5 4 2 0.6 present Science

Big Bang Explosion galaxies, constellations, stars birth of the solar system emergence of first plant cell emergence of first animal cell hominids; Homo Sapiens Sapiens emerged less than 200,000 years ago Age of the Human

Even the emergence of the Human according to science is quite accurately described in the Bible. Gen.2:17 speaks about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God warned Adam and Eve that if they will eat the fruit of this Tree, they would die. What this really meant was that they would die to their being a hominid, and emerge now as a Human - Homo Sapiens Sapiens - with the intelligence to know good from evil, which Adam and Eve did, after eating of the fruit. In other words, the Human has the intelligence to distinguish good from evil, and the freedom to choose either, which is the essence of being human. The Bible speaks of this event in terms that its readers (around 1400 BC) could understand. Now in modern times, we understand human evolution, and how the Human evolved from the hominids around 200,000 years ago. The Bible teaches that the human race descended from Adam and Eve. Science now confirms that all of us came from one woman, who lived around 150,000 years ago in Southeast Africa. Dr. Rebecca Kaln and British geneticist Stephen Oppenheimer conducted numerous studies that traced mitochondrial DNA (passed from mother to daughter) from one generation to another in 7,000 generations, and conclusively suggests that all humankind descended from that black woman in Southeast Africa around 150,000 years ago. There are other examples where Science and the Bible complement each other, but the two examples above are the most important. They point to a Creator God, and a gradual evolution of the Universe to a higher and improved state. And this is my favorite interpretation of the Biblical verse after 6 days of Creation, He rested (Gen. 2:2): you may notice that it was God who did all the creative work in 6 Biblical days ( which Science stretches to billions of years). After creating the Human on the sixth day, he rested. Why did he rest? The traditional answer is for us to work 6 days a week and rest on the 7 th day to worship God. This is physically sound, since we need a rest day to recoup from our labors and work for the past six days. Also it is a time to worship God by going to Mass or its equivalent in other religions. But methinks there is a deeper reason for that. God rested on the 7 th day, because now, after creating the Human, he has now a partner in the Human to finish his work of Creation. God cannot really fully rest, because if he does that, we will all go to the nothingness from which we came. God is just giving the Human a partnership in the continuing work of Creation, so that in effect there is a God-Human partnership in bringing Creation to its logical end. In other words, the Human now is a Co-creator with God in the continuing work of Creation. If you look at history, you will notice a slow but inevitable progress of the world from the dawn of civilization to the present, in all fields morality, education, technology, etc. Of course, there are also some reverses, but the trend towards a better world continues. There is really hope for the future, as we inevitably march towards what we Catholics say is the Omega Point of our evolution. Just as God is the Alpha, the Cosmic Christ is the Omega, towards which we in partnership with God march. We are in effect building the Kingdom of God in our lifetime and in our earth. And if we do not do our share in the building of this Kingdom, we may have no part in it. This may be Hell, as the Bible describes.
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That is why salvation is total not only personal, but also social, and includes everything that God created. The Human is indeed Gods Co-creator and Partner in this noble endeavor. And what is the Omega Point? This is described in Rev. 21:14, And God will wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things have passed away. Therefore, whenever you contribute to the attainment of what Rev. 21:14 describes as an accountant, businessman, artist, factory worker, doctor, engineer, priest, etc. - you are helping build the Kingdom of God. And that is your purpose on earth. And that is why we are here on earth: to do our individual part in whatever life situation God puts us, in building up the Kingdom of God and fulfilling our role as Co-creators with God. The very fact that God chose you to exist in lieu of the million other beings that could have existed in your place (think of the millions of other sperm cells your father ejaculated when you were conceived: each one of them could have taken your place. Yet God chose you to be the one. Hence you exist), has a meaning, because you and only you could play the role that God wants you to play in the building up of his Kingdom. Hence your importance and dignity in the fabric of Creation. You are unique, and there can be no other exactly like you, because you and only you could play that role. The Mystical Body of Christ is really the Cosmic Christ, the Cosmic Son of God, of which we all are parts. This includes humankind, and all of Creation, including the Universe, which came from God, and therefore is the Son of God. There are many things we cannot understand why does God allow things such as the Japanese tsunami, the World Wars, the slaughter of 8 million Jews in WW II, the storms like Sandy and Ondoy, etc., etc., wherein so many people are killed . As I said at the outset, we are only human, and we cannot really understand the Divine Mind. But even as humans, we can have inkling into the Divine Mind, as shown by the life, passion, death and resurrection of that human-divine Person we call Jesus Christ. For there is no crucifixion without resurrection, no pain without gain, no dying without rebirth. There is always something good that comes out of every suffering or calamity. Sometimes we do not see it clearly, but it is there. And that is the way how things and the Cosmos improves. The seed cannot become a plant, unless it dies to its being a seed. You cannot improve, unless you die to your bad habits. There can be no progress, unless the present dies to itself, and resurrects in a better and much improved form. Christ himself is our model, so that by dying to himself in his crucifixion, he emerged as the Risen Christ, the symbol of Hope for Humanity, the world and the Cosmos.

by: Samuel J. Yap