Section 2 The Creation of Man - The Mortal Body

Jesus said: "If God can clothe in such splendor the grass of the fields, which blooms today and is thrown on the fire tomorrow, will he not provide much more for you, O weak in faith!". [Matthew 6: 30] A miracle and a blessing indeed what God has provided us, as this statement can also be applied to our temporal garb from dust, for He has clothed the immortal soul with an amazing physical body. According to science, almost 99% of its mass is made up of six elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. The rest is composed of another five elements: potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium. All the 11 elements are necessary for a functioning mortal garb. They are the 11 of the 118 elements in the periodic table, present in nature. All without exception have half-life, meaning the time it takes for half of the substance to decay, from as short as 22 minutes to the longest- 7.7 x 1024. The point being that all substances are subject to decay, the human body is no exception, wonderful as it is. Scripture has it: "Remember how short my life is; how frail you created all the children of man! What man shall live, and not see death, but deliver himself from the power of the nether world?" [Psalm 89: 48- 9] Death is a fact of life in this world. To live is to die and no way around it. Our specie has a relatively short life span compared with other animals in our class, Mammalia. Our average is 70 to 80 years, and even shorter in the underdeveloped countries where medical facilities are almost non-existent. But even in the most advanced societies, death favors all. There is no breakthrough in the search for the fountain of youth; no magic potion to keep the body from degenerating with age; no elixir either to keep all diseases at bay despite the astronomical amounts of financial resources invested in research. Still, death conquers all. Yet despite our short life span, we remain the dominant specie in a finite world whose primal conditions of life are survival and multiplication. "Be fertile and multiply," God commanded. [Genesis 1: 28] All living organisms, whether plants or animals are doing just that- to reproduce before death puts an end to all the striving. This is the operating principle of the evolutionary process-- to survive, to live and to thrive by passing on the genetic codes to succeeding generations. Our specie has carried out, with remarkable success, this divine command for thousands of generations, from the time of the first man and woman. God continued: "fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth.'" {Genesis 1: 28] And that we did also. So, what is behind the success of man as a specie? How did we come to exercise this dominion? We do not have the strength of elephants, nor the speed of cheetahs nor the vision of eagles. We are the creatures of the 'terra firma'. No wings to allow us to soar in the skies nor a breathing organ to allow survival in the underwater world of seas and oceans. What did we employ that gave us success in this endeavor, more astounding for we did it on a planetary scale? This is the wonder of the human body that God has given us. It is true that we have limited physical attributes. We are not a race of super-humans like our favorite action heroes, who defy gravity and are impervious to any type of projectile like bullets or even weapons of mass destruction. We are frail and can easily hurt and die. The body has limited operational range as it dependent on outside temperature, for we are warm blooded. Too hot or too cold, and we can go into shock and die. A simple cut in one of the major blood vessels can cause us to bleed to death. A bad fall can break any system in our anatomy that can lead to incapacitation or the eventual loss of life. Or even the wrong chunk of food in our throat can block the air passage causing suffocation and the cessation of breathing in a few short minutes. Too many ways to die and yet we thrive, under varying conditions, some are polar opposites-- from icy worlds to sunbaked landscape, from the heights of the Himalayas to lands below sea level, from marshes to places with hard solid bedrock. Though limited in physical strength, we have built structures of superlative proportions; slow but we travel at lightning speed; incapable of surviving under water but we are patrolling the deepest oceans; no wings to fly but we are crisscrossing the globe thousands of times at any given minute. Examples of human ingenuity and the list is endless. How did man do it? What is his 'talisman'? All these achievements are testaments to the immense capacity of the convoluted gray matter in our head, protected by a thick bony skull. The brain governs intelligence, creativity, emotion, and memory. It interprets information from the outside world received by our five senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. It processes these sensory messages in a way that has meaning to us. The superiority of our brain power, over and above the rest of the animals, the closest by a mile are the great apes especially the chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas, has allowed us to fulfill God's command, of exercising dominion over the work of his hands. This is a huge responsibility and God would not have given such an all-encompassing command without giving us the means to fulfill it. We are the work of the All-knowing God with absolute and limitless power to know, thus man to truly reflect this likeness to Him, must share in this attribute as well, in keeping with our divinely appointed role. We are gifted with superior intelligence but finite, not absolute, and just appropriate for our finite body with the finite task of subduing a finite world, stewarding is a better term. Can science claim that our superior intelligence is the result of the evolutionary process? Can we accept its position as gospel truth? Can God be eased out of the picture? The great apes have an average IQ of 70 to 90. Man, at genius level is 140 but is documented to have reached 300 as in the case of William James Sidis. Why the wide gap between the great apes and modern man? Why did evolution stop, as far as the mental development of these animals? Even more striking are the animals that have remained unchanged since their appearance millions of years ago like crocodiles, turtles and so forth. The same is true with sharks, living fossils they are, precisely because of their 'arrested' development since prehistoric period. Why did they not evolve further? A bigger brain-power equals more problem-solving skills equals greater predatory behavior. Why? The answer is because their bodies, like their brains, have reached a superior state that best serves the ultimate purpose of life and that is the survival of the species, not only theirs but also the other animals in the food chain. Evolution including natural selection is a good thing but has its limits. It cannot go beyond what is dictated by the environment. A more superior predatory skills for those on top of the food chain could create an imbalance, driving some to extinction. The process of evolution is not static, and animals will continuously evolve but only up to the point that it serves the purpose of life and that is, to adapt to environmental conditions so as to survive and preserve the species. Great apes did it. Crocodiles and sharks did it. All animals for that matter did it and those that failed perished from the face of the earth. But man did not follow this route and his physical features remain unchanged since his appearance in the Garden and yet, he thrives. Can we say that man is an anomaly of nature? And that his very existence is a contradiction to the natural laws? One caveat though is climate change. The threat that it imposes without exception, bears down on all life forms, man included. It is a destructive force that was brought about solely by man's activity. The changes forecasted by scientists are so disruptive and occurring within seconds, vis-à-vis the age of planet Earth, that there will be no time for the lower forms of life, both plants and animals, to evolve and adapt. Checkmate, extinction on an unprecedented scale is just a few decades way. Planet Earth is losing much of its biodiversity and an astounding number of our co-inhabitants have reached the point of no return, not to be seen or heard ever again. And, sad to say, the march continues towards oblivion. Could man exclude himself from such fate and escape the dire consequences of climate change, which he alone has brought about? Could he claim superiority and not bow down like all the other inhabitants of this planet to this impending nightmare? Could he ultimately prevail and not pay the penalties for his greed and selfish lifestyle? Would he always be an exception to the laws of nature? Could his God-given status enough to save his own skin? We have to delay in giving an answer because it lies in the future that even our intelligence cannot fathom. How so? Because man, despite the advancement in knowledge in multiple disciplines has yet to understand the complex laws that govern the planet, infinitely more challenging as these laws are interconnected. Would man have enough time before reaching the tipping point where one change feeds the other, leading to a vicious cycle, that he is powerless to stop? Maybe my generation will not have the answer, but certainly the next one will live through it, if man has not learned the lessons and remedies proposed by science. Change is the one constant of life and adaptation, which simply means the modification of man’s profligate ways in the use of the finite resources, is the change demanded from him at the present time, as his only home is showing alarming symptoms of illness. Or would man’s inability to change be the doom of life in his one-of-a-kind home amongst the stars?

Man is a unique being, to the point that he is his own paradigm; a model of excellence but solitary at the time of his creation. He is at its apex, and he shares this position with no one else. Alone on the top is his fate, that even God judged his predicament to be against his well-being. He said: "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him." [Genesis 2: 8] And so God did by creating the woman, which sadly caused the fall of man and his eviction from Eden. So, it is not far-fetched to say that even with a partner, man, to greater or lesser degree, is still alone in his search for answers for the meaning of life beyond the fulfillment of his primal needs. It is true that a suitable partner might assuage the much-felt burden of the need to know but it cannot in any way deflect him from this singular challenge. He must find the answer deep within him, as failing in this life’s mission might even compromise his relationship, however suitable. This fundamental need is what kept him apart from the rest of creation, just as his exceptional possession that aids him in his quest, exclusive to him, also causes this isolation. I am referring to his high-caliber brain. This divine gift reduces the need for him to physically adapt to the demands of the natural world. No need for web-feet to better catch prey in the water, or eyes that could rotate on its socket with infra-red vision to better secure food at night or big pointed ears like radar to better listen to the sound of food on four legs. No need because he has a brain that can devise ways and means to ensure success. If this is not so, then we would look differently from one another. Alas, there would not be beauty contests because the criteria to define beauty is too wide-ranging and a consensus would be an impossibility to arrive at. Ladies from various hemispheres, especially those living under extreme environmental conditions would have physical attributes uncommon with the rest because they had undergone genetic mutations. What is beautiful, let alone normal would be a conundrum that even an international organization like the United Nations would miserably fail to define. On the contrary, men strangely enough are basically alike wherever they are in the planet except for minor differences like the coloration of the skin, height, etc. because the brain is the primary adaptive organ. It devises courses of action to meet the environmental challenges and overcome man’s physical limitations. This gift allowed us to mirror each other and recognize that we belong to one race, at the apex of creation. With a powerful brain comes the insatiable need to know and to push, at whatever price, the boundaries of knowledge of the natural world. Our search for answers about ourselves and our habitat has led us to the moon and other celestial bodies, even to far-flung galaxies, thousands of light years away. But how is this need to know related to the primary principles of life, which are survival and multiplication? Is the profound need to know the result of the evolutionary process? Is the knowledge to be gained by hurling spacecrafts to far reaches of deep space necessary for survival? Or is this just an idiosyncrasy? But the price is too high, and the risks are all too real to just dismiss these as compulsions brought about by genetic aberration. Or is it programed in our DNA to quest for answers, time and time again, and to find the truth about our very own existence no matter the cost? To admit that it is, is to admit that it is another contradiction to the laws of nature; that our insatiable urge to know is so deeply engrained in our being and not even the risks of bodily harm or even death could dampen it, let alone put an end to it. Many lives have been lost in space missions and in deep sea explorations. Man, alone behaves this way and thus, is set apart from the other members of the animal kingdom. If he is truly a product of evolution, then why is he an exception to the general rule that governs life on this planet? Another important fact about our brain is the energy required to run the system. The brain uses more energy than any human organ. It accounts for 2 percent of our body weight, but an astounding 20 percent of the body's energy requirement is needed to efficiently operate it. One report stated that this amounts to 10 megawatts or an equivalent of a small hydroelectric plant. This is a huge energy burden for the body. If Darwin's Theory of Evolution is to be believed, then what is the explanation for the evolution of such a high maintenance organ when the goals of life are just survival and multiplication? Do we really need that much 'firepower' when man's basic needs are food, clothing, shelter, and security in order to propagate his kind? Isn't it counter-productive and therefore goes against the laws of nature? Or are we made differently? The answer is simple. Man is an exception because he was created in the image and likeness of God, as his route to the apex of creation bypassed evolution. It is not illogical to conclude that man’s superior intelligence is one of his many attributes in the likeness of the All-knowing, All-powerful Supreme Being who created him, especially so because we have encountered so many conflicts if we seriously take the theory offered by science? Is it wrong to state that our thirst for answers, for the Objective Truth about ourselves and the natural world where we live, including the cosmos, is a divine gift, uniquely human? Does it tax the mind when we say that man being the apex of creation, a creature so distinct from the rest, by virtue of his exceptional gift, is not related to any animal especially the long-gone pseudo-humans. His appointment to this exalted state, which keeps him apart from the rest, is also the push that leads him to the unknown, as the need to know is his birthright, genetically encrypted in his being. His fidelity to his appointment is his way of acknowledging the truth about himself and that is, that he is a supernatural being created by the Almighty. His profound answer to the call to know is the road that will ultimately lead him to the Absolute Truth that brought about the natural wonder-- too complex that defies simple explanations, too magnificent as to be beyond words, too glorious that it lifts the human spirit to heights of elation. On the contrary, how could it be merely ascribed as a natural phenomenon, evolving on its own? Only we are tasked to find the answer, as all the other co-inhabitants of the planet are exempt from this herculean undertaking. Only man is gifted with the consciousness that could live according to the truth declared by nature, which he is bound to discover if he is faithful to the call to know. Only man has the power to reply to God’s invite and that is to know, both visible and invisible realities, in order to live to the fullest. Our calling goes beyond the laws that govern the animal kingdom, as our responsibility is to live forever while at the same, sustaining our temporal garb till the time came to shed it like a soiled garment; as the elemental substances that formed it have been degraded to the point that the mortal body is no longer compatible with life. Yet, this disposal, biodegradable garb, is in itself a conundrum to science, towering over and above everything else. The physical body poses questions that science has not answered satisfactorily, especially those relating to the central nervous system, with the brain containing the greatest mysteries that have yet to be probed and elucidated. The questions raised above, the answers to which fall under Objective Truth, underscore the innumerable challenges pose to the scientific community especially in physics and medicine. But the work of the former is easier than the latter, for it has only to understand the laws of nature that brought about the wonder around us. Medicine has the more difficult task of unraveling the mystery within, as it is an unparalleled reality that goes beyond the natural laws, for it is not evolutionary in origin. It is a marvel beyond anything in the universe of matter, as this rightful designation should plant the seed of doubt on anyone who believes that we are a mere collection of atoms and molecules, and that life ends six feet under. There has to be more to human life which science cannot answer, as the many answers it has so far uncovered only point to the wonderment of our physical body that defies its evolutionary origin.