Searching for God

I leave my friends debating the existence (or otherwise) of God. I decide to go and find him.

I fly past Mars and Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and at last Pluto (was that a planet I just flew past?), more than 4 billion kilometers from home. Because I can fly at the speed of light, it’s only taken 7 hours to get here.

I’m not even out of the Solar System yet. Another two light years to go. Then another 4.3 light years to Proxima Centauri, our closest neighbour,  then 4.6 light years to Sirius and so on. The average distance between stars is something like 30 million million kilometers, and there are somewhere between 100 billion and 400 billion stars in the Milky Way, which is our home galaxy, and there are probably another 140 billion galaxies.

I’ve been flying now for 13 billion years, and with distance I’m beginning to develop perspective, and I’ve certainly had enough time for contemplation. But I can’t begin to comprehend the enormity of these numbers and distances, and I doubt that you can either.

But if there is a God, he, she or it understands it all - by definition, being the creator. Perhaps he can’t, but the chances are she does a better job of comprehending me than I do of comprehending it. Arguing about the existence or otherwise of God seems arrogant and a waste of time.

Just choose – it doesn’t really matter. Your choice will not affect the being or non-being of God.

I fly on, and after approximately infinity kilometres, off in the distance I see a familiar sight. It’s my two friends, right where I left them, debating the existence of God. They haven’t aged a bit, nor have they reached a conclusion.

At the very edge of the universe, it’s just the three of us. Perhaps there’s a message in that.

After my trip, I realize that Einstein predicted the outcome years ago. It seems that there is an order to the universe. I choose to call that order God. It’s a comforting notion, and that’s why I choose it. To choose to believe in God is just as comforting as being aware of his presence.

My mission in life is to find that order, and in yielding to it, find eudamona.