In a world constrained by physics, what we see can be very deceiving. When we take a sneak peek at the heaven above on a clear night, much of the stars we are seeing are no longer there; some of what we perceived are ghosts of dead stars. We see lights coming from stars far away from Earth; light can move fast, really fast, but not infinitely fast. It takes 10 years for the light of the stars from 10 light-years away to reach us, 1000 years for the light of the stars from 1000 light-years away to reach us, and so on (each light-year is equal to 5.87849981 × 10e12 miles).
Some of the stars we can see are so far away that it takes billions of years to reach us, and by the time we see their lights, some of them have already lived out their lives. To demonstrate how far a light year is, it takes only one light second to reach the moon and only a little over eight light minutes to reach the sun. Some of the dead stars we are seeing have vanished long ago; most of them weren’t even here when mankind was born. Yet these dead stars still became regular parts of our curious minds and continued to shine their legacies over us. You are not always stuck in the present moment; when you look at the heaven at night, whether you know it or not, you are looking into the past; the heaven above, in its own right, is the Universe’s unique autobiography.
Similar to the night sky, we have our way of leaving our legacies behind. We adopted for ourselves an identity, sometimes more than one. “I’m a football player!” “I’m a kickboxing champion!” “I’m the fastest runner in the team!” “I climbed Mount Everest!” This is not a contemporary human trait.
Identity claiming goes way back in time, even when we were hunters and gatherers. In that time frame, a human was still a part of nature; we hunted, ate, and slept together in small groups to minimize dangers. When we first learned how to control fire, we sat together, danced, clapped, cheered, and learned to build more passions for the things we do and passion for each other. Slowly the small groups joined together into bigger groups. This is the beginning of culture. Simultaneously, when we interacted, or spent time together, or made each other laugh, certain chemicals released by our brains gave us feelings toward each other. Today we have one special word to describe these feelings, love.
Some people believe that love is eternity, that it can outlast time and everything there is. But we all know the reality, that statement isn’t true. Love, however, can certainly outlast a person’s lifetime and perhaps this is one of the most terrifying realities of humanity. When our loved ones die, it doesn’t mean we no longer love them. It’s hard to face the fact that we will never be able to see someone we spent much of our time with. These feelings towards certain ones we can no longer interact with turn into grief; it became a natural and healthy way to cope with the loss of loved ones. When grief slowly goes away, we cling onto memories of people we lost by remembering their identities, associating them with the things they did best. “He wasn’t the best football player that ever lived, but he was always the best on the field.” “She put one hundred percent into everything she did.” “He died doing what he did best.” After spending time reminiscing loved ones, we will eventually move on and live our lives until our time on this Earth runs out as well. Just like the dead stars of heaven, we too will one day leave behind our legacies to the people who cherish us.
On a bigger scale, some people are so influential that their legacies are widely known to people worldwide. People like Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, or Cyrus the Great whom ruled some of the biggest armies in the ancient world; religious leaders like Jesus Christ, Siddhartha Gautama, or prophet Muhammad; and the more contemporary superstars like Michael Jackson, Robin Williams, or Martin Luther King Jr. have came and changed human history. People come and go, but some will leave marks that affect generations after. Today when we study history, we usually give praise to the people we agree with and vice versa, but no matter how much we want to, we will never interact with people in the past. We are not only isolated by the familiar distance of space, because of our isolation in time.
Don’t you wish we could change the past sometimes? To simply prevent an accident or even to stop unnecessary wars that claim millions of lives? Too bad Physics hasn’t allowed us to do so and probably never will. We can admire people in the past, wishing we were a part of history, but we are isolated by the dimension of time. Maybe one day we will have the technology to visit our great great great grandchildren in the future (this is made possible by Einstein’s theories of relativity), but there is still no known way to come back to the past. This is the reality of the natural world.
Contrary to Science, various religious beliefs usually allow us to connect with people of the past. Most people from many religions today believe that we will live in some form of “heaven” with everyone who has lived or will ever live in this world when we die. Perhaps we adopted these beliefs in the process of grieving for loved ones? The conscious mind made the difference between a lifeless object and object with life, but in the subconscious level of the mind, psychological defense mechanisms will help us cope with situations; this is what keeps us sane. Sometimes our minds will work desperately to help us without our knowing. Grieving is not a characteristic only shown in humans but also animals. Today we can see viral videos on the internet of a cow crying over their companion’s dead body or a dog moaning over its owner’s grave. Although they do not understand that they will also one day die, they show signs of grief for their companions.
Lucky for us humans, when we grieve for loved ones, we can always depend on religious ideologies to help us move on. But… are we the only animal from the animal kingdom that makes use of religion? In 1908, in La Chapelle-Aux-Saints, France, two archaeologists discovered a 50,000 years old Neanderthal skeleton in the cave. Almost instantly, they speculated that the skeletons were purposely buried. However, the discovery was put off due to a lack of information on the excavation procedures, causing controversy. Some 90 years later, however, in 1999, French researchers re-examined the site and confirmed that the skeleton was indeed buried.
Today we have found various other burial sites, which made it clear that burying the dead is a normal part of the Neanderthals’ grieving rituals. In some sites, we can see that items of belonging and flowers are also buried along with the bodies. This is enough evidence to reason that the Neanderthals had some type of ideas about life after death. This discovery did not only change what we think we know of the Neanderthals, but it could also change the shape of human philosophy. Could the act of burying the dead be a type of learned behavior influenced by cohabiting with humans, or did humans learn this behavior from the Neanderthals? Could the Neanderthals have had some forms of religion or ideologies before humans? What if religion weren’t only made for humans? What if the Neanderthals created religions to cope with grief, and so did we?
These are the types of questions that we will never be able to answer. This, perhaps, is the reason why historians usually disagree with each other. There is a famous saying by French general Napoléon Bonaparte: “History is written by the winner.” We will never find out the actual truth in history, and we can never put full trust in a history book. In the same sense, we should not put full trust in a holy book or even a science book. Unfortunately, to this day, this simple matter is not clear for many. To the people who understand that we cannot find the truth in the natural world, philosophical debates became a way of getting closer to the truth. To listen to both sides of a story, you will realize that the other side, too, can give a really good point. Theoretically, philosophical debates should give people a humbling experience. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. Due to human stubbornness, we simply do not want to agree with each other.
In 2004, Steven Paul “Steve” Jobs, co-founder, CEO, and chairman of Apple Inc. was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreas cancer. Jobs refused to take the traditional treatments for months until the cancer got worse. Perhaps his stubbornness may have cost him his life years later in 2011. Stubbornness could be consequential to people on many different scales. We can see people from various disciplines and religions stubbornly claiming to know absolute truth; it’s human nature. We cling hopelessly to our beliefs without ever caring about other’s opinions. These types of disagreements eventually divide big groups into smaller groups and prevent different groups from merging.
Besides being isolated by the familiar distance of space and time, we have created our own form of isolation. A type of isolation that is made up in our mind, preventable, yet, unstoppable.
As humans, we do not like to admit our faults. We point fingers in all directions but hesitate to point them back to us. Our stubbornness, our self-centered attitude, ignorance, or lack of understanding made it no longer pleasant to be around each other. Slowly, the love we had for each other turned into hate. It is true that we cannot control the natural world or anything that happens to us, but we can control our feelings because they come from within. It is not our fault that we only see other people’s mistakes. Our eyes are constantly looking at directions away from us, and only once in a while, can we see our own reflection.
What if we could sit in the most comfortable seat in a movie theater and watch ourselves in action? So we can see how evolution has brought us together after billions of years just to be pushed back by our self-centered attitudes. Have we actually evolved forward, or did we take a step back? What if we can spare just a tiny bit of our time to reflect on what we have done? To see ourselves helping an older person crossing the street, helping a hungry person find food, or even helping ourselves find our purpose in existence. Let’s take a moment to reflect on how our words and actions have impacted others. Let’s make a difference and come together.
