The Story of The Two Camps

  There have been for quite some time, two camps out in the wilderness. The wilderness is the world, or in a greater sense – the cosmos. Both camps are inhabited by people. Most of these people you would consider sane and rational. For a very long time though, there was only the one camp. But one starry night while sitting around a campfire a fellow asked a question.  We’ll call this Camp A. To answer this fellow’s question the inhabitants postulated that something so big and inexplicable as the universe had to have a creator. After all, nothing can be seen to come from nothing. Everything we have witnessed seems to have been caused by something else. Camp A residents could not imagine an event occurring that was self actuating or which caused itself to happen. Hence a prime mover or creator (or movers or creators) was imagined, who they said, was responsible for everything in the universe. Everyone was happy with this explanation for a long time. The people of camp A went about their business patting themselves on the back thinking that the question had been answered and therefore no further discussion on the matter was warranted.

  Then one day another fellow stood up and said, “Wait a minute. If everything has a cause and therefore the creator is the cause, then who caused the causer? Who created the creator?” The rest of the folks of Camp A booed and jeered at him and told him to sit down and shut up. But he was a persistent fellow and would not. So they told him that the creator simply was eternal. He had always existed. Unsatisfied, the persistent fellow still brought forth more questions. He was politely told to drink some poison and die or they would kill him for the turmoil he was creating in Camp A. So he did. Camp A settled back down and continued on its merry way as it always had.

  Knowing of the demise of the persistent fellow, the next person who became bold enough to ask questions, didn’t. He simply gathered his belongings and went elsewhere to establish his own camp. We’ll call it Camp B. Camp B was a lonely place for a while. Its rules were strict, so not many came there at first. Foremost of its rules were that nothing would be postulated that couldn’t be proven without a doubt.  Its early inhabitants spent many years coming up with the tools it needed to test and prove the things they observed. But rule number one was that they did not in any way fashion or form want to fall back on the idea prevalent in Camp A that a creator was responsible for all that they saw in nature. So the quest became how to get rid of the prime mover. How could they  remove God from the equation as it were. For many generations the people of Camp B spent long hours coming up with new ways to observe nature from the microscopic to the macroscopic. Then several more people spent years using these tools to observe. One day another bright fellow stood up and said, “What if? What if all the matter in the universe were concentrated in a singularity and then exploded? Then seconds later it cooled and condensed into all the matter that exist today forever expanding outward from the initial big bang? Wouldn’t that explain everything sufficiently to get rid of the silly notion of a creator god?” “Yes!” they all shouted. Let’s tell the world we’ve found the answer.

  But one persistent fellow in the back stood up and said, “But wait. So if everything needs a cause, then what caused the matter to get together in the first place in this one point. And where did the matter come from to start with? Did it just pop into existence like magic?” “Shhhhh!” They yelled at him. “Matter just is a given,” they told him. “It just always was,” they assured the doubter. “But isn’t that exactly what those ninnies in Camp A say about their creator god?” “Yes, but if we present our Theory of the Big Bang and surround it with enough jargon and math to prove it is correct, they won’t figure that out. After all they aren’t scientists like us. They won’t even notice. So sit down and shut up before we make you drink some coolaid. So the Big Bang Theory was presented to the world and sited over and over in many journals and papers until many people figured it had to be true. Camp B had it printed on a banner and flown over their camp. Anyone not willing to stand up and salute this banner was exiled from Camp B and their source of income to fund their studies was withdrawn or seriously hindered. Today the inhabitants of Camp B marginalize and belittle anyone still stubborn enough to remain in Camp A.  And they pretend there is no Camp C, D or E.

   To their chagrin, however, there are other camps. And some of them are drawing more and more members to rally around their own flagpoles. Camp C proclaims that the Big Bang Theory with it’s gravity based model is wrong and that we actually live in an Electric Universe. Camp D postulates that we live in a living universe that propagates new universes all the time like an old oak casting off acorns and we inhabit just one of those outgrowths. Camp E calls themselves Biocentrists and suggest that the universe only exist in the minds of the observers. Then there is a new camp that suggest that the whole universe is a life form – a living organism. Another camp that is beginning to spring up suggests that the universe is a hologram like the matrix. Now new camps seem to spring up every day. What all these camps have in common with Camp B is they can explain things that they observe in nature. But what they also all have in common is that they shy away from even trying to attempt to explain where it all came from to start with. They bicker and argue amongst themselves about whose theory can explain and predict more observations. But most of that bickering goes on behind the scenes to prevent the general public and especially those folks still sitting over there in Camp A from getting wind of the fact that Camp B is falling apart or, like the King who wore no clothes, is walking around naked.

  The funny and sad truth about it all is that we are no closer now to answering the original question than we were back when first it was asked one dark lonely night by some persistent fellow sitting around a campfire. What you believe is simply a matter of choice you make as to which glass of coolaid you’re willing to drink from or shy away from. At this point, the only real tools you have to help you make that choice is your own intuition, gut feeling, imagination, or the famous leap of faith.

  I, like I've said before, respect the people and methods they use in all the other camps and follow their endeavors with a thirsty mind. But I made my choice long ago. I took that leap of faith and landed squarely in Camp A because that’s the camp that I wish to live in and hope to find is the closest to the right answer when the time comes for me to know. A dreary, meaningless existence devoid of any sort of purpose other than mere survival is not one I would entertain even for a moment.