A scientific approach to God

Rating: 10/10 (20 January 2004)

Many of the discussions about 2001  A Space Odyssey refer to the transcendental and unreasonable ending, that seems to be anything but a conclusion. Rather than trying to give an explanation for it, I would like to point out why there can't be any. If there is still anybody who has not seen this movie, please see it prior to reading on.
Who are we? Where do we come from? The questions raised in 2001  A Space Odyssey, are truly fundamental. In Kubrick's adaptation there is something much greater than human brains.
The visible part of it, a black monolith, does not change at all in its appearance throughout space and time. It is constant. The apes meet it with fear and excitement. Millions of years and a single, famous cut later, human tools have changed and the approach to the monolith is far more reasonable and thoughtful, but communication is still impossible. The apes do not understand, that touching it made them discover the use of bones as survival tools. The astronauts on the moon try to analyze the monolith only to suffer physical pain. At least, man has now been able to identify it as a source of radio waves addressed to something.
The search for truth, however, is painful and lethal for everybody. Even HAL's quest remains unanswered, as he cannot cope with emotions, and when he is shut down, he is left in ignorance and confusion. Extraterrestrial intelligence here is not visible in flying saucers or aggressive insect-like life forms, but in a plain structure, and that is all we can understand from it. Maybe it was really something like the monolith that made life on earth start to think in the first place.
A rather scientific approach, given the fact that without certain elements originating from asteroids that hit planet earth from outer space, molecular development of life forms on this planet, quite possibly, would not have been possible. We are star children anyway.
Of course we cannot understand what is going on as we share Dave's vision in the end. When different matter meet in structured order, Dave experiences his own mortality. How and when he dies is irrelevant. He faces the same power that we witness when physics and biology melt and a planet and a foetus are alike. When we finally see creation as a size- and timeless, truly universal energy, we can only discover that we are still far from being able to understand it. How do you explain God ?