by

‘I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.’

Dear Reader. It is my purpose in what follows to look at the questions of Kipling's honest serving men. I shall not proceed in a specific order but want to cover all of them at some point and will simply highlight each word where I think it is appropriate.
  
 Of those six questions perhaps the question asked most frequently is “Why”? So I want to begin there and ask, in view of my title, the question “Why do human beings die?” Perhaps this is a question you wish to avoid and consider to be rather pointless as there is nothing you can do to stop it happening.  Let me widen the question then. Why do all things die? There is not a single exception anywhere in all the realm of nature? Death is inevitable! There is only one way to enter into life but there are a multitude of exits by which we leave it. Death is therefore a universal effect for which there is a universal cause? I am not discussing an immediate cause as, for example, when disease ends a life, but an ultimate cause.

 A scientific explanation for the origin of death is an appeal to the laws of nature. The most relevant in this respect is the 2nd law of thermo-dynamics which tells us that all things become more random, disordered, lose energy, eventually cease to function and die. So death is a natural outcome regardless of what means are involved in causing it. The 2nd law, so well observed throughout history, is beyond any dispute or question. This law not only operates here on Earth but also in every part of the universe among all the millions of galaxies that have been discovered. Every battery, no matter how well made, will stop supplying energy in time. Everything grows older, wears out, breaks down and dies in every corner of the incredible vastness of space. It is obvious therefore that there must have been a moment in the history of the universe when things were “wound up” or “optimised” before gradual unwinding or deterioration began.

There has never been a TV program devoted to an explanation of the origin of death from a religious perspective. Numerous programs have been made about the origin of life from a scientific and evolutionary perspective. Let us consider the current popular theory of the origin of the universe (which is losing support rapidly in many quarters)  - the Big Bang.  Other theories that preceded it, for example, the Steady state theory, are now obsolete. A majority of scientists believe (note that it has to be an act of faith because no-one was there to observe it taking place) that everything that exists eventually came into being as a result of “The Big Bang” which, according to the most recent calculations, happened around 13.7 billion years ago. Discoveries in astronomy and physics now show, beyond any reasonable doubt, that our universe did in fact have a beginning. According to the Big Bang theory, prior to the moment that it (the beginning) happened, there was nothing; during and after that moment there was something: our universe in its earliest stages of development. Thus the big bang theory is an attempt to explain what happened during and after that moment. The universe, scientists say, began as an infinitesimally small, infinitely hot, infinitely dense, something – called a singularity! Ask them - “Where did it come from?” and they will tell you, “We don't know.” Ask them  - “Why did it appear?” They will add, “We don't know that either.” The next question is the most crucial. Ask them “Where did it (the singularity) appear? And they will propose “This singularity didn't appear in space; rather, space began inside of the singularity.” So prior to the singularity, nothing existed, not space, time, matter, or energy – nothing! So the real question they should in fact answer is “where and in what” did the singularity appear if not in space? They have been forced to admit - “We just don't know.” They don't know where it came from, why it is here or even where it is. All they really think they know is that we are living inside it on planet earth

Very simply the Big Bang theory says, “First of all there was nothing and then it exploded”! Perhaps you remember the words of the song “I must have done something good,” in the “Sound of Music.” One stanza says, “Nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could.”  That does make perfect sense.

It is straightforward and obvious. For a moment, imagine the Big Bang scenario (nothing becomes something which in time becomes everything), your mind may become dizzy as mine did. Imagination, combined with honest observation always confirms, without a single exception, that nothing cannot produce anything except nothing? In order for there to be something there must be something from which it is made. The only other alternative is to claim that the supposed singularity had an eternal existence; no scientist who has any credibility today believes that to be true!

Consider a further problem.  There are common universal laws that operate in every part of every known galaxy – how, when and where did they originate? How can an explosion produce an ordered universe functioning according to those laws? Explosions always cause the maximum amount of disorder or chaos - they never produce order! If it is argued that a “controlled explosion” can produce some kind of order, there has to be a controller to produce it. So this type of argument is self defeating as it indicates the existence of a plan.

 Acknowledged laws of Science that we trust?

There are certain laws of science that have been verified beyond all possible question. Let us consider them.      

Firstly there is the 1st law of thermo-dynamics. This states that the total amount of matter in the entire universe remains constant. Its form can be altered, for example, an explosion will change a magnificent building into mere rubble but it will never increase or decrease the amount of matter or energy that it contained originally.

All galaxies in space, containing all the billions of stars and our own solar system within which we live, are supposedly part of that original substance or singularity, according to the theory! As we look through telescopes beholding the heavens filled with stars and galaxies, we are sometimes drawn to speculate about the origin of new matter being created when we hear of reports in the media of new stars coming into existence. This is simply not true because the 1st law of Thermodynamics says that it is not possible; energy is neither being created nor destroyed.

The form in which it manifests itself can of course be altered. Energy certainly can be transferred from one part of the universe to another so that, what appears to be new (in essence) is in fact not new (in essence)  but a manifestation of the original material or energy in a different form. If you buy a new car it will be a different car from the one you have now but it will not be new in essence. It will be a new manifestation of “car,” a different make, shape and with a different and probably better performance but still just a car. It is simply a different combination of the existing material available upon earth from which a car can be made.