Computer nerds aside, I bet you couldn’t describe what half of them do, and yet they keep your machine ticking over.
Our bodies are like this, only much more so. As you read this sentence thousands of complex processes within you are operating exactly as they should, meaning that you continue to exist for one more minute, hour, day, and so on.
The complexity of biological life may be awe inspiring, but it’s also frightening. The more there is going on inside us, the more there is to go wrong, which means there are more ways for us to get ill and die. This occurred to me last Saturday when I learned that a third of people in hospital with Covid-19 develop blood clots. I already knew how dangerous this virus is, but blood clots – which can lead to strokes - seem to take us into new territory. Isn’t Covid-19 like flu, attacking our respiratory system? Now we’re told it can get to our blood as well, and we shudder at what they will discover next.
But then a very different thought struck me. Instead of worrying about the thousands of ways in which my body could go wrong, why not marvel at the preposterously unlikely number of ways that it generally works? Seriously, how are we even alive?
Why is it that we only get how mysterious it is just to exist when our biology misfires? Life is literally awesome, and from this realisation it’s no leap at all to say that it is sacred. Yet this is exactly what some religious liberals and humanists don’t want to say. I can think of two reasons why this might be so. Firstly, they fear being mistaken for right-wing Christian anti-abortionists, and secondly, they fear being seen as too...well, religious.
But the Cambridge Dictionary defines sacred as: ‘considered to be holy and deserving respect, especially because of a connection with a god.’ Note the word ‘especially’. ‘Sacred’ does not have to involve belief in a deity. It must, however, provoke a response of awe and reverence. A moment’s contemplation of being alive ought to do this. Life is a breathtaking and mystifying gift, whether you believe in God or not.
Consider the Goldilocks Principle. Just as she needed her porridge to be not too cold and not too hot, so the planet must be not too near and not too far from a star and galactic centre for it to be capable of sustaining life. Only a phenomenally precise distance will do. Thousands of conditions for life must be precisely met for life to be possible anywhere within the Universe.
This is staggering. And the same fine-tuning is necessary within our bodies. They work to the extent they do because so many components are exactly, I mean exactly, as they are.
How do we respond to our planet and our bodies being so finely tuned? Do we call it grace, or good fortune? Either way, it’s something like a miracle. To have life, to continue to live, is just so unlikely. For us to exist on a planet that so precisely sustains us is barely fathomable. Occasionally, someone puts out an equation that states the probability of any planet being in a condition that we can survive on. It is so very unlikely, and yet here we are.
For many of us, this cosmic contemplation fills us with a question that meets its answer in God, or at least the idea of God. However, many people see only blind chance in an infinity of random events. But if you believe, as so many now do, that this is how life has come to you, then what do you feel about being the product, or the recipient of this incredible good fortune? Extraordinary serendipity usually provokes a profound reaction. But the luck of mere existence exceeds that of a winning lottery ticket, or being born with the talent of Mozart, Shakespeare, or George Best. Remove all theistic or spiritual notions from the equation and being alive is still a supreme blessing. Why not call this sacred?
Many religious impulses seem to have been blunted by the advance of science, but not this sense of sheer wonder at the mystery of life. The more we learn of the workings of the universe and our bodies the more there is to take our breath away. Why do we exist? Why is there something rather than nothing? Why are we even alive? As Psalm 139 says, we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made.’
Many atheists appreciate the poetic way in which the Bible expresses very human feelings of wonder towards that which gives us life, because a sense of reverence in response to creation is in us all, whether we believe in God or not.
Why not take a minute to consider the sheer improbability of your existence? And with that thought in mind, take a few moments to read Psalm 104 which captures this feeling so well.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
O Lord my God, you are very great.
You are clothed with honour and majesty, wrapped in light as with a garment.
You stretch out the heavens like a tent, you set the beams of your chambers on the waters,
you make the clouds your chariot, you ride on the wings of the wind, you make the winds your messengers, fire and flame your ministers.
You set the earth on its foundations, so that it shall never be shaken.
You cover it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.
At your rebuke they flee; at the sound of your thunder they take to flight.
They rose up to the mountains, ran down to the valleys to the place that you appointed for them.
You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth.
You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills, giving drink to every wild animal; the wild asses quench their thirst.
By the streams the birds of the air have their habitation; they sing among the branches.
From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
You cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for people to use, to bring forth food from the earth, and wine to gladden the human heart, oil to make the face shine, and bread to strengthen the human heart.
The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
In them the birds build their nests; the stork has its home in the fir trees.
The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the coneys.
You have made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting.
You make darkness, and it is night, when all the animals of the forest come creeping out.
The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.
When the sun rises, they withdraw and lie down in their dens.
People go out to their work and to their labour until the evening.
O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
Yonder is the sea, great and wide, creeping things innumerable are there, living things both small and great. There go the ships, and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.
These all look to you to give them their food in due season; when you give to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.
May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works— who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke.
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord.
Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
Praise the Lord!
Please, read the Psalms, read Job, explore the Bible. There’s plenty more where this came from.
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