Some day when I was in the bus thinking about the book I am currently reading, some considerations about the title poped up randomly. I dropped them down without giving them a conclusion, as I do not think my intelligence is sufficient to provide a satisfactory answer.
In the history of evolution, what was the first life that appeared in the world symbolising the beginning of the process? How did it begin and why? There was quite a long time after the big bang before microorganism appeared. Then the evolution was said to begin and numerous creatures were developed by an unknown power. Let say the theory of evolution is true, there exist some questions that I do not understand, despite the fact that I am not about to criticize this assumption.
If creatures exist or once existed, there must be some sort of starting point for them to exist. How do/did they newly appear? I just read from Wikipedia about evolution and realize it is an controversial issue, as it involves not only science but also religion and philosophy. I shall have some discussion in the later section. This is certainly one thing.
At the mean time, if evolution truly exists as the change in the inherited traits of a population from generation to generation, a questions arises - why can't we discover new species in the current world? According to the theory, life continues to develop and new species should constantly appear through the process of natural selection or genetic drift. Then what is the reason we do not find any new organisms, which have never existed in the history? I am curious about this, as it is hardly convincing to claim the reason is that we are limited to technology when we enters a stage that we have never been so advanced. If this reason is justified, it possibly means our technology has reached a point that breakthrough can hardly be made. If the claim is not reasonable, and we can no longer find any new species, it is once again hard for me to believe the conclusion of this - life is going to disappear from Earth. Is everything only extinct? How about the world? Is its birth only for extinction? One day the sun will burn like a red giant and die. The solar system will collapse and so the Milky Way. Yet after all this, it seems to me that the world would continue without all this. What does the "world" mean? I think the world is not only about the universe we are living, but everything that exists. However, even the world includes everything, I doubt if the world will ever be over one day. Then many questions will come up if the world will be over. I do not think I have to further elaborate.
In our knowledge we are at the centre owing our mental nature. This hinders us from jumping out to an unknown stage. If everything ends, what will be left? Is it something named "emptiness"? I have no clue. Yet if there is emptiness, there must be something to contain this emptiness. When one space exists, how can it not exist? What will remain if one space is closed? This may be one of the reasons religion arises as some people believe this is under the control of the God's hand.
Some people may argue that evolution compells the possible existence of the God, but I think they can co-exist. It can be the decision of the God to create the process of evolution and we are all bound to this rule. Nevertheless the existence of the God is questionable, as up to this moment we have no ways to prove. We have to acknowledge our limit, despite we always test our possibility to go further. This reminds me of something I learnt during the high school -
生有涯而學無涯；
以有涯隨無涯，殆已
Indeed I do not remember the exact wordings, but roughly it means there is an end of our lives but no ends of knowledge; it is harmful to pursue the latter by means of the former. To me the statement is not proactive enough, but it has its implication that we need to understand and forgive our weaknesses.
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