"It is only after making an effort of will to represent with minute care a grass blade, a stone, a branch...that I am overcome by the irresistable urge to create something imaginary." Great leaps were being made in all scientific areas during this time, including astronomy, microbiology, and prehistory. In short, the world that man considered daily had expanded beyond the planet Earth. Redon's drawings are an expression of humanity's eternal search for their place in the world, blending all forms of life through charcoal and pastel in order to even attempt to grasp the immensity of it all.
Redon studied landscapes, landscape artists, and even the bone structures of creatures at natural history museums to master their forms and then twist them with his own imagination. It was during this time that it was being discovered that plants and animals were very nearly the same at their basic cellular level, which can be seen to lend to the conception of some of Redon's creatures. He was also strongly influenced by Armand Clavaud's ideas in which there was one great force behind life and each organism was its manifestation.
Though he perished over several decades aho, Redon's works are full of ideas that society still grapples with today. We still wonder over our place in the universe and the idea of evolution. And the search for life on other worlds has not lost any of its steam. Are we alone in the universe?
Discussion Questions
- How do you reconcile concepts such as evolution and natural selection with your faith tradition/ system of beliefs?
- Do you believe in the existence of life on other worlds? Why or why not?
- Write a response to Redon’s lithograph series, Les Origines. This can be from the viewpoint of a person living during Redon’s time, a more modern approach, or taken from the view of one or more of the creatures in the series.
- Write a creative piece in which you are creating your own world. How would you go about it? What would your thought process be on the organisms you are creating?
Have Fun!
Is there life elsewhere in the universe? Probably not, and even if there is, it won't affect humanity at all. Life could have originated from one of two sources, either it came about from chemical reactions, or a god created it.
ReplyDeleteIf life came about as a consequence of unguided chemical reactions, it would require extremely rare and specific conditions: just the right mix of elements and compounds, a narrow temperature range, some radiation but not too much, the list goes on and on. Even when such conditions are met they produce only simple self replicating structures. The process of going from these structures to anything approaching what we would consider life is still a mystery to science, but would have required favorable conditions to persist for at least several hundred million years. Once the first bacteria arise, it would take another few billion years of favorable conditions, and a chance occurrence of endosymbiosis to produce multicellular life. If such a series of events occurs at all, (even leaving out the last step), it is extremely rare in the universe and the chances that life exists outside of Earth are low. But, given vast number of stars, the possibility cannot be ruled out completely. In the unlikely event that other life exists within the eventual range of human exploration, it is probably simple enough to be of little consequence to humanity, and if multicellular intelligent life exists elsewhere, it is almost certainly so far away that, as far as humanity is concerned, it may as well not exist at all.
I don't pretend to be able to understand the whims of gods, and must admit that if life on Earth was first created by a god then it is entirely possible that it chose to create it elsewhere too, even within man's reach.
I do however know a bit about Christianity, and do not believe that Christian theology supports the idea of life on other planets. Christianity puts humanity at the center of creation, with plants and animals existing for use and enjoyment by humanity, and pests and diseases as a consequence of humanity's sinfulness. Given this point of view it is easy to reconcile the existence of a vast universe: astronomy and star charting were among the primary reasons for the development of mathematics, and continue to inspire scientists today. Without stars in the sky, early civilization may have never developed science at all, and civilization today would not have such a tantalizing goal to work towards. Add aliens to the mix and the theology gets a lot messier and more confusing. Are aliens sinners? Does Jesus need to go to every planet with life on it and die a horrible death there so they can be saved? Perhaps Jesus spends all of his time hopping from planet to planet living a difficult life, then being tortured to death. Or perhaps aliens are soulless and do not need a Savior. There are just too many unnecessary and distracting questions raised when trying to reconcile the (unlikely and unproven) existence of aliens with Christian theology, so unless life on other planets is someday discovered, it's best to hold to the belief that is entirely consistent with both the Bible, and with science: that life originated only on Earth.
I believe there can be life on other planets. Who are we to say that we are special and therefore the only planet to form life of any kind? This seems to be a very egocentric, human response to assert our planet alone can sustain life. Yes, the odds of life developing scientifically are slim, but considering how vast the universe is, it is very probable that some other form of life exists. We do not know even half of what exists or what is possible; discoveries are being made everyday. Perhaps life on another planet is not exactly like what we have here on Earth but to think that some other organism could not have adapted to another ecosystem seems very close-minded. From a scientific view, we have to be open to all possibilities until either proven right or wrong. One of these possibilities is definitely that of life on another planet in full existence.
ReplyDeleteConsidering this from a religious point of view, I don’t think there would be life on other planets. Being raised Catholic myself, it is too contradictory to have multiple planets of human beings. Perhaps God has more than one planet of creatures to reign over, but, then, are there multiple saviors and multiple heavens? The idea of life elsewhere complicates religion to such an extent that, from a religious view, life on other planets doesn’t seem plausible. It is because of aspects like this that I have decided to be non-religious for the time being. Religion and science don’t mix very well, but science has evidence and facts which are more plausible for me to believe in.
For me, evolution and natural selection make perfect sense. The origin of life seems so beautiful, considering the changes that have taken billions of years to culminate in the life we see today. The evidence is numerous: fossils, morphological comparisons, genetic evidence, and so forth. In my mind, there is no question that life has evolved, a miracle in itself, and it evolved completely unconnected from the existence of a divine being.
Religion is based on belief and faith and supposedly love, yet religion seems to be the cause of so much strife and tension in the world today. I meet more prejudiced religious people than non-religious ones. Moreover, over the centuries, religion has been involved in wars and genocides and generally unpleasant events. I don’t mean to generalize; I’m simply trying to explain what made me turn from being a devout Catholic to a non-believer of any religion. I can’t believe in a supreme being that created us all and is sitting up somewhere in the sky, ready to judge me on my actions just because I was told to believe it. Religion should be something highly personal and people should want to be good and show love because that’s what’s right, not because God will judge you otherwise and you might be sent to hell. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I could not reconcile evolution and natural selection with my religion. In the end, I chose science and being a good person because that’s what I feel is right, not because that’s what “God wants.”
Saying this, I want to make it clear that I don’t judge others based on what they believe. I think our beliefs are highly personal and we should respect the decisions of others, no matter how much we disagree. I wish everyone was more open to discussing their beliefs and that a dialogue could be held without anger and tension breaking out. There is so much we can learn from each other’s beliefs and we can’t really know which one is right. We can only believe what feels right to us and hope others don’t judge us for it, but rather love us because of it.
"When life was awakening in the depths of obscure matter…"
ReplyDelete~
Deep darkness, comforting nothingness…
What is this? Where am I? Confusion followed.
What is “I”? Deep silence returned briefly before the entity formed its next thought. What am I? Silence once again reigned.
I am. This thought was very pleasing. I liked the feeling it had for me. I tried it again. I am… But, what was I? Where was I?
Panic descended upon me. I wanted to know. Sparks departed and tingling returned. What was happening to me? The tingling increased. I was afraid. I had to get away. More sparks shot away from me, from my…brain. That sounded right. The tingling which returned was stronger still. I could…feel…something soft.
I wanted to understand it. My brain fired again and I felt the soft substance move around me. Wait, that didn’t make any sense. Was I more than a brain? This time I tried to move that part of me. I didn’t understand what happened, but it must have worked because I pressed though further. Emboldened, I started to move my…flipper -Yes, that’s what I would call it - around. The soft substance gave way under my pressure.
I felt unbalanced now that I had discovered my flipper. It was almost as though a part of me was missing. There was an unexplored region right next to the region which I had prodded to discover my flipper. Maybe the missing part was hidden there. I reached out and prodded my brain with that thought. Another tingling began. It was localized where the void had just been. My second flipper moved just as well as my first had. How many of these flippers did I have? I started to prod all of the unexplored regions on my brain. More than half of them I did not understand, but there were others that moved as my flippers had. I prodded them all at the same time and my entire being - for surely I was such - wiggled. The soft substance moved quite easily around me now. All of my flippers working in tandem, I struggled to move. Surely there was more to be discovered beyond this soft blackness.
When I beat my flippers this time, I slipped through the substance. It was a glorious feeling. I could think. I could move. I could feel the softness sliding against my sides. I shook my head sharply. Was this my world? Or was there something more for me to experience? I pushed harder with my flippers. The soft substance swept past me now. I was flying through it, rising swiftly upwards. A soft buzzing entered my brain. I shook my head again in an attempt to rid myself of it, but it was only replaced by a “whooshing” sound. Confusion struck me again. What was sound? As I wondered, I continued to shoot upwards. I had no idea why, it simply seemed like something that I had to do. I pumped my flippers faster. I had to reach wherever I was going. Suddenly, swimming was the most important thing in my short existence.
With one last tremendous thrust, I broke through the surface…and was blinded. I hadn’t known that I could see, or even what sight was, until that moment. I closed my newfound eyes and waited for them to adjust. Blinding myself was not on my list of priorities at the moment. Time dragged by while my eyes slowly stopped throbbing. Tentatively, I opened them a crack, yet there was no stabbing pain. So, I opened them further, and then all of the way. My mouth dropped open as I stared. The world was breathtaking.
I believe that both religion and science go hand in hand, depending on your religion. Even if you were a Christian, believing that God created the earth in six days, who said how long God’s version of six days was. Maybe one day for Him was 25 billion years, giving time for evolution to occur and plants and bacteria to slowly evolve into land species. Maybe God planted all of these fossils and facts around the world because he knew he created curious creatures and therefore gave us something to do and something to make sense out of our lives with. Humans don’t just believe in God, they want evidence and it’s quite possible that God implanted the proof we wanted for our own selfish needs. Because the universe is so vast and we are so full of emotions and soul I believe there has to be some kind of higher power, despite what science says or how the churches take what science states. There is no need for controversy, in my opinion. To me, it is apparent that God created some form of living being, whether it is a prokaryote or a human, along with all of space and the stars and the planets. That is all the evidence I need.
ReplyDeleteBecause of this, I am 100% sure that there is life on other planets. Humans are such a small part of the universe, let alone, our own planet, and that is what Redon captured in his artwork, by making the human subject so small and insignificant compared to everything else. We may not know what is on the other side of the planet, but it is there no matter what, which is what Redon suggested in his artwork. Therefore, because we are so insignificant compared to the infinite universe, there has to be other life. Just because we haven’t found it in the 8 planets we can reach, it doesn’t mean they are not present in the infinite amount of planets beyond our reach. It is not possible that we are the only living creatures present in this universe, there has to be more than just us. We are just too small to notice. The possibilities are endless and so are the unanswered questions. That is why there has to be a God, because some things can only be answered by Him. They just are. I really like Redon because he thought like a god. He knew the possibilities were endless and didn’t restrict his mind to one belief of either religion or science. Why doesn’t religion accept science? It is amazing in all that it has taught humans and only helps to prove that God really was miraculous and capable of anything by all that is present in just our world and universe.