That makes sense

Our ability to ever know the secrets of the universe is blocked by our need for there to be a beginning and an end. The concept of infinity is not rational. This notion of the linearity of existence is a product of our commonsense intellect. The before-and-after, cause-and-effect sequencing of events is, for us, determinative of its construct. “Which came first?” requires that there be a timed lineage of events that evolves and mutates to write the history of existence and predict future outcomes.

Instead, if we remove time and the rationally devised linear explanation of existence, we are left with the truth of existence. We are an embodiment of the whole of this existence. All other known or unknown entities are likewise an embodiment of the whole of this existence. So, if time is not a factor in the truth of existence, are we a part of the whole of existence or is the whole of existence a part of us? Yes, both are true. 

The connections that we form in life between extant constructs describe existence to us. They are reciprocal connections that retain balance regardless of which is the acting initiator of an event. Each embodiment is an affecter and an affected at once. One embodiment is not qualitatively different than any other. Each strikes its own balance, a composition of connections between all other embodiments being both a constituent part and host at each moment. Time does not alter existence.

Science is forever evolving to inform us more and more about what is already there and has always been there. The clues that science discovers do not disprove the notion of this reciprocity in existence, they support it. “Matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed only changed from one form or entity to another.” “The seasons, caused by the rotation of the earth and its relation to the sun, create an endless cycle of thriving life and dormant rest”. Science needs a more orderly evolution of events to describe existence. “In the beginning there was a Big Bang.” 13 billion years later in the arc of existence we have evolved to our present condition and will continue, on a timed path into the future. Biblical scholars write a similar narrative beginning with a point-in-time event, a perfect creation. Religions have served to allay our fears and grapple with the science that we don’t fully understand to give us faith in our future and assurances of salvation. Science and religion are not adversarial doctrines; they both help us understand our place in existence and offer guidance in how best to navigate this existence in a way that suits our intellectual capacity to understand it. But neither science nor theology can provide a proof to what was there before the beginning or what is there beyond the limits of time and space? Is there a need for a beginning or an end? Faith makes God the de facto answer. So be it.  But, time remains irrelevant.

The latest estimates suppose there are 400 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy and there are 2 trillion galaxies like ours. That means there are about 800 billion trillion (10^24) stars in the known universe. Coincidentally there are approximately 37 trillion cells in the human body and 100 trillion atoms in each cell. That means there are about 4 Octillion (10^28) atoms in the human body. So, we are each an embodiment of 10^24 stars and 10^28 atoms. We of course perceive the stars to be larger and atoms smaller. Yet we are one with them all. We perceive that we are a constituent among the Stars and the host of the atoms that define us. But our connections to the largest and smallest organisms establish that we are the singular midsized embodiment of the whole of existence. Size is relative but also irrelevant.

We are each at the hub of this existence. Our position in existence is irrefutable. Whatever came before defines us no more or less than what will happen in the future. The past and future are simply different arrangements of the same existence.  So long as we remain a conscious organism, we can ponder our place in existence and exert our influence on its arrangement, safe in knowing it will endure. We must add time to provide order and meaning as we navigate an otherwise stagnant, perpetual existence. But time does not alter existence, merely chronicles its rearrangements.