Journey of the Universe

Full disclosure, I happen to be a religious person who enjoys the study of science at every level. I don't see the areas of religion as necessarily opposed to scientific endeavors & often find them to be complementary - at least in my own world view. That being said, in this film - upon arriving at perhaps the biggest mystery we've ever contemplated - the origins of life itself... it landed with a thud. While I certainly didn't expect anything along the lines of a Sunday school class; or frankly anything more than an ever so subtle whisper about what 'some' people may think about the origins of life... this film basically went only so far as to state that on the matter of how life developed on this planet, while not definitely settled, is certainly believed by those in credible circles to have originated from some sort of 'self organizing' aspect of material in general.... that it's in the very nature of stuff to just spring to life as per inevitable... and that there's how it happened - aaaaaanywho,onto the many marvels of this life thing....

Ever read a story to a child while you're in a hurry & have them pipe up and indignantly profess that you 'skipped a page'? Yeah... that's kind of how I felt...

This is at once a story of the universe and of our efforts to understand it. Any attempt to document the story of the universe is of course ambitious, but the usual motivation of those attempting it has been to create exclusionary myths, whether of religion or science. What is rare about this film is that the creators have been able to tell the story from many different perspectives in a seamless and coherent way, using them to enhance our understanding, but also our appreciation of what we don't understand. The story of what we have learned about the universe is our ultimate story, one of extraordinary achievements and wondrous potential. The producers have created a compelling visual and oral narrative. This is a unique achievement as much for its extraordinary imagery as for its compelling content.

I had the privilege to view this film in a small theater on Whidbey Island, near Seattle. I made the journey, including a trip by ferry boat, to view the film, to meet Mary Evelyn Tucker and Brian Swimme, and engage in a seminar at the Whidbey Institute in the Teilhard de Chardin Hall. In these times of religious conservatives challenging the science of the 14 billion year old story of creation, it is important to have a film like this that sets the story of our evolution so beautifully and poetically. Brian Swimme takes us on a journey that tells our story from the Big Bang to current day while making a 24 hour journey through the Greek village of Samos, home of mathematician Pythagoras. Swimme is a scientist/theologian/poet who weaves the disciplines of science and the humanities into the seamless garment they must be if we are to stop the environmental destruction that is occurring and come together to solve the big issues of ecology, morality, and spirituality. Watch this film, and experience the grandeur and the humility of knowing your place in the universe story and what you must do to stop being the problem and start becoming the solution.

The insights offered in this all to brief one-hour documentary provides an historical and a scientific perspective in language easily grasped by anyone. It tells a story that based on the writings of scholars over the past 2 decades will have a major impact on how a global humanity needs to evolve over the next century. The simple idea that we are made of 'star- stuff' alone should speak powerfully to that internal desire to be connected to something larger than ourselves that exists within every conscious human being. Why are we here? How did we get here? This documentary provides an awareness that should help answer these questions. It also creates a framework within which to expand the meaning of our existence.

I expect this film will appeal to more people because it doesn't actually mention religion or creationism. It does tell us, in an awe-inspiring and thought-provoking way, with stunning visuals, much of the currently conventional, scientific view of the universe. It succeeds in combining astronomy, physics, biology and other sciences, and just hints that there may be more to all these wonders than mere chance.

Still, to me it doesn't go far enough in this direction. I've helped with a book called 'Chance or Creation' translated from an Arabic text attributed to al-Jahiz (8-9th Centuries CE) who, by the way, was the first biologist to mention evolution and natural selection - see Wikipdedia and Muslim Heritage.com. I'm also working to convince fellow Muslims and others that Islam (devotion to the One God) includes care of and responsibility for the environment (His Creation), starting from the Qur'an.

As the film is a product of the Religions and Ecology group at Yale, I was expecting it to say more about religions and Ecology. According Wikipedia, only 750 million of the world's 7 billion population are 'non-religious', and nearly 6 billion subscribe to one of the main world religions (presumably the rest subscribe to lesser ones). Surely the minority of non-religious people of the world can't continue to ignore all their neighbours in this way? Let's have a follow-up film, exploring religious AND secular teachings on the environment from all sides. A good start has been made by 'The Encyclopaedia of Religion and Nature' and on a more popular level, the book 'Green Spirituality' by Chris Philpott, but he leaves out humanism and atheism. The Earth Charter was the result of such wide discussions, and would be a good basis for the film, which would in turn also help to popularize the Charter. And I must mention our small Abrahamic Faiths contribution in the taster pocket book 'Sharing Eden'...