When we were kids, we would often hear from parents, teachers, caretakers, and so on that our birth was a miracle of existence and that we should cherish our existence. Over the years, every time I heard this, I often attributed these phrases to the person’s desire to make me feel wanted and cared for, and I never really considered the existence as an actual “miracle.” I am a logic-driven person, so “miracle” for me was those fantastical anecdotes from Jesus, Buddha, Saint Lourdes and so on. In my mind, miracle was something completely out of reach.
One day, I was watching an in-plane documentary during my flight. This documentary, that regrettably I did not write down the name or authorship, went on and on about humans being a miracle of existence. An actual miracle. Surprisingly, there was no mention to Jesus, Buddha, and other miracle performers during the whole piece. The documentary was backed with lots of factual, scientific data and numbers, showing the probability (or improbability) of our existence. It was intriguing, so over the years after that, I started researching, reading books on the theme and trying to understand this.
Here is what I found out: each one of us is a miracle of existence—your dog, that flower in your porch, your best friend, your worst enemy, you—we are all a miracle of existence.
The Fine-Tuned Universe Theory
In this intriguing theory, data suggest that the occurrence of life in this Universe is greatly sensitive to the values of certain fundamental physical constants. These values are quite improbable when looked at individually, but even more improbable considering they occurred as well together. In other words, the combination of events makes it even more improbable. It’s like the same person winning the lottery over and over again.
For example, how many particles of Helium, Oxygen, Nitrogen, and other elements we have in the Universe. If we had an element missing or the wrong distribution of the elements and mass density, particle combinations would not lead to form galaxies, stars, planets, carbon, and life. Another example is how fast the universe expands. If it were faster or slower, stars and planets would not be able to be formed the same way. Or another example, how gravity pulls things together in the precise number that allows life and stars to form. The number of parameters outlined in this theory is mind-blowing. Between strong and week nuclear constant, gravitational force, electromagnetic force, electron to proton mass ratio, proton decay ration, entropy levels, the velocity of light, cosmological constant and so on, I found at least 34 parameters that could impact existence, if not fined tuned. Each of these parameters has a very narrow life-permitting range in its numbers, and that’s why the theory is called the “fine-tuned” universe.
The following video is very well put together by its author William Lane Craig, so I decided to share it here, as it illustrates perfectly the idea above in a very visual way.
The improbable birth
Let’s start with this: how many people we have in the world? Among all these people, two existed in that same period, met somehow, liked each other somehow, and decided to make love. Well, or something along those lines. What we want to convey here is the improbability of these two people meeting, from the see of people that exists out there.
Ok, but let’s make this more fun. So let’s say a healthy woman will have around 300 or 400 eggs available during her reproductive life, out of the 1 million eggs she was born with. The egg with your genes had to make it to the finals! (the 300 / 400 eggs) Now also consider that 300 million sperms make it into a woman, but from all of those, only one can fecundate an egg. If the egg is ready, that is.
It means that for your embryo to form, after your parents fantastically met, the sperm with half of your genes had to be the lucky one at the cross line, at the right time, and with the right lucky finalist egg (from those 400) containing the other half of your genes. On top of that, scientists predict with 93% accuracy that two-thirds of all human embryos will fail to develop, so you were the other third that was successful at moving forward. And then, for the pregnancy to come to term, many conditions had to be met as well, like mother’s nutrition, time in the womb, placenta healthiness, and so on.
So even if we ditch the fine-tuned universe theory altogether, for birth alone, several improbable factors combined were also responsible for your existence in the world. How amazing is that?
Why is this important: the MINDSET change
We have to realize that each living being on this planet is here in a very miraculous way. And this is important because it shows that we are all equally miraculous. Every encounter you have is a miracle. Every experience you have is a miracle. Everything around us is gifts from the universe. What are we doing with these gifts? How do we perceive these gifts? How are we reacting to these gifts? There is a purpose to everything that happens. We just have to look closer and have the right mindset to find out what it is. If you have this mindset, you’ll realize that anything is possible. You can achieve all your goals. All you have to do is: 1) define your goals; 2) take action; 3) don’t miss any opportunities and miracles of existence that come your way related to your goals.
Coaching Assignment
If you are interested in developing this mindset, here is a coaching assignment for you.
Step 1: For one day, wake up and decide that you will remind yourself that every encounter is a miracle.
Step 2: With every interaction throughout your day, silently whisper in your mind, “this is a scientific miracle.” Since it’s a miracle and should not be happing, ask yourself what is the purpose of this “miracle of existence.”
Step 3: Make notes of what your reactions are, even to “bad” situations, when you have this type of mindset. How do you see that “naggy” co-worker now that you look at him/her and remember he/she must be here for a reason? Ask yourself what are you learning from this new experience or interaction. What is this “gift” bringing you today? Take notes, so you can revisit them later.
Don’t set expectations prior to your day; just focus on being an observer to your reactions. Once you understand that everything is a miracle of existence, you’ll start to have more and more critical thinking about how that miracle is showing itself to help you achieve your goals.
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