I wanted to do this small thought experiment about the reality of nature.
Just a little thought experiment. No harm done. No babies hurt.
There is a slope, a slope of earth with some gravel on the way down, a little muddy, a little slippery but a definite slope.
Below the slope, at the bottom, is a beautiful little baby. It’s barely a few weeks old. It can barely see. It cries once in a while, then it stops, looks at the passing birds flying away, and giggles. It has a little dimple, which makes it look, extra cute. It’s wrapped in a tight cozy sweater, It can’t crawl, It can’t move. It can barely move its head. Needless to say it’s obviously innocent. it’s just lying there, neatly tucked into the warm sweater, at the bottom of the slope. It’s a bit uneasy but doing okay. Little alarmed, there is no mum or pop nearby. In fact, there is no other soul nearby. It’s just this little baby all by itself, wrapped in a cozy sweater at the bottom of the slope.
At the top of the slope is a huge rock, almost shaped like a boulder, it’s huge. It’s the size of a full-grown man, both in height and width.
Of course, a rock of that size is extremely heavy, almost the size that Sisyphus would be pushing up a mountain. A very big rock indeed. But there is no Sisyphus here. There is no one here. There is only a big rock at the top of the slope.
It’s sitting there comfortably but every once in a while it slides down the slope a little bit. It slides down a little, gets held back by friction from some of the gravel, some of the soil. It holds there for a while until some part of the earth gives away. A little gravel breaks away and the big rock starts sliding down again.
We do not know who put the baby there. We do not know who put the boulder at the top of the slope but we do know that the baby is lying there helplessly and the boulder is slowly and surely sliding down. If it keeps sliding down, it is but natural. As an apple falling from a tree, the boulder will neatly slide onto the baby’s head. Oh boy that will be something.
In fact the boulder is so huge that even a few grown men would get neatly squished below it. Yet what we have is a little baby, a little, innocent, soft baby tucked in a cozy sweater, no bigger than a grown man’s forearm. In fact quite smaller than a grown man’s forearm and quite a lot more delicate and tender.
As the boulder slowly slides down, little pieces of rock and soil, tumble down the slope. Some of it falls next to the baby. It makes the baby uncomfortable. It cannot understand what is happening or what might happen or who is responsible but something makes it uncomfortable. It just lies there uncomfortably, not crying yet but with an unease that only babies can understand.
Now, knowing the nature of babies, the nature of slopes, the nature of big heavy rocks sliding down slopes, and the nature of this world, WHAT, do you think, will happen?
And, WHEN, whatever you think will happen, happens. ( which can be anything by the way, Its completely up to you )
But when that happens - Who is responsible ?
- Are you responsible?
- Is God responsible?
- Is the wind responsible?
- Is the soil responsible?
- Are there invisible people hiding, who put the rock there, and put the baby there ? Are they responsible ?
- Who is responsible for anything that might happen ?
Well, That is the whole thought experiment, my dear friend. That, is all. That is all.