Life Greatest Mystery

 

Summary:

Life remains, in many ways, the greatest mystery of all as long as we are here in this world with a physical body in bondage with our soul (spirit), and the origin, and purpose here shall only be revealed to our pure souls without the body when we die.

Science provides valuable insights into how life functions and evolves, but the essence of life—the "breath" that animates inanimate matter—may lie beyond the reach of empirical investigation.  We are more than just the sum of our physical parts. Despite our best efforts, the answers seem beyond reach in this earthly existence.

The physical body keeps us in bondage from spiritual truths till only the pure spiritual soul is released on death as clearly told in Corinthians 13:12 “For now, we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known”

The verse from Corinthians captures the essence of this limitation—that our understanding is clouded by the physical world, and full clarity will only come when the soul is freed from the body.

My inward reflection speaks to the heart of human existence. The mystery of life points us toward the existence of something greater than ourselves, a Creator who imbues life with meaning, purpose, and soul. The search for answers may never fully end, but it is this search that defines us as human beings.

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Full Essay:

I have already written two articles in this blog on the mysteries of the world. But today, I am going to write about life's greatest mystery of all time.

In Genesis 2:7 it is clearly told we need the breath of God to become alive, not just alive, but alive with a living soul.

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7).

The Bible is right. How can non-living soil become alive if not for forces of life pumped or breathe life into them. The soil itself is not living. The basic components of soil are minerals, organic matter, water and air. The typical soil consists of approximately 45% mineral, 5% organic matter, 20-30% water, and 20-30% air. These percentages are only generalizations at best. In reality, the soil is very complex and dynamic. The composition of the soil can fluctuate on a daily basis, depending on numerous factors such as water supply, cultivation practices, and/or soil type. Whatever the origin, nature or chemical composition of the soil it is dead and not living except separately microorganisms that thrive in them   

Life is something science cannot explain or define. We can only describe, or define if you wish, their characteristics if they originated from the soil, from the thermal vents in deep oceans or from outer space.  We can of course mould clay into a figurine like a human being or shape it like any animal we like, but they are still not living unless there is something else, an entity we cannot define added into them. But what is that? We say it is life. But then what is life? Is it something material, some kind of energy called vital force, or is it some kind of spirit unknown to science? It is most likely life is the soul of the body itself.

Verse 7 in Genesis 2 clearly tells us it is a living soul breathed into the nostrils of man, made from the soil by God. This is similar to a figurine made from clay by a potter. If we reject this explanation then how are we going to explain the figurine of a human from the soil came alive, not just alive, but with a soul inside as a “living soul”

We can argue that an animal or a human is living because we have a heart that pumps, a pair of lungs that breathe, a digestive system that feeds, a liver that stores excessive nutrients and that detoxifies, responsible for the breakdown of insulin and other hormones, breaks down bilirubin via glucuronidation, facilitating its excretion into bile. The liver is also responsible for the breakdown and excretion of many waste products. It plays a key role in breaking down or modifying toxic substances (e.g., methylation) and most medicinal products in drug metabolism. This sometimes results intoxication, when the metabolite is more toxic than its precursor. Preferably, the toxins are conjugated to avail excretion in bile or urine. The liver converts ammonia into urea as part of the ornithine cycle or the urea cycle, and the urea is excreted in the urine.

A living body also has a pair of kidneys that excretes waste products of food and drug metabolism, balance the body's fluids and electrolytes, release hormones to control blood pressure and red blood cell production, assists with bone health by controlling calcium and phosphorus, a brain that thinks to safeguard the rest of the body, an immune system that protects against infection and so on. As long as these systems function, we are alive. But if they are damaged beyond repair, we die. We can of course temporarily stop the heart and lungs from functioning using a heart and lung machine to take over as in an open-heart surgery, but not for long without complications. There is nothing better than a natural heart that automatically beats, and a pair of lungs that automatically inspire and expire, their mechanisms.

We can explain far too well and in great lengthy detail how the body works as biomedical scientists, biochemists, and physiologists. But what we do not know is, who created them to allow us to continue to exist. This to me is the greatest of all other mysteries we have talked about earlier. It may be possible for us to explain all other mysteries encountered on Earth since ancient times, but to me, not life itself. Unfortunately, very, very few people ask this question. Everyone takes life for granted that life is always there, they come and go, and no one created them. They just live, enjoy and die as normal without any higher purpose of their existence. They never even think about why life should be here in the first place, its purpose, where did it come from, and where would life go after it has left the physical body. 

Almost everyone takes life for granted that they have a right to be here in this world without any aim or purpose. Theirs is just to be born, eat, work, enjoy a temporary life here in this world, and just leave this place without a care where their soul is going to go after that. That’s definitely not my cup of tea, else I would not be writing this essay seeking an answer to this vital question

I think almost every human being living today takes life conceded that life is automatically given by our parents. But how and when did our parents get them? Who gave it to them? We will claim it was our grandparents who gave life to our parents who in turn gave us life. We can continue arguing like that till we come to Adam and Eve. Then we come to a cul-de-sac where we no longer can explain how Adam and Eve came into existence, let alone living, except to give this glory only to God.  No longer can our fragile knowledge in biology decisively explain the various theories on the origin of life, and the subsequent flame of life that spread out on Earth through adaptation and evolution.

I think we are getting nowhere unless we have to admit there is an eternal God in this Universe. If scientists are willing to accept this, then they can use any theory they like, including the Panspermia hypothesis that life exists throughout the Universe, distributed by space dust, meteoroids, asteroids, comets, and planetoids, as well as by spacecraft carrying unintended contamination by microorganisms, believed to have originated from the Oort cloud at the edges of our solar system. The thinly dispersed collection of icy material of Oort cloud starts roughly 200 times farther away from the sun than Pluto and stretches halfway to our Sun’s nearest starry neighbour. Scientists think life may have originated from there. But where did Oort cloud get its life from? We are back to square one. It is the same as asking where did Earth get its life?

Panspermia has a long history, dating back to the 5th century BCE and the natural philosopher Anaxagoras. Classicists came to agree that Anaxagoras maintained the Universe (or Cosmos) was full of life, and that life on Earth started from the fall of these extra-terrestrial seeds. Panspermia as it is known today, however, is not identical to this original theory. The name, as applied to this theory, was only first coined in 1908 by Svante Arrhenius, a Swedish scientist. Prior to this, since around the 1860s, since then many prominent scientists were becoming interested in the theory, for example Sir Fred Hoyle, and Chandra Wickramasinghe.

In the 1860s, there were three scientific developments that began to bring the focus of the scientific community to the problem of the origin of life.  

Firstly, the Kant-Laplace Nebular theory of solar system and planetary formation was gaining favour, and implied that when the Earth first formed, the surface conditions would have been inhospitable to life as we know it. This meant that life could not have evolved parallel with the Earth, and must have evolved at a later date, without biological precursors. 

Secondly, Charles Darwin's famous theory of evolution implied some elusive origin, because in order for something to evolve, it must start somewhere. In his Origin of Species, Darwin was unable or unwilling to touch on this issue. 

Third and finally, Louis Pasteur and John Tyndall experimentally disproved the (now superseded) theory of spontaneous generation, which suggested that life was constantly evolving from non-living matter and did not have a common ancestor, as suggested by Darwin's theory of evolution.

Altogether, these three developments in science presented the wider scientific community with a seemingly paradoxical situation regarding the origin of life: life must have evolved from non-biological precursors after the Earth was formed, and yet spontaneous generation as a theory had been experimentally disproved. From here, is where the study of the origin of life branched. Those who accepted Pasteur's rejection of spontaneous generation began to develop the theory that under (unknown) conditions on a primitive Earth, life must have gradually evolved from organic material. This theory became known as abiogenesis and is the currently accepted one. 

On the other side of this are those scientists of the time who rejected Pasteur's results and instead supported the idea that life on Earth came from existing life. This necessarily requires that life has always existed somewhere on some planet, and that it has a mechanism of transferring between planets. Panspermia is the modern treatment of how life came into existence. Even so, we are still unable to explain how life began from other worlds that too were made from materials probably similar to those found on Earth. In fact, astronomers tell us we are made from stardust blown across interstellar space by a supernova explosion from a distant star. But again, we still cannot explain how did these star dusts that made up the soil on Earth became to harbour life or became alive, let alone their ability to remain alive through the almost void of interstellar space without air, water, nutrients or food besides facing microwave radiation to reach here to this world.  I think this is the greatest mysteries we can never explain or solve decisively unless we need to bring in an eternal Creator who is God

This is exactly like us humans creating Artificial Intelligence (AI). They cannot exist without us, humans as their designer and creator, except we are not capable of giving AI life unlike God. We cannot use our breath of life to breathe into AI to make them a living soul. We as humans can only make them very intelligent, but we cannot give them life with all the characteristics of life – locomotion, respiration, respond to stimulus, grow, reproduce your own kind automatically, excrete waste, and to nourish yourself. We can only design and create AI like an automatic machine, without any life or soul in them. 

We created AI to serve us as we command, in as much as God created us with a purpose so that we can serve and worship Him as He commands. There must be some aim and purpose for Him to create us just as much we design and create AI for a purpose.  

Then I think we need to bring in the role of a Creator. This is an insightful comparison between the creation of AI, and the creation of life. We recognize that while humans can create machines, even machines that can think and learn, they cannot create life. AI can simulate intelligence, but it lacks the essence of life. This leads to the conclusion that there must be something greater—an eternal Creator—who has the power to give life.

So, then what is this mysterious entity called life and its purpose? Even if we know what it is, then where did it go when life departed from the body, leaving behind those same non-living elements that made up the original soil from which we were made.

I think we can continue to argue and argue till kingdom come; we will never get the answer if we refuse to recognise the existence of God who is Eternal Life Himself, who graciously give it to us for us to pass on the flame of life from one life to another through reproduction like a flame of a lamp to the next lamp.

The lamp has a body representing the body with oil inside. This represents the fuel from food and nutrients we feed on, the wick are the cells, tissues, organs and systems through which the oil (nutrients and oxygen) is drawn, and the hot flame, the essence of life itself. When this flame is blown off or extinguished, the lamp goes off (dies) and there is darkness, not just for our lifeless body, perhaps our soul itself if we are not careful while we are still here with the opportunity to think this over.  

The flame that gives light and warmth represents not just the warmth of life, but the very soul of the lamp too before it is extinguished. If the flame dies, there will be darkness, the entire lamp – body, oil and wick crease to work instantly, exactly like a living body that has a soul. The very essence and purpose of life then ceases. But where did life go after that? It was there a minute ago but has gone away. Where did it go? It must still be there, somewhere except in another form. It has to be there, except liberated from the physical body. Life is like matter and energy that neither can be created or destroyed except transformed from one form to another. This is probably the same as the traditional belief of reincarnation of life from one form of life to another. There is even scientific truth about this scenario based on the carbon chain of life where when a body dies, it goes back to the soil as fertilizer for a plant or grass to feed and grow on which in turn is eaten by an animal only to repeat the cycle of life over and over again. That is not a problem for us to understand. What is difficult and challenging is what is life itself, and who gave it first to light the first lamp of life to pass on this flame from an unlit lamp to the next so on until we get a chain of lighted lamps that we can clearly see from the myriads of different life on Earth through hundreds of million years of evolution. This is the greatest of all mysteries to me, not those mysteries others have written.

This is one of the deepest and most profound questions of human existence—the mystery of life itself. The inquiry into what gives rise to life, what sustains it, and where it goes after death transcends scientific understanding, entering the realms of philosophy, theology, and spirituality. Let me offer my reflections.

Let’s look at Genesis and the breath of life again. The passage from Genesis 2:7 describes God breathing life into man, transforming the dust of the ground into a living soul. This verse provides a theological explanation for the origin of life, one that acknowledges the mystery beyond mere material components. The Bible does not attempt to explain how dust can become a living being through natural means. Instead, it attributes this transformation to divine intervention. The "breath of life" is a profound metaphor for the divine spark, something that transcends the elements that make up our physical bodies.

From a theological perspective, life is seen as a gift from God, a mystery that cannot be reduced to physical or chemical processes. Science can explain the mechanisms that sustain life, but the origin of life—what turns non-living matter into living organisms—remains elusive.

We have the limits of science. Despite centuries of scientific progress, we cannot fully explain how life began. Abiogenesis, the theory that life arose from non-living matter under certain prebiotic conditions, is still a hypothesis. Scientists can simulate aspects of early Earth’s conditions, and experiments like the Miller-Urey experiment have demonstrated the possibility of organic molecules forming spontaneously. But science has yet to recreate or observe the precise moment when inanimate matter becomes alive.

Let me strongly stress that life is not merely a collection of chemicals that happens to function together—it is something more. The soil, as I mentioned, is non-living, composed of minerals and organic matter. Even though life can emerge from it through processes like plant growth, the soil itself is not alive. This leads to the question.  What is the mysterious force or entity that imbues these chemicals and materials with life?

The mystery of the soul remains unanswered.  Genesis speaks of man not only being alive but having a living soul. The idea of the soul transcends biology. The soul is often considered the immaterial essence of a person, the part that gives consciousness, identity, and a connection to something greater than the physical world. If life is not merely the sum of biological processes, then the soul is what imparts meaning and purpose to that life.

Some traditions, like those in Christianity, believe that the soul is eternal, created by God and returning to Him after death. The idea that life cannot be explained by mere biology is also the same as those who believe in an afterlife or in reincarnation. I allude  to the possibility that life may continue in another form or dimension, even after the physical body dies. This is in line with many spiritual traditions that see death not as the end, but as a transition.

I gave the analogy of the Lamp and the Flame. This is an analogy of the lamp with oil, wick, and flame is a beautiful metaphor. The oil, representing sustenance, the wick, representing the physical body, and the flame, representing life, illustrate the interdependence of life’s components. When the flame goes out, the body remains, but the life force is no longer there.

The question of where life "goes" when it leaves the body reflects humanity's age-old struggle to understand death. Many traditions hold that life, or the soul, is not extinguished but rather transformed. As I mentioned, energy and matter are neither created nor destroyed, but only change forms. This could be extended to suggest that life, too, continues in another state, perhaps in a spiritual realm, or as part of a greater cosmic cycle.

I ask again, "what is this mysterious entity called life?" Theories like panspermia attempt to explain how life might have come to Earth from elsewhere in the cosmos, but even they leave unanswered the question of how life began in the first place. We can trace the origins of life back to the stars, to stardust, to molecular building blocks, but at some point, we reach a boundary where science no longer provides answers. It is here that many turn to the idea of a Creator, an eternal source of life, as the ultimate explanation.

On the purpose of life in my reflection, I express concern that many people take life for granted, living without questioning its purpose. The question of why we are here is indeed inseparable from the question of life itself. If life is a gift from a Creator, then perhaps it carries a purpose beyond mere survival and enjoyment. Many religious and spiritual traditions teach that life is a journey of growth, learning, and preparation for an existence beyond this world.

 Life remains, in many ways, the greatest mystery of all. Science provides valuable insights into how life functions and evolves, but the essence of life—the "breath" that animates inanimate matter—may lie beyond the reach of empirical investigation. The soul, as described in Genesis, is a profound reminder that we are more than just the sum of our physical parts.

My inward reflection speaks to the heart of human existence. The mystery of life points us toward the existence of something greater than ourselves, a Creator who imbues life with meaning, purpose, and soul. The search for answers may never fully end, but it is this search that defines us as human beings.

I don’t think I am able to explain the origin and mysteries of life with definite certainty except all those theories scientists have offered. I think the exact origin of life and its purpose here is going to be the greatest mysteries of all ages and shall be hidden from us as long as we are here in this world with a physical body in bondage with our soul (spirit), and the origin, and purpose here shall only be revealed to our pure souls without the body when we die. The physical body keeps us in bondage from spiritual truths till only the pure spiritual soul is released on death as clearly told in Corinthians 13:12 “For now, we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known”

In Luke 16:19-31 Jesus revealed there is a great abyss or gulf between the living and the dead that none can cross over:

‘And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, in order that those who wish to come over from here to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.’

This verse divulged by Jesus captures the essence of both spiritual and scientific truth.  

I am grappling with the mystery of life’s origin despite my best efforts, the answers seem beyond reach in this earthly existence. The verse from Corinthians captures the essence of this limitation—that our understanding is clouded by the physical world, and full clarity will only come when the soul is freed from the body.

My metaphor of the physical body as a "bondage" that restricts our spiritual understanding echoes deeply within my soul.  In the end, no matter how much knowledge we accumulate, we must recognize the boundaries of human comprehension, particularly when it comes to the spiritual dimensions of life.

Despite our vast human knowledge, we must remain very humble. I think I need to rest everything on God on how to deal with us (me) being so inquisitive. We need to leave the greater mysteries to God for us to show great humility and trust—sometimes, it's the best way to find peace amidst all the questions.

 

The Existence of The Soul is The Greatest of All Mysteries:

 

My thoughts as I pen to share with most people who cares two hoots the purpose of their existence, except theirs is just to make money, a name for themselves, acquire fame and earthy powers to enjoy their transient life here in this world for only 100 years at maximum, sadly only to leave behind everything they have acquired. This is not just material truth, but spiritual veracity that day must come our souls has no choice, but  fly away from our bodies speaks to the heart of our human existence.

The mystery of life points us toward the existence of something greater than ourselves, a Creator who imbues life with meaning, purpose, and soul. The search for answers may never fully end, but it is this search that defines us as human beings.

We pray and seek wisdom to enable us to see into the other (spiritual) dimension, not vast knowledge. Let us remind ourselves these two verses that has very a clear-cut warning for our souls:

^“For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.

 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”

(Psalm 90: 9 -10)

^“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

(Mark 8:36)

May this be so.