322 Self and the Phenomenon of Life
b2726 Self and the Phenomenon of Life: A Biologist Examines Life from Molecules to Humanity “9x6”chemistry level of atoms and molecules, then the biological world of
cells and organisms, then the geophysical world of mountains, oceans
and the Earth, and lastly the astronomical world of planetary systems,
galaxies, and the universe. At one end is the smallest possible distance —
the Planck length, measuring 1 × 10 -^33 cm.^15 At the other is the diameter
of the visible universe, measuring 1 × 1029 cm across. In between and
situated “conveniently” near the middle is the familiar world of men,
approximately from 1 × 10 -^5 cm to 1 × 105 cm, within which everything
seems natural, reasonable, and manageable. However, if we traverse
across different levels of reality, what is real on one plane becomes
irrelevant and even nonsensical on another. For instance, quantum
physics defies the common sense of Newtonian mechanics. A paradox
can appear at the interface, as in Schrödinger’s proverbial cat, which
is said to be both alive and dead in the quantum state until brought to
the Newtonian world.^16 One can never be attracted to the opposite sex
by analyzing the molecular composition of the body. Compassion, fear
and other emotions reside in higher animals but are absent in microbes.
Religion may appear delusory from the evolutionary stand point, as may
romantic love from thermodynamics. On the other extreme, the cosmic
scale of time makes human life seem too short to be worth living at all.
14.4 Self and Existential Anxiety
Endowed with the faculty of introspection, each person at one point in
life realizes, rather shockingly, his or her own mortality, leading to an
existential crisis (Fig. 14.2). This painful moment of truth is the rite of
passage that propels us to seek refuge and to anchor our ephemeral exis-
tence on something more permanent, preferably eternal. Paul Tillich
said that the finitude of life is the origin of religion.^17 Earlier, Augus-
tine, the Bishop of Hippo, appealed to God in the opening remark of
his Confessions, “Our heart is restless until it rests in You.” Nonetheless,
not everyone finds refuge in a hypothetical, anthropomorphic God. The
proofs of God’s existence given by Thomas Aquinas are no longer as