He is the Originator of the heavens and the earth...[Surat al-Anam: 101]
In the Beginning, at the Moment of Creation, there was pure Energy as everything was created from nothing. Per the First Law of Thermodynamics, this Energy has been neither created nor destroyed since the Beginning, it has simply changed form (E=mc^2).
But what form has the Energy taken?
Stephen Hawking, one of the greatest minds in Physics, looks back upon the universe in his book, "A Brief History Of Time", and writes: "It would be very difficult to explain why the universe should have begun in just this way, except as the act of a God who intended to create beings like us. (Hawking, p.127)"
An implication of Hawking's comment is that, if you don't believe in a Creator and maintain that the universe was born of a "Big Bang", then you have an "irrational faith" in luck. Why? Because it is, for all intents and purposes, impossible for the historical flow of events to have unfolded as they have by chance such that you exist as an intelligent being able to look back upon the universe and contemplate its meaning. Accordingly, a reasonable mind will believe the Beginning was the Moment of Creation and the Energy has been used to do the Creator's work ever since.
So what does the universe mean?
Let's first consider the word, "UNI"-"VERSE":
"UNI" may be defined as "one".
"VERSE" may be defined as "a sentence" (as in The Bible).
Thus, one way to think of the "UNIVERSE" is as it being "one sentence", i.e., A UNIFIED FORM OF EXPRESSION.
In this context, let's presume that the universe is not a product of freak luck and therefore unintelligible, but rather that the universe is, in fact, the meaningful work of an intelligent Creator, i.e., "God". (Hence our ability to comprehend it.)
What is the purpose of the universe in which we dwell?
If the universe is thought of as a sentence, the Creator of the universe is the Author of the sentence. I believe the purpose of the sentence being written by God in the form of the universe is to express His meaning to you. After all, the word "sentence" is derived from "sense". You are a sentient creature in the context of God's Creation and are therefore designed to sense the meaning of what God is authoring.
Now consider this. What is special about a sentence?
A sentence can be defined as: "a group of syntactically related words that states something". What's remarkable about a sentence is that the value, i.e., meaning, is greater than the sum of the parts. After all, the meaning of each word in a sentence, and each letter of each word, is of limited or no value in expressing the meaning of a sentence as a whole. Indeed, the meaning expressed is really derived from the RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN the letters and the words in unified form. The universe, IMHO, is no different, and we are each part of its meaning through our relationships with others and God's creation.
What is the meaning God is seeking to convey?
Now here's where things get confused.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. [Genesis 1:27]
Who are "you"?
In a general sense you are a "life form", i.e., a form of Energy drawn since the Moment of Creation. The form you have taken is derived from lessons learned through the interaction of "conscious being" between the past and the future over time. Much of what has been learned from your "life path" since the Beginning is encoded in the "sentence" of the human genome that makes "you". (For the devout secular believer, you are literally stardust that has fortuitously fallen into place over all time up to the moment you read this. The point of contention is whether your good fortune was divine providence or freak luck.)
So what do you do as a "human being"?
That which is "I", i.e., your conscious being, is always NOW. That being is in between the past and the future. That being CHOOSES the the course between the past and the future, i.e., your life path. More specifically, we choose from future possibilities based upon past realized possibilities as we author our own lives and, in turn, transform this world.
In this sense, you are an author of your life story as God is the Author of HIStory. You are both a creature and a creator. This is free will.
But how can this be?
Is human history authored according to God's Will or not?
That's up to you:
Will you choose a loving relationship with God and be a meaningful part of the eternal story your Author is writing?
Or will you misspell your life and be a meaningless, temporary mistake?
This is the life lesson of HIStory Christ is teaching.
The choice to take part is yours.
DOES THIS MAKE "SENSE" TO YOU?
"Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?' Does your work say, 'He has no hands'?
Woe to him who says to his father, 'What have you begotten?' or to his mother, 'What have you brought to birth?' [Isaiah: 45:9-10]
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