Beyond the Sea of Life on a Bridge Called Why

By Joel M Levin MD

There are opposing viewpoints that keep our voyage afloat. Like all matters in life there are people with strong opinions that are black and white while others live in the gray zone. These people are the independent ones, the fence hangers and doubting Thomas’s who continue to say show me the proof! It has always been the music in my life that helps me understand the majesty and glory of my being.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9781546274278

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© 2019 Joel M Levin MD. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 01/04/2019

ISBN: 978-1-5462-7428-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-7426-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-7427-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018915261

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Scripture taken from Jewish Old Testement Tanakh Copyright, 1917,

By The Jewish Publication Society of America

All rights reserved

CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter 1: The Essence of Life

Chapter 2: All Aboard

Chapter 3: The Story of Ahanu

Chapter 4: The Story of Alice

Chapter 5: The Story of David

Chapter 6: The Story of Mary

Chapter 7: The Saga of the Four Amigos

Chapter 8: We’ve Been Here before, Por Favor!

Chapter 9: Three’s a Crowd

Chapter 10: Beauty and the Boat

Chapter 11: The New Century and the Millennium

Chapter 12: Can We Survive the Battle of Human versus Microbe?

Chapter 13: Man, Metals, and Machines: Can We Get Along?

Chapter 14: Moving on Down the Road

Chapter 15: Friend or Foe? Who’s to Know?

Chapter 16: The Sixth Extinction or Ultimate Revolution

Chapter 17: The Final Symposium

Chapter 18: The Seminar: What Is Life?

Chapter 19: Believe It or Not

Chapter 20: The Real Debate Begins: Is That All There Is?

Chapter 21: There Is More to the Story

Chapter 22: Let’s Give God a Chance

Chapter 23: Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Chapter 24: Stairways to Heaven

Chapter 25: Gods, Giants, and Frequent Flyers

Chapter 26: The Bridge of Why: The Captain’s Log

About the Author

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A DEDICATION

To all my teachers, mentors, and heroes and the guiding hands on my voyage through life. And especially, in loving memory of my parents, who were mates on their sea of life and weathered the storms together.

Finally, for those who search to understand the mystery and magic of our beings.

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THE SEA

We are tied to the ocean and when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch—we are going back from whence we came.

—John F. Kennedy

For life and death are one-, even as the river and the sea are one.

—Khalil Gibran

It is like a voyage of discovery into unknown lands, seeking not for new territory but for new knowledge. It should appeal to those with a good sense of adventure.

—Frederick Sanger

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PREFACE

Evolution

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Well I can’t tell you where I’m going, I’m not sure of where I’ve been

But I know I must keep travelin’ till my road comes to an end

I’m out here on my journey, trying to make the most of it.

—Dolly Parton

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Life is like an ever-flowing sea and can be called the sea of life. Ancient civilizations looked to the heavens and the sea for answers. There are many religious myths, legends, and belief systems that suggest our creation. Science, in a different manner, uses experimentation and mathematical formulas to propose theories regarding the origin of life.

In this book, we will look at some basic questions regarding human existence and try to sort it all out. They are as follows:

1. Where are we from and how did it all begin?

2. Where are we going when our life’s journey ends?

3. Does death extinguish our existence?

4. If there is no finality, what existence may lie beyond it?

5. What are the religious and scientific ideas regarding these questions?

Life will be compared to the ongoing currents of the sea that are ever moving forward as an ocean vessel upon it. When you travel, there is the final port of call where you must get off. We will examine the final port of call in some detail, as it may not be what you think it is.

In Beyond the Sea of Life, the word evolution does not refer to the evolution of the human species but to a steady progression of thought regarding these questions. Many scientists tell us we arose from the sea in an evolutionary way. The Bible says that God created heaven and earth and then the sea, with all that dwells within it. Is there an impasse in these opposing views? Or are we looking at the same issue through different foci? Is there a possibility of a middle ground or a new understanding where both concepts can merge? That is my Bridge of Why. Let’s see if we can cross it together.

Religion has been the center of belief from ancient times, with science as we know it today playing a marginal role. At this time there is a vigorous scientific and religious debate. As I am not an expert in either theology or science, this approach will be different.

I decided to fictionalize the story, using the sea as a symbol of our travel through life. The reader imagines many people who travel together on a sea cruiser called the Sea of Life. The travelers enter at different times and from different places, but all share in the voyage of their lifetimes. We will observe each life with interest while learning about ourselves. A vast but fixed period of time is viewed from the lofty height of fictional possibility. Imagine that you are standing on a captain’s bridge called the Bridge of Why. Each passenger will share his or her life experience with us as he or she boards. We listen to the passengers and, at times, question them about their life’s journey. We have experts on board who will give us some details and have prepared some seminars, as is customary on a cruise. We promise to make the travel educational but also tempered by easy conversation and moments of humor. The final fictional port of call is a port called America, where our Sea of Life cruise ends. On the bridge, we see a foggy cloud that does not allow clear entry to a channel toward the Harbor of Knowledge.

After knowing each passenger, we ask him or her about further travel in order to understand his or her belief about existence after life’s voyage ends. This is posed as a question in a nautical manner. Does the traveler intend to go onward to another port, meaning an afterlife existence? We remain on our voyage together, and many well-known and knowledgeable guests join us. As we cruise along, these guests will discuss several interesting topics. As we near the final port of America, they will answer our questions. As we approach that port, a distinguished panel presents a seminar called Is That All There Is? At the conclusion, we need to decide if we shall remain on the Bridge of Why or exit one way or the other. Our minds continue to search beyond the fog and the horizon, as do sailors with binoculars looking fore and aft. After all is done, the master of the vessel will close the ship’s log and reflect on the voyage.

The Sea of Life is based on a sentiment repeatedly expressed by my dad during his lifetime. He and my mom went through the Great Depression, the personal loss of loved ones, many financial woes, and other stressful issues that arose from time to time. In spite of it all, he had a balanced calm nature and optimism. He believed in the power of positive thinking and was a good master of his life. He would say to my mom, We will weather the storm together. Many times, he spoke about the changing tides of life. This led me to use the sea as a metaphor.

As life goes on, I am on a bridge that questions why or how we exist. As a physician and musician who grew up in a religious family, I don’t know the answer. Are you there with me? Or have you already made your stand? One can admire and envy those with resolute stands. It was easier as a kid when my family tradition became my own as my beliefs were based on the faith of my father. When I became a physician later on in life, sobering medical experiences changed me forever. I saw death for the first time in medical school. As a doctor in care of many from the cradle to the grave, I witnessed premature deaths, human suffering, and the ravages of disease and the aging process, standing by as family, friends, and patients passed away. I heard the lament, Why me, God? many times. So I began to wonder. It seemed as simple as a sunrise and a sunset, with death as the finality.

Later on, as I matured as a physician, there were times when I observed something very interesting that changed me forever. There were new ongoing experiments where prayer was added as part of the care of seriously ill patients. They are called studies double-blind controlled studies. Prayer was added as part of the care process for one group of patients. The other group received standard care. Neither patient group knew whether prayer was involved in their care, and the prayer teams did not know the people they were praying for. In the group where prayer was included, patient survival was lengthened, and sometimes there was remission of the disease. How could that be? What was happening? Was there more to know about healing than what was taught in medical school? When I was a young doctor, my father said that listening to a patient and showing care would always be better than writing a prescription. It turned out, he was right.

I was raised in a home with parents and grandparents; such multigenerational homes where families stayed together were once common. My grandfather was devout in his faith and had great skills in strongly debating his point of view. My father, however, was the sort who showed an understanding and accepted different viewpoints but remained trusting in God. Both firmly rejected the Bridge of Why, with strongly believing in heavenly reward after death.

At an early point in life, something happened that made me begin to think independently. On a Saturday or Sunday, depending on the family, there was an obligatory trip back to Grandma’s house and a pleasant time for all. I got to know my uncles, who all contributed to my life in one way or another. Our kinship was obvious.

One of my uncles changed my life forever and started me on the questions that are the focus of the book. I spent time with this uncle when the two of us would part from the large family group. They were special encounters that I still remember, and he unknowingly became my early mentor. It gave me a chance to absorb new ideas and expand my thinking. He the son of a fundamentally religious father always took a few moments to speak with me about many things. He never spoke in terms of religion or any one scientific theory but had a great range of knowledge about many things. I would describe him as a deep thinker and a person of quiet demeanor.

He suggested that I expand my reading, as he had a nice library. I’d always loved reading the books that young people liked, but these were different. Some questioned the strict theology I was raised with in terms of the origin of life. For example, in Worlds in Collision, Immanuel Velikovsky suggested that the planet Venus arose from an interplanetary encounter in our solar system. At that point, Venus was a comet and changed Earth’s orbit. He said this cosmic event, by itself, influenced the religions of the time. Velikovsky said this led to many of the mythical legends of the Bible and other ancient legends. He proposed that the origin of many religions was based on natural events.

I began to look for sources other than the Bible to see if this was so. The cult of Venus the comet/planet as a goddess, for example, led to various legends in many ancient cultures. When Venus came close to Earth, it appeared in the sky as a comet and then a shining light, as a heavenly object; it was thought to be a deity and was worshiped as a goddess.

That book is now discredited, but it was for me an early exposure questioning the origin of humankind and our gods. It is well known that early civilizations always looked to the sky for answers. Their priests, as observers of the sky, were also expert astrologists. What they could not understand about the heavens became a God concept for the people they served, who were asking the very same questions we are still asking today. God was the ready answer then, and that is how creationism began. Science was not ready to weigh in on alternative concepts. We now have different concepts and ideas about human existence.

It was both exciting and challenging for me to attempt this project. If successful, we will review some complex issues in an understandable manner. I must acknowledge family, friends, and all my life teachers who inspired me and gave me the courage to do so. I have great appreciation for all the great thinkers over time who contributed much to this book and the musical composers and illustrators who hopefully make this enjoyable for you. They say one picture is worth thousands of words, and music can heighten one’s emotions and awareness. Lastly, appreciation goes to the publisher and the entire staff, who have always been there to assist and advise me, helping to make my work product better. What remains is for you, the honored guests, to render your judgment at the end of our journey.

CHAPTER 1

The Essence of Life

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We were born before the wind

Also younger than the sun

Ere the bonnie boat was won as we sailed into the mystic

—Van Morrison, Into the Mystic

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The lyrics go on to say that, when the foghorn blows, he will be coming home and won’t have to fear it.

That captures the concept. It is amazing to see how music can express the things we authors try to say with words. Music sums up the thousands upon thousands of words used by some authors who explore the lofty subjects of creation, life, and death. One example is Into the Mystic.

There are many reasons that humans are attracted to water and the sea. Water is essential to all life; nothing can live without it. It is a prime essence for life. Our bodies are made up of many chemicals and an internal sea that acts as a solvent and helps transfer things in and out of our bodies. That is one reason I offer, based on physiology. We simply can’t live without it, and our bodies are made up largely of water, as is our planet. Humans need water; when early humans left the forests, they searched for bodies of water and usually settled along them. Scientists searching the skies, to this day, state that, if water is ever discovered somewhere, there likely is some form of life.

Evolutionists say that life emerged from the sea, and there is a subliminal desire embedded within us to return to our origin. From early life on, children take pleasure in splashing and playing in water, as many adults do on vacation. Therefore, our brains must have some affinity to water that drives us to feelings of happiness.

There are theories that human brains started to grow rapidly after we separated from the early forests and began to live close to water. People started to eat fish and other products of the sea. As a physician, I know that fish are plush with omega-3 fatty acids. This fatty substance is necessary for brain development and brain function. Our brains expanded rapidly. We know that modern nutrition recommends consuming fish products. Medical literature also shows that those who ingest a lot of fish suffer from less depression.

It is no wonder then that ancient cultures lived near and revered water sources, perhaps not knowing the things we just reviewed. In history and in modern times, we see initiations and death ceremonies filled with reverence, including baptism with water, the cleansing of hands and body with water, and the simple happiness and peace one gets from staring out to sea. I think of the Greek and Egyptian mortuary ceremonies for the ancient dead. They involved traveling to another world on a river. In the Viking mortuary ceremony, the departed is set out to sea aflame. In the ancient Jewish tradition, the priests’ hands were washed in a consecration ceremony on the Day of Atonement. As I am writing these words, it is the time of Passover and Easter. Water is represented as the removal of pollution during the Passover meal, and there is a ritual use of water during the Seder and a remembrance of the exodus by the parting of the sea. Jews also remove the pollution of exposure to death when leaving the cemetery before returning home. Water has ritual use in Christianity (holy water), as well as in many other religions for spiritual cleansing. It becomes part of the last rites before one dies.

The Hindu love of the Ganges as a cleansing of both body and soul (spirit) as a religious rite is well known. The concept is that life is ongoing and cyclical. Each world is destroyed in preparation for the next. The various gods or manifestations of gods known as Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are involved in the cyclical creation and destruction that occurs over and over. The belief is that there are more creations than drops of water in the Ganges. In India, the sacred River Ganges embodies the water of life for Hindus. Legend has it that the Ganges is the river that flows beyond its earthly bounds to Moksha, the realm of nirvana.

Water is used as a means to protect against evil and in other ways. Jeremiah describes God as the fountain of living waters (Jeremiah 2:13; 17:13). Juan Ponce de León tried to deny aging by looking for the fountain of youth. Martin Luther King Jr. said in one of his sermons, Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. Many people go to healing spas to enjoy the pools and hot tubs. Nutritionists advise all of us to drink a lot of water. Doctors of medicine add water therapy to the healing process.

I enjoy this quote by the famous author Mark Twain, who looked at water in an interesting way: High and fine literature is wine, and mine is only water; but everybody likes water. I guess we can add a touch of humor by mentioning the fictional comic strip character Bathless Groggins, who was created by Al Capp. He is the ultimate contrarian to all that has been said. Water for him seems unnecessary, and he resists it. Since we are talking about the essence of water, in opposition, he becomes the atheist.

We find another instance in the Bible, where the sea is referred to in a different light –as a sea beast to be feared. The leviathan is mentioned by name in the book of Job but is also present in many ancient sea narratives, where a primeval monster is defeated by the gods. There is also the legend of Jonah and the great whale. There’s the tale of Noah and the great flood, in which God punished the wickedness of civilization by wiping it out.

A flood narrative is also seen in many cultures. There is a sea creature known in Scottish legend as Nessie, the Loch Ness monster, an aquatic being that reputedly inhabits Loch Ness in the Highlands. Water is often associated with danger and death. This is true not only in the aforementioned examples but also with all the floods and tsunamis in our world today. For those who are spiritualistic, Nostradamus, a physician and astrologer who lived during the sixteenth century, would stare into a bowl filled with water. While observing the liquid, he would receive visions of the future. Some claim that, as a seer, he foresaw many future events. In a somewhat relative prediction, he said that the earth’s polar ice would melt in our times. He also seemed to predict great flooding, which we have seen in in the Gulf of Mexico basin in recent years.

Science tries to rationalize all such events, searching for verification of natural disasters that could have been interpreted as acts of the gods. The great flood is one of the topics under investigation. One theory refers to a great flood in the Black Sea seven thousand years ago, which may have been translated into Noah’s flood. A more global theory that accounts for the great floods in other cultures is that a comet crashed to earth five thousand years ago. Geological research has suggested many floods in the history of our planet. Flooding and the rising of ocean levels today, based on global warming, is becoming a concern for those who live in coastal areas.

In modern times, we read about and encounter the modern beasts of the sea. There are sharks, alligators, crocodiles, eels, and sea creatures—the source of phobias and fears for many of us. Fear of water alone is one of the most common phobias. Interestingly enough, the fear of the sea or large bodies of water is called Thallasophobia referring to Thalassa the ancient Grecian name for the Mediterranean Sea. For some, dreams that involve the sea can reflect some past trauma (for example, drowning) if one believes in past lives. I myself have a phobia of swimming in deep water, including the ocean. Yet the sight of a calm sea and sailing upon the sea are relaxing. Many Americans are afraid of deep open bodies of water, including the deep end of a pool. As a young child, I saw a child drown in the waters of Lake Michigan. This fear was compounded by my uncle’s sink-or-swim theory of learning to swim. This uncle just threw me in the lake as I flopped around like a fish caught in a net. My fear was again magnified when I almost drowned in a pool while vacationing with my young wife. I lost the phobia but never learned how to swim. Thankfully, I did not deny my children that tool for both survival and pleasure.

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CHAPTER 2

All Aboard

My earlier works were centered on different aspects of life. My first book, Our Beguine: The Dance of Life, dealt with a point when I felt that physical being and pleasure had attained the highest crest after I married my dear wife, Donna. There are many ideas and thoughts about when life begins, and it is not my intent to enter the fray. When I married, I had accumulated twenty-two years of experience prior to meeting her, but my life was fragmented and never on solid ground until I met her and my new responsibilities.

As the tides of life rolled onward, Donna was lost to me in the murky waters and the fog called death. Her passing led to the book I wrote in commemoration of our life together for almost a half a century. In a way, that book led to the present one. In a sense, I felt that I emotionally died with her, and I started thinking about death. What had happened to her? Was she now in a new life—one that I couldn’t share? Did one ever join his or her loved ones after death as my family believed? It was a book of love lost, but it didn’t satisfy my thirst for answers to the questions we are now asking in greater detail.

I had to set my compass in a new direction and leave the serious and searching thoughts in that book. In a new book, I spoke of a gentle stream of life where things are not as stormy. It was a comfort book, written because I had been a loyal Chicago Cubs fan for more than seventy years, and the Cubs had finally won a world championship. The book was called Holy Cow, Black Cats and Billy Goats and looked at life in a different way.

This book is entirely different from those and is more philosophical and searching. It takes us on a different journey and the age-old quest to know what may happen when life’s journey is at an end. What is waiting for us? And where are we headed? I was reminded of an old saying common to the time of the Roman Empire all roads led to Rome. This rang a bell for me, and using an author’s imagination, I changed the saying to all roads lead to home. What is home? Is it the place where we reside, the earthly home? Or does another home await us? The book is a factual discussion and debate regarding this question. Will we remain on the Bridge of Why forever? Or is there a gate that will be opened and the clear air of understanding will be upon us?

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Home is the sailor, home from the sea,

And the hunter home from the hill.

—From Requiem, by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)

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We are now on our way to discovery and have started to move away from the dock. All our fictional travelers are aboard, and we are now at sea. You are invited onto the Bridge of Why. We’ve asked many experts to join us to make your travel educational as well as enjoyable. It’s important for me as the captain and master of the ship as well, as I still don’t see the pathway to the Harbor of Knowledge ahead. It will be important for us to watch each traveler from the bridge, to welcome these travelers and invite them to tell us why they have joined us. In doing so, we may learn much about ourselves, which is one purpose of the excursion. The captain of the Sea of Life considers you very special guests and wishes you bon voyage.

CHAPTER 3

The Story of Ahanu

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Getting to know you,

Getting to know all about you.

Getting to like you,

Getting to hope you’ll like me.

—Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein,

from The King and I

The earth is our mother;

We must take care of her.

Hey yanna, ho yanna, hey yan yan.

—Traditional Native American song

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We look down at a cheerful but watchful man. He is smiling and acknowledges that we are speaking with him. He is used to it, and he states that we must be spirits from above. His medicine man has always told him about us. He failed to see us, no matter how many times he looked, even when he was in the sweat hut for days or was given some potent medicine from his shaman. At last it is no longer necessary, as you, great spirits, found me in a time of need.

His story begins in what we perceive to be 1730. He has no knowledge of a united country but, rather, of the territory of his people who spoke the same language and shared the same land. They called themselves the Blackfoot. He tells us there are many large mountains around the plains and many waters and abundant creatures around him. There were other people around him when he was young. He remembers there was trade with them, but at times, there were quarrels that had to be settled by war.

We ask about the origin of his people’s name, but he’s not sure. He knows that their sandals are dark and black. Some elders told him that his people went from place to place, and their footwear became dark with ashes or the earth. In fact, his grandfather, who lives in a tipi (we call it teepee) in his small tribe, tells him that his people once came from the east a very long time ago, and once they were pushed out from their territory by enemies called the Cree.

Ahanu tells us that he had no regular home most of the time and had to travel from place to place. The large tribe of people, which he saw only during summer or for special holiday ceremonies and rituals, was divided into smaller traveling groups during the harsh winters. He usually lived near a wooded area near water with a smaller group of a hundred or so people during the colder seasons. The smaller group had a leader or a chief. Ahanu tells us that the tribe divided into groups in order to hunt the buffalo and the deer and, on occasion, catch fish from the nearby waters. The groups lived near the areas where the animals wintered. He remembers returning the spring to a larger tribal camp.

At an early age, he was taught how to hunt the great animals using traps, snares, and bow and arrow. In his early youth, hunting was done on foot. In addition to this primary source of diet, his mother and other women of the tribe would gather vegetable foods. The use of the meat and the vegetables was governed by a great man in his gathering who knew the safety of the world around them and the value and safety of the types of foods that made up their diets. He was the shaman (medicine man). He also taught them to revere and respect the animals who gave up their lives in order for them to survive. There was never a killing for fun. The buffalo hunt was to provide food.

Ahanu saw horses at an early age, but his tribe had none. The people who traded with or attacked them had these animals. His people eventually acquired