Lifes Uncertainty

Last week a women in her late eighties died in a horrible automobile accident. She'd lived a full life and, in any event, her time on Earth was drawing to a close. Her death therefore could be viewed as one of little consequence to anyone but those who loved her. There would likely have been little more of signifigance which she could have accomplished had her life not ended so tragically and had she been allowed to continue to a more natural demise. Even so, there may have been things she would have done to affect the lives of others, whether in a positive or a negative way. This will now never be known. We know with a certainty when her potential to have an effect ended; that is, we know with a certainty when her life ended, as we know when life in general ends. For this elderly lady life ended when a sharp piece of metal cut into her, removing her head and a portion of her right shoulder from the rest of her body. But when did her life begin? Did it begin at some half way point between the time she was born and when she died (that is, when she was in her forties)? Of course not. Did it begin half the way prior to then; at some time when she was in her twenties? Of course not. At birth? Possibly. What about ten seconds prior to birth? Most would say yes, she was then alive, some may say not. What about thirty seconds prior to her birth? Again, most would say she was then alive. Now go back one second at a time and, after each second you go back, ask yourself, "Was she then alive?" At what point in time do you finally make the determination between her actually being alive and her simply having "the potential for life"? Which backward counted second, separated one- life/potential for life- from the other? Her life had a beginning (the second in which she began to exist) which was just as certain as its ending (the second her life ended and she ceased to exist). Such things are certain as a matter of fact, though sometimes uncertain by human determination, and this cannot be denied. Some choose to ignore this inconvenient truth. It is our beliefs about facts that cause our lives to be full of uncertainties. It is our beliefs that cause us to deny (or simply ignore) the truths we are unwilling to accept.