Treacherous journey forward

Dr Fahim Chand | Monday May 30, 2022 06:00

This never ending war began 200,000 to 300,000 years ago as Homo sapiens began populating earth and it still rages on today. Eight billion people are enveloped in this conflict everyday, a war against ourselves. Humankind’s greatest ally and enemy.

The human psyche. As each of us make our grand entrance onto our planet, there is no Earth manual waiting to guide us forward. We disembark into our parents waiting arms and it is under their protective wings we traverse our way through life. The time eventually arrives when we segue into the real world, with our parents in the faded distance, still watching and always there but for our schooled psyches to navigate the precarious journey forward. Each crusade your own, each questioned posed solely for you to answer and every difficult moment yours to conquer.

As I raised my head, a quick glance through the large windows revealed the rapidly advancing evening. In the north, winter came quickly. As I looked around the large high ceilinged room, separated by what seemed like countless cubicles, a few people milled about finishing off the day’s work. I tidied up my cubicle and gathered my instruments ready to deposit at the dispensary for sterilisation. Here I spent four lightning quick years learning the art and science of Dentistry. The venue, main dental clinic, University of Western Ontario. I had just finished a hectic Fixed Prosthodontics clinic session under the watchful eye of Dr Russell Lingard. Tall, Viking like with a square jaw and intimidating as can be. Perfection was not requested by Dr Lingard, it was DEMANDED. Needless to say I was exhausted and I was juggling menu options in my head for supper that night. As I deposited my clinical wares at dispensary, I saw my classmate and good friend Eli Shem-Tov. Cool as a cucumber with the most hypnotic light green eyes I’ve ever seen, I could tell it hadn’t been a good session for him. We walked side by side to our locker room to put on our winter jackets to brave the frigid Great North winter as we readied to go home.

The conversation was light hearted as I tried to elevate his disposition. His engaging smile creeped across his face and I could tell he was starting to feel better. One thing I am eternally grateful for is the education I received at Western. We were taught by leaders in the dental realm. In order for us to graduate and receive a licence to practise, there were numerical requirements for all dental procedures. These were substantial and were a source of great stress and anxiety as we navigated our dental journey. I could tell that these demands were weighing on Eli.

As we continued to deliberate I said: “We just have to work as hard as we can and pray to God that we finish our dental quotas”. My statement was initially greeted with silence and as I looked up, I saw a quizzical expression on Eli’s face. He finally replied: “Do you really think there is a God”. Saying I was taken aback by my friend Eli’s statement would be the understatement of the century. As you might deduce from his name, Eli is Jewish and I had many Jewish friends at university and indeed today. And while we all may have liberal interpretations of religion, it was the first time any of my Jewish friends had professed to be an atheist. I replied: “I do, don’t you?” His response was “I think humankind made up the concept of God so we would all follow certain rules and behave ourselves.” Needless to say it was an interesting drive home as thoughts of my conversion with Eli blazed through my neurons. Is there common ground between religion and science? Most religions believe in Creationism: The idea that the Earth, universe and all creatures originated by divine intervention. Additionally, some religions will accept or refute the scientific idea that evolution of species takes place. From the science community, the most prevalent theory was postulated in 1920 by Belgian priest and physicist George Lemaitre.

The Big Bang theory proposes 13.8 billion years ago that all matter came from a single point with infinite density and heat called a Singularity. This exploded with a Big Bang and began expanding and the universe as we know it then began. Scientists state that evidence for the theory includes the current continued expansion of the universe and the presence of background cosmic radiation that would have been produced from a Big Bang explosion. What to believe? And here again, that internal battle.

A study in the US indicated that 56% of people believed that the scientific and creation theories are incompatible. What do you believe? Eli’s statement astounded me but stimulated some internal introspection. Science may scoff at blind faith and belief in a divine God, as it prides itself on evidence-based conclusions. But even in Lemaitre’s posit, there is blind belief. We currently have no way of proving the Singularity explosion. Science is a big part of my evidence based professional dental life and definitely evolution of species takes place. I firmly believe this. But I undoubtedly believe in God who has played an immense role in my life. And of those who don’t, maybe they are not looking hard enough?