Dear Baya,

      One further set of general questions; please be patient! Why are we here? What I mean is, can you tell me a little of how history works, how things change, and what led to the strange world in which I am growing up?

      I’ve heard several explanations. Some of my teachers and friends say that our world was all planned by God. God worked out the rules which guide how things change and He has a plan for how it will all end up. We are moving towards a final – hopefully good – ending. This would be comforting. But is it true?

     Many of my other friends and teachers tell me that there is no God and no purpose in history. It is all a set of accidents and chances, there is no plan or pattern. Still others seem to see some pattern, but not one directed by God. They say that long-term evolution based on random variations which are sometimes saved because they are better adapted to the world can explain how things came to be as they are.

     I’d love to know what you think. Is life chaos, or are there patterns and tendencies which can be found out and which would help us to predict the future? And how do changes usually occur? Is it usually the result of revolutions which change everything, or more usually a continuous movement of small adjustments? Or is it genes?

      I think if you could tell me about this it would tie together all the other bits of the answers you’ve given me. You have often told me how we have to separate and divide reality because we can’t study everything at the same time. But at some time we have to join everything together again and treat it as a whole. Like painting a picture in parts, but it ends up as a whole picture which is taken in by us in one glance. Could you try to tie all that you have told me together at the end?

Lots of love,