May 22, '06 -- Happy Thoughts
Humanity as a whole lacks the capacity to perceive the reality in which it lives. It has just enough self-awareness and perception to terrify itself with its own lack of knowledge, and so it distracts itself with science, religeon and pleasure. It is by nature self-destructive, like a badly-constructed machine that shakes itself apart, given enough time. It tries to make up its own rules, build its own version of reality in orbit around itself because it can't accept that it is not the centre of the universe--when in fact it is the only part that doesn't fit.
posted by Eben at 9:33 AM
7 Comments:
Seeking pleasure is not a bad thing. It is one of the most basic drives we have as a race: seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. You won't find a single instance of anything anyone does that doesn't, in the end, boil down to this basic need.
Religion tends to promote pain and deter the seeking of pleasure. This is mainly a control mechanism to keep the masses in line.
That being said, religion has many global concepts that are shared by every single group across the globe. This would suggest that there is a common truth that all of these religions are tying into. The problem is that they then wrap layers of dogma and ritual into it and this is one of the main ways that they differentiate themselves from one another.
I also think that the pursuit of knowledge via science is also critical to the evolution of our race. Rather than dismissing religion, I believe that one of the most important changes coming sometime in our future will be the day that we manage to merge the gap between religion and science. I don't believe that day is very far away.
See this link as an example:
http://www.cosmicfingerprints.com/
So all up, I'm afraid that I'm on the other side of the fence with your original thoughts. I don't believe that science, religion or pleasure are distractions to our evolution or that they are self-destructive.
Religion has been manipulated by many people through the ages to control the masses, and I'm by no means saying that there are no problems with religions in the world today. It's quite clear that religion is the biggest factor that has caused the greatest attrocities in our history and has been the cause of the most amount of wars and deaths.
I personally believe that our evolution will result in humanity letting go of religion and embracing "spirituality"; and as mentioned before I believe that this will be assisted by science (rather than hindered by it).
6:27 PM
i agree that seeking pleasure is not bad, and is natural to us and every other species. what bothers me is that (i believe) humans have the capacity to operate at a higher level, yet most of us seem to bang through life without thinking about it.
nothing wrong with religeon either--my problem is with how it's employed. eventually, it seems to boil down to an opiate for the masses and an easy rulebook to follow when the self-awareness becomes too scary.
pursuit of knowledge is indeed critical. what i suspect, though, is that it plays a similar role to religeon as i bitched above. humans need easy yardsticks with which to measure themselves by, or they start to panic. being self-actualised as an individual, or even a large group, can be terrifying: what do you do when you're the one in charge and responsible for your own destiny? science is an easy fix: land on the moon, chart the DNA, and relax. you know you're doing something important and measurable. in the meantime, spiritual and psychological efforts play a back seat role.
i don't believe that religeon, science or pleasure seeking are self destructive: i believe they are distractions humans use to avoid the larger issue of self-awareness. i think humans themselves are flawed; self destructive because of their innate innability to deal with their own (potential) self-awareness.
i love your last comment. i'd like to believe it, too. it seems like the next logical evolution. would be fantastic if religeon and science converge like that. i think that would lead to the awareness i see as lacking--the question is: how aware do you have to be for it to happen in the first place?
8:23 PM
I prefer to see humanity as an amazing development in the evolutionary cycle. Saying that humanity is naturally flawed gets you into the Christian mentality of original sin.
I remember some time ago when I came across a New Age belief that got me thinking. It is said that we've come to this physical realm willingly in order to participate in an experiment where we want to discover if we can get back to the Source once a "physicality veil" has been put over our heads.
Most people get sucked in and end up getting stuck in the day-to-day stuff of the physical realm. But throughout the ages there have always been sages and prophets that were able to snap away ("lift the veil") from the physical and experience the unity of getting back to the Source.
I don't know if the above is true or not, but I think it's a great way to look at life.
This concept implies that we aren't flawed at all. We're just taking part in an experiment to see how long it takes us to lift the veil and re-discover our own spirituality.
Ok, I'll stop smoking my pot now and get back to work :)
8:46 PM
i like your idea of the "physical veil", although i'd have a hard time believing it literally. it's certainly a more positive approach.
the "flaw" for me is the lack of strengh or determination to look inward. a lot of this problem comes from being at the top of the food chain. once there's nothing left to eat us, i believe the next logical step is to evolve within. this is where i think we break down as a species. it's astounding to me that we're landing on moons and charting human dna, but still can't distribute the world's food effectively or avoid blowing up each others' kids. clearly something is skewed here.
i think part of the reason for this is humanity's love affair with technology. as i mentioned before, it's a handy yardstick to measure yourself by and it offers the illusion that we're making all the progress we require. travel faster, communicate further, and live longer must mean we're meeting our evolutionary standards, no?
no. the fact that we've accomplished all these things well beyond what is required to live happily, and are still incredibly self-destructive, indicates to me that our focus could use work. looking inward is the hardest thing. it's terrifying (because there are no rules, other than "you're responsible for everything"), and it's hard to measure one's success at it.
this to me is the flaw. the fact that we have the CAPACITY for deep self-awareness, but don't seem to have the ability to deal with it effectively. hence, our frantic pursuit of technology and religeon: opiates to our human angst.
5:00 PM
You'll find that at this time more than ever we have a vast amount of more and more people "waking up from the dream". It's probably due to the internet helping us all to communicate so effectively.
Eastern and western spirituality teachings are becoming blended. Science and spirituality are also starting to come together, rather than drifting apart.
The new age movement is becoming very strong, and more and more people are starting to do things that only sages were able to do hundreds of years ago. I've seen novices get inducted into various healing arts and start to have weird experiences and healing others from day 1.
I believe that we definitely are making progress towards lifting the veil, and the exciting part is that humanity will reach a point at which the level of knowledge becomes a catalyst that then spills over to the rest of the population (ie "the 100th monkey effect").
I agree that not looking within is a problem, but I prefer to see it as a test rather than as a flaw.
If it were a flaw then nobody would be able to achieve this, yet I've lost count of how many very spiritual people I've met over the years.
I guess it depends on the circles in which you mix. The majority of the population is still deeply stuck in the physicality dream, but more and more people are waking up.
6:04 PM
THIS IS AN EXERPT FROM AN EMAIL I RECEIVED FROM SOMEONE AFTER THEY READ THIS POST AND THE COMMENTS ON IT. I'VE POSTED IT HERE WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION, HENCE NO NAME.
I too have made the same observations on the human condition. After reading yours and Mr. Bertino's positions, I would have agree more with your stance, although the guy makes some valid points and certainly is keeping a positive mindset. Of all the philosophy, eastern religion, western religion, and fiction that I’ve read I think the "Tao Te Ching" and "Steppenwolf" sum it up the best. The Tao says that the "Source" (God, Allah, the way, Buddha, etc.) that can be explained is not the real source. Whatever it is that is going on behind the scene's is far too complex for us humans to understand logically, it can only be felt. Steppenwolf was a great example of how a tortured soul can go on torturing itself even after its become "aware." I agree that people in general (the masses) are far too retarded and self-absorbed to make any real progress towards self-realization (whatever that is). But I’m not sure if I would call that a "flaw." A flaw would seem to indicate that there is some greater purpose that is not being realized... I’m not trying to pick on semantics here. I just think that even if people reached a higher level of awareness there would still be differences of opinion and friction. It doesn’t matter how enlightened you are, you still need food, clothing and shelter. So who's going to give that to you? Who's going to regulate who gets what and when? What about those who aren’t enlightened and want to do things differently? Even the most talented negotiator couldn’t deal with all that before the people starved, froze, or got eaten by a bear. So rather than making an appeal to people’s intellect (which takes time), we opt for the physical fist and bitch-slap them into order more quickly. Spirituality is a tough thing to look at in terms of "Humanity." Its like trying to apply psychology to a sociological experiment.
6:35 PM
It is true that the nature of the Source (God, etc) is so far removed from our normal realm of experience that it seems quite overwhelming.
We're talking about a being that is theoretically infinite, immaterial and timeless.
It therefore makes sense that science has a very tough time with this, since science wants to deal with the physical. Science deals exclusively with the material, therefore trying to use science to explain the nature of something which is immaterial, timeless and infinite is obviously going to cause a lot of head scratching.
That being said, I don't believe that we should therefore give up and say that the two are completely mutually exclusive. Science is now starting to realize, via quantum physics, that there are intangible elements which seems to be the basic building blocks of life (ie the so called "unified force"). Similarly, quantum physics has found that thought itself directly affects the outcome of the experiment. Therefore thought is now a causational factor in the universe - hence this is the first time that something intangible (thought) can result in alterations of the tangible universe.
I still don't know how the gap between science and spirituality will be bridged....if ever....but it's going to be an interesting ride.
I agree with the previous author that relying on just the mind (or logic) to comprehend something such as the Source is almost impossible. Personal experiences go a long way towards reinforcing your belief in whatever spirituality you believe in. I know that the many experiences I've had in the past have definitely helped shape my current beliefs.
I don't think that experiences/feelings should be mutually exclusive from logic either though. I think that the most powerful overall "understanding" can be achieved by leveraging both logic and feelings.
Go and read the "5 ways" of Thomas Aquinas, and you'll see a very logical way of proving the existence of the Source. This is a logical explanation. Does the fact that this can be explained negate the existence of the Source itself? Nope.
My logical beliefs were greatly strengthened by the many personal experiences I've had in the past, and similarly, my experiences also guided my logical path forward (ie realizing that the Catholic path I was on was not for me).
Use your brain and your heart at the same time. God gifted us with both, so make use of them :)
7:06 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home