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History and Evolution:
By William E. Steinman:
Part 6, The Inexplicable:
April 28, 2003:
Now, I want to notice those three inexplicable historic events
which I have more or less slipped over. Three inexplicable things
occurred in the earliest history of our universe. These are, the
big bang, the occurrence of life, and the development of consciousness
in man. I will go on with history and evolution later, but it
is important to pause and look at these concepts. Otherwise they
will continue to intervene in the development of my ideas.
If I were just rehashing history it would be tempting to ignore these things as others before me have done. Ignoring these events is what all writers I have read have done. We sometimes speak about them, but if we listen carefully we realized we are not explaining anything. The best we can do is to say that these events occurred. In the case of the big bang, I can add nothing to my previous comments. I have already looked at the question of whence came the universe. Somewhere in the past something occurred and the universe we know was created. That is all we know.
However, I do want to give further thought to the occurrence of life and the development of consciousness. We don't know. We will never know the how and why of these things. Even so, I must not skip over them. I must look at them to be clear on what we do know, what we do not know, and what we can surmise or theorize. At least it is important to admit what we do not know. We have a general outline and we speak of how the species Homo Sapiens came to be. We know approximately what happened, but we have no idea of the real how or why of it. The truth is, we don't even know exactly what happened. We talk glibly about all of these things, but we do not really explain them.
From our standpoint, after the big bang itself, the most significant and profound event in cosmic history is that time when life first occurred. We don't even know when it first occurred. It could have been created as part of the big bang just as were matter-energy, gravity, electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force. The other possibility is that life always was, in which case life preceded the birth of the universe.
We cannot positively date the first appearance of life. We just know that it showed up in some ancient samples. When and how the life-force was first born is the most profound question we face. It is one we have never answered. In fact, we have deliberately ignored it. We have embarrassingly refused to address it. Looking at this must bring us to the very basic notion of a divine force. Silly simple-minded bible-thumpers notwithstanding, there is a profound question involved here. I will get to this in time.
Very near the beginning of the earth, archeologists have discovered evidence that indicates the existence of simple life forms. So, we know that life existed at some time in the dim past. How it came into existence is inexplicable. We also know that man became conscious of his own thoughts somewhere in the past. How and why that occurred is also inexplicable. These phenomena will not submit to glib simple minded explanations or primitive notions about God.
So let us consider an unknown quantity I will call a life-force. I think of this life-force as evolution going somewhere. It is a process occurring in time. Is it a conscious process? I cannot say. The bottom line is there is a life-force operating in the universe. We don't know where it came from or what it is. But, we should not avoid thinking about it and wondering what it is. It is rather stupid to ignore it because that life-force, whatever it is, seems to permeate the universe and for sure, our existence. Until I know otherwise I will believe that this life-force is one of the primal forces of the universe which were created in the big bang.
Human beings are at the very front edge of this life-force process. For that reason alone, we should want to think about what is happening. We should wonder how we can influence this process. Can we make it work for us? What do we want to become?
To facilitate that, let me formulate a theory. Then I can hold that theory until I discover I am mistaken or find something that is more inclusive. When that happens, I will adjust the theory accordingly. Of course, this theory must be based mostly on assumptions since I have very little in the way of fact. The facts I know of are life does exist and it did exist way back in the very dim past. How far back, we don't know.
My first assumption is that some kind of a life-force was created out of the big bang or existed prior to it. This force, like gravity, permeates the universe. Also like gravity, it had to wait until the conditions were right for it to manifest. My second assumption is that life is a process which results from or is embodied in this life-force. This process began in the early life of earth when the life-force found chemical conditions sufficient for it to affect matter and produce simple life forms. Third, this process is evolutionary in nature in that it moves inexorably toward higher life forms. Forth, the species Homo Sapiens is at the front edge of this evolutionary process.
Now, let us think of this process as existing in time with life forms coming out of it to exist separately for a time before finally returning to it. We see birth, growth, degeneration, and death. We see this in all living things. For the most part, the living things, including most humans and all other animals, are not aware of this process or of their place in it. If we think at all, we think of ourselves as separate beings independent of all other beings. In my theory, we are not separate beings, but parts or branches of a much larger process.
My fifth assumption concerns the development of self awareness in man. Somewhere in our past, at or shortly after the appearance of Australopithecines, self awareness evolved in our ancestors. It is only the timing in this which is an assumption. It is clear that man is a self conscious animal. Though some cat lovers might argue differently, I am also sure that man is the only self conscious animal.
This evolution of awareness is the singular event which puts man in a separate class as a species. In fact, it puts us at the leading edge of the life process which appears to us as evolution. This in no way indicates that man is the final culmination of this process. From the simple life forms of Precambrian time to Homo Sapiens is a tremendous evolutionary development, but there is no reason to believe evolution will not continue. There is no evidence whatsoever to support such a notion.
It would be foolish to assume that Homo Sapiens are the culmination of this process. There is every reason to believe that higher forms will evolve as the life-force continues to act. It appears that nothing has happened since Homo Sapiens evolved out of Homo Erectus. However, the time of man on this earth, though it may seem long to us, is a mere instant on the cosmic time scale. We must see our evolution with respect to the cosmic time scale rather than our pitifully short life time.
Though the life process clearly has a direction, toward higher life forms, there is no reason to assume there is a goal. If we wish to consider a goal it must be our own rather than some imagined goal of nature's life-force. As to nature's goals, if we continue our current path, nature may yet drop us in favor of cockroaches. Instead, I think it is time to discontinue our path of self destruction and adjust to the flow of this process toward a higher life form.
One thing which continues to retard our development is our aggressiveness. We too often regress to the savage behaviors which once were necessary to survival. This behavior is an instinctive part of man which no longer has survival value. In fact it is counter-survival, given the tools of aggression our conscious intellect has created. Now it only manifests as a destructive force.
One of the ways that our increased consciousness has manifested is in increased inventive behavior in man. As we evolved from the Southern Apes, man's history can be viewed as a series of inventions which gave us increased master over the environment. It also gave us more and better tools of destruction. We build great things then we destroy them. If we continue, we will eventually destroy ourselves.
As an alternative, I suggest it is time to consider the idea that man can rise above his animal origins and evolve into God. I believe that to be man's true destiny if we dare aspire to it. In that sense, I think the primitive religious philosophies are not entirely wrong. There is a life-force in the universe, but it is not to be worshiped. It is to be aspired to. It can manifest in us. We can become it if we dare. I repeat, we can become God.
For sure, this is not in my immediate future, but it could happen to my descendants. This means we must begin a conscious effort with our children. What we have done in education until now is not good enough. Too often it is counterproductive. We must change that. We must encourage our kids to unfettered creative activities from their very birth. We must shuck off the primitive and savage nonsense of our history and stop conditioning our kids to mediocrity so they may aspire to greatness. We must consciously guide them to become the superior persons who are the future of man.
Now, I am not trying to fool anyone here. The thoughtful reader will easily notice that my theory does not explain anything. However, it does what any viable theory must do. It accounts for all of the facts I am aware of. It also ties the three inexplicable events together and most important it indicate a direction for man.
I am not finished with these thoughts and theories. This idea
of man's evolution to a superior God-like being is central to
my theme. Without it, there is no justification for this series.
I shall return to this again and again.
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