The figures move about a bit with the continuing years of research, but on the evidence it is fair to say the universe is a little less than fifteen billion years old. The first vestiges of life on earth seemed to appear some one and a half billion years ago. Hominids have been around for less than ten million years. Evolution resulted in one of the branches of hominids to eventually spawn human beings, Consciousness, our ability to be aware of our thinking and thus a capacity to produce a theatre of mind, appears to be less than a hundred thousand years old. Indeed some researchers believe consciousness is a very recent development, maybe only a few thousand years old. Humanity as we know it is a very recent development in evolutionary time. We are mere infants evolving into something more complex. Our naivety and inexperience as a human race are a sign of our immaturity.
The continuing processes of evolution render it difficult to know who we are because evolution ensures that we are always, albeit slowly, changing.
But, I would argue, we are making progress. Despite all the angst about our selfishness, insularity and xenophobia we are surprisingly compassionate. If you agreed with the logic in Richard’s Dawkins’ book The Selfish Gene the unman propensity for altruism and compassion seems inexplicable. But later in this essay I will show why, with our spiritual evolutions, this is inevitable.
Religion and philosophy are even more recent developments. All the great religions have evolved in less than three thousand years.
Many of the world’s religions were formed in the period between 800BCE and 200BCE The German philosopher, Karl Jaspers. In his book The Origin and Goal of History called the period The Axial Age.(Religious historian, Karen Armstrong wrote a fabulous book on the subject that I would recommend to my readership!) It is likely that the growing human consciousness awakened a need for a sense of meaning and purpose which led to the development of religious or at least spiritual thought
Jaspers outlines how these religious ideas and related philosophical advances arose in four major regions, viz:
- China. Hundreds of so-called “schools of thought” emerged at that time. Chief among the teachers of these schools were Confucius and the founder of Taoism, Laozi he author of the Tao Te Ching.
- This period saw the creation of the Vedic scriptures, the Upanishads At the same time Siddhartha Gautama established Buddhism and Mahavira reformed Jainism to make it a major religious force.,
- The Mediterranean. Meanwhile in the Greco-Roman world there was a movement away from mythology to an ethos that encouraged rational, rigorous investigation. Out of this movement sprang Socrates, Plato and Aristotle who were so influential on later Western thought.
- The Middle East. During this time in the Middle East the movement towards monotheism increased. In Persia Zoroastrianism prevailed while in ancient Israel the Hebrew Prophets Elijah, Isaiah and Jeremiah were laying down the foundations of Judaism.
Overall this movement was a progression away from idolatry and tribal gods. It was underpinned by a growing understanding that spiritual beliefs must be relevant to all of humankind.
The Bible itself shows this transition. In Genesis, the Hebrew God Yahweh is portrayed as walking with Adam in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the afternoon. He is very much a human God displaying anger, wrath and jealousy. He is in many ways portrayed as a super-powerful tribal chieftain. In the second book of Genesis Jacob is said to have physically wrestled with God all night. In this regard he was similar to Zeus or other gods in the Greco/Roman pantheon. But by the time we reach the New Testament the concept of God is starting to be more sophisticated.
It is a symbol of our immaturity that rather than use these religions as instruments of good and assurances of our commonality, , some of us have chosen in our fear and lack of awareness, to use them as cudgels to beat each other with.
It is instructive to read Aldous Huxley’s landmark comparative study of mysticism published in 1945 which he titled The Perennial Philosophy. Huxley argues that there are shared metaphysical truths embodied in all the world’s major religions including Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity.
Huxley proposed that all religions are in fact an effort to guide humans into the knowledge of and a relationship with the Divine “Ground of Being”. They affirm that all human beings have the capacity to directly experience a relationship with this Divine Ground. Indeed the primary purpose of human existence is to achieve unity with this Divine Ground which necessitates the subjugation of ego.
But the subjugation of ego is a terribly difficult feat. In Unfortunately ego, in its attempt to show how imminently special the individual is, often takes up its religious beliefs not to promote its commonality with all humankind but to highlight its difference in an attempt to portray itself as special!
Ken Wilber, the American writer on transpersonal psychology outlined three stages of personal spiritual growth. They are as follows:
- Prepersonal The early childhood stages where a person has not yet formed a distinct ego and is undifferentiated yet from its personal environment. This stage involves tentative experimentation and seeking to understand their environment,
- Personal The standard adult stage where ego identity is established and, belief systems are formed.
- Transpersonal The deeply spiritual stage where ego is integrated and transcended to achieve direct unity with the cosmos.
(The reader will note the close correlation with Dr Phil Harker’s three step process towards psychological maturity viz:
- Know Yourself
- Accept Yourself
- Forget Yourself )
Dare we imagine, as Teilhard De Chardin, the French Palaeontologist and Jesuit Priest, believed, that evolution is pulling us toward what he called the “Omega Point”? In his famous book The Phenomenon of Man he talked about the process of complexification which not only enabled Mankind to attain consciousness of itself but to also access higher levels of consciousness as it evolves. At the Omega Point all consciousness aggregates again, as the One which is God. Obviously the further we approach that point the easier it is to align with others. Love and empathy grow as our degree of separation diminishes.
Thus I would maintain that despite the effects of Dawkins’ selfish genes to ensure kinship survival. It is the evolution of our consciousness which has created the need for spiritual fulfilment.
Well, does it all matter? Shouldn’t I be more concerned with climate change, the prospect of nuclear war or the advance of terrorism rather than with evolving spirituality? In the end these malaises themselves are manifestation of our inadequate spiritual development and I suspect their solution will only be achieved when more and more of us come to that realisation that at the core of our beings we all are One.
And if we are indeed all One, then altruism and compassion becomes easy to explain! Hence the old saying, “Anything I give to another, I give to myself!”
And Another Thing!
Nuclear Nonsense
Australia has just entered into an agreement with India to sell more uranium to India to help provide more cheap energy which is helping much of its population to rise out of poverty. But Australia, itself, continues to boycott nuclear power and the government continues to denigrate it.
Australia under the perverse influence of Chris Bowen is planning to reach its implausible net zero emissions target pretty well on the back of wind and solar generation. Bowen’s renewable zealotry means Australia eschews any opportunity to add nuclear power to our mix of generation.
There is growing impetus around the world to wards nuclear energy. Thirty one countries have pledged to triple their nuclear capacity by 2050.. The World Bank has lifted its decade’s old ban on financing nuclear projects. The Asian Development Bank is now also prepared to finance new nuclear projects.
Currently around the world there are some 70 nuclear reactors under construction.
In Europe many of the countries that started the renewables revolution have backtracked. The few that still promote renewables are fortunate to be interconnected with other countries that supply their shortfalls in energy from nuclear sources.
And Australia is virtually isolated in its futile attempt to run an electricity grid solely on renewables. There is no example across the globe where this has provided cheap and secure electricity supply.
It I time we had a serious rethink!
Ted Scott