The Evolution of Mind (G.O.D.)
abracad, · Categories: externally authored, science and spiritualityby Craig Walter
The science of physics took some two hundred years before it became largely accepted into popular human culture. Slow acceptance was partly due to the predominant stance of religious authority that clung to flat Earth ideals and creationist only worldview. Outspoken people paid a personal price for challenging the status quo with new thinking.
Perceptions changed when scientific discovery and laws of physics were better understood. This meant that dominant cultural values were shifting ground. A collision course was bound in the literal interpretations of fundamentalist religious doctrine and emerging scientific culture. Even though the Bible never denied evolution there has been persistent renounciation of evolution by influential religions. The twists of logic have been remarkable in the defense of one-sided Creationism.
In Christian tradition this had to do with maintaining the tenets of the Bible as being the only truth and source of all knowledge. This explains why the New Atheists lock onto fundamentalist interpretations and easily pull the carpet from beneath those who resort to faith only answers. Instead of the Bible being viewed as a metaphor with historical basis a great deal of institutional energy has gone into justifying stories like the seven days of creation that in its time was a useful parable. Instead of Jesus being seen as a remarkable spiritual teacher in the context of his time he has been raised as the world's one and only saviour with sectarian implications. Such are the colourful distortions of belief that some denominations of Christian belief, think that God will wave a magic wand and create an ideal world where no death or disease occurs. Meaning that the laws of physics will change.
Ironically when elements of Christianity opine about the fundamentalist values of other faiths they then parody their own beliefs that does not escape the attention of rationalists.
Prevailing social forces are inherently conservative in nature as distinct from the forces for change and the moderates. This triangulation of social forces tend to maintain an equilibrium that serves collective existence but may mitigate against individual well-being such as marching to war in the name of God.
Science and religion do not manifest in a vacuum and are powerful combinations of religious, economic, political and scientific values. Societies have evolved through the dynamics of social cycles or 'collective psychologies.' These are four main value systems and their significance are not yet generally understood by historians and professors. Namely the warrior class, the intellectual class, the merchant class (commercial) and the manual working class. Collective psychologies are pivotal to human history.
One of these classes asserts its dominance in values while the other classes coexist. The Renaissance period was an emergence of the intellectual class in terms of science, arts, literature and specifically the domination of religious values. Religious teachings where basic ideals that appealed to popular understanding while at the same time blatant dogmas were enforced. For instance the rewards of Heaven and the afterlife where under threat if a follower went against the sermons of the priests, mullars and similar clergy of religious faith. Women in particular were subjugated to the patriarchal control with dreadful consequences if viewed as defiant. The all too fallible human representatives of God and their institutions where not adverse to controlling people out of fear and beliefs that kept them in obeyance. The ideal of a Devil versuses God would be a case in point that contradicts that God created everything but then allowed an independent agent to do evil work for the hell of it!
The powerful nature of devotion permits tremendous manipulation of belief although devotion is an invaluable and highly meaningful aspect of human existence.
It is vital to understand that those in control of dominant value systems (classes) use them to bolster their own establishment and social control no matter how misconstrued things become due to tendencies of perverse corruption, power and greed - although as humans we are not profligate by nature.
It is plain to see for instance that in religions such as Catholicism (one example) that the celibacy requirements are a denial or suppression that leads to adverse reaction. This lifestyle is not accompanied by specific practices that sublimate sexual desire but rather suppress it. A number of priests over the centuries have sexually abused members of their congregations and kept it concealed by dint of their inner circles. The policy of the Church are in denial of human sexuality that compel everyday priests to follow the lifestyle of their superiors. If found out they would be protected by their holy mates in higher authority and transferred to a new post. The accuser would be psychologically massaged for questioning the sanctity of the 'holy ones' who apparently were nearer to God than the layperson.
The power of devotion is potent and people of faith who love God are not going to readily defy or open their minds to the criminal behavior of their representatives. Even worse is when ones own friends turn on those who raise questions about corruption or abuse. Such is the power of the Intellectual class who have never been adverse to creating inferiority complexes and beliefs that subjugate people to suit their powers of persuasion.
It is essential for the faithful congregations to come to terms with the power of abuse inherent in institutions that have devotional control at their beckon call. As is implied religions have a lot to answer for and particularly the dogma they perpetuate. There is no doubt that many atheists or agnostics hold their viewpoint as a result of the hypocrisy in the name of God and the sectarian values behind it.
A number of religions still promulgate that there is no evolution and that the Earth is literally 10,000 years old. This flies in the face of physics as the known universe is roughly twelve to fourteen billion years old as measured by the speed of light and spectrum shifts. As long as religions continue to perpetuate their dogma their arguments for God will not hold sway with free thinking people.
Many of the present arguments are a direct clash between the Creationist camp and the Evolutionists fraternity. Only recently, some prominent thinkers of the Western genre are beginning to come to terms with that idea that evolution is a function of creation that supports both science and religion in some respects. Perhaps this can be termed the 'Amalgam Theory'.
A question remains as to the scope of evolution?
The popular cultural view is that evolution is largely about biological transformation and physicality which is understandable. Evolution in a material sense. We like to believe in the obvious. What is not so obvious is the transmutation from subtle states to cruder states of existence over different time scales.
Before the Big Bang there was never no existence or simply nothing. Something cannot be derived from nothing. Not even a theory. However as we know the unmanifest states of energy and matter on its vast scale were not present before the Big Bang and is a fascinating paradox as is life. Either all existence was bundled up in something the size of an implausible pinhead or there was another state or 'third state' to begin with. The resultant due to evolution and the forces of physics is the manifestation of the five fundamental factors. Namely, the ethereal, aerial, gaseous, liquid and solid states through binding of vibrational factors from the subtle towards the crude. Then emerged lower life forms or entities with less developed minds. In due course and millions of years there came the human mind and self proclaimed higher life form in mind and mental evolution.
Some religious and spiritual beliefs systems assert that the human being is able to evolve back to the state of origin called Consciousness or Supreme Mind through spiritual practices via the application of Intuitional Science.
The centrifugal forces of physics results in the material manifestation of one half of the cycle of Cosmic Evolution and then the transformation back to the source in the other half of the centripetal cycle. In nature we see the force of growth (generation) operation (maintenance) and degeneration (decay) or in a play on English words - (G.O.D.).
The triangulation of forces operate through all sorts of cycles as seen directly in Nature. If a higher life form is by definition a higher mind or more evolved mind then the process at work is the 'Evolution of Mind. The proposition being that all existence came from a projection of Mind (Supreme Consciousness and Third State) and the unit minds then return to the source of mind over a large time scale per countless revisits of the Soul-Mind or Atman. Note that Christianity holds the symbolic metaphor of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. The inherent patterns of Nature and Physics are often held in the transformative symbols of human culture. The ideal of Heaven and achieving Salvation or 'liberation from bondage' are a lot more related to both Christianity and eastern tradition than is fully appreciated.
Western psychology depicts the conscious, unconscious and non-conscious states of mind. Whereas Eastern tradition describes five layers of mind or 'sheaths' found through meditation and contemplation. The crudest state of mind is cited as being the physical body. Then there are more subtle energies or states towards the ectoplasm state and beyond. Recently it has been found that Australian indigenous clans had practices based upon achieving deeper states of mind that is remarkably similar to the Tantric practices of India and with the goal of seeking union with God. Their spiritual practices also indicated they knew of the five layers of 'being' as believed in India. The implications are that these aboriginal cultures were spiritually advanced and knew of God in their terms before Christianity imposed its beliefs many thousands of years later. Those clans realized that existence was a process of transformation in cycles from one form to another well before Western Civilization stamped its blend of scientific and religious worldview along with its factional differences.
From this perspective the spiritual practices of Christianity and that of Eastern tradition have a fundamental departure point. One seeks union with God such as the 'drop merging with the ocean' analogy and the other seeks to know God through worship and moral adherence. That is not to say that the mystical tradition of achieving oneness with God did not follow moral precepts as well. In fact there are ten ethical practices of Eastern Yoga that have a strong parallel to the Ten Commandments of Christianity. The vehement opposition of various religions to the mystical quest of merging with the 'Infinite' is most likely based upon the differences in spiritual goals and attainment not only the sway of the religious intellectual class.
Never-the-less both approaches have devotion as a core practice. In the context and tenor of this depiction the state of existence called Consciousness or Supreme Mind pervades all of existence and is not just an awareness factor confined to our cranial box of bones. The 'Mind Stuff' is then regarded as the ultimate 'substance' and the reason for our existence. It may explain why certain gifted psychics can 'see' past events held as a record in the Supreme Mind. It may explain why our unit minds are able to reflect upon our mental plate. Behind all states is the witnessing entity. Once again this has parallel to the ideal of God being omnipotent in all ways and why Christian devotees believe God will hear their prayers. The Bible also refers to the Supreme Witness as interpreted by scholars.
There may be a parallel between the human five senses and the five fundamental factors. The Bible's assertions depict humans being made in the image of God. After all, nothing is created by humans without the though process first and in a similar way the 'Cosmic Progenitor has projected a creation with an intrinsic intelligence. This is not the same model as Intelligent Design but has distinct comparison.
There is a new science emerging called Microvita that advocates that all atoms are made up of billions of entities. One form of this Microvita may be seen by human instruments and the others are too subtle for the boundary of physics. The implications of Microvita on the subject of evolution, far more powerful energy systems, viruses and disease are enormous. The propounder of Microvita has indicated that it will take some 200 years for popular culture to come to terms with this science. It also has the implication of bringing to a head, discovery about the controversial God Particle.
In essence, atoms by deriving their structure are a transformation from the most subtle state (Consciousness) into energy and then atomic structures of matter. A modern day female Greek professor also believes this. Even more controversial is the idea that the billions of microvita contained within an atom are actually the beginnings of life and have a direct bearing to viruses and alteration of DNA through evolution. The assertion is also that physics holds ground in its own rights and has only just begun to understand its dimensions.
It may soon occur that powerful machines like the Hadron Collider will discover these minute entities called Microvita. The question will then arise as to how a spiritual propounder knew of the 'Microvita.' The subjective experience of spiritual practioners is the likely reason and is where science and spirituality may finally find union.
Spiritual endeavor involves moving around a nucleus of devotion such as in Christian tradition of worshiping that nucleus of faith the 'Supreme Father' coupled with the dualistic metaphor of 'Mother Nature.' The formations of planets and solar systems all involve a nucleus at the material level such as our sun. Everything revolves around a nucleus as seen in the macro and micro cycles of evolution.
There is an age of synthesis in thinking on the horizon as societies move ahead in both science and faith. The main advocates of atheism are doing a social service in combating the entrenched dogmas of religion that have alienated people from God and caused much harm in the past. What many atheist fail to appreciate is that a spiritual vacuum will have to be filled no matter the superstition involved. The time will come when atheists will have to acknowledge that a belief in God is not the ultimate dogma. The experiential side of life holds the proof of this and will eventually be backed by scientific endeavor.
Religions will have to shift ground or fade away if they fail to appreciate the full nature of evolution that is not a one-sided affair. From this perspective sacred doctrines like the Bible will take on a new significance in its metaphors despite some of the crazy stories of a personal God's wrath, self-righteousness and distemper.
Social movement will fall in line with the outlook that all existence is a cycle from 'Mind', Energy and Matter and then return. That devotional life is a gift from God freed from the archaic restraint of dogma bound religion and the limitations of scientific materialism. Our survival as a species may depend upon it even though our immortal souls continue to circle that Great Nucleus in the cosmic cycle.
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Filed in: externally authored, science and spirituality
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