We
talked about this before. Of course, the Truth resides within us, deep within
our unconscious, and thus it needs to be continuously rediscovered. At least I
find it so. So, if you are anything like me, let us reexamine the concept of
evolution together.
Physically, all animals evolve, as does everything in nature.
However, sometime ago a naughty girl picked up an apple and with an inviting
gesture offered it to her boyfriend. And that is when problems began.
The girl’s name was Eve; his Adam. The story is obviously symbolic
since the primates were plentiful and great many of them enjoyed apples in
abundance. After all, they are tasty and nonfattening. In the actual fact, Eve
symbolizes man’s ‘soul’—man being a generic term for human. The subconscious,
translated from Hebrew ‘nephesh’,
meaning animal-soul, was a concept unknown at the time.
The biblical story proposes that at a certain time in man’s
evolution, man became aware of his subconscious. As the subconscious is the
sum-total of all memories stored from time immemorial, it was high time to
start experimenting. Only then man could become consciously aware what works
and what doesn’t, and commit his experiences to his permanent memory storage,
his subconscious, for further use. Poetically, the ancients called this
selective process the knowledge of good and evil.
There was, however, a problem. Knowledge is power and power…. that’s
right. Power tends to corrupt. Man’s new awareness was presumably intended to
advance the scope of his consciousness, not the girth of his stomach. In other
words it was intended to advance his higher aspirations and not physical
control over physical reality. Why? Because, as we all know, physical reality
is NOT real. It is 99,9999999999999% empty space, remember?
So the next time we eat a
delicious apple, perhaps we ought to think about this. Adam and Eve didn’t sin,
not in any moral or ethical sense. In the New Testament the word translated as
‘sin’, comes the Greek word ‘hamartia’ or ‘hamartano’ and it originates from the
sport of archery. Its literal meaning is “missing
the mark”. (Try my Dictionary
of Biblical Symbolism).
We forgot what the story of Adam and Eve stands for. If you want to
learn more about it, you’ll find some essays that might attempt to unveil the
secrets veiled in symbolism. Try my Beyond
Religion I series. You might actually enjoy them. And if not, let’s
talk. Your thoughts are important to me.
As for evolution versus devolution, you might be interested what my
friends think about it. Contrary to some of us, they really are still evolving.
I know. I speak to my friends, (cats mostly) daily. They don’t eat apples. They
are in no danger of corruption. Not yet…
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I'm in the process of reading WALL. I call myself a spiritual humanist. Nice to find an author who is scientifically inclined but not a total atheist who even rejects the significance of myth.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lorinda. I take is as a complement, although you might find that my faith in the intangible is much greater than in what people confessing various religions call god.
DeleteFaith in the intangible suits me just fine! I reject all specific views of god as delineated by dogmatic religious organizations, because I don't think deity can be known.. My novels are laid several centuries into the future. You might like to read my excerpt from The Termite Queen on My Future History http://termitewriter.blogspot.com/p/my-future-history.html And I have several posts on my Mythmaker philosophy beginning here http://termitewriter.blogspot.com/search/label/Mythmakers?updated-max=2012-10-21T08:58:00-07:00&max-results=20&start=7&by-date=false (I hope this comment won't end up in the spam folder because of the two URLs,)
DeleteAccording to Socrates and his pupil Plato, we can start by the study of "deity that cannot be known" by attempting to fathom their statement "know thyself". In my humble way, I try to follow their admonition which, regrettably or not, is likely to be as close as we can get to divinity. I shall look at your sites. Thank you.
DeletePS. Why I indulge in some philosophy (which I define as love of wisdom), in my novels, my blogs are probably closer to what makes me tick.
This afternoon I just read the chapter about the bug and it really hit a chord, since I write about giant termites who have indeed evolved intelligence and who have "invented" a giant Highest-Mother-Who-Has-No-Name - a Mother Goddess among the stars. That's her picture on the cover of The Termite Queen, v.1.
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