Look before you leap

I don't have an alternative religious answer to the search for a higher power only what I have seen and noticed in my experiences and readings. The one thing I can say for certain is that humans have a powerful compulsion to seek a higher power as a cure-all. A cure-all that tells you you're special, explains away any disasters (man-made and natural), a book for rules for people who struggle to set their own boundaries, reationalise bad things happening to good people, just to list a few things. This seems to be a hard-wired need and we crave it the way a man in the desert craves water and when he can't find it he will drink sand and imagine water.

We live in a predominantly Christian society and this is not an attack on your Christian friends, but they will tell you they found their way to Jesus/God and it saved them. But did they read the Koran and learn the teachings of Buddha or Lao Tse. And if they lived in the countries where these other religions abound they would probably turn to them.

Don't underestimate the power of your mind to rationalise. Everybody feels this emptiness and has moments of doubt, some will tell you they don't, but Jesus himself has battled these demons. It would be convenient to modern religions thought that the major religions are very old and have steed the test of time. Nothing could be further from the truth. Religions have been with us for us for as long as we have had this intricate and highly evolved tool the brain. ie: from the day we tried to explain our first encounter with the unexplained eg. we now know a volcanic eruption is basically a tectonic burp and not a thunder God under the mountain. Some will cite ambiguous foretellings that have come to fruition as proof irrefute of their religions' fidelity.

Again a very common element of the older religions where mystic predictions were also proved on many occasions eg. the oracles at Delphi, the Sybil, The Aztec/Mayan astrologers predicted the arrival of Hernan Cortez to the year some 450years beforehand.

Thank goodness humans have kept thinking and searching otherwise the dominant religion here could be ancient Egyptian.

I guess the underlying current of this to extensive email is STAND FAST. People have been going through exactly what you are forever and rather than continuing their search for self worth and finding their place in the world they simply switch off the 'individual thought' button in their minds and wallow in ignorant bliss.

I believe many of these teachings have a lot of useful information and should be read, along with Socrates, Plato, Homer, Omar Kayem and other non-denominational intellectual cadres.

Don't get me wrong, I too feel an awesome sublime benevolent presence of this planet and cannot individually nor completely rationalise all mystical phenomena (for want of a better word) but we also have a lot to learn. I cite as an example the myths in relation to the phenomona of the Lunar and Solar Eclipses have popped up in various religious writings and have been explained as the workings of a supernatural entity.

On this tiny blue/green planet we are an oasis of life, a miniscule point of light containing an exceptionally intense blooming of life. We are given a false perception through conventional teaching methods as to the size and distance of other planets, ie. just in our solar system. But using current technology as far as we can see, and that's a long way now, there is NOTHING alive anywhere else. But this glimmering jewel is destined for ultimate distruction. We are heading towards to the sun and will dry up long before the expected death of the sun. And on our current wreckless rate of planetary rape we have considerably less time still. We owe it not only to ourselves but to all life to have a slow cautious interplanetary migration. Mars being the obvious destination, (this sounds far fetched, but there are already plans in the pipeline) though at present in an embryonic state. This, to concoct a phrase 'Earth Chi' is just the humm of life resonating and appearing in an energetic anomally not unlike the northern lights only appearing when energy (solar) interacts with elements or other energy to create the display. Perhaps because our brain communicates with itself via electrical signals it has receptors that are more tuned into external frequencies. I struggle with this mystical side because I know that it is there and it would be more suitable to my Darwinistic view if it didn't. But it is experieced all the time in everyday circumstances. The word 'De Ja Vous' exists because so many people experience it that it required a phrase. The overwhelming majority of people reading this would have experienced it. How many times have you and your life partner or close friend out of the blue with no prior discussion on the matter been thinking the same thing only discovering it after one or the other actually verbalised their thoughts. And from many cases not only in ancient times but also in contemporary sources, of dreams fortelling tragedies in some case the dreamer even visually previewing some or other event.

We have much to learn but I believe that if we keep that 'individual thought button' on we will get there. Just imagine with me trying to describe radio waves to a 16th century peasant. You might say "there are these little waves that go through the air, you can't see them, hear them, feel them or taste them but they are there and all your do is harvest them with devices and train them to vibrate at the same frequency as your words and then send them off at about 150 000klms/sec to the other side of the world where another device echoes your words". Our peasant would probably run to the Parish Priest and accuse you of devil worship.

But what that peasant did do was farm the fields so that his kingdom had a surplus production and a wise King could commission artistic, cultural and scientific specialists. And in turn, universities and other community organs for open thinkers in the strain of Alexander Graham Bell and Guglielmo Marconi have access to previous works and added to them with their exceptional talents.

In adoration of these previous intellectual titans I would do my reader a disservice by not noting that all of these men including DaVinci (arguably one of the most brilliant minds in history) believed in God and in Plato's 'Socrates last days' Socrates argued very convincingly through rational thought that the after life does exsist. Einstein is quoted saying on the subject "I believe".

Though our 16th century peasant is a caricature of obsequious self sacarifice just like him, we all need to play our part to create a society that is condusive to open thought for people with the talents to push the boundaries of understanding. Not to the exclusion of physicals pursuits, as such a society is nearly always fertile ground to push our physical boundaries eg. when will an Olympic record ever truly be unbreakable?

Wherever there has been a healthy/not just wealthy society there has been a flourishing of thought that simply refused to be suppressed. Knowledge that grew and fed on itself spurred on even more by healthy competition I cite as an example a number of individuals that went a long way to designing the printing press, the credit for which now goes almost completely to Gutenberg. Or the many clumsy discoveries before the Wright brothers accomplishment. And as an example of the physical - the assult on the 4 minute mile.

It also appears to me that a healthy society and even more accutely, civilisations at their zenith all give women repect and an ideally equal say in not only community matters but also international affairs. However in ancient times the prestige of women was rarely equal and we see now as women have virtually equal social weight we now live in a time of relative peace and stability. I would not underestimate the damage that the suppression of women in some middle eastern and African countries have done which is conducted on pre-Islamic cultural lines rather than Koranic law.

In summation, all I can offer is questions and in truth that is all anyone has. But questions have answers. And as far as faith goes just have faith that you will find the answers. The need of belief in a higher power whether one exsists or not is human. While I don't personally believe I can understand why some people do, though the number and calibre of people that do surprises me, but don't try and sell me beliefs in the place of facts. It doesn't matter if 1 million people believe you are right, if 1 person can prove that you're wrong.

Still this hunger exists and I underestimate it. A case in point is that in a country that loves music and is sport crazy and yet the largest crowd ever gathered in an Australian stadium was attracted to the M.C.G. was by the preacher Billy Graham.

For me it is no longer a hunger but a curiosity of the human condition that always prompts passionate discussion and will probably never be settled.

We should keep our minds open and base any decision on rational thought.

By:Jason Millar

PS. I am a Darwinist (and all these words were revealed to me by God and you try and prove to me they weren't!)

“As human beings we all want to be happy and free from misery…we have learned that the key to happiness is inner peace. The greatest obstacles to inner peace are disturbing emotions such as anger, attachment, fear and suspicion, while love and compassion and a sense of universal responsibility are the sources of peace and happiness.”- Dalai Lama