As I continued to read Ilia Delio's anthology on spiritual evolution, I had an uncomfortable memory of our (human) limited thought process. Years ago, the New Yorker had a cartoon with a bunch of animals walking about - giraffes, bears, storks, whatever - each with a thought bubble over its head reading "I am made in God's image." Now, we are almost certain that animals do not think like humans, for what would be the point? And they don't behave that way, either. With some variation, most of what they do is stimulus-response, although they do often enjoy the moment when not bothered by existential threats. Still, it makes the point: are our notions of love and god merely reflections of our mammalian nature? Mammals snuggle with the mother, especially when young and feeding. They often like the comfort of their kind and work in cooperative herds or packs. We as humans love to cuddle with puppies and other cute little animals, and we have given sexual reproduction the benefit of the name "love." Are we not making god in our own most desired image?
A few years ago I read a book about users (explorers they would say) of DMT, a powerful psychedelic. Many experienced dimensions of the insect world, where everything moved in mechanical, unemotional sync. One woman, filled with a sense of divine love, told them that love is the answer, to which they replied, "even here?" "Even here," she said. But is it true? Is there love in an ant's nest, or only instincts for survival through the group?
Biologist E.O. Wilson not only said "no" to this question about love, but speculated that even humans operate at this base level, with only superficial alterations that we claim make us human. His movement is called socio-biology, where all actions are gauged by their usefulness to the continuation of the species. To say that this is materialistic reductionism is to put it mildly, but the question remains a nagging one: are those glimpses of God while in ecstasy only glimpses of the human archetype? The spiritual evolutionists would disagree, of course, stating that we have reached the level of self-reflection necessary to reflect on the cosmic nature of God, and I agree. Still, there is a lesson in this - we probably should be wary of our own reflection in the cosmic mirror, and our own wishful thinking.
On to Jihad, which is the essence of cultural reflection, whose "love" is really only the continuation of all that is considered worthy by certain fundamentalist Muslims, and whose wishful thinking is the World Caliphate. I write of this now because, as of now, the movement has gained considerable steam throughout the Mideast, some parts of Asia and large swaths of Africa. There are two camps of thinking about this: one, the dominant one, sees these people as evil or deluded fanatics who must be beaten back by any means, for they poss a threat to modern civilization. The other, a more radical vision, sees their anger as a response to Western hegemony and capitalistic materialism, forces that are threatening the very way of life of devout Muslims. They are therefore justified and it is WE who must change. While it may prove difficult, I believe we can properly split the baby on this one:
The modern world IS a threat to traditional Islam, which was created in the 7th century and flourished in the late Medieval period of European history. The power of the caliphate of the last great Muslim empire, the Ottoman, fell to pieces after WWI and the world has been picking up those pieces ever since. The story is complex and goes on and on, but essentially, it seems that the radical Jihadists equate Islam with both devout worship AND great (Allah-inspired) political power. The West did indeed bring about the final demise of that power, although it was the corruption of the Empire, the "weak man of Europe, that made it possible, but that latter point is not seen by the radicals. Rather, they see the push towards secularism - which is indeed occurring in the West and now the world - and political hegemony as one and the same, coming from the same source. Rapidly changing world cultures, secularism, and scientific modernism, then, are all brought together in one Great Satan - the West and anything to do with it (and increasingly, the East - China is a great secularizing force and outspoken foe of any religion).
But the Jihadists' vision is fatally flawed - they cannot see that we have experienced very substantial changes in knowledge over the past thousand years and there is no stuffing the genii back in the bottle. What their movement brings is not a renewed purity, but chaos and brutality. With such fruits, it cannot end in the ideal World Caliphate that they envision, one that they know must be brought about to preserve their dying way of life. The thing is, it is far too late for that. Whether they, and anyone else, likes it or not, all the old ways of life are dying or are already dead - from tribal Native American life, to Tibetan isolation, to a hegemonic Christianity or Islam or Buddhism or Communism or any other spiritual or ideological norm.
And once again, we are back to the question of the last several weeks: are we undergoing a positive evolution of the spirit, or simply the demise of spirit altogether and our (world-wide humanity's) inevitable fall? Are we only a species of lemmings who have over-populated, both in a real sense and in the sense of a smaller world through technology, and are now being led to edge of the cliff? For that is what such movements as Jihad will bring. Or are we made in God's image after all, and we are being pulled towards the Omega of greater divine unity as envisioned by Teilhard de Chardin?
I keep asking the question and awaiting the answer, and one does seem to come. There does seem to be a "pull" that exists beyond human design in our collective history. It will not end in an Islamic Caliphate or any such archaic form. There is that "time of death" feel to our era, but it also seems as if it is, as the writer of that quote said, the necessary step to something new. The Jihadists struggle against this death, but cannot accomplish their goal no matter what gains they make. Indeed, none of us can stop this "pull" anymore than air can stop the fall of a rock. The great question that remains is: is God good in the eyes of we self-reflecting mammals? Or are we on the same cycle as all other animals, one of a simple rise and fall of populations? Are we being brought to a greater "evolved" self, or a mere population collapse? Is our greater history cyclical or spiral?
Everyday life tells us that it is a spiral - that our actions are not just to complete the turning of the wheel, but to have the wheel get us somewhere in its turning. If we are indeed images of God, we should expect to be led as such to a more perfect union. To have endless repetitions of cycles within cycles seems more the reality of the Jihadists than that of the modern world. To me, the greatest concern seems more in that "time of dying." How will it be, and how long will it last? Is it written in the stars, or is it our actions that are necessary to maintain the progress that so many hope for? It is important for our actions: should we meditate in a cave or work hard for a better future? That in itself raises more questions, (for instance, well intentioned actions often go very wrong, and spiritual bliss might affect the world in ways more than we understand) but this writing is already too long. For another time, FK
A few years ago I read a book about users (explorers they would say) of DMT, a powerful psychedelic. Many experienced dimensions of the insect world, where everything moved in mechanical, unemotional sync. One woman, filled with a sense of divine love, told them that love is the answer, to which they replied, "even here?" "Even here," she said. But is it true? Is there love in an ant's nest, or only instincts for survival through the group?
Biologist E.O. Wilson not only said "no" to this question about love, but speculated that even humans operate at this base level, with only superficial alterations that we claim make us human. His movement is called socio-biology, where all actions are gauged by their usefulness to the continuation of the species. To say that this is materialistic reductionism is to put it mildly, but the question remains a nagging one: are those glimpses of God while in ecstasy only glimpses of the human archetype? The spiritual evolutionists would disagree, of course, stating that we have reached the level of self-reflection necessary to reflect on the cosmic nature of God, and I agree. Still, there is a lesson in this - we probably should be wary of our own reflection in the cosmic mirror, and our own wishful thinking.
On to Jihad, which is the essence of cultural reflection, whose "love" is really only the continuation of all that is considered worthy by certain fundamentalist Muslims, and whose wishful thinking is the World Caliphate. I write of this now because, as of now, the movement has gained considerable steam throughout the Mideast, some parts of Asia and large swaths of Africa. There are two camps of thinking about this: one, the dominant one, sees these people as evil or deluded fanatics who must be beaten back by any means, for they poss a threat to modern civilization. The other, a more radical vision, sees their anger as a response to Western hegemony and capitalistic materialism, forces that are threatening the very way of life of devout Muslims. They are therefore justified and it is WE who must change. While it may prove difficult, I believe we can properly split the baby on this one:
The modern world IS a threat to traditional Islam, which was created in the 7th century and flourished in the late Medieval period of European history. The power of the caliphate of the last great Muslim empire, the Ottoman, fell to pieces after WWI and the world has been picking up those pieces ever since. The story is complex and goes on and on, but essentially, it seems that the radical Jihadists equate Islam with both devout worship AND great (Allah-inspired) political power. The West did indeed bring about the final demise of that power, although it was the corruption of the Empire, the "weak man of Europe, that made it possible, but that latter point is not seen by the radicals. Rather, they see the push towards secularism - which is indeed occurring in the West and now the world - and political hegemony as one and the same, coming from the same source. Rapidly changing world cultures, secularism, and scientific modernism, then, are all brought together in one Great Satan - the West and anything to do with it (and increasingly, the East - China is a great secularizing force and outspoken foe of any religion).
But the Jihadists' vision is fatally flawed - they cannot see that we have experienced very substantial changes in knowledge over the past thousand years and there is no stuffing the genii back in the bottle. What their movement brings is not a renewed purity, but chaos and brutality. With such fruits, it cannot end in the ideal World Caliphate that they envision, one that they know must be brought about to preserve their dying way of life. The thing is, it is far too late for that. Whether they, and anyone else, likes it or not, all the old ways of life are dying or are already dead - from tribal Native American life, to Tibetan isolation, to a hegemonic Christianity or Islam or Buddhism or Communism or any other spiritual or ideological norm.
And once again, we are back to the question of the last several weeks: are we undergoing a positive evolution of the spirit, or simply the demise of spirit altogether and our (world-wide humanity's) inevitable fall? Are we only a species of lemmings who have over-populated, both in a real sense and in the sense of a smaller world through technology, and are now being led to edge of the cliff? For that is what such movements as Jihad will bring. Or are we made in God's image after all, and we are being pulled towards the Omega of greater divine unity as envisioned by Teilhard de Chardin?
I keep asking the question and awaiting the answer, and one does seem to come. There does seem to be a "pull" that exists beyond human design in our collective history. It will not end in an Islamic Caliphate or any such archaic form. There is that "time of death" feel to our era, but it also seems as if it is, as the writer of that quote said, the necessary step to something new. The Jihadists struggle against this death, but cannot accomplish their goal no matter what gains they make. Indeed, none of us can stop this "pull" anymore than air can stop the fall of a rock. The great question that remains is: is God good in the eyes of we self-reflecting mammals? Or are we on the same cycle as all other animals, one of a simple rise and fall of populations? Are we being brought to a greater "evolved" self, or a mere population collapse? Is our greater history cyclical or spiral?
Everyday life tells us that it is a spiral - that our actions are not just to complete the turning of the wheel, but to have the wheel get us somewhere in its turning. If we are indeed images of God, we should expect to be led as such to a more perfect union. To have endless repetitions of cycles within cycles seems more the reality of the Jihadists than that of the modern world. To me, the greatest concern seems more in that "time of dying." How will it be, and how long will it last? Is it written in the stars, or is it our actions that are necessary to maintain the progress that so many hope for? It is important for our actions: should we meditate in a cave or work hard for a better future? That in itself raises more questions, (for instance, well intentioned actions often go very wrong, and spiritual bliss might affect the world in ways more than we understand) but this writing is already too long. For another time, FK
RSS Feed