… or they will find us.
This is one of my unscientific, and baseless, rants. Nevertheless, it’s something I’ve wanted to express for a while, and that’s kind of what this blog is for.
I’ll start with a premise that’s purely opinion: God is the ultimate consciousness.
From there, I’ll opine that consciousness is closely related to, or possibly springs from, complexity. As single-celled organisms became more complex, they also gradually developed consciousness. Generally speaking, the more complex an organism is, the more conscious it seems to be. This seems to also correlate somewhat with size, at least with animals.
Complexity is only meaningful when there’s interaction between the various components. A heap of components, without interaction, is simply a pile of material. Single-celled organisms interacted with each other, either through eating each other, sex, cooperation or communication. This is the root of love and hate, of all emotional attachment. Ultimately, this interaction led to multi-celled organisms – and eventually, consciousness.
At the macro level, higher animals seek out each other, either for protection, cooperation, war, love, companionship or reproduction. I believe that this primal drive goes back to when we were single-celled organisms seeking other single-celled organisms.
In a sense, the connections we make with others bring us closer to God – because these connections facilitate a higher level of consciousness. In a manner of speaking, a couple becomes a new organism, and it’s the same with a band and a nation and so forth.
I think that this is a good time to point out that sameness cannot allow complexity at this level. An entity composed entirely of stem cells that have not differentiated is not an organism, and a group of identical clones is not a “community.” There can be no complexity without distinction, and there can be no consciousness without interaction*.
By now, you’ve probably figured out where I’m going with this: Humanity, as a whole, feels the need to reach out and connect with alien lifeforms. It’s a natural continuum, and it’s required if we’re to achieve what I believe is a natural symmetry – a Manifest Destiny, if you will.
If you ever find yourself wondering why so many people, regardless of their religious background, so desperately want to find extraterrestrial life, it’s for the same reason they seek a spouse or a friend. They’re seeking God.
*People who lean toward the Left politically, emphasize interaction, while people who lean toward the Right emphasize complexity (distinctions). Both are necessary in the greater scheme of things, and finding the balance is key.
Nice thoughts.
A bit of Devil’s advocacy, for fun (un-serious exercise):
If God is the ultimate consciousness, and consciousness springs from complexity,
would that not imply an evolutionary origin of God (a gradual increase in complexity until the God form is realized)?
Might it be more theologically / metaphysically sound to hypothesize that complexity springs from consciousness?
Assuming that premise for a moment, we might assume that devolution (complexity reduction) is more probable than evolution.
Which I believe to be an old theological premise, particularly among the Vedic culture if not others.
Do apes demonstrate a tendency toward moral behavior that might spur evolutionary increase in complexity away and above from what they are?
Do humans demonstrate a tendency toward immoral behavior that might spur a devolutionary decrease in complexity away and down toward the ape?
Could love and hate be rooted in survival and threats to it? ie: attachment to one’s own existence?
Expanding on that thought:
If one sees God’s reflection in themselves and those that they love, then could love and hate be rooted in the desire to keep an aspect of God in the World?
I agree that we look to make connections with others in whom we see a reflection of God.
With those in whom we see an aspect of a superior reflection, we might become enamored or even obsessed (to a degree).
In fact, traditional Judaism also assumes that the generations have been declining over time – but I never bought into that. To me, it seems that religions will take such a position due to the buildup of folklore, and the glamorization of ancient heroes that comes with it. I should have specified that I wasn’t referring to any Abrahamic god, or even a Vedic one.
Tying into this is the concept of infinite cycling of universes, put forward by professor Roger Penrose, which I previously wrote about (https://jewamongyou.com/2020/12/31/the-importance-of-color-part-2/). In this view, which I tend to accept, in one form or another, there can be infinite cycles of evolution and devolution through eternity. What started it all? There was no “start.” It goes on forever, and the ultimate “complexity” part of this infinite cycle I choose to call “God.” It had no beginning, and we can’t escape this eternity, whether we accept God or not. There’s definitely more to explore here.