One of my beliefs, which no one I have ever met agrees with, is that the human intelligence is software that evolved over time. It is nothing but software. Our brains are compilations of code, object-oriented subroutines. We are nothing but an elegant and elephantine C++ program. The creator was evolution.
Evolution is not particularly moral. Nor are we. Evolution should never guide our philosophy. Some people, Republicans, think evolution is the answer. It is not. Evolution will lead us to self-destruction. If you slay me, you will be slain in turn. My vengeance is assured, because the willingness to slay will follow your descendants. This is clear to anyone that studies history. What promotes dominance is not necessarily good. Sometimes death is preferable. There are moral imperatives that are higher than survival. We should want what is really good to prevail in the world. Our own lives are not as important as the greater good.
For my part, I think compassion should prevail, not just toward other humans, but toward all life and toward beauty and knowledge. Survival is not everything, and if it were, it would be a ridiculous philosophy, because we are dust, gone in the blink of an eye. I often sense a cosmic smile, as from a god, upon all the vanity of the world and upon my own vanity, because I am just a temporary spark put into being for a brief period of time. It will not be long before I am long gone, and then there will be many others, too many to count, and I will be completely forgotten as though I never existed. Everyone will be forgotten, and that thought may startle the rich and the powerful, whose energies are consumed in getting and fighting with others. They are dust. No one will even know their names.
As I have studied human anatomy, it is clearer to me now that we are like the programs I created during my career. Our scientific knowledge has progressed farther than I anticipated. Everyone knows about DNA. That is old news. What else? We now know what happens in the human body down to the atomic level. Our lives are based upon the interaction of calcium, phosphate, sodium, and other atoms and molecules. We exist because we have to exist. We do what we do because we have no other choice. We are mechanical, not spirits, not elegant entities derived from the Word--or perhaps all is derived from the Word, and I am mistaken. That could be as well. When studying the intricacies of our design, it is difficult to believe that the beautiful and fantastic design could arise through the survival of the fitness. There is a desire to believe that we are the product of a grand scheme. It is difficult to know. Sometimes I believe there is a great Power, a personality, and sometimes I believe instead that everything, good and bad, is a manifestation of the One.
Perhaps the human race is the flower of all these atoms and molecules, produced by a stormy season upon a wet planet. Perhaps love and truth derive from calcium, sodium and phosphate. I do not know. By the way, I think those are the most beautiful words in the English language, "I do not know," because so many people think that they do know, when they do not. Arrogance is uncomely. I will not be like that. To say things about God and portray him as an ignorant, backwoods prude--I think such people know nothing about God and are far away from the creative impulse of the universe. Such religious people, or so they call themselves, have embraced Chaos, which is to say evil, and they do not know what is good. Their punishment is gullibility, because those who cannot discern good from evil will fall prey to the con artists of the world, who are great in number.
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