A lot of emphasis is placed on the end, the big kaboom or not so much that results in our extinction. So far in the blog I have talked extensively about extinction and in my story "The Breakers" I showed a character that was quite accepting, perhaps even paranoid, of the fact that we are inevitably going to cease. It is in a way comforting to know that there is a finish line to the human journey. And countless forces in this world and most likely others are surely quite capable of wiping us out.
But lets entertain the thought that we endure, that we survive whatever perils the future holds for us. What happens then? 1000 years from now, 5,000 years from now? Civilization has been around for roughly 10,000 years, in terms of geological time, and on a bigger scale the universe, that's not even a split second. Based on current trends and, well, gut feeling, I can tell you that the people of the future will have no race, no ethnicity, no national origin, no sexual orientation, and my favorite, no religion. As the borders crumble, people start moving free around the world, and diversity becomes normative, the world will begin to homogenize. In this new global world interpersonal prejudices will diminish and disappear since people will more or less have the same characteristics and a newly gained sense of oneness. Philosophy and spirituality which are far better equipped than religion to handle this shift will topple the latter.
Utopian? Maybe. But given time, this will happen. Not tomorrow, not within our lifetimes, perhaps not even within a couple of hundred years, but eventually and surely, we will complete our journey from the one source in Africa to the one world outcome, in a sense having completed a full circle, an evolution that returns to a previous state but does it better on the second take. Better not necessarily in the sense of a better world, but simply as a more evolved version of the previous state.
So the question is, what does such a future have to teach us? Futures, much like pasts have some sort of a moral, for a lack of a better word. What can we learn about us, now, that is valuable?
If we survive.
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How can you neatly separate philosophy and spirituality from religion? Or you have a specific religion in mind which lacks both? Forget about Eastern religions which (acording to Western authors) are inseparable from philosophy, Western philosophical tradition too has been heavily supported by religion. Would Kant have been born if Augustine weren't there in the first place to influence Descartes who influenced Kant who influenced philosophy up until the 21st century?
ReplyDeleteOr I might be misunderstanding your meaning, in which case, I apologise.
Good point, I'm talking about religion as a dogma, an institution, as an apparatus. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism are perfect examples. I don't see in them a lasting potential on a larger time scale because I think they are antiquated and cumbersome. Having a philosophical understanding of life, and maintaining a spiritual connection with the world is one thing but organized religion goes well beyond that. It was okay when science was a sidekick, when technology was not widely available, and the rate of progress was unimpressive. Okay in a sense of being able to endure. But not so much today, and definitely not in the long run. It simply does not possess the accouterments to last. Most modern day religions are couple of thousand years old. That's nothing. Our philosophy, our spirituality will evolve, we will always wanna know why, what we are, where we are going. But how long do you think humans will believe that Moses parted the Red Sea? I hope this makes my point clearer.
ReplyDeleteAh, ok, I see now. Thanks for clarifying! Your texts are engaging. :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you, and thanks for reading. :-)
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