One of the things I've gotten out of my life long enthusiasm for learning about my human body, my mind/spirit, other people, other creatures and landscapes, Earth and her Evolution, is that my understanding of the traditional Abrahamic God has been flipped outside in.
I came to realize “God” isn’t to be found out there in the heavens. Our “Gods” are to be found deep within ourselves and our evolutionary roots, our DNA being testament to the existence of these roots. As is our human ego, with its origins going way back into our mammalian heritage.
This evolutionary ground up perspective has instilled an Earth Centrist attitude because this living planet is my touch stone with reality and her evolutionary history informs my day in every way.
Take a moment to consider that we humans, you, me, are actually born out of a parade of generations, before generations. The number of our grandparents is inconceivable. Try imagining where it all began, from where we are today. Humanity is a fulfillment of life’s ageless way of striving to improve perceptual, manipulatory and processing abilities, in order to better live a better day.
On a personal level a couple months back I hit upon words that helped me grasp specifically what it was in me that made me such a unique individual. I possess a genuine visceral awareness for being an element in the flow of Earth’s Evolution - and that changes everything about how I perceive today and tomorrow. Whether by a Creator, or by loaded dice, is irrelevant, either way we are the product of deep time moving ever forward with determination.
I am deeply grateful for being the eyes of the universe - a creature that can reflect on the wonder that is Earth and my own spark of being here within all that majesty. An appreciation for the Pageant of Evolution that goes well beyond the typical mental post card most possess.
Update:
I found the book that puts real scientific meat on the bones of my hippy-dippy appreciation:
The Deep History of Ourselves, by Joseph LeDoux
Short Summary (from the book jacket)
Deep History argues that the key to understanding important aspects of human behavior lies in viewing evolution through the prism of the first living organisms. By tracking the chain of the evolutionary timeline he shows how even the earliest single-cell organisms had to solve problems similar to those we and our cells do each day.
Along the way, LeDoux explores our place in nature, how the evolution of nervous systems enhanced the ability of organisms to survive and thrive, and how the emergence of what we humans understand as consciousness made both our greatest and most horrendous achievements as a species possible.
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