The Shift
Society is shifting back to favoring religion over
science. This is why Turkey will no longer teach evolution in its schools. This
is why the US is turning to private schools where religion of choice can be
taught without having to include any science to back it up. Where the science
of climate change is openly challenged and people turn their back on anything
that makes their religious perspective something to think about.
Just as in the days of Galileo’s persecution where it
was considered heresy to say anything against the church; people are once again
creating a mindset of stubborn imbalance. They look upon our world and can’t
handle the idea that perhaps science can truly explain the mysteries of life.
In their minds that creates a conflict because ..how can there be a mystery if
we have solved it …how can God still exist if we understand how the multiverse
works? They fear the two cannot co-exist. This fear causes a rise in religious
extremism. People turn violent trying to prove to others that their spiritual
experiences are real. They try to convince themselves that if only everyone
else would see God through their eyes the world would be a better place.
On the flip side, if we were to embrace just the
scientific and forget the spiritual aspect of existence we would discover what
we have already lived during the Industrial Revolution…mankind begins to turn
its back on the planet altogether and simply looks for and takes anything we
can find to make our lives easier and fatter. We suck up every resource until
there is none left, until we have drained the mother dry. We watch as wars
manifest over who has and who has not, we see cities crumble, we see species
fall and become extinct, we watch the sea rise and the sky burn just so we can
have more. Our thirst is never quenched because we have left our purpose, our
meaning of life, behind. We have forgotten our duty to the earth and our spirit
suffers because of the disconnect. We are left untethered to the tree of life,
floating adrift in our armchairs.
The brief moment of the enlightenment era and a few
other times…perhaps the industrial age…the dawn of the bronze age, the iron
age…ect…these are moments when mankind embraced their intellectual gifts but
they failed to fully incorporate spirit. We took our science and creative
knowledge and waged war, made better weapons, created a life of leisure for
ourselves, when we should have used this knowledge to tend to our
responsibility of caring for the earth. With each failure to recognize our
responsibility the human race is set back again, like being trapped in Newton’s
Cradle, we bounce back and forth between religion and science; history repeats
itself. After a period of intellectual boom we realize that we have cut
ourselves off from spirit and then swing back to regain the connection. We long
to get it right but as a collective society we tend to be led by extremists.
Picture Newton’s Cradle as a demonstration of society…
the two outer balls represent the extremes of religion and science with most
people somewhere in middle. The outer balls feed off the energy of the balls in
the middle but what many forget, or don’t understand, is that the middle balls
are also feeding and delivering energy to each other. This is why people in
shamanistic cultures understand that they can give or receive energy, wanted or
not, to other people they encounter. The effect of this energy can then be
carried through society as with Newton’s Cradle and cause the pendulums to swing
one way or the other. Western culture has forgotten this, or cares not to
consider it, which may well be the reason for so much illness – spiritually,
physically, mentally, and emotionally. As the energy ripples through society
the pendulums swing and the middle balls both give and receive the energetic flow.
What does this mean for us? Because we are stuck in
this back and forth pattern between religion and technology, we suffer as a
population and we take the earth and its inhabitants with us. We should be
using our spiritual sense to guide us into what needs to be done to keep the
planet safe and then use our science to accomplish this. We were given our
intelligence so that as stewards of the earth we can create and manage what
needs to be done. We have lost that sense of responsibility and that has
resulted in a dis-spiriting of the collective, which in turn allows technology
and intelligent thought to run a muck…this is why we have greed, war, and power
struggles. Then, when it gets to be too much for the collective to handle
anymore we are thrown back to the spiritual but most people look at the
spiritual through the eyes of a specific religion…this creates the religious
conflicts and persecution of those who are of different faiths or those who
favor science. We must, as a collective find the balance between the spiritual
and the scientific before we will be able to guide, and act as stewards, to the
planet. If this cannot be achieved we will not be given the opportunity to proceed,
grow, or develop as a race….we will remain trapped in the cradle until we have depleted
our energy, destroying ourselves and our charge.
As we swing back and forth the results we see are science
and technology being used to damage our charge; such as in the case of
fracking, burning coal, and using pesticides, or becomes one of genocide,
persecution, and religious war because each religious group believes it has the
proper answer. However, the answer lies in the middle ground, in the compromise;
we need to leave religion to the individual, allowing them to truly find their
own spirit path. We need to use our intellect collectively to find a way to
save our planet by managing our resources and distributing them in a manner
that allows each living entity its proper place and respect. We’re a bunch of
smart cookies but our fear of responsibility and our belief in manifest destiny
is dooming us all.
If people would come to understand that the spirit
world will always have its mysteries because the human mind will never just
stop wondering if there’s more to life, while seeing that the natural world is
full of the tangible promise of discovery and has been given to us to guard and
care for; we would come to a proper balance and escape the cradle. I must
believe that such a task would not be given to someone who is incapable of
fulfilling it. We can do this by using science and logical thought which is
guided by spirit. These are the gifts granted us by spirit. They have given us
a way to tend to our responsibility but mankind has been afraid of taking that step,
so they revert. Such is the case throughout history.
If we want to regain our life purpose, our feeling of accomplishment,
and our meaning for life then we need to first recognize and embrace the knowledge
that is within us…we are here as stewards of this planet. It is our life’s
work, our purpose to care for her and all her inhabitants; to make her healthy
and fruitful. When we see this, and embrace it we can be free to use all that
is within our grasp to fulfill our task. We can combine our scientific
knowledge and our spiritual experience to finally achieve true wisdom. And,
after all what is wisdom but the ability to use our knowledge properly. Spirit
and Science together… Spirituality for the individual – Science for the whole.
In the end, we can save the planet and while we’re at it, we’ll save ourselves.
