The 8th Century British monk, The Venerable Bede is considered to be the father of English History. Drawing from his work, after the Romans left and before England was unified as a nation, there was a Northumbrian King who maintained a library. Those earliest monk scholars devoted their lives to recording and translating their oral history and tradition. From that library Bede came across this story, notably from conversations and discussions between the king, his counselors and friends as it related to one’s destiny.
With regard to destiny one of his counselors eloquently observed: he likened it to a sparrow flying into one end of a lighted hall and out the other. “While inside the hall, it is safe from the wintry tempest. But after a short time it disappears, passing from winter into winter again. So this life of man appears for a little while,” he declared, “but of what is to follow or what went before we know nothing at all”. What a great visual metaphor the sparrow. Destiny is such a human thing but concerning the before & afterlife, the king’s counselor knew as much then as we know now . . . nothing at all.
As far back as 5,000 years (50 centuries), persons of high rank or important position were buried with articles and provisions for a journey. They didn’t know either but hope is potent motivation, it gives birth to expectation and our nature is for us to ride that possibility for as long as we can imagine something that we hope for. Where would religion be without an epilogue?
If I am the sparrow then my journey is approaching the other end of the lighted hall, I am safe from the tempest for now but soon it will default back to winter again and the best authority for what lies ahead of you would be a Northumbrian librarian from the Dark Ages.
It is generally confirmed, life on Earth traces back to the formation of (amino acids) nearly four billion years ago, that is 4,000,000,000 (9 zeroes). Over that long history the best reason for life (the process) to persist is that it seeks after itself with an adaptability that is unparalleled and unrelenting tenacity. In the science of biology there is a hallowed axiom; Life will find a way. Life (how cells work) replicates a coded copy of itself not unlike a recipe. That copy then guides the formation of a new organism just like the parent (not discounting mutations). Generation after generation, the code is passed on to succeeding generations. Why are we here; the timeless conundrum. Simple yet profound, the bottom line reason for being here, (existing) is simply to sustain that spark. From fruit flies to people, all organisms are vehicles or conduit that shelter and sustain that spark, copy and pass it on. Organisms wear out and die but the spark is passed along like the Olympic Torch, kept aflame, handed off from runner to runner to runner until the next Olympiad and after that, kept alive until the next Olympic Games, and the next after that. With life, anything and everything that facilitates replication and reproduction is absolutely necessary. What we believe about our destiny is not. As long as a species (humans in this case) keep copying and passing on the code, it doesn’t matter what they believe. Making believe may be irresistible but the plot so far is no more than the last page in an unfinished, open ended story.
People are smarter than the average animal. By now evolution has equipped us with a brain that regulates body function and facilitates imagination which in turn promotes self awareness and creates story, myth, belief. At some point it begs the ultimate question, where did we come from and why are we here? Civilization is a recent development (the last 8,000 - 10,000 years) and our species is still wrestling with it. Most important, it has enhanced our ability to pass on the life code. World population has more than doubled just in my lifetime. When civilization no longer serves that fundamental purpose it (nations, politics, economies, religion, etc.) will change to meet the need or go away, disappear. By definition, he word (extinct) can only mean one thing.
Civilization and (technology) have advanced at warp speed while human anatomy and physiology have taken millions of years to get us down out of the trees, into houses and feeding on Taco Bell burritos. Humans are still equipped with bodies (minds) that are best suited to function in a hunger/gatherer culture. We manage now but it isn’t getting easier. There are computers that truly do perform brain functions faster and more reliably than our brains at their best. Those computers cannot duplicate all brain functions simultaneously but the overriding caveat is not (what if) anymore, it is (when). If and when artificial intelligence keeps getting better, humans might trust an exotic algorithm more than traditional wisdom or divine inspiration. We already do that with important decisions concerning medicine and meteorology. That revelation is disturbing, even damning if you believe in the myth that makes us feel so competent, so righteous, so essential.
If and when artificial intelligence (computers) can fabricate humans in vitro; I don’t want to be around for that. So maybe it’s good this sparrow’s passage is coming up on the exit ramp, back to the wintry tempest that will swallow me up again. There is an insightful little story that parallels Bede’s account. A thinker asks another thinker, “The afterlife, what will it be like?” The 2nd thinker replies, “About the same as before you were born.”
With regard to destiny one of his counselors eloquently observed: he likened it to a sparrow flying into one end of a lighted hall and out the other. “While inside the hall, it is safe from the wintry tempest. But after a short time it disappears, passing from winter into winter again. So this life of man appears for a little while,” he declared, “but of what is to follow or what went before we know nothing at all”. What a great visual metaphor the sparrow. Destiny is such a human thing but concerning the before & afterlife, the king’s counselor knew as much then as we know now . . . nothing at all.
As far back as 5,000 years (50 centuries), persons of high rank or important position were buried with articles and provisions for a journey. They didn’t know either but hope is potent motivation, it gives birth to expectation and our nature is for us to ride that possibility for as long as we can imagine something that we hope for. Where would religion be without an epilogue?
If I am the sparrow then my journey is approaching the other end of the lighted hall, I am safe from the tempest for now but soon it will default back to winter again and the best authority for what lies ahead of you would be a Northumbrian librarian from the Dark Ages.
It is generally confirmed, life on Earth traces back to the formation of (amino acids) nearly four billion years ago, that is 4,000,000,000 (9 zeroes). Over that long history the best reason for life (the process) to persist is that it seeks after itself with an adaptability that is unparalleled and unrelenting tenacity. In the science of biology there is a hallowed axiom; Life will find a way. Life (how cells work) replicates a coded copy of itself not unlike a recipe. That copy then guides the formation of a new organism just like the parent (not discounting mutations). Generation after generation, the code is passed on to succeeding generations. Why are we here; the timeless conundrum. Simple yet profound, the bottom line reason for being here, (existing) is simply to sustain that spark. From fruit flies to people, all organisms are vehicles or conduit that shelter and sustain that spark, copy and pass it on. Organisms wear out and die but the spark is passed along like the Olympic Torch, kept aflame, handed off from runner to runner to runner until the next Olympiad and after that, kept alive until the next Olympic Games, and the next after that. With life, anything and everything that facilitates replication and reproduction is absolutely necessary. What we believe about our destiny is not. As long as a species (humans in this case) keep copying and passing on the code, it doesn’t matter what they believe. Making believe may be irresistible but the plot so far is no more than the last page in an unfinished, open ended story.
People are smarter than the average animal. By now evolution has equipped us with a brain that regulates body function and facilitates imagination which in turn promotes self awareness and creates story, myth, belief. At some point it begs the ultimate question, where did we come from and why are we here? Civilization is a recent development (the last 8,000 - 10,000 years) and our species is still wrestling with it. Most important, it has enhanced our ability to pass on the life code. World population has more than doubled just in my lifetime. When civilization no longer serves that fundamental purpose it (nations, politics, economies, religion, etc.) will change to meet the need or go away, disappear. By definition, he word (extinct) can only mean one thing.
Civilization and (technology) have advanced at warp speed while human anatomy and physiology have taken millions of years to get us down out of the trees, into houses and feeding on Taco Bell burritos. Humans are still equipped with bodies (minds) that are best suited to function in a hunger/gatherer culture. We manage now but it isn’t getting easier. There are computers that truly do perform brain functions faster and more reliably than our brains at their best. Those computers cannot duplicate all brain functions simultaneously but the overriding caveat is not (what if) anymore, it is (when). If and when artificial intelligence keeps getting better, humans might trust an exotic algorithm more than traditional wisdom or divine inspiration. We already do that with important decisions concerning medicine and meteorology. That revelation is disturbing, even damning if you believe in the myth that makes us feel so competent, so righteous, so essential.
If and when artificial intelligence (computers) can fabricate humans in vitro; I don’t want to be around for that. So maybe it’s good this sparrow’s passage is coming up on the exit ramp, back to the wintry tempest that will swallow me up again. There is an insightful little story that parallels Bede’s account. A thinker asks another thinker, “The afterlife, what will it be like?” The 2nd thinker replies, “About the same as before you were born.”
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