DELUSIONS — Pragmatic Realism

by Stanislaw Kapuscinski (aka Stan I. S. Law)

  Nevertheless, even with just one universe, this new cosmological model calls for a really enormous Big Bang, some 13.7 billion years ago. Ever since then the Universe continued to expand, on and on, and would continue to do so until it runs out, they said, of the original momentum, at which time it would slow down to a momentary standstill, and then would begin to collapse to its original form. Actually, originally the universe had no form, there was, apparently nothing before the Big Bang, but, as we all know, what goes up, must come down. Ergo—the Big Crunch was proposed.

  Unfortunately there was a problem. There was not enough mass (matter to laics) to create sufficient gravitational pull to make the universe contract upon itself.

  No problem, said the theoretical cosmologists.

  Since there is no God to do the work for us (as the believers believe He did at the very beginning, before the scientists thought of the Big Bang), let us suppose, they said, (the scientists, not the believers) that there is matter that we cannot see, or measure, or smell, or… detect with our state-of-the-art instruments. Let us give it a scientific name, they said, and call it Dark Matter, which, now that it’s named, will provide the necessary reverse impetus. Oh, yes. And if there isn’t enough Dark Matter, we’ll think of something else. Like Dark Energy, for instance. Not just so dark as to be invisible to our eyes, but outside the ultra violet and/or infrared spectrum. A sort of Dark Light.

  Good idea! After all, Einstein did say that imagination was more important than knowledge, and the scientists were very short of the latter commodity.

  In 1934 Fritz Zwicky postulated the existence of Dark Matter (not to be confused with Antimatter, Dark energy, Dark fluid, Dark flow or anything visible at all—a little like God, although God, according to believers, could also be light yet remain invisible). This would account for the missing mass in the orbital velocities of galaxies and suchlike. In no time at all, the invisible Dark Matter was observed (sic!) in rotational speeds of galaxies in clusters. Later, it was confirmed in the temperature distribution of hot gas in galaxies and clusters of galaxies.

  Bingo!

  Oops!

  The Universe continued to expand!

  No problem, said the learned scientists. We’ve already thought of Dark Energy. Let us postulate that it is an invisible energy, which pushes the universe on its wild ride into the unknown. In the standard model of cosmology (that’s scientific lingo to describe what we thought of last), Dark Energy currently accounts for 73% of the total mass-energy of the universe.

  With a little effort, we shall make the whole universe invisible, and ask God to create a new one.

  Chapter 3

  What We Were

  The results of political changes are hardly ever those which their friends hope or their foes fear.

  Thomas Huxley, British biologist (1825—18950

  Forget invisible matter and equally invisible energy and listen to us, said the priesthood. Our ideas are much better. If we read exactly what is written in the Bible, some 6000 years ago, the Almighty God had created us. At least Adam was created. Eve was built-up around one of our ribs. No disrespect intended, but, if we are to believe the fundamentalists, it was the best the Almighty could do. At least we (men, or one of us) weren’t lonely anymore.

  Then we screwed up. Adam and Eve did. They ate an apple from the tree of knowledge and got kicked out from Eden. Seems like a harsh punishment for eating a lousy apple. On the other hand, maybe Eden wasn’t all that much after all.

  Anyway, we went forth and began to multiply, and multiply, and multiply, and didn’t stop to this day. In fact, we continue to multiply. We’re about to hit 7 billion! Maybe we did, already. Who can tell in this crowd? I bet neither Adam nor Eve would have ever guessed it. Had they known, they probably would have left that apple alone. Boy, did we ever multiply?

  That’s the popular version.

  Earlier, some 3 million years earlier, before anyone thought of an Almighty God, some apes developed a forward propelling toe, which enabled them to walk forward on a flat terrain with much greater dexterity. Encouraged by their toe, they soon came down from trees, and got down (no pun intended) to the business of leading a life on earth. This bunch of primates had a long way to go.

  We had been given all sorts of funny names. Depending where or when our bones were found, and possibly for some other reasons, they were given different names. The oldest were, reputedly, Australopithecus afarensis. A little later, paleontologists came up with another unpronounceable name, the Ardipithicus ramidus, whose bones were said to reach back some five million years.

  Some people think a lot of their bones.

  I heard of a construction site where work has been delayed for six months because during excavation the contractor had found some supposedly human bones, which instantly became sacred to the First Nations. To this day I have no idea how they knew they were sacred. The delay cost the developer a small fortune.

  Finally, after at least ten different species, at long last came Homo sapiens, followed by Homo sapiens sapiens. That’s us. We, the Hss, have been around for some 200,000 years. Homo sapiens, the species to which we all belonged until very recently, is now regarded as the link between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens sapiens. The Homo neanderthalensis got lost somewhere in the translation. He is now regarded as a completely different species. No matter. Or maybe not. We shall see…

  So much for old bones.

  Later, much later, we have been told that at the time of conception, a soul, an external entity, invaded us, or our bodies, and stayed with us until we died—or until we were excommunicated, in which case we suffered eternal damnation at a place called hell. Those who were not excommunicated, providing they were non-atheists, were still free to go to heaven, after they died of course, unless they were really nasty, in which case, after their bodies were buried, their souls went on to purgatory. After they got cleaned up, they would rise to heaven, where they remained, presumably bored stiff, for ever-after. And that’s a very long time to be bored.

  If we decided to be atheists, we could do anything we wanted to do, because we didn’t have to have a soul. Nor did a soul have to have us. We were free.

  By the way, the Christian hell is reserved exclusively for Christians, with the membership later extended to include the Moslem, and is not to be confused with Sheol, Gehenna, Hades, the Valley of Hinnom, Tartarus, or a number of other resorts that are not nearly as nasty as the Christian/Moslem God/Allah has determined for his exclusive members. On the other hand, it is a well known fact, that many people are well capable of creating private hells for themselves right here, on Earth, but such are usually terminated on their departure from their bodies, referred to as dying. Later, after they die, they are free to start again. That is known as reincarnation. Of course for that, you need a soul. No soul—no incarnation. Sorry. Unless you have an Atma, of course.

  But it would be grossly unfair to call your attention to hell, without giving equal time to heaven. Sometime ago, I had occasion to write an essay entitled Heaven. At the risk of offending some people, here are some excerpts (with small adaptations).

  “Some very religious followers think that if they blow themselves to kingdom come while murdering some innocent people who disagree with their demands, they will take the elevator directly to paradise where they will be instantly surrounded by forty beautiful concubines, or women, or wives. (I am told this has been upgraded to 72 virgins). I have a slight problem with this image of the ever-after, but that’s probably because I enjoy, right now, quite enough problems with just one, single concubine, aah... woman, aah... wife. Actually she is whatever she chooses to be. I recall Shakespeare’s prognosis: I know I am too mean to be your queen, and yet too good to be your concubine. Perhaps in heaven she can be all three. I’ll just do my best to enjoy them all.

  Then there are those who’d rather recline on puffed-up, fluffy clouds, surrounded by ever-smiling, perhaps also seventy-two, angels strumming their golden harps. I strong
ly suspect the angels would be attired in Mozartesque regalia, and be conducted by the immaculately tailed, fiddling Tarzan, known to the aficionados as André Rieu. They would play on and on and on. Forever and ever…”

  “And then we have the serious guys (and dolls).

  They (we) will spend their (our) eternity at the feet of their (our) chosen deity (catalogue available at the gate), basking in His (Her) glory, rejoicing with the (above mentioned) angels. They (we) will be peeking down, way down, (with just the most innocuous of smirks) at the poor saps who still didn’t even make it to the antechamber of the heavenly palace. Here we shall luxuriate in lavish and eternal peace, serenity, and peace. And serenity. Our joy will in no way be tempered by our knowledge (we shall be fairly omniscient) that our aunt and uncle, possibly also that second cousin (she was a bitch), are frying dead (though seemingly alive) on the sharp prongs of the glowing spits wielded by the long-tailed and horned (if not horny) devils.

  Anyone for Florida?”

  “Surely for the godfearing awaits a place of security, gardens and vineyards and maidens with swelling breasts, like of age, and a cup overflowing.”

  This is another option offered by the Qu’ran in Sura LXXVIII, The Tiding.

  To each his (her?) own.

  Does any of this have anything to do with the Bible?

  Well, if we take the symbolic meaning, the story changes, well… fundamentally.

  “So God created man in his own image, in his own image created he him.” (Genesis 1:27)

  or… (see Chapter 13, then come back).

  “So the undefined objects of worship, (presumably some sorts of states of universal consciousness), created Adam in their image, making him, likewise, an individualized state of consciousness”

  And nothing more.

  How do we know? Because only in chapter 3 verse 21 of Genesis, “unto Adam and his wife did Lord God (Elohim, i.e.: objects of worship) made coats of skin, and clothed them.” Just think about it. They not only were naked but they had no skins! Obviously God didn’t sew actual coats, as in fur-coats, for the couple. Since a moment ago, and probably for a few billion years—there is no time in Paradise, remember, it’s like heaven—they were stark naked (in fact bodiless), had they put on real fur-coats they would have burned up with heat. And think of the smell…

  Now that was long after Eve had given Adam the apple (Women! You can’t live with them, and according to the Objects of Worship, you can’t live without them). Surprising though it may seem, the apple came from the ‘tree’ of knowledge, making Adam aware that he was no longer just a free, individualized state of consciousness able to spend eons gallivanting around Eden, not even worried about any physical skin, let alone a body. But worst of all, Adam became aware of his ego, the single most powerful trait of alienation. He no longer felt an integral, inseparable part of the omnipresent consciousness. He felt apart. Kicked out. He became aware of duality.

  How do I know? Because there is no time without duality. Time is a function of the physical universe, not one consisting exclusively of a state of consciousness wherein whatever you imagine—is. Do you remember how much you could do in a single dream?

  The holiday was over. Adam became aware of duality, and he became part of it. He had a body. He also became aware of good and evil (Genesis 3:22). Before that, he was like god, he couldn’t behold evil. His eyes were too pure. And now? And now he’d spend the rest of his existence trying to find his way back. It will take a long time. Aren’t we all still trying?

  Alas, his devolution had begun.

  At least, that what the Bible says. Not the nonsense you hear from the fundamentalists. While, as I have already pointed out, the Bible is written in a highly symbolic idiom, making it virtually incomprehensible to fundamentalists, scientific and religious alike. Even when deciphered, though it then reads like guidelines for the living (or how to be happy regardless of circumstances), the reader is not to regard himself as a product of biological evolution (sorry Charles), but as a spiritual being using the biological construct as a means to experience the process of becoming.

  The biologists and their scientifically minded confreres who do not study symbolism, nor do they venture into the mystical nature of man, will, as far as the Bible is concerned, remain for now in the dark.

  To cheer up the late developers who say that since vast majority of people take the Bible literally they can’t all be wrong, let me suggest an equal number does not understand quantum mechanics, yet not one of the stubborn scientific fundamentalists claims that therefore the quantum theory must be wrong. Furthermore, a number of biblical stories have been known long before biblical times, yet, in spite of the extended Kindergarten, they continue to be taken literally, rather than as stories designed to illustrate spiritual truth. It seems that indeed, many are called but few are chosen. The vast majority of people choose the easy way out, a way not requiring any effort or study, or hours of contemplation; they choose to remain ignorant.

  When fully understood, the Bible is a superb handbook of Pragmatic Realism.

  The doubters should not be that surprised when we consider that among the countless millions, now billions, of people, there are indeed very few to match Mozart, or Beethoven, or Verdi, or Shakespeare, or Yeshûa, or Buddha, or any giants of the human species, exceptional or chosen people, who left those millions and billions behind. And even then, the vast majority of people prefer to listen to American Idol than to Georgian Chant or an operatic aria. The ultimate consolation is that our true self is immortal, time a figment of our imagination, and ultimately we are all latent, dormant, if slightly retarded Buddhas. Our time will come.

  Chapter 4

  The God Diffusion

  A bad book is as much of a labor to write as a good one, it comes as sincerely from the author's soul.

  Aldous Leonard Huxley, British author (1894—1963)

  Perhaps this is the right place to express my gratitude to Richard Dawkins. His many books had provided me with many hours of pleasure. And now, his God Delusion inspired me to offer not an opposing view, but, hopefully, a complementary one to his stringent defense of human mind, vis à vis human emotions, imagination, let alone spirit. Thus my book, Delusions, subtitled Pragmatic Realism, does not deny Mr. Dawkins’s dislike for religions, but broadens the sphere of mind controlling philosophies. As for my quotation above, that of the British author Huxley, the problems start when the author denies having one. If he denies having soul—at least that’s Aldous Huxley’s opinion.

  I might add, that there are many other areas where Dr. Dawkins and I agree. I wholly support his views on the inherent ‘evils’ of absolutism; on his decrying of tolerance towards others. Also I fully understand and share his scathing condemnation of American, not to mention British, Pakistani, or Afghan self-righteous bigotry. I find it particularly repulsive in “the land of the free”, where the Star-spangled Banner is indeed spangled with moral and physical blood of many who are not free at all.

  Regrettably, the many are, and will most likely remain, “the masses.” They represent the vast majority who have forsaken spiritual (not religious but spiritual) development, and have concentrated on amassing the benefits of “natural selection”. Perhaps now, through his own arguments, the good doctor will believe, or at least examine, the eastern concept of devolution. It seems valid from Pragmatic Realism point of view.

  This chapter deals with, no, not ‘Delusion’, which Dawkins so aptly argued, but Diffusion, as in dissemination, transmission, flow, dispersion or, quite simply, omnipresence. Not faith in a polytheistic god, but the omnipresence of intelligence, life and other attributes of the universe, which instigate and sustain evolution.

  As in Universal Laws.

  In fact, though our renowned atheist might vehemently deny it, he simply substituted the word Laws, for God, which, he evidently believes qualifies him to call himself an atheist. Yet it is evident that he, as well as his hero, not to say idol, Charles Darwin, both appear to
recognize the word ‘Laws’ as an adequate substitute for the force motivating the universe and all that’s in it, to act in a reasonably rational, ever-improving, progressive way.

  What’s in a name?

  In the sense of dismissing a ‘religious’ concept of god, I most certainly am an atheist, too, although I’d prefer to assign some name to that force that would include benevolence, intelligence and, perhaps even compassion without judgment. Not an easy trio of traits to fulfill. Why benevolence? Because I firmly believe that without such the universe would have long disappeared, either in the vastness of absolute zero, or in an all-annihilating big crunch (which astrophysicists love so much). I leave it to the scientists to choose their preferred option. By the way, the absolute zero is a hell that our sacerdotal friends haven’t thought of. As yet.

  Yes. I truly believe that we, humans, are in great need of infinite compassion. We seem to have inexhaustible ability to act in most stupid, contemptible way imaginable towards each other, contrary to any logic, common sense or scientific dictates. Just imagine, after some 3 billion years of ‘evolution’ (or even 6000 years, as reckoned by Christian/Jewish religious fundamentalists), the last century is recognized by many as the bloodiest, the most murderous, in the history of man.

  Is this what is meant by evolution? Our enhanced ability and willingness to kill each other?