Understanding

There was a time when the idea of gravity was not even a concept to be scoffed at. The very notion that there was an invisible force, acting upon us as much as everything around - even those things beyond 'our' realm- things as yet undiscovered and just as foreign a notion, would have been something dismissed more swiftly than other such absurdities as magic, a spherical world, evolution etc. Civilisation was in its infancy then, and was naive of the discoveries that would come, the only things it truly knew were the only things it needed to know; life was, life ended and, of course, there was the most important of truths; God. How silly people would feel to see how we have progressed from then.

The story broke as most scientific re-evaluations of the world do; slowly. At first it provided useful padding at the end of a news bulletin or two; "And on a lighter note...." 

And on a lighter note, there was the biggest scientific and sociological discovery made since hirsuite precursors to what we now call mankind decided to brave the heat of that bright orange piece of wood and see if they couldn't find some use for it. The media only really picked up on this long after the twitter savvy refused to let it die, when the voices of critics grew quieter and when, of course, the implications were fully understood. Suddenly the critics grew loud again, but only because they didn't truly understand.

At first people, particularly the sort of people who took quickly and resolutely to anger, saw the discovery as an affront to religion; as another challenge, another foe to be defeated. They shouted loud and persistently, ridiculed the scientists that staunchly defended it (albeit whilst also trying, consistently unsuccesfully, to disprove it), and rallied all the voices possible to do the same. However, what these people didn't realise was that this wasn't a discovery to be mocked like the rest of them, it wasn't something that could be named, quanitifed, trapped and ridiculed....this was an understanding, an understanding of the most prolific kind - one which was obvious once your attention was drawn to it, if completely unfathomable beforehand. An understanding that, far from challenging religion, unified it, joining believers and non-believers alike in the true awe of what they faced now that the biggest paradigm shift of modern man had occured. And, as more people understood the voices lessened, drifted off one by one until all but the most stoically ignorant were silent.

As in most cases, the idea wasn't what was being looked for, not even close. But if the biggest hunt at the time was for a God particle, or a unifying Theory Of Everything then no-one could ever argue that it hadn't yet been found, if not in the way intended.

The idea was simple: that there was a force, not unlike gravity, that was invisible, undetectable, unmeasurable in its own right, only quantifiable by the effect it had on the environment which it inhabits. The idea had been present before its discovery, the Na'vi had known of something similar in Avatar, many belief systems had almost got it right in the idea of Karma, as well as indeed various other belief systems who had deemed it to be a fundamental design; God's plan. However, it was only in the early 21st century that people really understood; understood that there is no plan, there is no designer, and most difficult of all, there is no good. No bad. No right or wrong. There just is.

But things aren't so simple anymore as the cold, hard logic of non-theism. We understand now, as they did at the dawn of this new, matured idea of civilisation that this knowledge brought with it further implications than simply the destruction of God, whichever one you choose. We know now that we come from a limited bank of consciousness, that much like energy our social understanding of ourselves will never be destroyed, but change and develop and evolve into something greater, with each cyclical passing of the generations. No, we won't be reincarnated; not as individuals anyway, but we will live on in part, in vestigial form, with the children of the whole.

Yes, we still live as walking, talking individuals but consciously we are never alone. How can each man be an island when he knows that beyond flesh, blood and bone he is no more indistinguishable from the continent around him than a drop of rain would be from the sea in which it lands? How can wars continue when we know that win or lose, the pain and suffering will always live and thrive within the children spawned of both sides?  What is the purpose of rich and poor when the highs and lows of both will be mixed together, stirred within the ever moving cauldron of existence, to be poured into those that at every end of the social strata?

And of course, no longer are we egocentric enough to believe that humans are the only beings worth counting in our view of the world. Why would our efforts at life be the only ones worthy enough to feed the next generation? We may, to date, be the only ones we know of to achieve such a high level of consciousness, but self awareness means nothing in the grand scheme of things. The whole world lives, it breathes, and it learns. We from it, and it from us. Nothing loses out in the evolution of the conscious whole. Nothing dies, nothing is made extinct. We continue, We are and We will be. We will move on, learn and develop as we always have and maybe one day will learn the purpose of our being, and from this we will learn more.

But one thing is, and always be certain. We will grow.