Thought is the illusion of Utopia

This post is purely hypothetical and I have no intention to contradict any existing beliefs one may already have.

Intro:

The Avatar in Avatar: The Last Airbender is a figure brought into the world to bring balance to the world. Buddhists worldwide meditate in order to reach a state of nirvana, at being one with the world. Darwin theorised and explained in The Origin of Species how living beings in the world first came about and evolved. Naturally, a much criticised stigma was that this implied that humans were once apes. The first human in the major religions of today, Adam, was said to be sent to Earth roughly 6000 years ago (Archbishop Ussher calculated that Adam was created on 4004 BC) and yet there are already species of apes and Neanderthals found 180000 years ago among the other assortment of other species living in the world then. I was reading an excerpt in the Today newspaper on the recent passing of the highly respected visionary, the first Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, whose policies were extraordinarily forward looking and pragmatic. He mentioned in an interview to National Geographic in 2011 , " one must understand human nature. I have always thought that human was animal-like. The Confucian theory was man could be improved, but I'm not sure he can be. He can be trained, he can be disciplined." Human have a natural instinctive tendency to do things which is perpetually and logically immoral or barbaric if you might say. Lust, violence and competition. These traits are rather nonconforming to intellectual sound thinking. It can however be found almost instantaneously in the animal kingdom, in the natural environment. However, I will not be disproving the major religions, but rather I will be trying to prove that religion may provide hints and answers to our perpetually disturbing existence and the questions as to why are we alive and thinking. I believe in God and I believe in a reason we live. In due time I will relate my thoughts on this matter.

In Secondary 4 I learnt a fundamental characteristic of energy. No energy can be created, lost or multiplied but it can only be changed from one form to another. In Junior College, I learnt in Economics Chapter 1 about "finite resources and infinite wants". Ultimately, the concept of finite is important in this explanation. The world is finite since its moment of creation. Even if there is a creation of something out of nothing due to human's doings, this would create an imbalance in the world. Not that there already is balance. In Chinese philosophy, Yin and Yang describes about contrary forces acting complementary to each other in the natural world. When there is darkness there is light. In truth, there is fairness and stability in the natural world, at least without the doings of mankind. There are ups and downs in the natural world but it would not affect the general well-being of the world like how mankind can do. In the world there are cycles. Life and death, food and waste, energy conversion. In the end, it becomes a zero sum game. But Man thought about this and made alterations. But is it human's fault? No. Man saw the cycles going up and then down. Knowing that down is bad, Man sought ways to change it to move up. So the cycle almost always goes up. In this manner man have gained greater comfort, security and life. But the world sought to re-balance itself. It have to come down and form and continue a cycle. The more drastic improvement man made, the more drastic renewal the Earth have to respond to return to its zero sum state. Perhaps great natural disasters like earthquakes, plagues are effects for the greater need for a down in the cycle. Due to human intervention in biology and related sciences, we now have overpopulation and irreversible damage to our natural resources. But the fundamental problem lies not in human. The real problem lies in the test or punishment to man. The test in the form of thought.

The Natural World Cycle (Blue) and human intervention (Green)

An artist impression of The Garden of Eden

The first man, Adam, recorded in the religious texts of Christianity, Judaism and Islam was created by God (made from clay according to the Quran) and lived in Heaven (Or the Garden of Eden). The second human being created was Eve, or Hawa, created from the last rib of Adam. God forbade them to eat the fruits from the Tree of Knowledge. They were tricked by Satan and God expelled them out of the Garden of Eden to Earth. A few points of interest which is quite interesting. Human beings made from clay, is there a certain underlying meaning to it or could it be literal meaning meaning we were actually part of the Earth? The Tree of Knowledge (Or the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad in Christianity). Isn't Knowledge a good thing? How could such a good thing have bad imperatives to Adam? I will be hypothesizing from now on. A possibility is that humans have already existed long before Adam on Earth. We were apes, as said by Darwin. But these apes lack one thing, Thought. Heaven really is Earth, as popularised by many cheesy hit songs such as one by Belinda Carlisle. But Adam, the first ape, gained the ability of thought at one time 6000 years ago. This is not similar to the Bahai faith where humans have already existed but only in Adam where humans had their first prophet preaching about God. no. In Adam, human first gained the ability to THINK. Among the mammals and reptiles that existed then, Adam was suddenly given thought and consciousness. And suddenly, he began to be aware of what is around him. Thought seems to be a fitting punishment for mankind for whatever Adam may have done for thought now makes us alive alive. The story continues about how upon eating the fruits, Adam and Eve suddenly felt naked and so they took the leaves around them in the Garden of Eden and wrap them around themselves because they felt naked. Not surprising if we were suddenly able to think and we realise how vulnerable we are naked. God had taught the Word to everything to Adam. In this regard, God gave Adam consciousness to realise about everything. Before Adam, like all other living organism on Earth, we just existed from cycle to cycle, not exactly knowing what is the world about. Like as if a data have been input into something and the world is created at the beginning of creation. The world existed naturally and in harmony. Life, Death, Yin, Yang, Cycles. No one thought about the cycles or cared because no one could think. No one could define. And now Adam was given thought and he starts making sense and judgments about the world he resides in. He understands the cycles, the enormous data God had input to create the world. And with his consciousness now tries to define and change it. Changing it is wrong to the world. Subsequently, the men after Adam were also born with Thought.

Cain and Abel

The first murder was done by Cain on Abel, both sons of Adam. It was done by jealousy. Jealousy is a feeling which comes when someone knows someone else is better off than them in some field. Hence Cain had to think to know Abel had something better, whatever the reason it may have been. So Cain murdered Abel, the first unnatural death as it is a death resulting from thought. Here, I  am trying to disassociate thought from the natural world as to me, it is an unnatural thing to this world. Thought is creative, innovative, new and liberal while the world is repetitive, cyclic even and obsolete. Cain then went on to bury Abel. The first burial. A possibility why he did so was Cain was speeding up the process of the natural cycle, for Abel had returned to the natural world cycle prematurely. Burying the body lets it decompose faster than leaving it lying over the Earth. So Cain is trying to fix the mistake he had done in killing Abel by burying Abel, both of which are actions which tampers the way things was supposed to be without thought. The first creates a down in the cycle while the latter intends for the cycle to complete the round "up" faster. The second action could be primal instinct or it could be due to a mixture of thought and instinct. Many years on, we know that decisions can create enormous effects to the timeline of history. A bump we experience now can alter the genetic code of our great great great grandchildren. All actions have consequences.

And with thought we can usually know of the impending consequences. We soon realise what is good for us and what is bad for us. We recognise what is the up and what is the down in the cycle.For example, all living organism with nerves experience pain. Dolphin do cry out when in pain. So do monkeys. They just do not think about the pain or make a fuss about the pain. But we do. We recognise pain and then noted that excruciating pain often leads to death. But death is like a loss to us. Death is simply disappearance. So we objectify that death and pain is the down in the cycle. So we try to change that. Humans adapted and we created weapons and thus safety. We created cohesion as a means to survive. We conquered the natural world, we prevented a natural "premature" death by the elements around us.We change our situation such that we continue to see the up in the cycle and at least slow or reverse the down side of the cycle. Our population actually grows with us thinking that our changes is for the better of ourselves. We always thought of the up. Because that is what thought, reasoning and aspirations makes us do. We reasoned that killing and stealing is bad for oneself because it is a loss, therefore a down in the cycle. Thought may have given rise to innate morality. Essentially humans continue to live with the thought of doing good or improving. That is why, like Anne Frank had once mentioned, people deep down no matter who they are are good at heart. Man had reasoned and different people saw different parts of the balance in the natural world cycle and may have reasoned differently. Reasoning equals good equals progress, Man thinks he can progress. Man thinks he can be improved.

But Man, in his physical shell is part of this world. His thinking may be out of this world and is immensely innovative (God-like even). But his shell is part of this finite natural cycle. We frustrate ourselves in finding immortality and longer lifespans but it is our thought that suggests its possibility because like immortality, our thoughts are immortal-like, without boundaries. And that is why I had quoted Lee Kuan Yew at the start of the article, "The Confucian theory was man could be improved, but I'm not sure he can be. He can be trained, he can be disciplined." Religion then plays such a vital role in keeping us grounded and restoring some balance in the world. I believe, religion hold portions of the truth of our existence.

Almost all major and ethical religions preach on morality. They prescribe certain things as good for us and tells us what is bad for us. Raping, hurting and stealing... There are the 7 Deadly Sins. Religion tells us to discipline ourselves to fight greed, lust, pride, gluttony, envy and the rest. In the natural world this does happen, instinctively. But with the capacity to think, the degree of these sins becomes exponential. We can greed even more because we could think how to greed more. We can find ways to fulfil our lusts. As such, the imbalance becomes greater in the cycle but religion seeks to oppose that. In my opinion, religion seeks to come to terms with our capacity to think but to also accept our primal nature, so that the cycle is sustained as best as possible, for the better of the world. Not that religion opposes science! Religion just offers a better judgment and rationale for the world's health than science and progress. People may argue religion divides but it is people who think and use religion as instruments to carry their twisted ideologies that divides. Some religion like Buddhism embraces meditation, an activity of just being. One just try to be himself at his natural state in the world, a part of the world. He try to attain nirvana, a peace of the mind. A place where one does not think. In Christianity, there is the concept of atonement of a sin. A correction for the wrongdoings one may have done. A gesture to fix and retain the original cycle by being mindful of one's actions and thoughts. So, possibly, all religion may contain certain truths about existence.

Death then completes our cycle. The end of our thinking time. The end of Thought's existence in oneself. The end of our Earth. We then go to Heaven, Hell or as some even chose to believe we reincarnate. I obviously do not know of the truths behind this, for I have to be dead to actually know what happens, but it is an important part of all religion so it must be very important. A hypothesis is that it could just be the end of our thoughts and our return of our physical self to the natural world cycle. Becoming part of the heaven, before Adam's first Thought. Our bodies are composed of carbon and iron and we become nutrients to the Earth and plants absorb us, and we enter animals body system and be part of it. In this way, we are "reincarnated" back to the world. The concept of Heaven and Hell could firstly be a method to scare us thus preventing us from disrupting the cycle during our thinking time on Earth. But it could mean more. Perhaps doing something we know is bad does something to our genes such that when we die, we become part of the Earth, but is defective to the Earth, such that we created a Hell for the place we reside in. Or it could be we changed the world so much during our Thinking self such that when we die the world is no longer like Heaven but our unthinking shell resides in an inhospitable environment, aka Hell.

The Great Isaiah Scroll (17 sheets of parchment)

The Great Isaiah Scroll, part of the Dead Sea Scrolls uncovered in 1947, dating back to about 100-350 years before Jesus, talks about prophecies. It foretold of  great destruction and calamity, but each time it foretold of a destruction, it would then talk about a time of peace and growth. Of fertile land and of a time of happiness. It is talking about cycles. Towards the end of time, where human have done so much meddling and considerable damage, mankind would have progressed so much and so far off what the Earth could handle, its destruction would become inevitable. Up until then, mankind have sought for an UP. But the world have to turn one whole round and revert to its original self. A zero sum game. Thus, the Armageddon. The disasters we have so far faced are seemingly getting worse and more drastic. Earthquakes are achieving greater magnitudes and are becoming increasingly more frequent. Freak weathers are increasingly more common. Wars are ever bigger and in a more massive scale with the capabilities of nuclear bombs. Remember the days of sword fighting, followed by cannons and guns then bombs. Strains of diseases are getting harder to cure as they become more and more complex. In Dan Brown's Inferno, the story encapsulated the overpopulation problem and concluded that one of the best ways to save the world is for drastic measures to apply. Plagues to destroy massive populations. But in the book, the antagonist successfully provided a less gruesome solution by rendering 1/3 of the world population infertile. All this catastrophe is a way to maintain balance in the world, as unreasonable as it may sound.

Balance

The problem, if it is a problem depending on which side we are on, balance or progress, is that progress now is inevitable. We have embraced our knowledge and embraced our full capacity to think.Thinking is a good thing! Comfort, safety and progress is all good! Knowledge is good! There is no reasonable explanation to counter progress, for our selves are dominated by our Thought. A regressive society is deemed bad. A great example is in Singapore we have a large human density in our land and yet we strive to increase our birthrate so that we can continue to expand and sustain our economic well-being and become more prosperous. It is the right thing to do...

So where do I stand? I stand in a place where I am definitely enjoying the comfort of our progress and yet I see inevitable doom in the materialistic comfort I lay in. I object and yet embrace it. If there is a way which I can do to make the world better I would most definitely would. As my religion have prescribed for me, do not strive for materialistic comfort in the world now but rather strive for the Afterlife which is Eternal. I will try my best, God Willing, to follow my religion, for I believe that that is the true right to all wrongs.

God is Great