A Close Encounter?

Imagine if you will, meeting a visitor from a highly-evolved race in another galaxy who has arrived on planet Earth, curious to learn about our civilisation in all its aspects. She is struck by the disparity between our impressive achievements in science, technology and medicine, and the seeming inability of much of humanity to live together in harmony, and by the gross inequalities between rich and poor, powerful and weak.

On her planet, war and violence have long since disappeared from their experience; equality, respect and love are the norm, and personal relationships are far more fulfilling than many of us currently experience. Naturally, you ask her how we could achieve this seemingly Utopian way of life. Your eager question is met with a thoughtful look and a hint of a twinkle in her eye,

‘Well, if I were you I wouldn’t start from here’.

‘Ok . . . I think I know where you’re going with this. So how far back did we go off the rails?’

‘A very long time ago indeed . . . how about Adam and Eve?’

‘Oh come on, surely hardly anyone believes that old fairy story?’

‘You underestimate the power of fairy stories! This is amongst the earliest recorded stories of humanity’s relationship with the universe and its creator. If you stop and think carefully about its elements, you will see that it embodies some of the core beliefs on which your society is founded.’

‘Really? Even in secular societies?’

‘Oh yes. Your rapid scientific progress has depended in large measure on your willingness to embrace new concepts which radically changed, even swept away previous understandings. Curiously, when it comes to your beliefs around humanity itself you have clung to ancient ideas almost without question – and without even realising you are doing so.’

‘Ok . . . so tell me more about Adam and Eve.’

‘The story starts with the universe and its creator; planet Earth is populated with wonderful plants and creatures; and the first human couple are living in the idyllic Garden of Eden with everything they could wish for.

So far, so good. However, the creator has placed a beautiful apple tree in the middle of the garden, and tells the couple that under no circumstances are they to eat its fruit. Also in the garden is a serpent who lures the woman into believing that she will gain knowledge and power by eating the fruit, and she in turn persuades the man to do so with her.

Big mistake! The creator is angry with the couple for their disobedience and punishes them by banishing them from the Garden of Eden. From now on generation after generation of humanity will experience all manner of suffering.

This does indeed sound rather like a typical fairy story. Simple, dramatic, with larger than life characters, and containing a powerful moral lesson. It starts with a couple living in blissful contentment, and within a few short lines the world is descending into disharmony and suffering – which you can all too easily recognise today – and all because that first couple disobeyed the creator. The ultimate cautionary tale!’

‘You’re not kidding! So what does it tell us?’

‘The creator depicted here seems to bear little resemblance to the loving God of your New Testament. Having created a paradise home for the first human couple, why then subject them to such blatant temptation? And why punish not only them but all their descendants for their disobedience?

What would you think of a parent who placed a copy of Playboy on the playroom table with strict instructions that the children should not look at it, and then banished them from the family home for giving in to their natural curiosity? Does this sound like enlightened behaviour for a parent, let alone the creator of the universe? A psychotherapist might diagnose this as an extreme example of ‘setting up to fail’ – hardly the behaviour one might expect of a supreme being!’

‘I begin to see what you’re driving at . . . so our societies have been founded on the notion of humans wilfully disobeying an angry and punishing creator. Does that explain our authoritarian systems of government and law?’

‘It certainly does! Now what if this story is simply early humanity’s attempt to explain the disparity between a supposedly ‘ideal’ creation and the very considerable challenges they faced in their daily lives? Even in relatively recent centuries your explanations for all manner of natural phenomena were fanciful, to put it mildly; indeed, the origin of the universe is still a challenging subject for your best minds.’

‘Now I’m getting what you mean about our scientific advances depending on letting go of those primitive explanations in favour of rational ones. And how, when it comes to some of the most fundamental aspects of how we live our lives, we’ve clung on to ancient myths which no longer serve us.’

’Your Albert Einstein hit the nail on the head when he said ‘It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.’ He wasn’t just a brilliant physicist, he was also a philosopher with a gift for expressing great wisdom in a few words.‘

‘I have a collection of his sayings and they’re brilliant. So come on, is there a more rational explanation for what we’re doing here? What do they believe where you come from?’

‘Well, let’s accept for the time being the possibility of a creator, dwelling in a realm of eternal bliss, and compare this with the essential qualities of physical existence as you experience it. Did it ever cross your mind to wonder if eternal bliss might eventually become somewhat tedious?’

‘Yes, I do remember thinking that, but I didn’t pursue it any further.’

‘We live in a universe of contrasts – large/small, up/down, hot/cold, pain/pleasure to name just a few – and you can only experience each of those qualities in relation to its opposite. This is a major element in what makes physical life interesting.’

‘Just a minute, are you saying that the creator got bored with eternal bliss and created the universe to make existence more interesting? What does that make us, puppets?

‘If you stop to think about it, that wouldn’t really work, because if the creator were pulling the strings, there wouldn’t be any surprises. She’d soon get bored again.

‘Hang on a minute, are you saying the creator is female?’

‘No, I’m just challenging the traditional assumption of a male creator! Anyway, back to your question. The only way to avoid that boredom is for us to have free will to do whatever we choose.’

‘But surely, that would lead to chaos and anarchy?’

‘Would it? Look at your animal ‘kingdom’. Hasn’t it evolved into a stable eco-system? And that’s through natural evolution. Rational beings can use their consciousness to evolve far more quickly.’

‘You wouldn’t think so, to look at the mess our world is in at the moment!’

‘Agreed, but I was careful to say ‘can’ in that last sentence! Much depends on what you believe about the nature of existence, your relationship to the creator, and to each other. Arriving at a new understanding of those crucial issues could radically change your experience of life on earth.’

‘You still haven’t answered my question about what they believe where you come from.’

‘Ok, let’s consider the possibility that far from being puppets, each of you is an individual expression of the creator, with a unique life path. Through you, the creator is enabled to experience her creation in all its infinite variety. As William Shakespeare put it “all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players”.’

‘And that’s what your people believe?’

‘We live by it, but we certainly don’t consider it an article of faith set in tablets of stone, more a working assumption. That is, an assumption that works, much as scientists would make. And, like scientists, if we come up with an assumption that works even better, we adopt it.’

‘So, it could be just another fairy story?’

‘In a way, but I doubt you’d consider it a good example of a fairy story – it’s not exactly full of drama and larger-than-life characters, is it? However, it does allow us to experience lives rich in love and fulfilment, so you could say that there really is a ‘happily ever after’ ending!’

‘You mean to say that simply adopting that model of existence would change everything? That seems incredible!’

‘No more incredible than the Adam and Eve story!’

‘Ok you’ve got me there! So can you explain just how it makes such a difference?’

(to be continued . . .)