The Logic Of Surak: Preface
Let's face it - while we've accomplished much as a species, Humanity has a long way to go before all Humans will enjoy peace and prosperity.
We've got people killing other people for a plethora of reasons: war; envy; greed; despite; revenge; rage; phobia's; misogyny; misanthropy; race; gender; and what seems like a million others. You name it, we're killing each other over it. Taking a life nowadays does not seem to matter to many people.
Yet from the time Homo Sapiens either evolved or arrived (take your pick), some of our predecessors have spasmodically evolved as Humans.
We've survived the tribal wars that took place tens of thousands of years ago, only to have tribal wars - indeed, genocide as seen in Rwanda - recur.
We've survived the Crusades, only to have religious radicals and fundamentalists attempt to pressure others to believe in their particular dogma - which is just a type of "Third Millenium" crusade.
If an alien were to look at the different cultures on Earth, they would doubtless see that some cultures are, well, more cultured than others.
Most of the world doesn't slaughter a portion of their citizenry as was recently done in Rwanda, and is now being done in Darfur. Germans in the year 2006 are vastly different than they were in 1939, while the recently-ousted Taliban weren't much different than Germans were in 1939, and some may consider them to have been worse than the Germans were in 1939. Indeed, it seems as though some parts of Earth are evolving, while others tend to devolve. China maintains that it's social structure is more "Humane" due to it's rather unique "blend" of communism and capitalism, yet China has seized Tibet and actively seeks to arrest the Tibetan's acknowledged leader, the Dali Lama, who cannot return to Tibet. Doesn't sound too "Humane" to me.
Perhaps it's simply "entropy in action".
This "uneven evolution" persists today in such forms as homophobia, racism, and bigotry, among others.
One can argue that America and Canada are two of the arguably more evolved countries in existance today, yet in both countries there are fundamentalist and neo-conservative groups that remain opposed to homosexual marriage. Many people may think of America as the world's last "superpower", yet "white racists" continue to exist in America, and remain a non-trivial threat. Americans create websites that argue that "God hates homosexuals". As of this writing, close to 400 transgendered people have been murdered, the majority of them in America.
So who or what is to blame? If one tries to point a finger at one culprit, say, religion, the connection cannot be made. While the prima facie cause for Darfur is religion (Islamic fundamentalists), money, thirty year-old feuds between neighbouring tribes, colonialism, and jealousy were the reasons for the genocide in Rwanda, and I doubt very much that anyone really understands the reasons behind what transpired in Cambodia and Myanmar (formerly called "Burma"). When one hypothesizes the reason for uneven evolution, one creates a theory, and if one uses the theory and comes up with even one false result then the theory is nullified. So the theory that religion is the one reason for "uneven evolution" is bogus.
Has religion caused strife and uneven evolution? Yes, absolutely. In feudal times, the only people who were taught to read and write were members of the Catholic church. People who did not attend church were, by and large, illiterate.
Has religion also benefitted millions of people over the ages? Yes, absolutely - it has given people hope or belief that good can exist.
Thus, religion should neither be villified nor idolized.
We could look for one reason, or a number of reasons, for the uneven evolution we are experiencing, but if there is a solution that would obviate any and all of those reasons, then I feel that the better thing to do is to look for this solution. Why dwell on the problem(s) when a solution is readily available?
This solution to uneven evolution is something that everyone can use without causing anyone to abandon their belief system(s). People who follow this path will become more reasonable, more analytical, and just plain smarter. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Dif-tor heh smusma svi'sochya. (Live Long And Prosper In Peace.)
T'Surakmaat
San Francisco, CA 2005/04/02
We've got people killing other people for a plethora of reasons: war; envy; greed; despite; revenge; rage; phobia's; misogyny; misanthropy; race; gender; and what seems like a million others. You name it, we're killing each other over it. Taking a life nowadays does not seem to matter to many people.
Yet from the time Homo Sapiens either evolved or arrived (take your pick), some of our predecessors have spasmodically evolved as Humans.
We've survived the tribal wars that took place tens of thousands of years ago, only to have tribal wars - indeed, genocide as seen in Rwanda - recur.
We've survived the Crusades, only to have religious radicals and fundamentalists attempt to pressure others to believe in their particular dogma - which is just a type of "Third Millenium" crusade.
If an alien were to look at the different cultures on Earth, they would doubtless see that some cultures are, well, more cultured than others.
Most of the world doesn't slaughter a portion of their citizenry as was recently done in Rwanda, and is now being done in Darfur. Germans in the year 2006 are vastly different than they were in 1939, while the recently-ousted Taliban weren't much different than Germans were in 1939, and some may consider them to have been worse than the Germans were in 1939. Indeed, it seems as though some parts of Earth are evolving, while others tend to devolve. China maintains that it's social structure is more "Humane" due to it's rather unique "blend" of communism and capitalism, yet China has seized Tibet and actively seeks to arrest the Tibetan's acknowledged leader, the Dali Lama, who cannot return to Tibet. Doesn't sound too "Humane" to me.
Perhaps it's simply "entropy in action".
This "uneven evolution" persists today in such forms as homophobia, racism, and bigotry, among others.
One can argue that America and Canada are two of the arguably more evolved countries in existance today, yet in both countries there are fundamentalist and neo-conservative groups that remain opposed to homosexual marriage. Many people may think of America as the world's last "superpower", yet "white racists" continue to exist in America, and remain a non-trivial threat. Americans create websites that argue that "God hates homosexuals". As of this writing, close to 400 transgendered people have been murdered, the majority of them in America.
So who or what is to blame? If one tries to point a finger at one culprit, say, religion, the connection cannot be made. While the prima facie cause for Darfur is religion (Islamic fundamentalists), money, thirty year-old feuds between neighbouring tribes, colonialism, and jealousy were the reasons for the genocide in Rwanda, and I doubt very much that anyone really understands the reasons behind what transpired in Cambodia and Myanmar (formerly called "Burma"). When one hypothesizes the reason for uneven evolution, one creates a theory, and if one uses the theory and comes up with even one false result then the theory is nullified. So the theory that religion is the one reason for "uneven evolution" is bogus.
Has religion caused strife and uneven evolution? Yes, absolutely. In feudal times, the only people who were taught to read and write were members of the Catholic church. People who did not attend church were, by and large, illiterate.
Has religion also benefitted millions of people over the ages? Yes, absolutely - it has given people hope or belief that good can exist.
Thus, religion should neither be villified nor idolized.
We could look for one reason, or a number of reasons, for the uneven evolution we are experiencing, but if there is a solution that would obviate any and all of those reasons, then I feel that the better thing to do is to look for this solution. Why dwell on the problem(s) when a solution is readily available?
This solution to uneven evolution is something that everyone can use without causing anyone to abandon their belief system(s). People who follow this path will become more reasonable, more analytical, and just plain smarter. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Dif-tor heh smusma svi'sochya. (Live Long And Prosper In Peace.)
T'Surakmaat
San Francisco, CA 2005/04/02