<\/p>\n
This post Every time I go <\/p>\n I know of How can this be One could But one could Personal Evidence?<\/b><\/p>\n At bottom my But these Bigger Patterns<\/b><\/p>\n And yet some of What follows is If consciousness Individuation At a certain In the case of An environment Predators and And so there is
\nfulfills a promise I made to discuss the tough examples readers raised in my
\npost on beauty and suffering<\/a>. I do it from a Pagan perspective, one emphasizing the sacredness of the world
\nand of the basic processes that make it up.<\/p>\n
\nto the local grocery store I put a contribution in a jar for Haile. <\/span>She is a three year old deathly ill
\nfrom a rare form of leukemia. <\/span>From
\nwhat I am told, her chances are not good.
\n<\/span>A display in the store (where her father works) shows a lovely little
\ngirl blowing bubbles and clowning around.
\n<\/span>They were taken before she lost her hair as one effect of therapy.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nnothing more heart wrenching than the suffering and deaths of children. <\/span>Death is a part of life, but these
\nlittle beings have got very small helpings of life and a very big ones of
\ndeath. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nin a good world?<\/p>\n
\nanswer, and answer truthfully, that it is far better than it used to be. <\/span>With one exception, no sons of our
\ncountry’s Founders lived to adulthood.
\n<\/span>The exception was John Quincy Adams. <\/span>In 1853 in New York City half of all reported deaths were
\nchildren of less than 5. <\/span>Today
\ncases like Haile’s are a small minority.<\/p>\n
\nargue, and argue truly, that these improvements are due to the growth of
\nscientific knowledge and hygiene – they are not evidence of a benevolent world.<\/p>\n
\nconfidence that the world is ultimately good and sacred is based on another
\norder of experience. <\/span>Having had
\nencounters with deities and with divine love, a love that is super human, I am
\nsure that at its bottom there is an answer to this mystery. <\/span>Having encountered entities without
\nbodies in our sense, I am equally sure that consciousness can exist
\nindependently of our physical selves.
\n<\/span>Is our consciousness of this nature? <\/span>Of course I cannot be sure, but it seems more likely to be
\nso than for it not to be so.<\/p>\n
\nexperiences do not come close to explaining why so many came into this world
\nonly to linger briefly, and die, let alone dying so horribly. <\/span>Their suffering underlines <\/span>an ultimate mystery but cast no light
\non its solution. In a good world why do bad things happen to undeserving
\npeople?<\/p>\n
\nus – and I am one such – try and discern a pattern, a logic, to our experiences
\nthat penetrates more deeply than simply saying we have faith based on personal
\nexperiences that there is a moral and loving order to the world, and that no
\none suffers for naught. <\/span>Yes, I
\nhave such a faith. <\/span>No, I do not
\nbelieve anyone else should find that particularly convincing.<\/p>\n
\nmy own effort to find a plausible pattern that is motivated by my experiences,
\nbut hopes to make a case to those who have not had them that the issue of why
\nsuffering exists is not so cut and dried as atheists and Gnostics might
\nsuggest.<\/p>\n
\nis as irreducible as matter – and this is a reasonable position – it does not
\nthereby follow that all consciousness much resembles our own. <\/span>Atoms have very little consciousness by
\nour standards. <\/span>In particular, they
\nseem to have no individuation in our sense of the term.<\/p>\n
\narise with complexity.
\n<\/span>Extrapolating from this insight, individuation of awareness also
\nincreases as complexity increases.
\n<\/span>Until a certain level of complexity has arisen, awareness is more
\noriented towards flourishing and vitality than towards more complex value perceptions. <\/span>Organisms take advantage of whatever opportunities
\narise to grow and reproduce and flourish. As part of a larger field of
\nconsciousness their individuality is partial, but real.<\/p>\n
\npoint organisms begin to be able to experience “higher” forms of awareness
\nbecause their complexity has grown to the point where such awareness can be
\nlocated within a body. <\/span>I have
\nposted on animal morality<\/a> as an example. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nhuman awareness this capacity has grown to the point where ‘disinterested” care
\nand love is possible, a delight in the flourishing of others who need not be
\nuseful to us. <\/span>Many economists and
\n“game theorists” <\/span>have trouble with
\nsuch a concept, but most other people probably do not because we have not been
\ntrained to think as sociopaths do.<\/p>\n
\nthat makes such awareness possible in physical form rests on a foundation of
\nmany other forms of life that are increasingly focused only on growth and
\nreproduction as we move towards ever simpler kinds of life. <\/span>A degree of complexity must arise from
\nsimpler foundations in order for qualities such as love and care to manifest in
\nthe material world. <\/span>The chieft
\nimpelling physical force leading to such an outcome is rooted in the rise of
\npredators.<\/p>\n
\nparasites arose when organisms able to extract energy from other organisms
\narose. <\/span>This forced prey organisms
\nto adapt or die. <\/span>Absent them the
\nworld would be little beyond blue green algae.<\/p>\n
\na paradox: a world able to have beings capable of love must emerge from a world
\nwhere love in physical form has no home and where predations is the principle
\nphysical cause for change in the direction of ever more varied degrees of
\nawareness and mind. <\/span>The Pagan
\ninsight on the interrelatedness, the necessary interrelatedness, of death and
\nlife, growth and decline, could not be better exemplified.<\/p>\n