“From possibilities, actual things emerged: the roots of an enormous tree of Life whose
topmost branches stretch outward infinitely far, while its roots plunge
infinitely deep – both the outward and the inward journey fraught with mystery
far beyond the comprehension of the forms of life clustered high and low.”
Umm, sorry Professor, but do you really mean
‘infinitely’? I guess I’ll grant you
poetic license there, but wouldn’t ‘immeasurably’ convey the same meaning and
be more accurate?
Sure, ‘immeasurable’ is fine too and perhaps more
accurate. The point is that we’ll never
know how many different expressions of Life there have been or will be. So, for purposes of discussion, the tree of
Life may as well be thought of as having roots of impenetrable antiquity and
branches that reach out with incomprehensible complexity.
Fair enough.
On we go.
“Many of Process’ experiments at union failed. Many more reached termini and ceased to
evolve further: yet all were, and are,
and will be permeated by the basic stuff of the cosmos, differing from one
another only in degree and not in kind:
attaining their apparent differences only through active interrelationships.”
“This primordial drive toward greater and greater union
produced Whole structures and communities in the sea which, oh so gradually,
sought the light and then more light and then more yet.”
"On the face of the earth clock, single-celled organisms appeared about 4 AM…primitive
invertebrates not until much later - about 8 or 9 PM. Land
plants blossomed just before 10 PM and there was oxygen. Dinosaurs arrived about 11 PM and just before
midnight on this 4.5-billion year long day, there was a remarkable emergence in
the turbulent stream of Life in Process…'humanoids' woke up in a world they did
not understand. The cosmic process
became conscious – a mutant possessing options and seeking questions. A species with an open future.”
“And as they became more aware, they became afraid of their
many choices, of their freedom, of their enormous potential for good, and of
their equally enormous potential for evil.
And their freedom was their Hell and they were envious of their fellow
creatures that had no future because they had no past – only the vaguest
awareness of the present, and nowhere near as much freedom as humans had.”
“The other creatures felt no guilt, because they could not
do other than they did. But humans could;
and humans did. And they became the
first questioners of their own being.
And Process for the first time asked questions of itself:
- Who am I?
- Where did I come from?
- Why am I different from other creatures around here?
- Why do I smile and laugh?
- Why do I like to play?
- Why do I frown and cry?
- Why must I work so hard all the time?
- Where do different languages come from?
- How is it that some of my kind are black, others white, others yellow and red and all shades in between?
- Why do some of us live in tents and others in huts of straw and still others in walled cities?
- Where am I going?
- Do I have a destiny?
- Will I survive death?
- Does anybody out there love me, or care for me, or am I all alone?
- Why do I ask these questions?
- Why do I do bad things when I know better, and if I am so bad, how is it that I know the good?"
“And the answers Humans gave themselves depended upon where
they grew up, what their lives were like, and what their special needs were.”
Let me stop you there again, Professor.
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