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I think history should have taught us by now that the biggest mistake we
consistently make always includes hanging our hat on nothing. It's difficult
enough to keep up with, much less to evaluate, theories that with
intellectual honesty and humility are submitted for peer review--the checks
and balance of creative integrity. While we should encourage creative
theorists to dream and weave great speculative theories that give us goose
bumps, we owe it to ourselves and our descendants to handle wondrous but
unproven ideas with extreme care. History has shown us how hazardous they
can be.
For example, the idea that a god created us, runs the universe, wrote our
laws, and calls upon priests to channel her words and will, has probably
caused more senseless pain, misery, death, and utter destruction than any
other idea ever to form in the mind of a human. Without evidence to check
their veracity, beliefs always run amok.
I have no doubt that in a sense we are all one. We are all made of the same
stuff that makes the stars. Nothing could be clearer. It is not a new idea,
then, that there might be some kind of interconnectedness. But so far, it is
just an idea. And because it requires belief in order to hold it, it can be
dangerous. Believed ideas have no restraints, like horses without reins,
SUVs without brakes, nuclear power plants without control rods...
We still wrestle with the question, what is consciousness? No one, as far as
I know, has isolated it, defined it, or given us anything other than
attempts at description, as attractive as they may be. Let anyone speculate
about consciousness, our connectedness, higher realms, influences from the
stars, visits from interstellar beings, and the tooth fairy. Speculation
makes fine food for minds hungry for dreams but gives us nothing to hang our
hats on. And should some strain of such speculation get into the hands of
another
Jim Jones,
Marshall Applewhite, or Innocent III, you
know we've got trouble.
Unproven ideas are the toys of the creative mind. Remember what your mother
told you about playing with your toys? Go ahead, but always put them away
when you're done.
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