Peace making thoughts

This morning there were peace making thoughts, feelings and moods (TFM) about the more glorious TFM.  There was an enhanced sense of time and space that was grounded in the notion of a cosmic zoom, and in the three phases of evolution – cosmic, biological and cultural.

In the beginning was the big bang which gave rise to hydrogen and helium and then to all the other elements in Mendeleyev’s periodic table.  There was matter and energy interacting to form universes, galaxies, solar systems and many suns and planets. This was the phase of cosmic evolution – it has not stopped.

I am not an astronomer and what I see when I consider the night sky are tiny spots of light arranged in constellations. So my viewpoint is closer to that of the stone age ancestors rather than to modern scientists. But I trust the well-informed scientists to monitor and challenge each other. Arguably developments in ‘evolutionary psychology’ and ‘neurology’, have given us ‘brain science’ as a new paradigm.

The middle phase is biological evolution. In the beginning a singular, self-replicating, biochemical blueprint evolved and formed the basis of all living things.  It guides the function of all single and many celled plants and animals.   All living things use the same DNA.  There is a unity of biochemistry.

I have studied biochemistry and have wondered at the elegant poetry of Glycolysis, the Kreb’s Cycle and of many other sophisticated, biochemical routines which are found in the cells of all organisms. This is strong evidence that ‘life’ evolved only once.

The next phase is cultural evolution. Culture is possible and necessary in animals that interact with each other. The more advanced organisms have central and peripheral nervous systems which gather information through sense organs (eg eyes and ears), process it in memory modules, and produce chemical, electrical and motor responses.

Culture is particularly important in human beings who have language and can share detailed thoughts, feelings and moods. Language is recently evolved. It’s full potential is still to be realised.

The ancestors used language to create a vast range of myths and magic. But these were based on intuition and imagination rather than on evidence and facts. (eg the flat earth). Since the turn of the centuries there has been a lot of new thinking in the field of brain science. The main idea is that the world view of an individual is rooted in nature, nurture and chance. And the good news is that the contributions of nature (eg instinct, intuition, reflex and various biases) appear to be plastic. It is never too late to change your mind – or anybody else’s (think propaganda.)

Back to the cosmic zoom. Life as we know it is very recently evolved in astronomical terms - and it will be gone when the sun runs out of fuel (hydrogen and helium again.) We are all doomed. It would be nice if people, politicians and policy makers were to practice mindfulness meditation and thus speak truth to power. Most people would know that the reality that can be described is not the real reality and is not worth killing or dying over. It is never too late to change your mind with peacemaking thoughts.