What bears preaching

I wrote this verse in 1968 when I was 19

“Had he never seen what’s real he would probably still feel
And would live, love and laugh with his fellows;
But, having seen beyond, he dares not disturb the pond
He has a sermon that never will bear preaching”

I had early exposure to archaeology and zoology. These supplied alternative views about ‘life, the universe and everything’. Our understanding of ‘Truth’ and ‘reality’ went through a few paradigm shifts in the minds of Newton, Galileo, Darwin, Freud, and Einstein etc

At Aberdeen University Professor Gimingham taught ecology with the fervour of a preacher. His text for one lecture was “change and decay in all around I see” But this was seen positively as a key aspect of biogeochemical cycles. Death is necessary and inevitable as the main driving force in evolution.

But the good people of my village were wired into the myths and magic that hung around as cultural cement. The ’good and great’ said they believed in the old Presbyterian stuff because it helped to legitimise life’s key stages (baptism, marriage and death); and legitimised peoples’ place in the local hierarchy.

I became convinced by the arguments and evidence for evolution; especially after seeing linkages with the existentialist contributions of Kierkegaard and Sartre.

 In the 70s and 80s I taught general science and biology in several different countries and I figured approaches to teaching about the evolution of plants and animals to people whose village culture was heavily animist
.
And then there was the 90s and onwards where sociobiology morphed into multi-disciplinary consilience and where ideas from evolutionary psychology merged with the findings from brain science with its various scanning instruments.

AND there is marked consilience between the subjective findings of meditators and the objective links with mental activities that are scanned. The mind can change the brain and vice versa

SO times have moved on.

“But, having seen beyond, he must disturb the pond
He has a sermon that is shouting out for preaching”

The big history people are amassing digestible evidence about designerless evolution in its cosmic, biological and cultural forms. Once upon a time there was the big bang and life emerged out of the star dust. In another 4.5 million years our sun will explode and life as we know it will be no more.
Our understanding of the process of evolution is still evolving.

I am happy to share my understanding of what is emerging. It grieves me that so many people still want to believe in the heavenly father myth and that they should die defending it.

I am now 69 and too old to romp about the world’s classrooms and pulpits but I still have an appetite for the meditation stool and for the emerging understanding of life the universe and everything.

The Big History Project is an excellent, ongoing source of good stuff. It explains itself better than I can – have a look at https://www.bighistoryproject.com/home