On the fold between atheism and theism: imagination is freedom

As an African born and living in Africa, I am one of many whose identity was shaped by British colonial motives. The history is not so important but merely observing how I express myself, some of my values and ideals, it is easy to trace back to European tenets or at least an attempt to be like the Europeans. Recently I felt a “type of way” about the Constitutional Court proceedings in which an “esteemed” bench of “black” judges adorned with white wigs and the females placing this over their black weaves… there was something unfortunate about the whole scene, rather a strong lack of aesthetics in the whole presentation… but it serves it’s purpose and it has done so for many years now. Ceremony engenders domestication. So immediately this is not meant as a tirade against European imperialism, a “rational” person, poor in mind and reason may see that as fitting.
It’s is simple, it is easier to imitate. Any action that does not lead to ruin is prone to imitation. Next, any action that reduces the chance of ruin is imitated. Due to opacity about the future, any action believed to reduce the chance of ruin is imitated. The actions need not be rationale… next, what is rationale?
Rationality is about survival… It is the goal of being to ensure existence in an acceptable state for as long as possible. Being is beyond my mind to define, but simply for me it is what moves through space and time all the while aware of the immediate. There are actions that lead to ruin, that is threaten survival, and these can be thought of as irrational.
Ecology
There is something interesting about population dynamics as the number of entities increases. Two are discussed here.
Mimesis
In the face of uncertain options, new entrants to a group of people will behave in a way very similar to the indigenous crop. In the face of new evidence and/or cohesion from the new group, the indigenous population will imitate the new members. The new behavior is believed to increase survival “quality”, in some fortunate cases survival lifetime and in some unfortunate cases survival of others at the expense of new adherents. But that which leads to action or inaction is premised on survival or precisely limiting exposure to ruin.
First anecdote. With a few relatives with the following age distribution {3, 7, 13, 23, 37, 62}, I took a short trip to the local lake. The facilities are run down and encourage a natural bias against most of the offering of the establishment. There were very few people at the establishment and most of the people did not care much for the amusement rides which included a zip line. As the first people to attempt the zip line, I observed much reservation as the the safety of the ride. So much so, we left without attempting the ride. As we walked away, a little boy ran out the ladder and zipped down the line. Our party wanted part of the action.
The possibility of physical harm kept the party from attempting an otherwise safe ride. In the absence of others to imitate, more centrally, others to test the waters, there was an unwillingness to try the new experience. The fact that the park was relatively empty meant that most of the features of the park were “untested”. Had there been more people, we would have a better appreciation of what works and what does not. The amount of information we have is naturally proportional to the number of observations made.
Numbers change things
A relationship between two people is very different from a relationship between three people. As the numbers change, the way the parties interact changes. Next, as the number of people in a group increases, the relationship becomes more complicated. Why?
Firstly, as shown above, there is more information and with more information comes more action. More action also means more information and we have growing dynamics at play. Secondly, the more people we have the higher the dimensionality in motives. The different interests resulting from an in increase in the number of people also increases the number of constraints. So larger groups are more complex than small groups.
So we have increased complexity. It follows that we have more uncertainty. Opacity. Once things become unclear, belief comes to play when there is need to move forward. So words like “faith”, “fate”, “hope”, “luck” et al come into play and form part of the vocabulary.
Love a good story… an old story is a good story
We use belief to allow us to handle complexity. Complexity is a natural result when there are finite resources for which demand is insatiably high. The logical premise for enhancing survival entails building redundancies and ensuring access to more in the future. These ideas have been explored in earlier writings. So how is the complexity impasse settled… good stories.
As stated early, ceremony engenders domestication. Routine is a way to neuter randomness and helps settle the nerves. Such routines come from fables and related tales often sprinkled with useful maxims and tenets. It is easy to remember information with causal links (stories) than stand alone maxims and tenets. That’s why heroes are buried in a time past and humanity can not do better than a time past. Precisely, it’s hard to measure up to Mohamed, Jesus or Gautama.
Next, old stories are the basis of religion and the ceremonies/rituals accompanying are potentially harmful.
Prone to abuse and dulling of the intellect. It has been mentioned many a time that religion works well as a means to control a group of people and does not do too well when people are allowed free thought and imagination. Tirade for another day.
My imagination
My belief is in that fold between atheism and theism. Carl Sagan once said, we are the universe experiencing itself… that statement was telling in the formation of the following belief.
I will start at the end of the this life. We are a little soul bearing about a corpse, from old writing… that little soul, I believe is a part of the larger universe, bits and pieces composed of the material of the universe and so concentrated to form life. Life allowing perception of degenerate points in time within the confines space we exist.
So the soul dissolves into space, our consciousness is returned to the vast expanse that is the universe going outside the bound of the body.
The universe expands owing to the new matter spawned in the form of souls reaching out into the vast. Pieces of self float/travel indefinitely with no sensation except that awareness of what it is made as it continuous to experience itself.
In the immediate, to expand as much as we can the limits of the mind, our understanding of our surroundings and all that is natural. When all is in accordance to nature, there is no complexity. So the motive of life is to discover that which is natural and do all in accordance to nature. As and when it’s done, having done all that is possible to preserve being is all the reward there is for living. Preservation in accordance to nature. Nature is first magnanimous.
This is all there is to my little space between belief and non-belief… freedom.
