Cerebral

Yesterday, I had a series of conversations with people, friends. And I came to two realizations that I feel like I should share, although they aren't new or original.

1. The next stage in human evolution must be the moral evolution, and power structures that try to force morality inhibit that evolution.

2. We need to know love to know God, and to know love, is to be understood.

Abstract, I know.

To begin, the moral evolution is not a new idea. I was referred by a very intelligent and worldly brother to a number of other sources that inspire this train of thought, but it came to me first when watching the movie "Waking Life" which I would suggest to anyone that is still puzzled about where I'm going with all of this.

In the movie, an animated scientist recounts the many stages of human evolution, from the biological sense to even the Industrial Revolution -- "evolution of populations, not individuals"-- At the speed of evolution, there could be a new revolution in our lifetime -- the moral evolution. (View the excerpt below)



The need for this moral evolution is obvious. It is, at this point in history, more and more crucial because the results of domination and oppression have everything out of whack. If you don't believe me, take a look at every land that colonization and/or imperialism has touched. The same structures that have perpetrated the genocidal horrors of colonization and imperialism (and slavery) are the ones that legislate "morality."

I won't define morality here. I will say that as a Communication major, in my studies, I've come to learn that whether we are genetically predisposed (a natural born conscience) or socialized (taught through world interaction) to be moral beings, the part of our brain that makes us feel bad when we've done something wrong, or feel good when we've done something for someone else has cannot be an anomaly of evolution. The fact is, we need each other. Not only are we social beings, but to meet our daily needs of food, water, and shelter, we need other people --think of what all goes into the production and distribution of those needs at a basic level (The farmer who produced the food, the truck driver or train conductor that tranported the food, the stock boy that presents the food, and the cashier that sells it to you, etc.).

That we would evolve to treat other people well, is not such a strange idea. Humans are social beings. A scientific study found that babies die in isolation (in fact, they had to stop the study because of the infant deaths). We need contact, we need other human beings. Philosophically, we desire to be understood which is essentially why we communicate. But obviously, that can be difficult. So many of our relational conflicts result because we feel misunderstood, and so many of our relational heights are the result of feeling truly understood. We connect to certain songs, poems, movies, speeches, etc. because they evoke a feeling, a familiar and unfamiliar one. Unfamiliar because it is outside of ourselves, but familiar because there is understanding there... a connection. When we feel understood and appreciated, we are loved. And to know that feeling, the intangible phenomenon of love, is to know god, and because we are all capable of loving, we all not only are in some measure, gods and goddesses, but we are also capable of this moral evolution.