Jacob Cassady
19 March 2000
I. Concept “True Humility”
II. Definitions
True- Sincerely felt or expressed, not synthetic or spurious, in tune and accurate in pitch.
Humility- Persists in rating our claims low, in being willing to waive our rights, and take a lower place than might be our due. It does not require of us to underrate ourselves: Freedom from pride and arrogance.
III. Thesis
True humility is not mere knowledge or wisdom, it is a progressive recognition of a Higher Power in every aspect of our lives.
IV. Perspectives
1. Personal
There was a time when the word “humility” was a word of contempt. To call a man humble was to characterize him as cowardly. Yet today, this word is one of the most honorable in our language, once so despised, is now regarded as the crowning grace of life. We seek humility to acknowledge limits of human power to recognize the severity of addiction.
Appreciate the limitless energy of a Higher Power to
transform and direct our lives.
2. Spiritual
With the help of others, we continually make the discovery that the less self-centered we become and the more other- centered we become--the more full and rewarding our lives become. We show the reality and glory of this spiritual principal and concept by translating it into deeds. Peace of
mind comes from understanding the Laws of a Higher Power and demonstrating them in all areas of our lives.
3. Evolutionary
Advanced forms of life existed on earth at least 3.55 billion
years ago. In rocks of that age, fossilized imprints have been found of bacteria that look like cyanobacreria, the most
highly evolved photosynthetic organism present in the world today. It is generally agreed that if life arose spontaneously by natural processes -- it must have arisen fairly quickly, in a matter of millennia or centuries, perhaps even less. These processes are bound to occur similarly wherever and whenever similar conditions occur. This is because the processes are chemical and therefore ruled by the deterministic laws that govern chemical reactions and make them reproducible. In space, a singularity explodes with a temperature of 10^43 K (ten followed byforty-three zeros Kelvin): at the same instant, in 10^-43 seconds the universe expands by 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles. We are so small and the universe is so unknown. Quantum physics have now proven that all of our reality is set up on the principal “As above so below”--repeating patterns of creation from microscopic to galactic.
V. Complexity
The basic idea underlying evolution leads to the spontaneous emergence of systems of higher and higher complexity or “intelligence”: from elementary particles, via atoms, molecules, living cells, multicellular organisms, plants, and
animals to human beings, culture and society.
1. Prebiotic
The developments of our universe taking place before the origin of life. Emergence of a physico-chemical complexity beginning with the Big Bang: followed by space and
time, energy and particles, atoms and the different elements,
molecules up to organic polymers with simple structures.
In 1953, American chemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey showed that some amino acids (the building blocks of life) can be chemically produced from ammonia and methane.
2. Biological
An important rule is to reconstruct the earliest events on life’s history without assuming they proceeded with the benefit of foresight. The origin of life and the further development of specific biological aspects include DNA, multicellularity, sexual reproduction, and the species. Molecular biology permits us to compare any two species, gene
by gene, to uncover the degree of relatedness. Confirming relations previously found by evolutionary biology: for example humans and chimpanzees share 99.6 percent of their active genes.
3. Cognitive
This stage of complexity gives way to the origin of mind, cognitive organization going from simple reflexes to complex nervous systems. Life undergoes evolution. Simpler forms are succeeded by forms with greater organization. Leading to
a hierarchy of control levels, each higher level controls the
constraints of the level below. The higher the number of levels, the more complex the system, and the more complex the environments to which it can adapt.
4. Social
A multi-celled creature is like a network of computers. It requires parallel computer architecture on a huge scale to operate multi-celled creatures such as mammals with billions or trillions of cells, all working in harmony, each doing its
task. Social systems and culture grow exponentially through
communication, cooperation, moral systems, and the information society.
VI. Technology
One very useful analogy for a cell is a computer. Computers have coded instructions inside them called programs. The programs in computers are analogous to DNA, the genetic programming in cells. Is this a coincidence, or simply the continuation and evolution of complexity in our environment?
1. Grandness
Before the days of electricity, before Socrates had a chance to contemplate the universe, and even before agriculture was invented. Nomadic tribes throughout Europe and the Americas were telling stories explaining their environment with what limited knowledge they possessed. Incomparable to todays perpetual knowledge, these people lived in complete humility essential to the survival of their heritage. Relying upon superstitious beliefs, some cultures, such as the Greeks, used hallucinogenic mushrooms to reach spiritual understanding. Most scientists agree that the modern understanding of heaven and hell share a common origin of ancient hallucinations and sacred spiritual realms.
2. Smallness
Just as the practice and implementation of religion in ancient cultures attempted to understand themselves and the cosmos, modern science aids us in the same search. Their function is the same, but science looks deeper, with a hypothetical eye, into life and the universe. Scrutinizing ideas and theories by applying the Scientific Method. Internet technology is the next phase in the evolution of organic complexity, the World Wide Web will filtrate into all
aspects of life. We must maintain our perspective: accomplishments and material successes will never satisfy our
spiritual needs. And we know, false pride, self-
centeredness, and self-sufficiency, in their various forms, are at the root of crime, pollution, and war.
VII. Awakening
The first sign of True Humility is usually a growing reverence for life, immensely appreciative of being alive. Today, we are out of tune with the harmonies of the earth and
cosmos, solely focusing on a linear “time is money” conveyor- belt-like concept of time. The central appeal of balanced rational ideology is to accept one’s rightful place as co- creator of the universe. It attempts, through logical arguments, to persuade one to accept the fact that they made the world they see. What grants our illusion of pain, sin, and death such apparent solidity, is that we believe it exists outside of our own power, that we are not responsible for it. If one can accept that they made what life is, then they can recognize the possibility of exercising the same p power of choice to make it disappear. In Mayan culture, God is the divine creative imagination that “imagined” this universe into being. To awaken one’s own cosmic creative imagination is to awaken to one’s own immortal divine nature.
At this point one becomes co-operative and co-creative with the universal creative imagination, which is presently imagining, and thus creating, this reality.
