Life on Earth is an opportunity to use reason, passion

To the editor:

Everything that has come into being is constantly changing, which led me to believe a need for change is an intelligent force of creation. However, the “need” was frustrated by being in a “nothingness” — until it developed a broader sense of logic and realized its frustration is a form of energy, which prompted it to establish the laws of physics that change energy into matter. Later, an emotional will to live was activated in a certain combination of carbon, water and sunshine.

After a long period of evolution, early human beings came to believe that “good” spirits gave them protection from the negative effects of natural forces, which led to the establishment of organized religions that are now a necessary part of human culture — because religion reveals the spiritual qualities of life that make us human. When we die, our inner-self is absorbed by the “old soul” who awakened our self-consciousness at birth with our first breath of air. (An “old soul” is the inner-self of an original primate who achieved its self-consciousness in the wild, so to speak.) Later, the same “old soul” will repeat the process with another newborn babe by observing its development and progress in different, social, political and economic circumstances. Other “old souls” do the same thing.

We cannot grasp the true significance of reincarnation, but the purpose of human beings seems to be the accumulation of knowledge and emotional experience. If so, science and religion have served us well. But even so, recent economic strategies have resulted in a great divide between the rich and poor, and those strategies have also resulted in the threat of a global climate change.

To make the best of our present and future problems, our self-honesty and the use of reason will reveal that being “smart” is better than being “good,” because doing the smart thing always results in positive outcomes, but being good often brings about unintended consequences, such as religious discrimination and the poverty caused by bad politics and economics that are only “good” for our leaders. The highest priority of our ancient leaders was the survival of the community, and for the most part they did well — but at the present time our survival is in danger.

From a loftier point of view, man’s reason and passion can be seen as higher forms of logic that evolved from the same intelligent and emotional characteristics that shaped the laws of physics and the realm of life. In a similar manner, human beings can create a little world of their own, where reason and passion are put to use in the pursuit of interesting knowledge and emotional experience. Regardless of religious beliefs, life on Earth is our only opportunity to make use of our reason and pursue our passion, which might also benefit the old soul who awakened our self-consciousness at birth.

If that’s not the case, then our use of reason and passion “only” made our life an interesting experience.

Art Carney

Wasilla