Seeking a more rational understanding of human existence

Spectrum/Art Carney

When I graduated from a parochial high school in 1953, there was no doubt in my mind that God created the universe and everything in it, but as a practicing Catholic 15 or so years later, my five kids and pregnant wife caused me to wonder why my God-given use of reason couldn't be applied to family planning and birth control.

That was just one of the realities of life that impelled me to seek out a more rational understanding of human existence.

The search took most of a troubled lifetime, until shortly after retirement age, when I was able to recognize that the underlying power and principles of the universe are only the manifestations of an unconscious logical force, rather than the deliberate actions of a supreme being.

In the process of coming to that irreverent conclusion, I was surprised to discover that religion is a necessary cultural institution that was largely responsible for the survival and progress of early man.

Religious beliefs were at the base of a personal code of behavior that allowed those early people to live together somewhat harmoniously, and, ever since then, religious beliefs have been passed on to each generation.

However, all religion, Christian or otherwise, has more to do with the life of people on earth than with a spiritual life in the hereafter.

It was really hard to do, but I finally became able to reject my inherited concept of God. But in spite of becoming a "Godless heretic," it seems the religious values I adopted as a youth have become a part of my personal and cultural identity, and, therefore, my social and moral behavior has changed very little.

I still think any offense I commit against myself or my neighbor is a "sin," and I believe we all have a soul, which is a product of evolution, whose continuous presence makes us feel a "God" is constantly watching over us.

My understanding of evolution is that certain lower forms of life evolved into the body and mind of man, and then souls evolved from the mind of man into spiritual beings of a higher nature. I think souls "embody" the accumulated essence of our highest intellectual and emotional experience, which is something we will never really understand because souls are "Godlike" compared to human beings, just as human beings are "Godlike" compared to apes.

The process of human evolution was enhanced by a larger brain that enabled man to improve on the more favorable characteristics and behaviors of the primates, while the spiritual nature of souls enabled them to use the higher aspects of human intelligence and emotion.

Because souls are on a different plane of awareness, we do not know what they need or want any more than apes know what human beings need or want. In other words, animals, humans and souls all have their own places in the scheme of things. Each division of life follows one from the other, but they are separate and have their own limits, but the limits are unknown.

It seems some individuals and certain high-minded leaders of the past have received insight or inspiration from their soul, but in truth, we cannot even prove that souls exist, and much less that a mental connection of some sort is possible.

Assuming they do exist, the wisdom of souls is probably no more available to us than human knowledge is available to the apes. The intellectual and emotional gulf between animals, people and souls is too wide to cross, which fact is illustrated by my experience with farm animals.

Except for a dog named Mitts and a goat called Tulip, both of whom I cared for until they died of old age, most of the thousands of chickens and hundreds of goats I raised over the years ended up in somebody's frying pan. I nurtured all those animals in a caring and humane way, but only two out of many thousands actually achieved the status of being a special "pet."

I think the relationship between souls and humans is like that. Out of the thousands of reincarnations, a soul may give a special consideration to an occasional human host, such as Jesus or the Buddha, but it is unlikely that humans and souls, or humans and their pets, will ever have any really conscious communication.

I suspect Jesus had some profound insights about human life, but I doubt if his "teachings" can really be taught. However, his personal friends obviously believed he had a special knowledge or attitude that can be learned and applied to human life, but it seems that such knowledge is something we must find for ourselves.

Art Carney is a

Wasilla resident