The way we are

Separate consciousness, that which is us, an individual awareness able to perceive that it is separate and alone. This makes us constantly aware of our state of isolation and seek to find some form of companionship or belonging. We perceive our world as extensions of ourselves, we have our group, our town, our state, our country. These we see as the most important, the most right, the best. This is a natural process of extension of self and everyone for the most part favours all extensions of self. However this has the effect of making other groups, towns, countries less regarded.

We usually support our country because it is our country and never look beyond this, it is fair to say we are programmed to be this way. In fact most people favour all extensions of themselves, their race, their ethnic group, their school, their sports team etc., etc. An easy to see example of this in action is to look at any newspaper, how often have you seen a story on the front page about some political or celebrity scandal often continued on other pages while on page 6 is a 3 line item about thousands of people dying in a far off land? They are not included in our group extension of self and because of this they are treated with less regard. Yet we are all beings on this Earth and it is only circumstance that puts us in a given location.

So it is our constant awareness of our separateness that leads us into the belief that these beliefs are valid. This gets even sillier when we consider religion, most think that their religion is the best and only religion. Some actually hate the followers of other religions  or non-believers based on this belief and are willing to kill and die themselves for the sake of this belief. Without getting into the bizarrely twisted logic of a belief that can promote death to anything. (I thought that religion was supposed to be a spiritual growth idea?) What exactly is it that tells them their religion is the "one" in the first place?

What overpowering evidence is there for any given one? Is there any actual evidence at all? From what I can see it mostly comes down to a few basic things, chief among them is one that states, "look we have a book that tradition says is the word of god and it must be right because it says so," even though it is compiled and written by man! This annoying problem is solved by saying that god told them what to write. Convenient and unprovable. Another method is to accept a self proclaimed "representative of god on earth" and follow them. What these have in common is they require "faith" mostly procured by use of choices between threats of eternal damnation or of some next life advantage. To obtain this next life advantage (also conveniently unprovable) all demand acceptance of a programmed doctrine that enforces a slave mentality to a supposed superior being and by default the religion and its dogmas and demands of its human controllers. I am the only one that can see the danger in this?

Some say in the past god walked among men and maybe that happened or maybe people from somewhere or somewhen showed up with a technology that was advanced enough to appear as magic to people who lack the knowledge of the technology. The thing is we have little evidence for the former and quite a bit for the later but it is all subject to interpretation, which we do based on our beliefs and the knowledge we have gained from each other.

One thing is certain, our awareness of our separateness and instinctive desire to not be alone makes us vulnerable to easy manipulation. And our history is full of examples of this and our willingness to be lead blindly, and unthinking into the void. We see in this age a greater willingness to preserve the environment as many people transcend convenience and selfishness to assist preserve the what is more important to them. Early days but if this can be expanded to encompass a reference for all life, to being able to see the importance of and our impact upon other living beings be they plant or animal. Some will say it is good to have national pride, that it does not affect other countries and just helps make theirs better. But it is very attitude that allows one country to commit atrocities against another. This also allows us to stand by and watch these things happen to another and do nothing. I say it is better to have global pride if one has a need for pride. I often wonder if anyone ever really saw the pictures of our home from space, that tiny blue orb that exists in the blackness of space, the only visible living thing we can recognise in our solar system or anywhere else for that matter. Are we not all equally part of this?

We are long overdue in forming a caring consciousness, one that allows us to see that we are all equals, all entitled to be here. The problem is we are afflicted with a separateness of consciousness and the natural outcome of this is an me and them approach to life. It is our normal state and accepted, in fact encouraged as it suits those wishing to control and manipulate us. We must change, and change soon, and it will not be easy. Many religions encourage the ideals of caring and sharing but only within the group thus perpetuating selfishness. In this way the words of the great ones that have arisen among us have been corrupted and twisted to suit the selfishness of the group extension of self that develops. The message is then lost, the path blurs and damage is done, despite the good intentions of the many, who reel back saying "we only wanted to help." Sadly this results in an even more rigid group self extension.

We need to be more than ourselves, to put all creation before us rather than us before all creation. I have heard the argument for survival of the fittest. An entirely selfish idea. They say it is reflected in nature, but when I looked to nature all I saw was survival through cooperation. Nature works to the principle of a universal oneness were all work to the benefit others which brings benefit to all. Just to put the record straight here, I am not condemning religions or the people that follow them, I think many will reach a true understanding of the way it is no matter the path they take, just as a person that does not follow any religion but learns from observation of nature or listens to and understands their own inner voice.