The Triumph of Conscience

THE TRIUMPH OF CONSCIENCE

Cosmos, Evolution, Values and Spirituality

by

Viktor Atman

Smashwords Edition

* * * * *

Published on Smashwords by:

Viktor Atman

The Triumph of Conscience

Cosmos, Evolution, Values and Spirituality

Copyright 2010 by Viktor Atman

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal use only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

* * * * *

CONTENTS

Prologue

Introduction

1. Good and evil

2. Freedom

3. One half of the world

4. The other half of the world

5. Evolution towards conscience

6. Evolution of the conscience

7. From self to us

8. We and the others

9. To awaken is to rest

* * * * *

PROLOGUE

Situated in what is called the literature on human development, The Triumph of the Conscience is a book which talks about values, but secular values which can be practiced by anyone independently of their religious affiliation, political party, ethnic profile or sexual preference. The purpose of this essay is to present the reader with a series of reflections on how to improve relations between individuals, peoples and with nature itself.

Precisely because living along side each other in a civilized way cannot be contemplated without values, these are the central theme of this book. Values understood as profoundly held beliefs that lead us to act in one particular way or another. And as without values there is no will, The Triumph of the Conscience calls upon human reason and emotions in order to make of our actions are something constructive and creative.

Divided into nine chapters, the author bases his arguments around four central categories: the creation (where do we come from?), order (what are the bridges between the physical universe and the world of culture?), the conscience (which part of our makeup is spirit and which is matter?, are we dealing with entities that are separate and recognizable or to the contrary, something indivisible?) and morals (what is the role of our conceptions of good and evil in the configuration of the conscience?) This last point is at the heart of the book. How does one shift from what is to what should be?

Although he does not say so directly, it is obvious that the author situates himself within the tradition of books that lead us towards a rupture with dualism. His book aims to build a holistic vision of history, culture and human psychology. For this reason it draws on anthropology and psychology as well as history, philosophy and the natural sciences. The author himself admits in the introduction that he aspires to leave the reader with more unsettling questions than calming answers.

So, across these pages move all the topics related with the literature on human development: the frontiers between good and evil, the relationship between morals and ethics, work, money, pain, freedom and repression, the relationships between the interior and exterior of human beings, paradoxes, the dominion of need, the cosmos as a synthesis of matter and conscience, the retrieval of this other half of the world which is interiority of the subject, the present state of contemporary science and the questioning of it since Einstein, the dynamic tension between the self and the others, the direction of evolution and its links with the maturing of the conscience, the relations between the part and the whole, the impulses of conservation and participation, creativity, the symbolic dimension of behaviour, the shift from I-me to we and the multiplicity and decentering of the self.

Towards the end of the book, Victor Atman shows a clear interest in the collective consciousness, that is, the relationship between we and the others. In this way he extends his reflections on the evolution of the conscience to the collective sphere. In this way he deals with the implications of his analysis for social organization both as he does for the level of kinship and the foundational religions. The book ends with a macro analysis of what it means to talk about the evolution of culture and its implications for the development of global structure such as the internet and systems of government. Here metaphysical thought is inevitable for his search for the essences and foundations that can provide an account of the multiple processes that coincide and take place simultaneously.

The Triumph of the Conscience is a book by a who is wise and above all, avid to ask himself questions. This immense question which he throws out to the cosmos reminds us of the gesture of the great teachers from the Babylonian prophets and their clay tablets where they drew the course of the stars, to the light projected by thinkers such as Edgar Morin and Umberto Eco. The chords of a music without a score emerge from his elegant prose from start to finish. I am sure that readers will know how to tune into it and enjoy a renewing and unforgettable experience.

Daniel Gonzalez Marìn

* * * * *

INTRODUCTION

This is a book about values. It deals with human development understood in the only way that I can conceive it: as the improvement of the forms in which humans live alongside each other either as individuals or as peoples, and the encouragement of a more respectful attitude towards nature.

Values represent our deep seated beliefs, the things that interest us, that we search for and love. The sum of these things is the compass that orients our footsteps, is what gives meaning to life itself and can even justify its surrender, it is the motor that activates our will. If everyone were moved by the same aims and these aims were creative, this would represent such a concentration of energy that most of our present calamities could be overcome in one or two generations.

Unfortunately, things do not work like that. Not all aims are constructive or all values convergent. Values stem from many sources such as tradition, laws, religions and the teachings of masters whom we admire, but there is such a diversity of interests, customs, religions and mentors that the panorama of moral criteria turns out to be a mosaic which is not only varied but also frankly divergent and even in opposition to the point of extreme belligerence.

In the face of all this one could ask if ethics is purely a question of personal opinion and cultural differences. Is it only a question of comparative anthropology? Is something that is only resolved by those in possession of most force? Are we condemned to move blindly through a web of interests disguised as justice? Or to the contrary, is it possible to vindicate the idea of the universality of values? Is it possible to find an objective basis on which to get out of this tricky entanglement? What I propose to do this book is to demonstrate that it is in fact possible.

For a number of years I structured and later presented in lecture form the arguments that I now put into print. During that time I centred my attention on the study of the key elements that make possible the intimate dovetailing of all that exists, both material and spiritual. Without this linking together many of the important ideas expressed in this field by the most lucid thinkers risk being used without an adequate enquiry into their fundamental validity; they were like dry leaves, as from my point of view they lack a trunk and roots, an indispensable sense of over all coherence, of an underlying logic that unifies them.

In the search for this unity I was confronted time and again with four themes in the face of which it is impossible for one not to feel perplexed. These are the creation, order, conscience and of course, morality.

The creation

(Or, if you prefer, origins)

Why is there something instead of nothing? When did the Universe begin if it did in fact begin at some time? Did it appear in time or with time? Did the creation occur in the past or is it occurring now? Is there a will or a blind mechanism behind the Cosmos? If it is blind, what is the human will doing here? Are the answers to this type of question accessible to the mind? Do these questions have anything to do with behaviour or does behaviour belong to a world completely set apart from these ancient mysteries?

Order

What is most admirable about the Cosmos, its magnitude or its coherent complexity? To what should I attribute the harmony of so many and such diverse wonders from the basic energies that move the Universe to the infinite plasticity and variety of living beings? Should I attribute it to God, to an intentional order, or to an order which is without purpose or random? What happens if order is not all pervading but limited to the physical and biological world, leaving the cultural sphere immersed in fancy and confusion? Or even if order is total and thus, in this circumstance culture is inseparable from it, can links be found that connect all forms and levels of being? Is the sum of what exists a cacophony or a concert?

Conscience

Does spirit exist as well as matter? Are things separate or opposed to each other, or rather, different expressions of the same underlying reality? Is the internal experience of sensations, emotions and thoughts the same as the physical mechanisms through which they are expressed, or are we dealing with a new reality that together with the laws of matter on which it is based, adds its own properties? What makes the dust from which we are created capable of feeling and thinking about itself? In what moment did the great leap from inert matter to the appearance of subjectivity occur? Or instead of a leap, was there a succession of gradual changes which through a process of accumulation produced something distinct that obliges us to give it a different name? Is matter transformed gradually until it produces what well call an inner life, conscience, mind, soul or spirit, or does the opposite happen and is it the spirit that through its need to express itself stamps thousands of forms on the material world?

Morality

Do good and evil exist or is it a question of changeable opinions and points of view, of brute force that masks itself in the guise of virtue, or merely the principle of survival? Is the moral dimension only background noise or fleeting dust pushed to the surface by the movement of deeper forces? Is it mere illusion compared to the tangible threads of which physical reality is woven? Faced with the immensity of the Cosmos is the question of human conduct insignificant or is it crucial for a full understanding of what merits being called the Universe?

I propose the latter. Morality plays a role that is more than just important, but in fact central if everything is to acquire meaning. The fundamental thing is to work out how it is possible to move from what is to what should be. How can these two things form part of the same world? However, the fact is that morality is not just fantasy, nor is it an irrelevant bit of fluff detached from some type of matter.

Let us imagine that someone is given the unlikely task of drawing up a detailed inventory of what exists is in the Universe, galaxy by galaxy, star by star and planet by planet. In some places the meticulous celestial accountant would ratify the presence of matter in the form of elemental energy, in other places he would report thermonuclear phenomena, and in others, would perhaps register the existence of matter in the form of gases, ice and powder. When drawing up the catalogue of what exists on the Earth he would have to note:

On this planet there is matter and energy in many states, such as light, burning mixtures, solids, liquids, gasses, water and others, but there is also life and that is not all, there are also perceptions, emotions and thoughts.

The careful scribe’s assistant might say to his boss:

Sir, I don’t think we should note down the existence of the last three because, as they can’t be seen, they are not really things and if we report them as actually existing, we could be accused of fraud later on.

Would the worried helper be right? No, of course he would not.

I would not have doubted for one instant, and would have sent the assistant to a celestial refresher course and immediately asked for the appointment of another who was smarter and more up-to-date, and able to recognize the existence of facts of the conscience –morality included– as indubitable ingredients of the Cosmos, this being understood as the total of all that exists.

The inner self exists and, although it is not visible or tangible, should appear in the terrestrial inventory and perhaps even that of other worlds. But from where and how did conscience appear in our lives? What are the links between what is and what should be? What unites the inert stones with the subtle anxieties of the soul? Is it sensible to say that as well as the force of gravity there is also a force of reason and of ethics? How can all this form part of the same world?

This book summarizes the answers I have found to these enigmas and which those who have attended my lectures have repeatedly encouraged me to publish. The question of values is not dealt with here as an isolated dimension but rather as an essential element of a finely linked reality in which both the tangible and the intangible, the objective and the subjective are present. Without the presence of either of these extremes, we cannot succeed in understanding the sum total of what we call Universe.

All that exists is composed of two types of reality. From these two complementary seams everything emerges and to them returns: exteriority and interiority, physical objects and understanding, matter and conscience. In the amalgam of the two we find the wonder of existence. When we deny the importance of one or the other we mutilate reality and are left with half the world which is nearer to nothing: matter without witnesses and witnesses without anything to testify to.

It is precisely in the task of elaborating a holistic vision that the main sources I have referred to in the search for answers to the questions posed in this book have been put to the test. Amongst those most frequently visited are the various religious languages of divine revelation, the subtle arguments of philosophical abstraction and the exquisite mathematical and geometrical boasts of the sciences. All these sources promise in their own way truth and happiness, but as each one responds to a different human thirst (that of believing, that of meaning and that of measuring), when we limit ourselves to only one and scorn the others, we produce forms of inner starvation which can degenerate, depending on the person, into superstition, intolerance, anxiety, escapism, nihilism, indifference or cynicism; in short, behaviours that produce individual and collective suffering.

As a way of distancing itself from reductionism, this book makes use of arguments, doubts and intuitions of different origins but articulates them in a framework that can be useful to those who ask themselves about meaning of the world and life and about the relevance of love. It does not matter whether these people are believers, agnostics or atheists. What I offer here is an interpretation of existence in which everyone can find thought provoking and enlightening elements that will help them to reconcile the insatiable appetites of the soul with the stubborn call to prudence of the senses.

It is probable that reading this book will generate more unsettling questions than calming answers. If that is the case, it will have fulfilled one of its objectives, that is to activate reflection on one’s own life. A timely and well posed question has a more positive and long-lasting effect than thousands of hurried and superficial answers because it awakens an appetite for truth. This appetite stops the depths of our conscience from stagnating, it gives us the courage to let light fall into the chinks in our prejudices, so as to avoid being satisfied with the imprecision of the commonplace or the sterility of simplifications, and to reject the cowardly escapism of individual happiness at all cost which is foreign to any notion of commitment and responsibility.

This book has not been written to enlighten but rather to disturb. Thus, the format is not academic, although some of the provocative statements it contains come from and lead back to the academic world, as it is not the work of a specialist but rather an ordinary person with a wide range of concerns and inspired by a passion for discovering links between apparently unconnected materials and much more interested in the cloth than the loose threads. This brings with it the cost of leaving some scholars dissatisfied, although it may sow reasonable doubts originating in other fields in their minds, as a fresh look, albeit is naive but sincerely based in a love of truth, on occasions illuminates the specialist with new perspectives that a certain blindness, product of excessive concentration, has left unexplored.

On the other hand, this book, despite the complexity of some of its subject matter, uses language which is as clear as possible, keeps technical terms to a minimum and avoids the distraction of footnotes. It has been written thinking of ordinary people who are interested in the moral quality of life and who ask themselves questions about the foundations on which it is based. It has been written for action, to inspire, to imbue optimism and constructive purpose, to contribute to a world where there is more solidarity, populated by freer, more creative, tolerant and generous human beings. It has been written to inspire a joyful and constructive vision of our existence, an attitude of profound admiration for nature and all its manifestations, and with infinite respect for life and the conscience. It has been written thinking of the millions of women and men who believe that in the power of love in spite of everything, to remind them that they are right, that this force is engraved in the staff of the Universe and that there is nothing more noble, just or beautiful, nor more intelligent than always being willing for this energy to use us as its conscious instruments.

If I were asked about how to classify this essay, I would not know how to reply. It dips into psychology, science, philosophy, anthropology, politics, human development and spirituality. There is a little of everything but these topics are not dealt with separately but as brush-strokes contributed by different palates to a single landscape –the Cosmos– in which the tiny figure of the human being gives meaning to the whole picture. In spite of the diversity of the materials, the purpose is single and unequivocal: to understand the ethical meaning of our existence.

The vision I present here is an invitation to recognize that interiority and exteriority are phenomena that cannot be disassociated from each other, in the same way that the individual and the collective are fields that are so intimately bound together that they can only be separated at cost of great unhappiness. In these pages the reader will find many reasons to celebrate life, criteria for achieving harmony and inspiration to act, but in such a way that our action is guided by a holistic conscience in which human beings, being the paradoxical creatures we are, recognize ourselves simultaneously with modesty and grandeur. With modesty, in that we are only a thread in a vast and wonderful weave. With grandeur, because we are also weavers of this cloth, but I would stress that we are conscious craftsmen. Let us weave lovingly, which is the only wise way of doing it. In truth, there is no other secret to achieving happiness.

* * * * *

1. GOOD AND EVIL

Ignorance of good and evil

is that which most perturbs human existence.

CICERO

The worst crimes against humanity have not been committed by bad people convinced of their wickedness but by fools convinced of their own goodness. In the face of this, one can only concede that the venerable Socratic observation that evil is the product of ignorance is correct. Diminish this ignorance, succeed in making sure that these good intentions are right is an unavoidable and urgent imperative. Good and truth are inseparable. It is revealing to notice that the greater the ignorance and prejudice, the more the hatred in disputes increases and with sacrilegious malice, the more the name of God is called upon and degraded.

This happens because the subject of good and evil, along with the idea of the Creation, is the most important enigma that can be posed by the human mind with respect to divine powers. If God is infinite kindness, why do the innocent suffer? If He is the creator of all that exists, why does evil exist? If He is all knowing and all powerful, why does he see evil and permit it? All religions offer a moral formula which is basically a way of saying that they are on God’s side, although in practice the faithful often act as if it were God who falls into line with their demands.

The confusion experienced when faced with these theological questions is further complicated when we descend to the sphere of the profane and become conscious that our capricious ways of understanding good and evil create a confusing array of opinions and interests that divide and even confront individuals and peoples to the death.

Ethics is an issue central to a full understanding of the human phenomenon, our survival and happiness. It is one of the most passionate subjects that exist and perhaps the one of the most debated throughout history. It is present in our lives from childhood and accompanies us to old-age. It is the essence of transcendent issues but is also present in apparently irrelevant arguments and matters. It is the driving force behind laws and those who oppose them. It is the reason why courts exist, at the heart of customs, of individual disputes and of wars, the objective of many mystical searches and the central element of political struggles. It is a ubiquitous subject, as old as it is up-to-date and is always a burning concern. It is what is most important for human existence.

Today it is common to hear that we are going through a crisis of values, and on the other hand that that many of these values have been lost and that it is urgent to retrieve them. I accept the first of these two statements but not the second. Let’s see why.

How can we deny that we live in the midst of a crisis of values when every day we receive news of war, terrorism, crime, abuse, deceit, corruption, extreme economic inequality, damage to the environment and many other aberrations? This produces the sensation of living in a particularly important and even crucial epoch. However, this feeling is not exclusive to our times. Humans have always shown an inclination to exalt the transcendence of their own time as they consider it to be the most important ever.

Let us imagine the state of mind of the early Christians who thought that the second coming of Jesus Christ was imminent, and that with it would come the end of time. Did not this idea bring with it the sensation of living at the most significant moment in time imaginable? Let us also think about what was going through the minds of both Muslims and Christians at the time of the crusades, of the Aztecs and Incas when their cultures were cut short by a sword from an unknown world, or of the creators of the splendors of the Renaissance. These are only a few examples of how each civilization has seen itself poised at a decisive point in history. There is some truth in this, as for those who live at a particular time it is in effect the most important. We could call the phenomenon the watershed syndrome.

Objectively, each historical cycle is unique in itself but none of these cycles can be considered the culmination of history. Is not contemporary society labouring under the same naive and vain illusion that our own epoch is something exceptional and has reached a pinnacle?

In all the periods that have preceded our own we can observe two common elements: one is the limited reach of their actions and the other, the use of tools that are not so very different from each other in order to overcome challenges. From the point of view of our epoch, there are in fact a number of innovations that profoundly distinguish and affect the points of reference essential to human existence. We will look at four of them below.

The globalization of information

Today’s means of communication make a sort of reciprocal ubiquity possible; the whole world in everybody’s home. What happens in the far-away places on earth and even outside the planet –as is the case with space expeditions– comes into our rooms at practically the same moment it is taking place. Magnetic recordings mean that we can witness, both visually and with sound, many past events. It is amazing, but the most interesting and apparently contradictory thing about this phenomenon of global communication is its pulverization as the messages do not come from a single source but from many. Not everyone is subject to a single loudspeaker listening to his master’s voice. In most countries, in spite of the archaic temptation in some to centrally control mass information, today people can choose between an array of television channels, radio stations and printed publications. Thanks to the mobile phone, anyone can communicate instantly with whoever they want from wherever they are, even though they are on the other side of the world. A very good example of this mix of globalization-individualization is the phenomenon of the Internet where, it is correct to say, everyone can navigate, as if they were on the open sea, whenever and wherever they please and stop doing so in the same manner. All this is a novelty of our time. Nothing like it had ever existed before.

Biotechnology

In the hope of improving the types of domesticated animals and plants with the highest yields, and by means of selective cross-breeding and grafting, many years ago human beings began genetic manipulation without having the slightest notion of genes or the laws of heredity that were proposed by G. Mendel (1822-1884) in the mid-nineteenth century but which remained unknown until the early twentieth century. This primitive way of proceeding was simply empirical and carried out through the union of fully formed organisms, in contrast to what happens today when genetic techniques can be used to intervene at molecular level, that is to say, directly acting on the basic of building blocks of life.

Knowledge in this field promises amazing things short term: personalized medicine based on genetic configuration, individual therapies for illnesses still considered incurable today, the possibility of making life longer and even intervention in the orientation of biological evolution. These promises may be the cause of enthusiasm but they also bring us face to face with questions intimately related with human dignity, and in consequence, with ethical problems that were previously unimagined. There are the delicate issues of cloning, of stem-cells, of the manipulation, destruction and commercialization of human embryos and again the issue of eugenics that has been rid of its old fascist and authoritarian uniform to be presented today under the guise of liberty, offering parents the possibility of designing their own children. In this programming we can observe two tendencies in the face of which it is not necessarily appropriate to assume the same stance. One is preventive and the other promotes certain modifications. The former is irreproachable as it is oriented towards avoiding predictable illnesses and unnecessary suffering for children. In contrast, the second will give rise to some fierce debates as it involves cultivating and conditioning in the offspring characteristics or aptitudes specially desired by the parents but without the consent of those who will find themselves to have an important part of their lives predetermined by others.

We do not have space to go into these questions in depth, but it is interesting to point out they are not trivial and that in the long run no-one will be able to avoid the need to assume a stance with respect to them and face of the fact that the aspects of this technology that over time are deemed acceptable, should not be restricted to those who are economically privileged.

Along with this, we should also add that the life sciences have lavished invaluable benefits on humanity through of vaccines, antibiotics and many other resources, but they have also made possible the production of chemical and bacteriological arms of mass extermination. None of this existed before.

Cybernetics

Humans have always manufactured tools which can well be considered authentic prosthesis that both substitute and augment our natural organic capacity. The telescope, the microscope, X-ray machines, magnetic resonance systems, television, radar, the telephone and many other instruments lead our senses of sight and hearing much further than they could reach on their own. At the same time, our possibilities of locomotion and cargo increase fantastically through the use of great ships, railways, cars, planes, etc. All these are quite singular to our epoch in comparison to the previous ones, but a new capacity extender has come into existence over the past few years that on its own has permitted more profound qualitative changes. Here we are dealing with cybernetics or in plain language, computers.

The storage, memorization, reorganization and retrieval of data, the handling of complex statistical calculations, the simulation of scenarios and a thousand other things that require great mental effort are tasks that are being increasingly delegated to these machines. By trusting a machine with the more routine jobs, the human brain is being freed to occupy itself with other tasks in a more creative, systematic, subtle and above all, more promising way. Human advances have always been associated with means of freeing ourselves from the toughest jobs, such as when we stopped depending on our own muscle power, first through the domestication of animals, and later through the use of mechanical inventions. Now, computing techniques make more important changes possible because what they free is not only muscular energy but also time for thought and specific capacities related to it. The new extenders are mental. Correctly employed these techniques can contribute to raising our level of conscience immensely and guide us to improve the connection between reason and emotions, the I with the we, and develop a more harmonious and generous outlook. Perhaps this is what will happen, although there is no guarantee. The only thing that we do know is that this new instrumental capacity never existed before.

Energy accumulation

The energy used by the first human beings was, as we have just noted, limited to their muscular strength, and in consequence, was minimal. It has been calculated as being two thousand kilocalories per head a day. From then on, usable energy increased at the same time as other forces of nature like beasts of burden, the wind, running water, steam, hydroelectric and geothermal power, fossil fuels and nuclear energy were harnessed. In the twenty-first century the average world energy generation has reached a level thousands or millions of times more to that of early times. The productive forces have never before been equipped with such a powerful trigger.

However, the increase in creative possibilities, which should be viewed with the best of hopes, has a dark side to it because of the stubborn human tendency to use energy not only to build but also to destroy. The energy accumulated for military purposes since the middle of the twentieth century is immensely superior to that of all previous historical periods put together.

The atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima and that in an instant cut short the lives of around 150 thousand people (200 thousand if we count the nuclear after effects), was only 13 thousand kilotons or the equivalent of 13 thousand tons of dynamite, which today is almost nothing compared with the new generation of nuclear arms. Nowadays, a two megaton bomb (equivalent of two million tons of dynamite and which might be considered average) has a destructive capacity equivalent to all the explosives used during World War II. It is good to know that there are thousands of war-heads aimed at their targets. Today the destructive energy of these weapons is superior to the 10 thousand megatons capable of killing 150 thousand million people in a few hours, although the world only has a population of about six thousand million. If we could all be resuscitated, there would be no difficulty in disappearing us 25 times each, together with the rest of the Earth’s living species. This demented and terrifying possibility of total suicide and the disappearance of most animal and vegetal life is also something that never existed before.

In view of the above, the old adage there is nothing new under the Sun cannot be applied lightly in our time. The reality is that the Sun never stops being surprised. The advances in communications that make emotional and rational affinities possible without the need for geographical proximity; genetics which has proved to be capable of manipulating and mixing the basic elements of life of all species including our own; cybernetics which frees mental time and space and the energy capacity that can be more creative than ever or send all to the devil at a stroke, are things which together with their global reach, never existed before.

The above data is not included to suggest in any way that our epoch is somehow at a high point. Of course it is not. It is only one more phase in technical