Alright, it's been a long time since I've really set up any of my more oddball ideas for honest criticism, so here's my latest pondering (from my blog):

pinkponderspink.blogspot.com/200...html

So I've been bouncing around and between religious ideas and spiritual theories lately. I've taken a drawn-out, complicated journey in my lifetime from Catholic, to non-denominational Christian, to Wiccan, to Pagan, with a vast array of eclectic details fading in and out as I went, like monolatrism (which eventually changed to henotheism), polytheism (which eventually bred theistic indifference), pantheism, and I can see myself reaching ever closer toward atheism, although I'm not quite there yet.

Most everyone has heard the phrase, "In the beginning, man created God," a popular satirical twist on the even better known biblical phrase, "In the beginning, God created man." I don't believe I'd be far off in assuming that the majority interpret the former to mean that God is just make-believe, and exists only insomuch as Micky Mouse exists, or Captain Ahab. Recently I've been flirting with the idea that every god ever known to His/Her/Its followers (or naysayers) truly does exist, but only as a concept (like the square root of -1) which people use to further their own agendas (love/hate, acceptance/intolerance, peace/war, etc.) - goodness knows that all works very well. MOST recently however, I've been flirting with an alternative interpretation of "In the beginning, man created God."

But before I try explaining that:
I've determined for myself that the consciousness we experience is simply a result of an ongoing system of evolution, due to the (popularly believed to be) unmatched brain advancement of our mammalian species, as it is easily observed that we are not the only beings to experience consciousness, but may very well be the only species that gives a shit. I spoke of this at greater length in my "Eternal Souls" entry, suggesting that they (eternal souls) may not exist, due to our consciousness likely being exclusively due to evolutionary development and NOTHING of the metaphysical. But what if our brains having advanced so far as to develop consciousness and abstract thought, that our consciousness has advanced so far as to develop a pure-energy echo of ourselves that continues to exist after our material bodies die and decay: souls (perhaps not eternal, but souls nonetheless). After all, we still are light years away from unlocking all the secrets of our highly developed brains - many people are witness to some pretty unbelievable mind-over-matter achievements. If our incredible minds are able to overcome and overpower those same basic physical boundaries from whence they evolved in the first place, who's to say they couldn't continue to somehow exist above and beyond their material prisms.

Now, what if these immaterial echos of conscious life are contributing to the gradual, collective formation of a universally present Über-Consciousness, or "god" (as with several different religious views, god is seen as a collective consciousness, with which people are rejoined after death). Buddhist reincarnation teaches that there is no one constant "self" - that personalities (or spirits?) are ever-changing, and this process continues after death. Resonating with this idea, perhaps rebirth (within the cycle of reincarnation) is a process in which a small part of this Über-Consciousness breaks away to inhabit the physical body of a conscious being (perhaps human, perhaps not), the specific piece of which has never been formed precisely that way ever before; like putting drops of water together in a bucket, and then using an eyedropper to separate a drop from the rest - it was not one of the original drops that entered the bucket, but rather a collection of water molecules from many of the drops within the bucket. ~~For my Pagan friends reading this, perhaps that would explain why so many people claim to have been Cleopatra in a past life ;)~~

I'm rather attracted to this line of thinking because it brings me at better peace with my remaining attachment to a belief in ghosts and other such paranormal phenomena. Which of course my atheist friends reading this will roll their eyes with the confidence that that's why any of these crazy "religion" ideas ever came up in the first place: people trying to explain the things they don't understand in a way that makes them comfortable rather than just following the facts. Yeah I get it, but gimme a break. However, as soon as I start recruiting for Über-Consciousnessism (via threat of either conversion or death, or passing out pamphlets on street corners, or pushing for it to be taught in science classes, etc.), then I openly invite (and encourage) you to give me a nice, hard Slap of Reality.

Ooh - freaky afterthought: immaterial consciousness = higher life form? Is our species evolving into Earth's next dominant species while we blissfully live our lives completely unaware of our own impending apocalyptic takeover? OMG - I could totally start my own religion and brainwash all my followers into giving me 10% of their income... You know, I think I truly understand Christian authorities in an entirely new way now.