10._ Will

But in what the "returning attitude" leans to contradict the belief in the dissolution of the Universe, predicted by the present physical laws, without falling in the irrationality? Since it does not have a new scientific theory, it only can lean in the intuition of which the present physics is incomplete, that totally does not consider the possibilities of the Universe, particularly in which talks about the future capacities of the intelligent life, and in special the effect --at the moment infinitesimal-- of the human purpose, will and effort.

The Humanity, that characterizes itself by the sprouting of the self-conscience: the reflection, and the symbolic thought: the language, -characteristics closely interdependent and that are needed and reinforced mutually-, it has developed the qualities of understanding and will as much in the individual plane as in the social plane. First of all, these qualities respond to the necessity of survival and, consequently, dominion of himself and the surroundings. The will is then, the anxiety and the intention to survive, at least, and to dominate, as much as it is possible, to prevail in the dialectic individual-surroundings, and society-surroundings, that the life supposes. It goes accompanied of the ethical and aesthetic feelings or impulses, that serve as memory and guides for the conscious action.

The ethical feeling is born of the primary sensations of satisfaction-dissatisfaction, pleasure-pain, wish-rejection, and it is developed according to the experience, in the space and time, it is to say learning to take into account to the surroundings of which dependent recognizes itself, and to consider the consequences and future eventualities. Thus, the immediate individual good is developed towards the common good, the social responsibility, the long term planning of mediate benefits, and the common projects that allow to obtain the general good at certain future moment and "for always".

11._ Ethics

Therefore, is essential to the Humanity to recognize itself –and its world— as unfinished, as a project on the way to accomplishment, whose destiny depends on its own action.

In view of the difficulties of the enterprise, and considering that perhaps is impossible to obtain their "completion", this will can be experienced like tragic, and induce inevitably to an "existencial suffering". And it is so, not only because the apparently unattainable of the total good, but because the precariety, and continuous destruction, of the partial goods obtained with so much effort.

Nevertheless, the Humanity lives, and if it lives, it is of the hope in a future completion of itself, that cannot be waived. Its conscience of badly, unlike demonstrating the nonsense of life and the nonexistence of God, reveals the presence, in its very interior, of a "project of good" whose final mission is God. (we cannot avoid recalling here the words of Kant: "There are two things that fill my spirit of admiration and reverence always new and increasing, at the most assiduous and kindly my mind takes care of them: the sky starred over me and the moral law within me").

From the point of view of the cosmic evolution, the Humanity is a stage, a surely intermediate level of emergence, in which the creative impulse of the Nature becomes conscious, in which the finality of the process becomes purpose of self-completion. The spirit of God is then specially present --immanent-- in the human will and understanding, and we can say that he expresses himself, like a "secret voice" that guides its search, in the ethical and aesthetic feelings of the Humanity.

The human will is guided by the ethics, or rather by an "ethical development", that departs from the primary impulses of immediate individual satisfaction, and grows "spacely" towards the other beings of the surroundings, and "temporarily" towards mediate, future goods. This means a progressive extension --affective and rational-- of the individual point of view, an incorporation of the other people's interests like own, and a subordination of immediate desires for the best attainment of aims in the long term. Instead of "satisfaction for me, now", a project of "good of all in a future and for always". In the limit, this supposes the attainment of a perfect and definitive final state of the universe, is to say the Last Newness, God. For that reason, this ethical development of the human will is expressed suitably in the concise formula: "love God over all things and the neighbour as yourself".

The ethical development is in the foundation of the human societies, and their concrete aspects shape in uses and customs, in norms, laws, and structures. Of course, it is manifested by partial aims, local and temporary projects, sectorial interests, that can constitute stages in the development, certainly indispensables by the exigencies of the reality, but also, when rigidize it or suspend it, they can prevent it seriously.

In any state of the human evolution it exists thus a "state of development of the ethics" of each society, or individual, that is "fixed" to structures, norms, laws, uses, criteria, customs, etc., constituting a "closed moral" that preserves the ethical profits already established. But, whereas the development must continue towards its last aims, any intermediate state must be surpassed, and therefore the societies and the individuals must question their norms permanently to go extending them and adapting to new more elevated aims; this constitutes an "opened moral", when it is the case that happens without violences.

Of course, the ethical development is not easy. Not is progress linear and continuous but that is full of failures, backward movements, stagnations, routes mistaken, which are translated in unjust institutions and guilty behaviors, from the point of view of the same moral in use or of a superior ethics that can have some critical observer, who, in case of having the necessary power, will have to cause the more advisable change to other structures and norms.

As an observer does not exist who is possessor of an "absolute" ethical point of view, --although some are believed inspired directly "by God" or of their "personal genius" with respect to concrete subjects--, the progress is full of conflicts.

But we trust that, as a whole, the Humanity has in itself the tendencies adapted according to the spirit of God. Not the whim, nor the chance, neither the stingy interests, but its "capacity of God", the Spirit in its particular presence in the human level of emergence, guides the Humanity in last term and as a whole.

The human will also has, manifestly, resistances, inertias, spontaneities, destructive and regressive tendencies --"towards the nothing"--, that will have to be winning in the course of the process. That reflect, in the human level, the fact that the action of the Spirit is not absolutely determining of each particular phenomenon --or will--, since in opposite case everything would be "instantaneous act", immediate accomplishment of the Last Newness. The same existence of the process, in particular of the Humanity, implies the inevitabilidad of the provisional existence of evil. But we think that the tendencies towards God, the "good will", the spirit of God, will prevail over the negative tendencies of the "bad will", and will finish being made.

12._ Humanity

We affirm that the Humanity, as level of emergency of the self-conscience and the symbolic thought, represents an important stage of the cosmic evolution. Is it perhaps a necessary step, after the appearance of the life and the conscience, or "intelligent life"?

Like in all the cases of emergence, it has not been able to anticipate it in the previous levels; it is an authentic newness; its appearance has depended on the action of "heuristic" tendencies in the middle of the chance; it does not respond to any own intention or conscious purpose present in the previous level; it only can be considered "a posteriori" like purpose of the Nature.

On the other hand, how we can describe as "cosmically important" to that it happens in a so very small place, in an insignificant planet of a very ordinary stellar system, of one of the countless galaxies of the universe? And although we could grant it some qualitative importance as profit of complex organization, is not a delirious thought thinking that it can play an outstanding role in the universal evolution towards the Last Newness, towards God?

In order to try to respond to these questions we must consider several aspects.

In first term, that the conditions adapted for the appearance of the life do not occur in any place, and specially not in the center of the galaxies, and that they require of a long time of preparation so that the material elements that constitute it can take place. For that reason, the sprouting of the life only can be expected in places with certain environmental properties, such as moderate temperatures and liquid presence of water, and only after a long preparatory period, of thousands of million years, in the existence of the universe.

It is certain that there will be surely innumerable planets in the immense universe where the appropriate conditions occur, and probably countless appearances of different forms of life in multiple places, and different times, occur. That those lives evolve towards intelligence, as we know it, and specially towards a type of intelligence like the human one, it seems something hazardous. We could even say, --if it is allowed to us to locate in a point of view like this-- that if the "human phenomenon" had not happened, perhaps was not any reason to wait for it. But it has happened. Only in the Earth? We do not know it. We do not know if the Humanity is the unique beginning of the level of self-conscious emergence, or if it is one of his many occurrences.

In any case, the Humanity is the beginning of a newness of incalculable consequences for the future of the Earth, and we think that even for the Universe, by insignificant that are their origins.

In second term, we must consider that the human species has been existing for very little time, in comparison at the age of the Earth. In effect, the first hominids lived about 5 million years ago, the first representatives of the human species date from about 2.5 million years and the first Homo Sapiens only about 600,000 years, whereas the Earth formed about 4,600 million years ago and the Universe since about 14,000 million years.

Consequently, the effects of the human existence only can be beginning to manifest themselves. Of course, the civilized Humanity, human History, has only about 8,000 years old, a ridiculously brief lapse in terms of the evolution. Nevertheless, the effects of the civilization are transforming the terrestrial surface, and it is planning the future colonization of the Solar System. And, over this, the human being has been different deeply from the animals, acquiring progressively his present characteristics and personal and cultural capacities, in that brief term. In view of all it, it will be difficult to exaggerate when imagining what can get to be the Humanity within, we put, a million years. Or its descendants, or new emergent, within several hundreds or thousands of million years.

Of course, the history of the Humanity is ethically ambivalent: in spite of its profits, is full of the most horrible misfortunes and injustices, and the consequences of the civilization, in spite of its great artistic and scientific profits, and to its advantages for the human survival and well-being, can be corrupting and destructive, until the point to threaten the same Earth existence.

The future of the Humanity, far from being insured, is doubtful, risky and difficult. It even can be that is not future at all. This uncertainty is real, from the inside of the process, in spite of the presence of the "good will" and the action of the Spirit. It shows the great responsibility that we must assume the human beings --each one in its "infinitesimal" particular scope-- in the advance of the cosmic process. But we trust that the positive tendencies of the human ethics will prevail, and in that case, we think that the future impact of the Humanity can be of crucial importance in the universal evolution towards God.

previous-blog----------------------------------------------index----------------------------------------------------------next-blog