Prologue
Attending a dinner with friends, how many times a conversation beginning on a common subject comes to end on value-based judgments. As usual, everyone has his or her own interpretations, follows his or her experiences but at last refers to what he or she believes is the most fundamental to the human existence. So I find myself facing people who believe in a superior being or in universal forces which govern their existence and for sure another one. For them, everything is justified or understood as a dependency on external interventions, unaccountable and unavoidable. Those persons life is under the reign of conventions they cannot and have no desire to contest. Being polite and gentle usually bring on a consensus where everyone stands on his or her private opinion and then it is so comforted into what he or she believes to be his or her truth.Facing the difficulty and the complexity to express my own point of view, feeling myself at loss to express my world view, finally with others, I rise my glass to the nice harmony and to the pleasure to live together a wonderful moment. But staying unsatisfied, frustrated of not being able to fully participate as I would desire, I finally came to the necessity to structure in a document all of my arguments, my thinking, those obviousness, those proofs coming out in an illumination moment, always so clear but that usually finish, evanescent in time oblivion.
To demonstrate and convince is not an easy task when it is about vague concepts known as unverifiable and without any basis. It is much more difficult to think about an argument structure to shatter those for which such concepts are basic and assumed true. So how to demonstrate that a question is not admissible, is irrelevant, out of focus, that it always drives into a dead end and finally one must abstain from asking for it ? By nature a question is not inadmissible because it always has the objective to understand a subject, to lighten the point and finally determine the exact nature of interest. To interrogate is the true expression of cleverness, of liberty, the desire to understand, perspicacity, the search for comfort and security.
How is it that there could be a question so harsh, so disconnected from reality that it could not be asked? What is this question that must not be formulated and said ? This is the interrogation about the origin of all things and its corollary their end. This is the question that since all times received for answer what is usually named the Truth. This question has never been given any logical answer following the common understanding and knowledge without the contribution of indisputable postulates where any argumentation is unacceptable, ending the discussion. And more, such postulates have always proven themselves unreasonable and squarely out of the knowledge domain, hostile to the natural reality and most of the time nefarious to man and society.
Since the time man began to ask that question, he assiduously tried by all means, by all reasoning, by numerous examples, by deduction, by inference, so by any and all possible and imaginable tricks to find an answer. Never has he interrogated himself if its question made sense or was justified. So we will demonstrate that the question whose object is the origin and the end of anything, be that of man, of the universe or of life, this question is a trap, has no solution and more has no basis to be formulated. This is the question that drives one crazy. This is a non-question, out of topic, an interrogation that cannot be envisioned, from which one must abstain. The sincere search for an answer, anyway, is vowed forever to failure and anybody who pretend to have found a solution is a fantasist. So is the task which we tackle in this essay.
This essay uses an analysis grid based on the three fundamental characteristics of any system who are integrity, security and reproduction as seen in a Darwinian evolving context.
1. Interrogation
This first chapter will bring us on the origin of the question, on this fundamental search that is so worrying for man. This will be time to give a sharp definition of terms for this exploration. We will discover what is Truth and measure its extension.1.1 Awkwardness
Since the human is aware of himself, since he knows he is mortal, he never ended interrogating nature and the cosmos. He needs at any price to find a satisfactory answer about his own nature and his future. The precariousness of his being, the many sicknesses that ruins his health, the break of his social links, the loss of his beloved, all the sufferings, none can be explained or justified. Everything seems to desperately attempt to his own life. Rich or poor, to whatever social level may he belongs, life constantly brings its lot of irritation and assaults. Why must he always suffer the vagaries of daily life? Could he not enjoy the here and now without being tormented by his ending to come, waiting patiently, irremediably, that Damocles spear that will cut the thread of his life, whatever may be his actions, his will, his world view and what he may do to escape that fate. Isn't happiness found in the peacefulness of the moment, in the absence of any evils, in peace, serenity, joy, in the contentment of living? What is that unknown who puts him into the discomfort and the torment of the unfathomable? To master the unknown becomes an inexorable necessity, a fight of any moment.1.2 Answer
To satisfy this thirst, to calm this stifling anguish, man worked up scores of explanations which substantially modified his life and behaviour. He disciplined himself and followed rules of life according to his world view. Following his analysis of nature, of events which constantly assailed himself and with tools he build time along, he created his own Truth. This is this Truth we are to discover, well in opposition with all other ones, originating from eons and millions of brains who used their life to it. On that matter, Truth must be unique. Otherwise it would be a simple truth among others, all equally valuable. So Truth is an absolute since it provides a global answer to any question without reference to whatever else. It is also total and complete since it covers without exception any and all aspects of human life.1.3 Words
So how are we to discover that Truth? To beware of any confusion, of misunderstanding, it is essential to well define words and terms of language because words don't have the same meaning according to different people, the subject of interest or history. Keeping in mind the context, a clear and precise definition is essential in order that there isn't any opening to interpretation, preventing evasion or wandering. A name defines the subject, the idea, the object considered. A verb shows an action, an affinity, a relation between two different objects usually a subject and a complement. The adjective qualifies, adds to the description, to the nature of an object. Any dictionary lists words giving their accepted definition with contextual use. Then aiming to Truth, it will be reached under the express condition of using suitable names, clear notions, respect of grammar and syntax, distinct and precise formulation of ideas and concepts.1.4 Affirmation
Usually«The Truth is an affirmation that explains man's place in the universe, justifies his fate and the adversity he endures and offers him a means to escape from his last end.»This definition makes Truth as an affirmation, that is a concise phrase, a postulate, a basic idea over which everything is built on. It usually has four parts. The first one always concerns world and man origin, their creation. The second part shows man his finite nature and his fate. The third one places him as protagonist able to work on the world. And the last part provides him with an escape road to what he considers nefarious to his life.
The principal characteristic of this affirmation is to expel man from his natural milieu to put him in another dimension, another world, an imagined one, supposed able to solve all his difficulties and answer all his questions. That is the world is the one of mighty forces operated and controlled by Gods making a fantastic story in which is an actor. In that world, his happiness is based on the respect of convened protocols with deities and the obedience to rules which were conceived according to his natural needs. His existence in the natural world, full of pitfall, is only a short journey toward a paradise he can reach only after his death, natural, accidental, criminal, suicidal or ritual might be.
Such concepts come from philosophical, theological and sociological thinking which transposes the needs and cultural relations of man in that parallel world of deities. This is pure anthropomorphism. The link between those two worlds is much weird. The common object, the biological person who inhabit the real physical world, sees his social relations controlled from this outside world. The vagaries of his behaviour are linked with the biological world to which he belongs temporarily. His final end, despite the decomposition and the dispersal of that biological substrate, will be extended in that parallel world, if and only if, he believes in the existence of that parallel world and if, for sure, he didn't break its rule of conduct.
The simple act to believe in a certain proposition for which he has no certainty of plausibility, this only act of adhesion is by itself an automatic guarantee for an entry ticket in those imagined premises. He also believes that his nature is binary that is to say made of two parts, one being the biological entity and the other a part coming from that parallel world. He equates this last portion with what he feels as the intimate self, his essence, what he finally calls his soul. Thus this parallel world part inhabit for a certain time his body and is in fact him, not his body, it produces and directs his feelings, his emotions and actions and will return later in that parallel world. This on the condition that the rules of conduct have been followed, then saving the purity of that part, what he calls spirituality. Any suffering is perceived as a rule transgression which cause a negative reaction upon that other part of himself. How does it work? How is it engineered? Nobody knows except gurus who according to event or situation bring to life crazy explanation the most in harmony with the imagined world.
Then the human is, first of all, that extraordinary portion which makes his identity, his personality. He is a portion of that outside world, introduced in a corporeal envelope, living in the material world for a certain time, in order to come back later at the end of its biological life. He is like the deep-sea diver in its protective envelope, searching the sea floor and which at the end of his work day surface to the free air. Again like the butterfly to come after a caterpillar who must work hard to survive until it builds its cocoon where in a relative death it will get out to take its flight toward its liberty. He disdains his physical identity, this rotting body who isn't worth any consideration nor any hard work to keep it alive decently that he considers a burden to make him suffer vainly and vows to Gehenna. He justifies that situation through a cosmogony, by an all human story of betrayal and infidelity to the powers of that parallel world where it is always possible to rehabilitate from its sins through various asceticism. This way he will be conducted to submit itself to harebrained treatment, to privations and other sufferings. The absurdity of this is to escape from sufferings he puts more of them on him.
So is the
1.5 Truth
Truth is a word that links simultaneously a definition and its validity, a word that says the truthfulness of what it says. Consequently it is essential to begin with a definition of truth, so let us refer to what dictionaries says about truth. For example "Dictionary.com" states for «truth»:The true or actual state of matter: He tried to find out the truth.We add:
Conformity with fact or reality; verity: the truth of a statement.
A verified or indisputable fact, proposition, principle, or the like: mathematical truths.
The state or character of being true.
Actuality or actual existence.
An obvious or accepted fact; truism; platitude.
«An affirmation is true if what it says or describes is verifiable directly or can be comprehended by some means, by observation, by comparison or by inference.»Without this capacity it is impossible to maintain the truth of such affirmation. And to pretend to its truthfulness without being able to validate it is to scorn the meaning of truth. It is what is known as belief or truthiness:
«Belief is defined in opposition to truthfulness with the meaning that some saying is considered true without the possibility of any validation.»
1.6 Belief or truthiness
As we have seen, Truth divides the world in two components. The first one is real and material, for which evidence cannot be denied. To negate it is to affirm its own nonexistence which is ludicrous since the void cannot say anything. The other component of Truth is a pure creation of spirit, a full imagination, a makeup, an affirmation forged, a fiction, unreal, fanciful, quixotic, wild, utopian, irrational, mythic, fantastic, legendary. The Truth is a belief and bears all the properties. To affirm that Truth is true is to break rational logic, it is creating a gap in the natural process of knowledge, it is an insult to intelligence. It is so because knowledge comes from the real world and is built by the neuronal machinery of the human brain. Knowledge is expressed, communicated and perceived through the anatomical structures. All ideas populating the theater of an imaginary parallel world are concepts coming from the real world which have been astray to build a system of convenience and by the way get out of rational logic. They come from philosophical and theological suppositions from era previous to the birth of scientific knowledge. This is why creators of beliefs hate rational logic and abominate scientific knowledge. No belief not even the force of words nor magical thinking can make anybody escape from the real world, which is where the human lives. Belief is based on fear of the unknown and incapacity of mastering the environment insuring security. This is a visceral fear used by back world sellers, absolute systems gurus, ignoramus hypnotists, fear transposed into hell's fire or other context appropriated malediction, usurpers without scruples.1.7 Usurpation
Paralleling belief there is an intellectual usurpation put forward by supposed authorities from social sciences that have been debunked by Alan Sokal et Jean Bricmont. They are makers of empty and misleading ideologies based on erroneous and fallacious use of scientific research results. All have been debunked through the use of a hoax by which they trapped in themselves and were discredited. Those ideological wanderings are named «postmodernism» and «cultural relativism». Their proponents make use and abuse of an impressive gobbledygook discourse and of an apparent scholarship where they are experts of an abstruse, puzzling and gloomy language. They get into irrational drift where anything and its opposite is possible. They are ideas raper whose followers stir up opposing movements always against the established social order. For those people the meaning of words and their truth is always the less of their concern. To distort words and to put them out of context is their specialty. Their activism gave birth to a social philosophy known as «Political Correctness».Nonetheless, the politically correct action promoted by true intellectuals authority has ethical frontiers destructive trend. Principally there are Gender studies, animal studies and bioethics. Their shared ability is to transpose basic natural differences belonging to nature into the social realm and applying rational and wild reasoning astonishingly destroying ethic differences and frontiers. Jean-François Braunstein analyze and deconstruct those politically correct nonsensical flights of fancy conclusions.
1.8 Societies
Every culture produces its own Truth and on those matters there is no cultural relativism where all Truths would be socially equivalent and morally acceptable. Following their dictates, certain Truths may live together or tolerate themselves while others will be totally incompatible and violently intolerant. Democratic society may welcome the first ones while others may exist only in totalitarian societies. Every society has its own Truth which reflects its distinctive world view entailing the resolution of any social conflicts and then assuring its durability. Such societies are based on basic principles justifying their origin, their laws and the reason for their existence. Those principles warrant the social equilibrium of a plurality of people having put in common their various ways of living and for solving their conflicts. A binary world with a mythical pole and a realistic one gives rise to spiritual and civil authorities which justify and complement each other reciprocally. Under both type of authorities, thus social equilibrium is maintained by control of the various individual opinions, then preserving Truth. When different societies collision and according to their opening and tolerance level to diversity or adversity, in the name of their Truth they will keep their equilibrium and surviving by supplanting or by absorbing their contestant. The resulting Truth will be the one that will have favoured and not opposed to the best strategy in those circumstances, since there is only one Truth.1.9 To sum up
In order to fulfill his insatiable security needs, man created his history, composing from his daily experience and sociological needs. He made words, ideas, rules, obligations, gods, heaven and morality all he declares true and necessary to his existence. This is the sole and unique Truth to which all must adhere.2. Being
This chapter explores the various mechanisms and structures that make the principal components of the human personality and permit us to give a clear definition of the human.2.1 Personality
The human being comes to life with a neuronal machinery that permits him to apprehend the external world and it is by the means of its five senses that he perceives its environment. The human build and structure its nervous system during the first years of its life by its numerous interactions with the external world. The brain produces neurons, links them according to their excitability, keeps alive functional links and introduces new architecture representative of the interactions encountered with the external world and of the internal states of its own biological machinery. This way he builds spatial and temporal references necessary to make a clear distinction between the external world and itself. He is born with an adaptive neural machinery that permits him to integrate harmoniously with the various environments where he lives, be they physical, social or cultural. Acquiring and integrating information vary according to the richness of personal experiences and the quality of the social and cultural milieu where he lives. The world knowledge of any individual is necessary impregnated of fashionable values and formatted by the prevalent social types. This is what makes every person different and unique because experience is built on an infinity of various interactions with the environment. This permits anybody to have a unique, creative and personal interpretation of the various events met throughout time life. Choices and decisions can be made which support fundamental needs of everyone that is their security and integrity. All those choices and decisions are evaluations dependent on the past that is, previous situations having determined the personal preferences of everyone. From the totality of those processes come out the self, the individual with its personality.2.2 Self
All those complex process being the same for everyone makes sure without exception that all see in the same way a clear separation between themselves and the rest of the world. Everyone notices the internal world of the being and the external world in which it performs and with which it must constantly interact. The frontier between those two worlds is the epidermic skin, this envelope inside which boils numerous processes necessary to maintain integrity of the being. Into this envelope is the brain, a neuronal machinery that copes with a myriad of signals coming from all the internal part of the body and also from the external world through the five senses. What is constantly building is a virtual production looking as a theatre where the principal actor, the self is interacting with other actors of the external world bathing into a scenery representing the global environment. Into this internal animation, the self plays various scenarios, make decisions, analyze problems and then commit itself. This is at this very moment that the individual really and physically act on the environment and communicate with other external actors who do the same as himself. In return, all those actions taking place in the physical world are simultaneously comprehended and represented anew onto the internal scene which is constantly changing. Retroactively, the self memorize those various states, transform and modify the virtual scenery, pursue its analysis in order to make new decisions and so govern the real life in the external world.The self is the virtual actor, the decision maker, the one who directs the internal theatre. But where is this self and what is its nature? We will see later that it does not exist as a specific entity nor as an identifiable region of the brain nor a particular process but it is the global action of all activities that build anonymously the self. There is no particular structure but many interacting one. The self is a conceptual vision of an ensemble of stables process in the virtual time and space of the internal world. The self is like a forest, it is the whole of trees which make it but it is not a single tree nor a small assembly of them that could be recognized.
2.3 Integrity
When the integrity of the neuronal structure making this internal theatrical play is corrupted, be that even minimally, then results comportment turmoil. Even if it is due to natural alteration of the structures, to fortuitous accidents, to traumatizing experiences, to drugs or medication, to the physical constraints causing altered states of awareness, in short to any event affecting or modifying the structures unexpectedly, the normal functions, the personality or the mental state, the self is always altered. Any trauma that goes farther than the tolerance limits of the organism makes permanent changes by the modification of the normal and habitual functions. The death of a loved one, the separation of a couple, the loss of a child are examples. Being conscious of such affections, even traumatizing ones, full of despair is always a harsh moment. Just think of the post-traumatic shock lived by returning military. But when consciousness disappears irremediably, there being gained the vegetative state and becomes like a vegetable. The coma that follows the destruction of the precise zones of the brain makes this state irreversible. Vital functions may continue to work adequately even with external assistance, but the human has vanished. The global integrity of the system and particularly the brain one is fundamental to the expression of humanity.2.4 Human
What is that distinguish the human in this world, what is its principal characteristic? Without going back to first molecules of life, it can be said that he has the assets of the living world, that is the capacity to reproduce, to protect its integrity and to assure its survival. Following taxonomy, it is a mammal characterized by its anatomic parts. It is a primate and it has numerous cousins looking alike with which it has more than 90% of its genes in common. It is a bipedal with an evolved brain communicating with a verbal language and living in complex social organizations. It is not the sole mammal to have emotions or feelings. Its capacity to reproduce, simulate and live events suffered by others seem to be its proper. The consciousness of itself and the finality of its existence are probably a distinctive characteristic making it different of other living beings. We can then say that:«The human is the social being whose natural survival instinct crystallizes in a knowledge society and whose fundamental preoccupation is its final ending»His way to see himself makes him distance pompously from the animal world.
2.5 Animal
What distinguishes the animal from the human, at least if we consider mammals having a large brain relatively to their body size? At first sight, it is the animal incapacity or at least its inefficiency to interact with its environment in a proactive way. For the rest, all mammals have the same attributions as the human except those are not at the same level of performance. Animals have sentiments, emotions, consciousness, memory, are sensitive, interact with their environment, all characteristics of evolved mammals. Not so long ago, man considered those that weren't group members as inferior beings and gave himself the right to exploit them as slaves, a situation that disappeared only recently. For most humans, the animal is an object, a tool, something useful without any rights, treated as an inert thing without any other consideration and for its sole profit. Whoever interest himself to life discover the lesser difference there is between man and animal. Carl Safina observed mammals in their natural milieu and throughout their behaviour he shows clearly that they have emotions and astonishingly think and feel. The one who is conscious of himself, of his feelings and emotions cannot but obviously witness look alike. Shameless animal exploitation become saddening as undeserving of a conscious human and bring him feeling compassion for this. Man has created language and culture which permitted to propel himself as a paragon far on the front of the animal kingdom. But opposing to the religious edicts this doesn't give him any life and death rights over the other inhabitants of the world. In fact he is totally dependent as a member of a planetary ecosystem.We can then say that the human distinguish himself from the animal by a highly evolved brain, by his particular survival instinct and his never-failing preoccupation of its end. His knowledge and experience bring him to betray the animal world, to distance himself of it, to create parallel universes and to dream of eternity.
2.6 To sum up
Every human is born with a plastic neuronal structure which allows to understand the world and build his own personality. The self is a virtual concept founded on the temporal stability of internal functions whose integrity is fundamental to existence. Even if man shares with the animal world the same physiological and emotional process, consciousness of himself and its ending make him different so he alienates himself from this world to validate his Truth.3. Eternity stories
Since the dawn of time the human being worried about himself. Maybe since he learned to share his sentiments with others and discuss them, to analyze the causes and links between nature objects, he began to create stories about them. Those were comforting explanations useful for the knowledge and his survival in a hostile environment. But also useful for the social cohesion, for the State stability and for the personal profit of the leaders over the people.3.1 Beginnings
In the book «Dieu ne joue pas aux dés» (God don't play dices) (pp. 24-25) Henri Laborit gives a probable way to the development of this interest (my version).The primitive man searched a certain order throughout the apparent world disorder. A simple causality principle gave him a way to order things and beings and to give a meaning to his actions. Animals were constrained to do the same. But thank to his imagination, man gave an extra reason for the existence of events for which he could not discover any causal reason. He attributed to things and to being conscience and a comportment analogous to what he faintly felt inside him. A hidden spiritual source infiltrated understanding of the world that was necessary to act and protect his life. This new world became a vast space where anything was living, conscious, hostile or on the contrary benevolent and favourable if he could understand its language and talk with it. He bathed in a poetic world - if we believe that poetry was falsified by knowledge - in a world he felt he belonged, where he felt himself included like springs, seas, rocks and other living bodies. He talked with those, believed to understand their language, but could not imagine they could have any power, different from his, but superior to his. He needed to find another world, parallel to this one, as the source and origin of those objects, of those creations, looking more or less like him, from which he often took his food, while giving them respect, he also had to fight, and this became the world of gods. An acting invisible world with which it was preferable to be in accord because being stronger than the human world. To act, he needed efficient laws. Often deceived by the absence of apparent causality of events, he imagined new ones and tried to obey them individually as well as a group. To protect his own existence, his well-being, his survival and the group one, he needed to follow the new rules of this new causality, the god desires, which later became through the monotheist religions, God's. The angst that comes from the impossibility to act without rules was concealed by the application of the rules he had created, those of the gods.Let us go on with the modern man who, according to that schema, complicates and multiply profusely the systems.
3.2 Universality
A long time ago, well before city electrification and even candle lightning, man was looking at stars into the black sky. He found a link between annual cycles of constellations and seasons and he learned to sail following the stars. In darkness, predators were terrifying him while during the day they were looking for their meal. He found the healing power of plants. He did bequeath much evidence about his culture. At most we find temples, stone structures, burial mounds, graves ornamented with paintings, engravings, statuettes, vases, all a testimony about his universe and his preoccupation on the afterlife. So many groups with various tales, so numerous believe we count. We then tally a plethora of belief from the simplest to the most elaborate. With shamanism the speaker sees, hears, feels and communicate with the invisible world where live the forces and the spirits. He is a healer and adviser who links to spirits. With Totemism an animal with symbolic power is a clan guardian, protector or an individual characteristic which determine its security and prosperity. After death, the Egyptian leave for a long journey for the beyond where he is subject to the judgment of the soul. The corpse of the most important is mummified, placed in a sarcophagus and protected under a monumental building. For the Greek, piety consists to know how to pray and sacrifice while saying and doing what is pleasurable to the gods providing salvation of families and of the state. Eleusis mysteries clear up death fear and guarantee a happy life in the hereafter. All Indian gods emerge from Brahman, a divine, non-created and eternal principle, the creator of the universe. His companions, Shiva a destructive and revival principle, Vishnu which preserve the equilibrium between those two and Ganesh that help go over daily difficulties. Hinduism pretends that the human being is submitted to the perpetual cycle of death and rebirth according to the good and bad actions. He escapes it and gain nirvana by the absolute devotion to a divinity and the observance of his Dharma obligations. The three monotheism, those called religion of the book, Judaism with Torah, Christianity with Bible and New testament, Islam with Coran, all shape more or less the actual culture. All those beliefs bear a founding myth, associated rights and rules of daily life providing an unconditional guarantee for an eternal post-mortem life. Around those standard belief gravitate many sects, various religion derivatives, picking some elements of their credo and rejecting others according to their taste. Pantheism is a philosophical doctrine according to whatever exists is in God, an immanent god, not external nor superior to the world, not even creative or personal, identified with nature. New Age picks copiously into all those religions, sects, beliefs, and even in wrongly understood scientific knowledge to produce scores of jumble concocted by auto proclaimed gurus. It is clear that since the dawn of time the human has been fond of mysticism and tipsy with all kind of spirituality.3.3 Mysticism
Luigi Cascioli, in his book «La favola di christo», «The Fable of Christ» (chapter 6, The cult of mysteries, pp. 59-69) describes the origin of mystical belief and its evolution. (My version.)In the beginning, cults linked to magical and sacred rites solicited natural forces to awake after the winter pause, and later in a second phase address the condition of the human soul after death. Like the seed that comes back to life with its burgeon after having stayed underground during winter, man thought by the same way he could come back to life for a second life. This is by this projection of himself into a seed that revives by burgeoning that man conceived the resurrection after death.
One becomes an adept of those sects by the rite that Greeks called baptism, from «baptizzo» meaning I immerse. All Middle-East religions, supported by various imperialism, were practising baptism.
Since immortality was a god reserved advantage, it was necessary to find a way to transfer it to man. So they incorporated immortality by drinking the blood of animals they sacrificed to them. After having cut the throat, adepts drank the blood and eat the liver to assimilate through those divine essences they contained, the first among others being immortality, the one that permits to live a second and eternal life after resurrecting death (primitive theophagy). Ceremonials became more refined and complicated, blood was replaced with wine and bread appeared as a substance transformable into God body. Those communal meals were ingested at events called «Eucharistic banquet».
Because of theological evolution, those practices looked doubtful: «How can a divinity transmit to man the resurrection virtue if itself doesn't have it since being eternal, it never died?» Then they drove God coming down on earth, becoming human, dying and then resurrection to acquire the virtue of resurrection and the power to transmit it to man; they were called «Soteres» meaning saviours. Those gods were presented as preachers who after being challenged and fight by their enemies, the representatives of Bad, were invariably captured and killed by them. Being always based on the primitive principle that associated resurrection with the rebirth of nature, all divinities died and resurrected in the spring. Those saviour gods were given the title of Kyrios, Lord after their victory over death.
The reason why Mazdeism gained over other religions to the point of being declared State religion by Rome in the second century before common era is due to the fact that this religion favours the blending of peoples by making universal the fight of Good against Bad, a thing that other religions reserved only to their adepts, the followers of the cult of mysteries. Mazdeism searched to convince the masses to support the weight of imperial dictatorship by promising to unsatisfied social classes a reward after death if and only if they suffered with humility and resignation social injustices.
Throughout Greece all mathematicians and philosophers opposed all those theories whose nonsense, refused by reason, couldn't be only a fraud against progress and social evolution. Those thinkers, negating any divine principle, were prosecuted by the religious and political imperialists who based their power on on the intellectual alienation of people. As a consequence of the incompatibility between science and belief, all religions still oppose here and everywhere to scientific research and consider as their worst enemy.
Photo of a IVth century (320-350) mosaic showing the cult of mysteries. It covers a wall of the Piazza Armerina, in the Roman city of Casale, Sicilia, owned by a representative of the Roman senatorial aristocracy, probably a Roman prefect. There they drink blood and eat the liver of the lamb to gain eternal life. Very apparent in middle of front the third eye of foresight.
Following those mystical wanderings, there still remain exploitation by civil powers in accord with religious one. Everyone on its platform acknowledge and praise the other, both congratulating themselves. There is the source and the justification of the power of the other, a tautology.
3.4 States
Since there is no difference between sect and religion, it may be understood that a distinctive religion complacently states that other belief systems are sects for the simple fact that they don't possess the real Truth so aren't entitled to bear the title of religion. It is more plausible to see a sect as a religion when it is integrated, even as an informal agreement, to the structure of the State and the society. When it is part of the judiciary system and defines the rules of individual lives, the State is said a theocracy such as a Muslim State. A loose integration but supported by the civil power makes a State of the Catholic, Jewish or Hindu type. A full separation and independence between civil power and religious organization makes a secular state. Some States describe themselves as secular state but up to now there aren't any that may bear such appellation, the state that comes close to it is the French State where the 1905 law established secularism a replacement of the 1801 concordat.The concordat is a treaty between a State and the Vatican that defines specific obligations between the signatories such as religion liberty, levying of taxes and other benefits. The Latran agreement is a treaty between the Holy-See and Italy State confining the temporal power of the pope to the sole Vatican state, confirming the Catholic, apostolic and Roman religion as the religion of Italy State according to the statutes of 1848 kingdom. Since 1964, the United Nations (UN) accepts the Holy-See with the status of the observer.
To make it clearer, it is sufficient to observe what the chief of State does at important events, to read constitution papers, to note allegiances, to compound treaties and international relations with Holy-See and other spiritual leaders.
A forward-thinking catholic priest from France to debunk perfidious religions is none than Jean Meslier (1664-1729), a discreet and lone atheist writer. For well obvious reasons, not being able to publish during his life time, he left three posthumous copies of "Mémoire contre la religion" (Dissertation against religion) beginning by :
Memory of feelings and thinkings of J[ean] M[eslier] priest and father of Estrep[igny] and Bal[aives] parish On Errors and Abuses of Men's Government and Conduct with clear and obvious demonstrations of vanity and falsity of all Divinities and all World Religions to be adressed to my Parishioners after my death and to serve them as a Truth Withness and for all others.Farther he writes:
In testimonis illis, & gentibus.
Know, my brothers, know that it is only errors, abuses, illusions and fraud, all that is said and practiced in the world as cult and adoration of gods. All laws and prescriptions published under God or gods authority are truly human inventions, nor are those nice shows, sacrifices or divine offices, all those superstitious religion and devotions practices made to honor them.It is too easy to forget past and neglect elders who like us had eyes, ears, and reason to decode men usages of their time which hasn't an iota changed since.
All those, do I say, are only human inventions as I already said, created by keen and cunning, thereafter cultivated and multiplied by false seducer and usurper, blindly acknowledged by ignoramus and finally maintained and authorized by world princes and greats who used those human creations to restrain men and do whatever they wanted of them.
3.5 To sum up
The primitive man fantasize upon an invisible world responsible for what he usually observe, a world with laws and obligations. Magical universes sprout with mysticism as universal culture. Belief and political power melt into various forms of States submitting people for their own interests.4. Dissent
Those ideas about man and faith weren't shared by all thinkers. They were criticized and disproved since the beginnings but even if they were prevailing and invasive, they always found their lots of objectors.4.1 Philosophy
The first thinker to hand down some indications on their thoughts even minimal given the paucity of documents that reached us are of Greek source and can be classified in two categories. The first one greet materialist thought and is supported by Parmenides, Heraclitus, Anaxagore, Diogenes, Leucippe, Democrite, Epicure, Lucrece. Those thinkers negating any divine principle were fought by political and religious imperialists who based their power on people intellectual alienation. The other category encompasses those celebrities that examined life, city, society and man, Socrates and Platon. Following their ideas Aristotle build a structured reasoning way now known as philosophy. Following this way Augustinus made the first attempts to justify beliefs rationally. A former Manichean acquainted with Platonism, he came up with God as a principle and non-caused cause. He makes up it with perfection ideas, superlative of positive qualities, essences, decreed as objective realities while they were pure speculations. They make the basis of metaphysics, a tentative to integrate the scientific method to the philosophical reasoning, with the objective to ennoble it, to confer it a greater credibility, by the way creating theology. This intellectual construction is followed by Thomas Aquinas as a logical justification of the Christian belief system (Zev Sternhell).4.2 Theology
Theology or philosophy to rescue religion proceed since the Church fathers according to the same scenario. Just negate or hide the reasoning logical contradiction into the first proposition of the syllogism and call it pompously the ontological argument. Here are the five arguments Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) used to pretend God existence. Ref: Marco DeRossi, p 279.Another example: the problem with evil shows the nonsense of the properties given to God which reduce to its own negation:
- «Any movement has a motor cause, God is the first unmoved motor».
- «Any effect has a cause and it is impossible to go back indefinitely so God is the first efficient cause».
- «God is an inherent necessity, it is the first necessity».
- «God is the perfect model».
- «Nature is organized and needs a commanding intelligence so God is the intelligent guide of anything.
It is clear, the process is always the same, a free affirmation based on nothing bearing its own contradiction, the negation being implicit in its expression.
- God is almighty, knows everything and is infinitely good;
- Evil exists and God knows it or he is unaware of it;
- He knows it and he can suppress it but he doesn't do it;
- This is impossible since he is infinitely good;
- He wants to suppress it but he can't;
- This is impossible because he is almighty;
- He doesn't know that evil exists;
- It is impossible because he knows everything;
- If God exists with all those attributes there can't be any evil;
- This is impossible because evil exist;
- The god hypothesis is impossible according to its intrinsic properties, this is a logical contradiction.
4.3 Greek refusal
Epicure (341-270) is the Greek philosopher who most distinguished himself by refusing mystic and whose thoughts and teachings endured the longest life span. There still were Epicurean schools in the third century AD. Epicure built a knowledge theory founded on senses, on truthfulness of feelings, the sole way able to guaranty that we know reality. He negates God existence using the Evil problem.Following his master Lucrèce (99-56) undertook to teach the epicurean system, pure materialistic thinking opposed to sophists one. Let us cite sentences from his work «De la nature», (my version)
Michel Onfray told of Lucrèce that he gives the perfect fight breviary against any superstition :
- Nothing can arise from nothing, and we must recognize it since everything needs a germ to begin (I, 205-206)
- Nothing return to nothingness but everything disintegrate and join the elements of matter. (I,248-249)
- To what can we refer? Couldn't we have something else safer than senses to distinguish between true and false ? (I, 669-700)
- First I say that spirit named intelligence, where stay council and government of life, is a part of man as is a hand, a foot, eyes and are parts of the whole of a living. (III, 93-96)
- But the one who thinks that none know don't even know if it is possible to know since he avows to know nothing. I will not plead against the one who decided to walk upside down. Even if I grant him this unique knowledge, if he hasn't seen anything true in the world how can he tell me he knows what it is to know and not to know, where do come from notions of truth and falsity, what is the criteria to distinguish between doubt and certainty. You will discover that senses built the first notions of truth and they are foolproof. (IV, 469-479)
With him an impressive idea is born, simple and true: religion and religious sprout from lack of culture and knowledge. The believer satisfies with truthiness because he is an ignorant, unschooled, naive. Sacrificing to divinities, myths and illusion proceeds from a lack of knowledge about the real cause of what happens. When the true philosopher works, the priest backup. When the clergy tower over, intelligence regress. This is true of the pagan back world seller, Jews, Christians, and all those that don't walk in the atheism blazing light.
Lucrèce attack religion on its base, he tracks its substance and discover reasons why man builds and vows cult to idols, why man gives up and put his fate into priest hands, the clergy that without scruples uses belief and piety as occasions to dominate body and soul, to exert a true and real political power over them. Man builds gods according to its hypostatized image. Beginning with their weakness, they create forces under which they obey for their greatest misfortune.
4.4 Renaissance and Enlightenment
The XV° century in Italy sees the birth of Renaissance and spread throughout Europe. This is an artistic movement that rediscover the Greco-Roman Antiquity whose perfection must be imitated. It is associated with the rediscovery of late antiquity literature, philosophy and science. Humanism sprouts and set a new place for man conceived with its intelligence as able to understand every field of knowledge. Starting from this epoch, the XVI° century, the rational thinking rebirths and makes its way throughout the medieval illusions jumble. All incompatible thinking systems away from a comprehensive understanding of nature will be placed at stake by the Copernic, Bruno, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, Bacon and others. The Enlightenment took aim to free the individual from the historical constraints, from the yoke of traditional and unfounded belief, they brought humanism, universal values, democracy, the individual autonomy and generosity, making the individual the master of his fate. The Enlightenment are carried by Locke, Rousseau, Kant who will put a stop to all speculative philosophies, Voltaire, d'Holbach, Condorcet, Diderot and d'Alembert who make the encyclopedia, Condillac, Saint-Just and many others. The Enlightenment century that follows sees the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the restoration of man's liberty and follows the opening to the road of scientific knowledge and technical discoveries of the XIX° and XX° centuries. An analysis by Zeev Sternhell shows the Anti-Enlightenment reaction initiated by Vico, Burke and Herder as :A denial to reason and to the right to contest existing order. The human rights as well as the fact that the society is the product of the individual will and pursuing the individual welfare are a dangerous chimera, a true revolt against Christian civilization. All that exist has been established by experience, by collective good sense and has a reason to be that may not be clear at any moment but is the fruit of divine will pervading history.The individual is seen as defined and limited by its ethnic origin, by its history, by its language and by its culture. The following anti-rationalism comes with cultural relativism and nationalistic communitarianism. One of the main idea of Zeev Sternhell is that:
Following the end of the XVIII° century and later, the Enlightenment refusal constitutes not only a negation of the principles on which the XIX and XX° century democracy relies, but as long as the individual capacity to control the world where he lives is a constitutive and fundamental element of liberalism and of the liberal democracy, this revolt undermines the basis of liberalism.He adds
Veneration of the particular and rejection of the universal are common to all Anti-Enlightenment thinkers, whatever is their social standing or their epoch.Even discredited today, philosophy and theology have their entry in high-level knowledge organizations like universities. Now there are found postmodernist and multiculturalism, direct followers of this Anti-Enlightenment's movement.
4.5 Questionner crowd
Three million years ago it is estimated that there were on earth about 100 000 people. Around 50 000 years BC the total human population on earth may have been around 1,5 million, 40 000 years BC it may have reached five million and 20 centuries BC it may have been a hundred million. At the end of the XV° century they were 500 million, 650 million around 1750, 1,2 billion by 1850 and 2,5 billion in 1950. The billion there was by the beginning of the XIX° century has grown now to 7,6 billion individuals. It is estimated that 100 billion humans lived on earth since the apparition of Homo sapiens 200 000 years ago. Then it is about 100 billion humans having searched their life long the answer to the «Question». Who am I ? Where do I come from ? Why am I here ? Where do I go ? Why must I suffer ? Why must I die ? What happens after death ? And nobody, not a single person never found a satisfactory answer except mytical and theatrical creations. Could we reflect on this simple fact that not a single person found a rational answer even considering the enormous quantity of grey matter involved. If we suppose that a real knowledge of the world began around the XV° century and only one percent of the population was aware of that knowledge this makes 300 million brains greedily to know and no answer found. Doesn't this incapacity arouse the least suspicion to the presence of a fundamental pitfall?4.6 To sum up
Philosophers and theologians concocted many God existence proofs, and all have been disputed and negated according to rational logic. Despite the enormous number of thinkers, none has succeeded to make a single proof of God existence.5. Structures
Given the actual knowledge of the world and in order to give an explanation for the fact that anybody hasn't found a sound answer to the «Question», we must stop the external world investigation and turn our attention into the internal world of the person who poses the interrogation. We must analyze processes running in the interior of the person. We must look at the neural structures, to the structures that transmit information coming from the outside and inside of the human body. We must discover how this body works, understand how are building memories, analysis, emotions, feelings, personality, decisions and social interactions. We must think about means and mechanisms by which information is acquired and structured building the being.In the following sections we base our arguments on many years of research to understand brain functions. We value mostly the works of Antonio Damasio, a doctor Ph.D. of neuroscience, neurology and psychology. He wrote many books on those topics notably «Descartes's error», «The feeling of what happens», «Spinoza was right», «Self comes to mind» and «The strange order of things».
5.1 Evolution
First of all, we must be conscious that human beings like any other terrestrial organism is the achievement, after 500 million years approximate date life appeared on earth, of an infinity of interactions between the totality of preceding beings and the constantly changing environment of various geological era. He is the result of evolution, following Darwinian meaning of terms, of the genetic code defining and building himself. So we must understand his structure as an accumulation of many constituents that, at a moment or another of history, has ensured survival and the progression into an organism endowed with the most elaborated brain on earth.As a most notable fact, certain characteristics never changed with evolution within created new and amazing life forms of any vertebrate group. One of those unchanged thing since million years of evolution is the thyroid molecule structure. Not a single atom moved and it is still the same for a tadpole and for a human. This molecule is necessary to orchestrate tadpole metamorphosis as well as brain optimal development of any vertebrate including humans.
Brain neurons particularly spring at certain places and later move to new sites according to temporal order then making connections between themselves. Thyroid hormone is essential for those process be that the proliferation, migration, synapse connection or axons myelin sheathing and it intervenes in all brain and body parts not only during pregnancy but during human life first years.
Those processes are extremely susceptible to external factors such as endocrine disruptor and to anything that may interfere with general development. This is why the fetus develops into the maternal womb a protected milieu. It is dependent on the mother life and even after birth neural connections aren't finalized and may change according to the baby and child learning process.
This is the important message from Barbara Demeneix about importance of the thyroid hormone on human formation, maintenance of the brain and neural circuitry, an essential for the buildup of cognitive structures of a human being.
5.2 Brain
From obviousness the brain is the central point towards which all external and internal signals converge. It is the command centre where decisions and reactions are made. The brain is a neural structure whose function is to regulate and maintain at an optimal level internal states and external relations between beings and their environment. All living beings are under the action of three principles regulating the totality of organic functions namely integrity, security and reproduction. Integrity is about appropriate organism internal functions keeping it in good health, the communication with the external world throughout language, emotions, appropriate movements, actions and displacements. Security is about provisioning food, using best agricultural methods, meals making, body protection using clothes, cooling or heating of places, comfortable beds, isolation from aggression and predators, building houses and fortifications. Concerning reproduction, adequate behaviours are genetically determined by neural structure and hardly modulated by social norms. All those requirements essential for survival are at various levels the same for all living organisms. They are made possible by a brain that learns and knows its environment reacts by making the most efficient choices and actions insuring life obligations. Those who will perform the best and adapt to external changes will reproduce more efficiently overriding others and having a prevailing population over others.5.3 Personality
Personality is to build on the totality of interactions an individual has with its environment and lots of other individuals like himself. It is modulated by social norms, at first level by parents and in variable ways according to vagaries of life by family, friends, villages, country and the whole world. The individual development begins at birth from first contact with the mother and then following the full range of development steps all life long until the final end. During his life, the individual accumulates experiences, takes decisions good or bad, memorizes them and keeps them in the fathom of the being with the help of structuring sharp and strong emotions. Life necessities are built upon social protocols whose expression vary ad infinitum depending on each person. Those protocols are based on world comprehension models, on authority conventions, on inhibitions, on feelings, on emotions, on enmity, on friendship, on fashion and trends, on happy and unfortunate experiences, etc. Certain persons may have affinities while others won't. Some may suffer integration difficulties among the group or health problems. Personality is structured in such a way that the person can maneuver successfully within his physical and social group. A misfit individual may become an offender or suffer of light to heavy psychological troubles. The whole of interacting individuals make a global reservoir defining society with its rules, norms, habits and customs, a global personality, in fine a unique and distinct society, built following the same way others are. Different societies with a state and political structure make nations and nationalism.5.4 Affects
The brain surface has been mapped and shows zones or domains which have been associated to behavioural activities. The most obvious cortices are the visual, language and motor ones. Other zones have been identified following various trauma destroying zones associated with body functions modifying comportment spectacularly. Schizophrenia, paranoia, psychopathy is well-known personality dysfunctions. Neuronal degenerative sickness such as Parkinson or Lou Ghering is well known but agnosia and anosognosia are very amazing pathology causing consciousness fractions or disjointed self. Hormones, medication and drugs modify directly the function of certain neurons and disorganized, abnormal and altered states of spirit appear. Very specific zones are critical for life and their alteration cause coma placing the individual in a vegetative state where consciousness and self disappear while other organic functions remain normal. A very precise zone of the brain stem if destroyed cause death. From the knowledge of the functions of brain parts related to their change on personality it is clear that this human characteristic depends on the neural substance. The brain is a very complex organization of neurons that support body and personality functions and may be altered following vagaries of life. Self and consciousness are never ending dynamic process constantly refreshed and recreated since birth terminating only at death. Any perturbation cause dysfunctions at any level organic and psychological. All this shows the foolishness of speculative metaphysical ideas. There aren't any essences, soul, or homunculus somewhere inside that skin envelope as a representative of self or consciousness.5.5 Emotions
Emotions are physical and psychological reactions resulting from a dissonance between essential actions necessary for the individual survival, choices of action highly beneficial to conflict resolution whose manifestation resides into typical behaviour. Emotions carry external signals intended for survival like fear, escape or freezing in the face of danger or joy and pleasure in the face of positive and constructive situations. Emotions intervene and stabilize comportment at conflict resolution. They are intimately linked with code reprogramming, internal models, memory reorganization, alternative decisions, new links between essential choices for survival. Emotions freeze and stabilize profoundly comportment and attitudes and to modify them imply new emotions of the same intensity. They are what Antonio Damasio considers as a somatic marker.5.6 Feelings
Feelings not to be confused with emotion stays inside the individual. They represent internal states of consciousness affecting the self. They are in tight relation with emotions when the environment change as a leading events. Feelings are essential for decision-making when rational deduction cannot make it. They orient and direct selectively compartments. For example, we may have love or hate feelings rationally unjustifiable but coming out unconsciously from previous and forgotten situations or depending on subtle physicochemical. Such saying as "I can't feel him" or " She hits on my nerves" are good examples.5.7 To sum up
Evolution accumulated and build into neuronal structures process making emotions, feelings, consciousness, self, and personality. Through adaptive reactions, this plastic structure highly susceptible to perturbations, with homeostasis help, provides permanence of being.6. Understanding
World understanding is based on all previously described elements. Feelings, emotions, behaviour, decisions, past events, good or bad experiences, social relations, health, happiness or misfortune, all build personal values. Anyone may have a personal world view which is related to his well-being, to physical or social survival but what is it truly?6.1 Liberty
The general meaning of liberty is the absence of any constraint. For the individual, freedom of thinking means the ability to make choices, decisions and to act based upon the internal world, that is his or her profile, personality and values. Viewed from the outside world, any individual is limited by the richness or lack of personal experiences. Different individuals are differently limited, they may have compatible, common, disjointed or opposite domain of action. Each one seeing the world through its own glasses may have the feeling to be totally free but is in fact limited. Any liberty is exerted throughout the internal image a person has of the world, always inside his or her domain of action. All individuals are free because the posses the neuronal mechanisms permitting them to analyze, memorize, make choices and act. It is clearly the case of individuals in good health without constraining brain damage. What makes a difference between individuals is the internal culture, how it is maintained and its richness.6.2 Free will
Even if free any individual is constrained to exert its liberty inside a well-defined domain, its internal garden. But how is it when this garden is not a true representation of the external world? When the individual hasn't had the opportunity to evolve, experiment and live totally the real world without constraints, he or she cannot have built exhaustive and exact mental representations of the external world. His or her world view is then reduced and coloured by his or her bias and limits. In that case, he or she is always free but cannot arbitrate judiciously his or her interactions with the real world. We then tell him or her to be conditioned, limited, lacking, because having integrated subversive elements limiting its ability to act or on the opposite not having integrated essential elements for a just and exact representation of the real world, he or she doesn't have what is called free will. Even if he or she has the feeling of acting in full liberty of conscience, which is the case, he or she cannot arbitrate decisions with full knowledge. Even facing evidence, he or she will refuse to act logically and rationally because being under the control of its feelings and emotions linking him or her preferentially to other experiences or ways of being and acting.6.3 Society
From this internal garden all evolve and do actions. Thanks to memory, everyone has internal references and landmarks permitting to face the real world. The interaction of all individuals brings face to face those memories which are being put in common where emerge a virtual global individual. This ensemble of references, of collective memories built and define a national identity and global culture. In return, society models the individual and its world view. But according to values of culture, the individual remains in a certain manner a captive of it. However it is always possible for him or her to emancipate and go farther than what family, friends, and villages command if the society to which he or her pertains don't impose too tight constraints to his or her free will. His or her personal efforts to maintain social relations, to educate and instruct oneself warrant his or her emancipation and construction of an enriched and global world view which in return contribute to that of society.6.4 Law
By putting in common shared personal experience, those being balanced, distilled, formulated in an agreed manner, the society build habits and customs, defines law and conventions, establish a frame of reference inside which all are forced to evolve. Some ways of doing are unconditional and none cannot infringe without conviction while others may be permissive, following good manners and decorum. Law states for all obliged places and ways of being without derogation for anyone. Law being general and of strict character may also call for, force or shield toward injustice, discrimination and abuse. Acknowledging that all are free and equal in the face of law, the bill of rights and liberty defines fundamental postulates upon which refer the law. So is built a society constitution and with many societies, different constitutions.6.5 Tolerance
The individual whose world view brims over his group places itself in conflict with his or her society accepted values. He or she stands in conflict or creates an exception, source of animosity in the face of the regular members. Freedom of thinking and expression being a social and crucial liberty guaranteed by the law, then follows tolerance concept. Let us remind article 29(2) of UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights:In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.Extending those limits farther than their intention becomes tolerance. It consists to accept a difference, a deviation from the current agreed values according to certain humanist values. To tolerate is possible as long as what is tolerated doesn't become a destructive source of the society values jeopardizing peace and security. Otherwise it is an opening to a social suicide. It is worth to cite Karl Popper on tolerance :
An unlimited tolerance has as result the fatal disappearance of tolerance. If one is of absolute tolerance, even facing intolerant ones, and is not protecting the tolerant society from their assaults, the tolerant will be annihilated and with him tolerance itself. I don't mean to say that intolerant theories must always be prevented. As long as it is possible to use logical arguments and the public opinion to counter them, it could be wrong to ban them. But the right to ban them must be kept even with the use of force if necessary because it is highly probable those theories upholder refuse any logical discussion and replies by the use of violence. It shall then be considered doing so, they outlaw themselves, and invitations to violence is a crime like murder calling.Integrity and security of any system cannot allow what may put it in peril, law always has force and priority on the unbearable.
6.6 To sum up
Lack of constraints assure the individual its full liberty but a limited experience reduces it to free will. Society is build on the totality of individual experiences defining a formal set of rules and an informal set of habits and customs. Taking possession of its liberty under such framework, he may leave or improve himself only if authorized by others tolerance and if it doesn't put society at stake.7. Archetypes
Here we examine basic principles and criteria that in the end come to be the keystone and archetypes for ethics and morality.7.1 Systems
In order to understand a structure, it is usually divided into its most obvious parts. Each one is tested individually and by the end its internal constituents which were hidden in the beginning are finally discovered. If the structure is too complex to be broken down, then it is assimilated to a black box having input and output where an input signal produces an output one. The ratio of output to input defines the system transfer function and describes structure properties. Testing varied input stimulus enable to discover those who have a major impact on output. This way it may be found among the many states of the system certain input values being more important than others and may be qualified as optimum meaning the system performs the best and is fully operational. Conversely there could be inhibiting input values to be considered as having a negative action on the system. Input values leading to efficient output will be considered as best ones and those departing as negative ones. For a system to function the most effective and efficient way, optimum inputs must be prioritized while others must be put aside. For a system, conditions inducing beneficial states constitute what may be called as "good" while those inducing inverse as "bad".7.2 Good and Evil
Following the previous definitions, the "good" may be viewed as favouring best adapted situations while "bad" oppose to and induces deterioration of situations. Ethically it is the same where "Good" values acceptable states and "Evil" favours adverse states. Since there may be many "Good" and "Evil" states, the one associated with a maximum of benefits constitute the greatest "Good" and conversely the one associated with a maximum of detriment constitutes the greatest "Evil". "Good" and "Evil" characterize conditions external to a system and aren't intrinsic system properties. A system behave well or bad in reaction to its environment.7.3 Perfection
Since there are optimal states, it may be interesting to look for conditions inducing a maximally reachable superior state which would be perfection. Perfection is linked to an ideal state and as such is not a realistic value since it overwhelms what is physically possible, overcoming intrinsic system capacity. The notion of perfection corresponds to infinity idea which is only a mind view. Perfection doesn't have any objective reality and pursuing it is an assured failure. In his book «Critique de la raison pure», chapter III, Emmanuel Kant says about the general idea of ideal:We have seen previously that understanding concepts, independently of any sensitive conditions, cannot represent objects (keine Gebgenstände) since they lack reality objective conditions and there stands only the simple form of thinking.If we call Good a certain state of perfection and Evil its opposite, we must think of Good and Evil as mind views without any relation with reality. Conceiving perfection programs in order to reach that is preposterous since in that matter absolutes is utopia.
What I call ideal looks even farther away of objective reality than ideas.
7.4 Good of all
If we consider many interlinked systems where output of some is fed to other input, it is mostly probable that not a single one operates in its optimal state but is in an intermediate state. Globally this ensemble is in a state that depends on external inputs. In such a case, it is impossible to have external values placing all systems in its optimum state. Similarly, it is ethically preposterous to search for the simultaneous Good of all members of a community. There is no external constraint that could make all members in a state of wellness. The good of all may be searched for but there isn't any environment that can favour it. Sometime certain members may be favoured, other time other ones, and most probably varied situations may appear. Considering any complex organization, any proposition aiming to eradicate a state judged evil by some standard is impossible and doomed to failure. Such proposition is a utopia.7.5 To sum up
System optimal functioning imply idea of perfection who is nothing else than idea of Good and its corollary Evil. For any complex system, since there can't be idealistic state, it is a fallacy to claim the Good for all.8. Life
Morality notions, values, good and evil cannot be conceived out of human life so it is imperative to examine how life maintains itself and which direction it evolves. Biological and social life keep their coherence by invoking a corpus of constraints.8.1 Order and disorder
Diverse system states may be analyzed, classified, sorted. System organization is made of links between its components. Those links consist of rules, laws, associations or other principles, all making a logical web of interactions. Order notion corresponds to the functional organization of an ensemble of relations. Order represents a high level of coherence between system components while disorder shows a lack of affinity between those. Well organized structures show a high level order where the components work close to their optimum state. For example, human cellular tissue organ keeps its structure and function at any time. A structure deficiency, a feeble affinity between components or a low organization represents disorder. An example is a cellular cancer heap growing anarchically without defined models. The same way, a theater scene shows a high level of order while a crowd on the street a low one. Society, with its rules, laws, language, habits and customs, has a high organization order level and oppose to anarchy. Order is an essential component of complex system organization. Order and disorder ideas correlate with Good and Evil concepts.8.2 Motion
Motion is a fundamental characteristic of nature. Even close to the zero degree of absolute temperature a minimal energy level keeps moving the atom. Molecules are in constant motion be that their internal structure or their mutual interactions. Without motion there is no possible chemical reaction to produce new components. Viruses, bacteria, animated bodies, all beings, from small to large ones, are always animated and interacting together. Cellular transformations, divisions, multiplications are only possible through interactions and energy transfers. At molecular level everything is globally controlled by the genetic code. Any living cell is the expression of genes it carries within its chromosome. Cells are components of all living structures and motion is due to well-defined programming and organization.At macroscopic level, nothing determine motion destination. Throughout chance of meeting, interactions with most affinities have the greatest probability to happen. There is no favoured direction except coming from interactions most favourable to system stability and equilibrium as imposed from environmental constraints. Life is motion, transformation, incessant interaction, adaptation.
8.3 Life
Life is organized motion maintaining system integrity, stability and time permanence. A living system begins at a certain time, has duration and disintegrate later. So do we speak of birth, life and death of a system. This process is applicable to living beings as well as to non-biological systems. Everything has a beginning, duration and a final death.Life, an organized process, always in motion, defines unique individuals, Those beings interact with other ones making groups who have a same common environment and history. Life has a global motion created by the multitude of animated bodies, having a compatible genetic code, reproducing and creating beings identical to themselves, maintaining the group stability and temporal permanence.
8.4 Goal of life
Life goal is nothing else than to hold functional what we already have considered as a fundamental characteristic of any system. It means maintaining system integrity, security and reproduction. This is so since life as an uninterrupted motion without end. A motion producing continuously new structures with new properties better adapted to the environment. Life is a continuously, never ending, evolving sequence of creation and destruction of temporary stability moments. At any time what favour this goal is good and what disadvantage it is evil. In a constantly changing environment life goal is to maintain itself and adapts to this new environment. It may imply system modification, acquisition or to put at sleep certain component. This is in application of the homeostatic imperative obliging preservation of the constitutive components. Antonio Damasio, «The strange order of things». These changes constitute the system evolution and by leaving traces on chromosomes write history. It could be believed that by a reading of this history, life's goal could be discovered. This is a mistake because what could be found would be only a history of previous environment. This is an imprint of events having caused transformations, adaptations to which systems are facing. Life don't have a goal or objectives toward to evolve. In fact it surfs without direction on waves of environmental incessant fluctuations. Pretending the contrary on the basis of an incredible Truth, one couldn't better place itself in an awkward position.8.5 Survival and adaptation
Let us do a pause to appreciate what paleontologists are saying about hominids from pre-humans up to Homo sapiens and the conclusions they came to. This is an excerpt of what paleontologist Yves Coppens wrote about this in his Memories pp. 197-199, 255 (my version).For hominids, they weren't exception since they were integral part of the ecosystems and, like their elephant, pig or rhinoceros neighbours, found themselves facing this climatic crisis, clearing landscape and reducing vegetable food. [...] Around 2 million years (in fact less than 2,7), we remark two solutions to this crisis in lineage (and adaptation) of preceding pre-humans. Zinjanthropes or Paranthropus brain develops very few while pre-humans, still named Australopithecus robustus, gain quickly a massive body and dentition with large molar and premolar teeth (with cranial structures that accompany it) to crush and mill seeds, hard shell fruits and fibrous vegetables remaining from the previous environment and that they didn't eat at that time. [...] We can say that the second solution (this is not in hierarchical nor chronological order) has been an intellectual answer. This time the body doesn't change much while brain grows by volume and complexity (lobes folding, irrigation), mandibles get an omnivorous dentition adding meat to residual vegetarian meal and upper respiratory tracts transforms to better breathe a dryer air. Those two solutions are interesting natural selections and are comparable to the change of equine foot or the development or elephant molars. But this human choice will create unexpected consequences, indeed extravagant! The cerebral extension will generate a new level of consciousness and for the first time will create culture, technical culture (tools and arms) where intellectual, spiritual, symbolic, aesthetics, ethic aspects with their generous development will constitute, at least in fine, the human quality. The respiratory change will induce larynx dropping, creation of resonating box between vocal folds and mouth while palate get deeper and symphysis (anterior part of inferior mandible) get thinner freeing tongue and creating articulated language, new respiration facilitating walking on long distances and running. In other terms, it is the piracy of a simple natural selection destined to create a new strategy to escape from predators in an open environment. This is also the piracy use of larynx, pharynx, gnathic region and the brain that manage them and it is the input of animal proteins to demanding encephalon that will by chance distinguish man from the other vertebrates. And he will never end dialog between hand, talk and thinking provoking the coming out of a bizarre thinking matter, free and responsible.
This nature fancy work - we call vicariance - about adaptation to climatic change theme is really exemplary. Obsession to save species, races, family and do with what is already available (basic genetic small bag) by adding some natural new mutations, favouring a new moving option or an organ or another thing. The human race distinguished by its big head - simply because its survival choices were to better think to find escape strategies in open lands to predators -, its new dental and new respiration. That's all!
8.6 Equilibrium
The goal of life being adaptation to environmental changing states, it proceeds by the reproduction mechanism. As long as there is no adaptation, misfit individuals die while adapted ones have a better survival rate. There result population fluctuations, increasing or decreasing. When adaptation is reached reproduction must be regulated by varied mechanisms. Longevity, accidents, health states, cultural values, later or sooner all force population stabilisation in accordance with available resources. Otherwise an infinite growing leads to its own defeat through saturation and environment destruction. There must always be equilibrium between ressources, users and waste resorption otherwise the perturbed environment causes new adaptations to regulate the system. This is fully demonstrated by simulation models of complex systems of population, ressources, climate and other variables Lambin, CIA, Meadows, Meadows, Laszlo, Laszlo, Bertalanffy. In a stable environment, society must establish process regulating population and environmental actions in order to stay in equilibrium with it.8.7 Hierarchy
Considering systems properties, integrity, security and reproduction, without which none could exists, those are related. Integrity provides cohesion and unity of the whole. Without integrity no system can exist and decomposition is guaranteed. Integrity is fundamental, is the first property, essential to system identity and stability. It is based on mechanisms providing permanence through internal controls and regulation. After integrity is certain, then comes security. It provides system protection against aggressive external agents. It is the continuation of integrity in system environment. When those two properties are effective reproduction is only possible. It happens only if integrity and security last for a minimal time. Then can emerge a new system acquiring with time the reproducing system original characteristics. Clearly, those three properties lie one over other. They are like a building where integrity is the base over which are main levels security supporting the higher one reproduction.8.8 To sum up
Complex structures are characterized by order and disorder of ceaseless activity and variations of its components thus making life. This one changes as a function of environmental constraints without any preferred direction other than to maintain integrity, security and efficient reproduction. Reproduction keeps global population at an optimum level in balance with available ressources. Reproduction depends on security which depends on integrity.9. Support
We must explore how the brain development came to build new structures enabling communications between humans thus creating language. Years later it carries a universal knowledge base spread throughout masses of human brains. Quickly this language freed from its objects, acquiring total independence becomes the autonomous reference knowledge source. There springs philosophers wandering searching world understanding with alienated words. The Truth always shows itself as fully disconnected from reality.9.1 Neurons
Following evolution model and embryonic development, we think of the cellular groups specializing according to genetic code. Following this plan, from time to time, mutations produce new groups that survive only if they bring some advantage to their host. This way we see new cortical neuron groups. The main property of neurons is to make connections with other neurons according to electro-chemical stimulation they get. In return a neuron generate a response for other neurons following rules based on the weighting of received signals. The dendrites receive signals from proximal neurons while generated signal is sent through axons to remote neurons. Signals are tiny, repetitive and last short intervals. Links between contacts are strong or light, permanent of the short-lived according to frequency, intensity and duration of signals. After a certain stimulation time those connections become permanent and only after a long period of inactivity, will they fade away. This is how complex zones build and keep stability after a period of apprenticeship, receiving signals from other zones working the same way. Such stable cortical domains represent well-defined functions into the global interconnections. The brain has numerous specialized kernels it constantly accumulated with time because they have proven useful to their host.9.2 Neocortex
To begin let us consider a first ancestor, a vertebrate, a mammal, having a very small head with brain stem and cerebellum linked to spinal cord. Those structures have necessary functions sufficient for survival using basic memory built on a primitive brain cortex. It insured simple survival tactics, action reaction without sophisticated heuristic analysis, without optional decision-making. Time going this cortex increases with evolution accumulating new functions. New structures grow and support aesthetics, language, reasoning and logic. At the same time the skull expand to accommodate cerebral volume. Today, cerebral cortex represents well defined cartographic zones all linked together by the under wiring of thalamus. To accommodate increasing surface and volume, surface built many folds and sinuosity as can be seen on the brain surface. Evolution produced a system of memory zones dedicated to specific functions. For example, there is a variety of specific sensorimotor zones, visual and auditory ones, whose functions are well known. All those zones are interconnected by underlying nucleus dedicated to complex situation analysis. One thing leading to another growth of cortex and structuration of nucleus useful to host survival perpetuated because their proprietary were better and better adapted contrarily to those who didn't grow them. A brain able to reason and make decisions induce more and more performant beings in specific physical and social environment.9.3 Beauty
Aesthetic, beauty and ugliness which aren't rational reasoning have their foundation in the initial growing layers of neocortex. In the beginning environmental situations causing emotive reactions imprinted in memory common and habitual places who were linked and associated with security and welfare of individuals. Predators were masters of the night and had better adapted senses to nocturnal environment than humans. While humans were terrorized at night, sunrise ended this situation and announced heat, light and secure social life. Water as life source, fire as heath and light source, both were essential to survival. So their omnipresent representative images as universal security guarantee became imprinted into this new grown cortex. The oldest images and symbols we know, cave art, cover prehistorical cave surfaces. Well-known symbols of air, water, fire, earth, metal, the beauty of simple geometric symbols, all seem natural. This is why it is difficult to give a definition of beauty, ugliness, enjoyable, unpleasant with the language terms of reason and rationality. Popular language says there's no accounting for taste. Since a long time, those properties are profoundly engraved in brain neuronal circuits because they were useful to survival strategies. Beauty, art, aesthetic established their roots a long time ago before language birth so language hardly can define their social acceptability criteria.9.4 Sound
As a sound sensor, the ear must have had an important status in selection of persons because it alarms its bearer of predators or dangerous situations. Two of them, one on each side of head permit directional orientation and source detection imparting a definitive selection advantage. A complex sound environment may have contributed to appearance of internal ear specialized for frequency analysis. The cochlea structure permitting well defined stationary waves may have given preference to frequencies corresponding to chromatic scale. Music, singing, speech all are based on sound analysis within auditory brain zones. Those zones linked to visual and sensory zones contributed to behaviour reactions giving more selective advantages for the bearer. So auditory memories associated with visual memories bring sound-image objects.9.5 Verbal exchange
It is believable that an individual who grew a complex survival system for its environment with the use of an evolved brain must have had a certain level of consciousness, memories of past events and ability to make decisions even minimalist. Individually able to act on its environment following personal needs he had neural structures favourable to communication and he may have found himself isolated unable to communicate his visions to others. Making association with others, if only for reproduction needs, feeding or protection from predators, this individual must have had simple means to interact with them. If he hadn't used sound and images, he wouldn't have reached actual levels of sophistication. Language organs must have evolved concurrently with auditory ones so that a minimal stock of references appeared. Individuals showing smartness basic ability started to use it collectively from the moment they communicated together.Before a minimal language appeared, we can suppose small individuals living group had primitive communication ways. Using body language and growl like a semaphore with sounds could have been rooted to a true language representing emotions and feelings within varied situations. Neuronal structures supporting those abilities have become permanent throughout natural selection of their carrier. As birds knowing singing without having learned before, these enabling language structures belong to all humans whatever is their mother tongue.
Building external world images is a private process depending on the biological structure of an autonomous person. Many persons having the same mechanisms exchange and standardize their internal images using common sounds and gestures for same objects and situations. In the beginning sounds may have been used as warnings of predators or to terrorize eventual food source. Detection of sounds must have accompanied its production. A chain of action and reaction comes into play feeding image-sound memories and building a complexity of situation links. When two or more persons enter in relation, they put together their personal repository. Those who normalized and shared the same references got an advantage over others and developed a collective strategic advance. A common world view is thus based on communication and sharing of models via language.
Sound sequences linked to images related to objects, actions and varied results build sentences. A basic language to exchange gave rise to favourable strategies. Culture diversity brought many groups to build their own language by elaboration of varied grammatical and syntactical sentences. Members of social groups are always talking together exchanging their personal experiences. This explains group strength, expansion, development and supremacy over individual action. Society exists only if there is communication between its members.
9.6 Semantic
Language is founded on a consistent match between real-world objects and their internal representations. Any word, name, verb corresponds to a distinctive determinism, to define elements of the external world. Since an exhaustive real world description would necessitate an infinity of descriptors, time going, words enlarge their meaning exceeding original object meaning. Word meaning upgrade by covering many objects having common characteristic, verbs do similarly, relations between words multiply and significations get more general. Phrases describe the external world from internal built-in relations using sound-image-significant. As long as there is a bi-unequivocal relation between internal and external worlds, communication stays intelligible. When a sentence or phrase bears elements that cannot be linked together according to relations they would normally have in real world or when they don't have a link with real world, then they describe a truncated, non-existent or imaginary world. Ability to produce sentences and the adequacy or not of those to real world is without any relationship with existence or not of what they describe. Metaphysics considers language words as objects per se having their own reality, independently of the possible or not existence in the real world of what they describe. This is forgetting the origin of words and their usefulness.9.7 Communication, language and society
Incessant life movement, adapting and evolving into changing environments produced more and more complex structures. This being a general and universal process so neuronal systems evolved. Beginning from a first ancestor new brain cortex zones appeared, multiplied, diversified, specialized paralleling individual and community activities. We may think of first communications using gestures, mimicking, screaming, behaviours and rituals. So interactions between individuals use sounds, images and actions. From there spring significations and their relation with sound sequences. Evolution selecting individuals the most able to modulate and distinguish sounds using better vocal chords and ears favoured the apparition of a first language is that simple. As soon as appeared language exponentially grew following daily necessities. By exchanging and talking frequently together more and more, individuals became interdependent then setting base of a language united community. Members extensively made use of language for their communications leaving aside the first tools they used in the beginning. Still today use of hands and face mimicking is commonplace while talking. The first group to make use of this kind of community language must have supplanted others due to its efficiency. By becoming the most successful group, it insured its legacy forever. Later all Homo groups use language and because of division or isolation produce varied languages. So new words, sentences, ideas are created accelerating and materializing Homo domination on its environment. Finally, new concepts appear to abandon their tight relation with real world producing imaginary constructions.9.8 Logic, reason and creativity
After its birth new born baby face world. Its brain comes with appropriate structures and interfaces to grasp it. He has everything to know and learn to harmonize with so depends on its survival. First apprenticeship is through mother contact where he tastes mother's milk, her warmth, her skin softness and reassuring touch. Shortly after, his eyes open and he ears sounds so his brain gets first images and sounds to be associated with sensations of other senses. Repetition of same situations build first memories. Genetically determined internal structures decompose those in many components defining basic properties which later will be in many ways associated together to rebuild images as needed. So components accumulate from face recognition, colours, odours, texture, volume, body movements and other body signals. The child rise against gravity, discover movement freedom, build spatial references, learn accurate action and geometry. Following are colour perception and volume leading him to third dimension. Within all those process he builds environment descriptions in relation to him and associates appropriate survival reactions. He moves, run, scream, cry, laugh, shows emotions, feels pain and pleasure. He then build tools necessary for its survival, integrity and security.Particularly in this process we must consider interaction between individuals making bidirectional communications and feedback channels between systems with identical functions. Voice and audition develop in association with corresponding images of external world making a structured information transfer. The auditory cortex construct a word database attaching words to images, linking words together by categories and categories between themselves to finally make simple sentences linked to action scenarios being executed in external world as well as throughout memorized images. Under direction of learned language, syntactic structures are created governing implicitly logic notions. This logic governs images evocation and their verbal and written form. Those evocations are fair representation of external reality and permit to understand and control it. Language complexity comes from accumulation of numerous evocations related to reality constantly adding to a knowledge thesaurus build not only from a single individual but from a community having the same language thus defining what is understood as rational.
Never ending, images continuous flow coming to consciousness is at all time under linguistic logic control. Usually a word covers more than a single image category and a sentence made of many words according to a multiplicity of rules can engender an uncountable number of images themselves interrelated as a function of previous life experiences. This authorizes creativity with a quasi-infinite number of situations to present to consciousness. Self chose sequences or associations having greatest prevalence based on use and emotional value. Thus come hypothesis, scenarios, theatre, music, all what interests everyone. Communication of those new knowledge objects to other community members increase the global wealth of society.
This wealth increase from new knowledge and objects is technological, be literary or be arts is not a pure creation. Creativity is totally stranger to spontaneous generation. Following Lucrèce saying and many others, «Nothing comes from nothing», «Nothing is lost nor created». What looks us as a creation is nothing else than discovery or recognition of existing things but unknown to us nowadays. Creativity is the sole expression of strategy selection, optimizing system equilibrium within its environment.
9.9 Veracity
Even if it uses language and semantic terms, Truth put itself outside of the external world knowledge. It is a creativity act on same level as literary or theatrical art, amusing, comic, tragic, dramatic, etc. whose aim is to please, make reflect, or amuse. Playing language and its terms to make different meaning of what brought them be, it is to lead astray and corrupt integrity process because intrinsically founded on the external world. To define a word or say it with whatever intention brings no incidence on the external world while shouting a snowed mountain may cause avalanche. Reality follows an inverse path because the external world is understood throughout the five senses associating image-sound-significant-reaction with neural memories which are structured to enrich corresponding language. Trying to understand or redefine the world from internal structures incoherent with external reality cannot lead elsewhere than to utopia. It must be remembered that sounds, language and communications are used by people to exchange external world real representations. I the social realm they become the knowledge communication vector.9.10 To sum up
Neurone plasticity engender specialized kernels. Time going, increasing number of kernels and zones build cerebral cortex where now we recognize varied specialized domains. Interconnection between those make perception mechanisms such as aestheticism, musicality, voice, conversation, memories, logic and rational thinking. Using those qualities, language communication arises, uniting members of a knowledge society in relation with its environment.10. Knowledge
Without assuming any way the brain process received signals, we may rationally conceive of events, methods and analytical process that must exist in order to organize and structure essential responses to always constant environmental challenges. To assure integrity, security and reproduction of its proper physical structure there is a vital minimum to which knowledge owns its existence. There exist exact, precise and realistic external world knowledge and also erroneous extensions without any basis such as Truth.Now we are facing a critical point on Truth investigation. Considering ins and outs having contributed to production and maintenance of knowledge, we must examine ways and process intervening into its production. We must examine how a system makes knowledge, how it applies it to modify life course, how it gets and improves it, how it is used for people direction. Here we propose a probable process structure contributing to knowledge construction. Thereafter we will understand how and why false knowledge appears, how reality is twisted by a touch of Truth makeup.
10.1 World
It is obvious that environment is in a state of perpetual motion. It compels systems to constantly adjust to stress-inducing variations. In order to decide for appropriate reaction, any system must have a description of varied perceived states. So it must keep in memory a copy of previous environmental states. It must also keep a copy of any reaction on environmental situations with a link corresponding to inducing situations. Any decision is based on a comparison between actual situation and memorized comparable situations with associated reactions. Any action or reaction taken by the system modify its environment. The association between modifications and causing factors allow the system determine suitability and usefulness of feedback, all of which are also memorized. This dynamic flow of action, feedback, evaluation, memorizing system and environmental states, all marked negatively if they conduct to system unbalance or positively marked if they have been favourable meaning a positive contribution to fundamental system requirement. Those processes are particularly obvious for a newborn baby who must structure neural connections making walking, talking, environmental recognition ability and thereafter at teenage years socialize and integrate survival tools for the adult world.10.2 Self
Any system internal structure, with its communications and actions means, enable necessary functions to interact with the external world. Contrary to dynamic and changing external world, internal world or whole machinery and functions is very well regulated in order to keep stability making being the most identical to itself. This stability, internal mechanisms good working, reliability and constancy are necessary to keep integrity and global system permanency meaning a good irreproachable health state. To this purpose, constant system internal states and functions supervision is a must. This is achieved by a global plan, a system cartography and states memorizing at all time. Since this structure is stable and durable, only differences from normal state is useful for internal checks where any detected deviation or difference implies corrective actions. Memory of this global enduring state makes a non-changing rooted system images in opposition to other dynamic memories representing external world. This dichotomy makes possible for a system to split clearly internal components defining system own from actions acted on and external environment. Self sprout from this segregation between those two worlds.10.3 Consciousness
This segregation allows self to see itself as a protagonist in external world visualization. Real self confrontation with its image into the external world image a moment later creates a dynamic repetitive process making consciousness. The same dynamic differentiation-comparison process between present time representation and memories of previous instants lead to the external world consciousness. This uninterrupted perception, back and forth between two selves as well as between last external world images makes those objects consciousness live. There is self and external world consciousness throughout their defining dichotomy. Consciousness act upon present and past memories and makes possible to revive past events.10.4 Space
Space notion is built by the confrontation of memories of environment, by identifying states, positions and external self situations with memories of signals generated by internal self to produce those. Then appear lines, surfaces, volumes, colors where external self coherently move in relation to internal one. Self as a character of the external world is a distinct object ruling real world movements. Then self learn to move and coordinate spatial activities in real world.10.5 Time
Physiological time emerge as a reference clock from dynamic process constructing consciousness. Consciousness as a unique dynamic process acts on only one situation at a time. Even if neuronal process are numerous and execute in parallel, results come simultaneously as a whole to consciousness. Consciousness scan memories one after another, sequentially defining time arrows. Evolving throughout spatial memories space it builds time and mark events according to their apparition order. Internal self-time is built and submitted to neuronal activity physiological time.10.6 Movement
Space and time being constructed, objects occupy positions in a temporal referential creating movement or consciousness of successive time and space positions. Ubiquity not being a physical world characteristic, this sequential movement creates a link between varied object states. Past, present and future as consciousness of peculiar states are situated in a sequential suite of temporal events. According to apparition sequence, any event has a preceding and a following one and consciousness build movement and objects animation. Scanning throughout this construction representing reality, memorized states may come in a forward or reverse direction. This movement makes revival of past events or construct future.10.7 Emotions
Possible actions self can envisions come from analysis, comparisons, confrontations of multiple memories about previous events where it is a protagonist, is placed in intimates situations, all events profoundly affecting him. Those events produced emotions, intense physiological reactions beneficial or problematic to self. They result from oppositions or dissonances leading to conflicting actions or inversely to seek their recreation. They are qualified more or less important by links with those causing memories. They are an important factors in decision-making and future development. Here is what eminent neurologist Antonio Damasio, a leader on emotion research, writes in his book, «The feeling of what happens».«just like emotion, consciousness is aimed at the organism survival, and that, just like emotion, consciousness is rooted in the representation of the body p. 37»
«emotion is integral to the process of reasoning and decision-making; p. 41»
«The term feeling should be reserved for the private, mental experience of an emotion, while the term emotion should be used to designate the collection of responses, many of which are publicly observable; p. 42»
«emotions are biologically determined processes, depending on innately set brain devices, laid down by a long evolutionary history; p. 51»
«The first function is the production of a specific reaction to the inducing situation [...] The second biological function of emotion is the regulation of the internal state of the organism such that it can be prepared for the specific reaction; pp. 53-54»
«emotions of all shades eventually help connect homeostatic regulation and survival"values" to the numerous events and objects in our autobiographical experience; p.54»
«virtually every image, actually perceived or recalled, is accompanied by some reaction from the apparatus of emotion; p. 58»
10.8 Future
Future is built using similarities between memories of previous events, prioritizing those having minimal difference or most affinity with the actual moment. Memories with higher emotional content are more valued than others. Selection of memories depends on their emotional content and their more or less frequent reactivation. Through heuristics process are created propositions able to serve system fundamental needs. Uninterrupted dynamic and analytical selection process make what is known as system knowledge and cleverness building future for whose self compels actions on the external world.10.9 Self-consciousness
External world consciousness comes by memories inspection, by everlasting dynamic differentiation process. Because the external world is always changing, there is always a difference between successive perceptions making a residual to oppose to self. But when that process is switched toward self instead of external world, there cannot be any residual since self is a construction whose attributes is stability and permanence. Then consciousness runs void and has nothing to attach on. This make impression try encircle and touch an elusive shadow. Self cannot perceive itself, only external world where its own image stands in. Memory, self, consciousness, knowledge, are a dynamic processes everlasting never ending. They are dedicated to system protection and functional permanency that is homeostasis. Thus basic needs of any system are served : integrity, security and reproduction.10.10 Information
Memories with their complex inter linking accumulate during system life. They help system improve its efficacy performance and effectiveness. Beginning existence, choices and decisions are simple and sometime randomly. Later in life pinnacle, this analysis and decision system became rich, complex and efficient. Since any analysis is necessarily limited to the whole experience engraved in memories built from a diversified and rich system life story, it will never be possible to go over edges of accumulated knowledge. This thesaurus was built throughout its interaction with the external world and will stay compatible and coherent with it regarding any future interaction. There couldn't ever be any inconsistency between the real world and internal representations. Events memory analysis permits to isolate distinctive situations creating common concepts. Thus thesaurus increase with new rules and concepts later used in guiding future analysis. However those rules, concepts and ideas built from a limited number of cases cannot be globally generalized and applied to real world without a certain associated uncertainty level. Only real case confrontation shall validate those or reduce to nothingness. New validated rules included in information thesaurus shall be qualified as true while on the contrary they are false or unverifiable.10.11 Boundaries
All accumulated system information are linked together according to temporal sequences following system life story. In the end, analysis consists at the basic level to examine temporal sequences of memories. Thus this analysis play always associates to any experience a preceding and a following event. Linking of implied memories makes a temporal sequence. Necessarily event chains must have initial and terminal bounds. And so it is for any chain whatever it may be. It follows that beginning and ending concept is inherent to knowledge creation process a property of any information system. It is impossible for analysis process to go over those bounds or limiting frontiers. The sequence may be shortened or extended with new memories but stays bounded forever. New information made by going over those intrinsic boundaries riddle it with uncertainty and potentially incoherence. Thus time and space concepts that may conceptually be without bounds, infinite and unlimited, aren't transferable to events described by bound and limited sequence chains.Thus are invalid and pure madness philosophical creations such as essences, necessary ideas by themselves, perfection, ideas true by the sole fact they are conceptualized, all doubtful reasoning founding theologies, because all go over the edges and rule out natural knowledge process.
10.12 Infinity
Even if infinity and finitude of a set of elements or a set of sets are potentially conceivable and imaginable, beginning and end concepts are incoherent or unenforceable considering an infinite chain and can be applied only to some of its segments. Inversely infinite concept is incoherent and unenforceable considering segments, it may concern only their potential unlimited number. It is impossible for a system to represent infinity because it operates only upon limited sequences. To do so an infinite memory dimension shall be needed. Consequently infinite representation is inconceivable by a finite system being impossible to make a model. So it is for concepts extending beyond their boundary, their finitude because overriding their application field.The simplest illustration is an irrational number having an infinite number of digits where there isn't cyclic repetition. Representation of such number is always limited to a finite number of digits whatever it may be. The meaning of infinity rest on the idea of increasing and never ending number of digits improving exactness without never attaining true value. Number pi, diameter to circumference ratio is a classical.
10.13 To sum up
To perceive is a non stopping dynamical process analyzing stimuli related to previously encountered states. Those process create consciousness by distinguishing self from its relation to environmental and temporal state. Same sequential perception events makes space, time and motion authorizing self interacting with environment. Accompanying emotions bind memories with working actions. Future is build from previous actions projected and extended in continuity with most related actual situation and actions taken by self. Consciousness of self is impossible since its invariability. Information springs as defined and autonomous links between memories making concepts or ideas. Connections lacking links with environmental interactions bear an uncertainty level. The number of connections is limited implying a limited number of representations. Follows ideas of limitation and unbridgeable boundaries.11. Failure
By now, there aren't any doubts that Truth seeking is utopia condemning to never ending wandering. Escape from is possible if and only if one absolutely abstains to seek for it. Actually Truth is a kind of oxymoron, a dead end, a no-exit avenue, a project without a goal, a failure.11.1 Oxymoron
Questioning about a bound or boundless universe drives into a never ending contradiction suite. If the universe is bounded, what is there after that is not part of it, nonsense. And if it is boundless, I cannot imagine it because any image is bounded and cannot map infinity. In the same way, interrogating on when or how universe began is also nonsense. Similarly to consider things existence and look if limited or eternal brings no answers. Representing bounded finite series cannot include eternity, needing an infinity of items where there is no beginning nor ending. In a finite world, there is always a bound, a before, and after, where any event has a prior and a following one. Eternity calls for an infinite chain impossible for a finite system to model. Clearly, such interrogations lead to a sequence of contradictory answers, a kind of oxymoron. This word is from Greek «oksumoron» meaning «whose absurdity is blatant». This stylistic composition brings together two contradictory words. Here contradiction is not obvious explaining why since a very long time and by any means in vain people seek an answer. This is why nobody has and will never have an answer for this type of question. To persist into this dead-end quest justify our title for this essay: The question that drives crazy and it drives crazy in all terms meanings. Thus as the question comes to consciousness, its simultaneous contradictions appear. No attention to such questions must be given to, they must fade away as proposed in Zen meditation. Since the question can't be nor mustn't be formulated, one must abstain and we reformulate using Latin expression «Se abstinere ab incongressibilise percontatio» meaning abstaining from the question that cannot be approached.11.2 Questioning
Man looking at his fate, what can he discover? Where does he come from? Is there an afterlife? How about this world? How to answer his anguish? Is there any Truth? As we have demonstrated there isn't any possible reply to those questions. Since these questions mustn't be posed, as a result no answer is given. But despite everything, tension and urge remain to come up with those questions, intrinsic security need being the cause. This need is so strong, madness invent answers and justify itself by discrediting reason and stating all kinds of preposterous truths which are good taste to believe.11.3 Nonsense
As we just showed, Truth affirmation is by nature nonsense, pure fabrication. It gives a solution incompatible with real-world knowledge, an affirmation, a claim, never a hypothesis that can be verified and checked with real world. Man facing its inability to solve his problem finally created an answer, Truth, that drive to unlikeliness, without real world affinity. Facing adversity and his own weakness man found himself incapable to know its own Truth, his creation, perfection. Really, he began affirming the incomprehensible and for rest of time he tried to define properties of that overwhelming non-understandable. Couldn't he be more stupid? His perfect Truth brought a no condition compliance, abandoning all certainty acquired during the course of his evolution. Not knowing any finite system functions and properties, he could not be aware of the deadlock where he put himself. Truth is a history accident, and facing today knowledge hasn't any reason to stand.11.4 Illusion genesis
Origin and source of any questioning are simply security needs. Security is systematically searched for by any living organism by reason of individualistic survival and species propagation. Evolution made individuals build and structured to adopt the most efficient survival strategies. This is how knowledge and intelligence serving integrity, security and reproduction appeared, always improving and adapted to a changing environmental situation.To know is a survival mechanism and none can escape it. Man discovers, perfects and creates new tools well to fill vital needs. Doing it he goes beyond and farther compulsively questioning on what he is, where he comes from, why he lives and how he will terminate his short journey in that world. He cannot escape that natural process. Truly, throughout evolution and adaptation nature build living organism having external world emotional and representative mechanisms authorizing survival and reproduction efficiently. Knowledge and intelligence being part of those adaptations is not an exclusive function of real world but also internalized into a virtual world, that is the social world, one of conventions, words and significants. But this virtual world is not submitted to real world environmental evolution and natural selection, it is quite autonomous and independent. This explains how intellectual activities are totally disconnected from their sources and raison d'être being in opposition with real world. Even if knowledge mechanism is perfectly adapted to survival, it is totally inappropriate when concerned with man's questioning. Because this questioning has no reason to be and cannot lead to a logical solution, and as long as no solution appears, there springs and last an unfailing thirst, a voracious intellectual activity, a source of permanent suffering.
This explains why religions and beliefs are valued. They propose ad hoc existence solutions sprouting from nowhere without any relation with real world. Consequently they con survive only if reason is nullified and blocked preferably before the brain develops knowledge circuitry. It is for them great importance to condition child starting immediately after birth. Then brain natural processes are exploited to perfect its out of uterus structuration during the first years of life. This way of doing is really efficient and better than a standard brain washing which only do a light and later reprogramming of already acquired behaviour. This is easy to use since the child is already ready programmed by evolution to copy and absorb without any condition his parents behaviours, a most efficient survival mechanism. Knowledge being blocked, there grow in the brain of developing child and the later adult only behaviour type process. Religion relegate man to its prehuman condition. Like the bird who learns to sing by hearing others, he recite prayers and invocations without ending, like others, he parade, bow down, keel down, make submit, take pleasure in the rite, theatre acts he repeats endlessly. Totally convinced to be human existence parangon, he becomes a convertor and conqueror, a robot destroyer of humanity.
11.5 Morality
The simple-minded learning God is a fantasy see him freed of injunctions controlling his existence. He will say he is entitled to do whatever please him. But society is not only built upon mystical principles, it depends on social and cultural values nested in civil laws. The end of morality doesn't mean end of social obligations. Basic principles insuring integrity, security and reproduction of any organization still have precedence staying valid, and if not, organization is doomed to close disappearance.Morality is to religion what ethic is to civil organization. Morality is made of judgments and orders issued from religious beliefs acting on social and private behaviour. In reality, they are human imperatives diverted from their source and coated with mythological makeup. Ethic rediscover human values in accord with rules of a fair society where all enjoy same benefits and regards. Ethic is founded on universal values independent of time, place, society and culture.
The simplest example is moral injunctions «Thou shall not kill». Usually it is good and applied only to whose group is concerned and has no value for others. It only means that one shall not kill parents, brothers and sisters, nor children and neighbours. It is of no use considering elimination of those who don't believe nor agree with tyranny of the group. It is not worth for apostates or declared criminals. It is fully valid to go to war with strangers whatever reason may be. It is really a very limited injunction without universality full of specificity and accommodation in the style of the day.
11.6 Ethic
As a human value, morality correspondent must be found into a universal ethic, practical, enforceable at any time, any place equally for all. Life must be its base as the most fundamental meaning since people have life and duty of transmission. This is easily understood referring to the source, the germ who creates expression and condition people, that is a gene making the construction and functional plan of the whole. Protecting and ensuing genetics expression is a key for ethic definition.As already described life reached current development levels throughout environmental pressure by genetic evolution mechanism and natural selection making people enjoy full personal liberty and realize multiple options offered. Considering that situation no politic or ideology may favour, restrict or orient in a privileged direction or interfere with crucial species survival mechanisms. Such ethic could stand on the following affirmation:
«Genes are essential parts of life insuring integrity, security and reproduction of their bearer who by the way is free to control orientation as long he is concerned but for his kin mustn't in any way destroy, favour, control, modify or change ways of reproduction.»Within Québec state, man lives in a society ruled under "Personal rights and liberty chart" who state in article 9.1:
«Liberties and essential rights live within respect of democratic values, public order and general welfare of Québec citizens. Facing that, bylaws may determine significance and adjust exercise.»Reciprocity principle follows automatically, the universal golden rule going back at least to Confucius. Rodrigue Tremblay wrote:
«The primary humanist rule concerns human dignity. It is the most important, all other stem from it. Respecting human dignity is the essential principle who should preside over relations between people and nations. [...] According to the basic reciprocity principle, every one must consider other people the same way he would ask to be considered by others. Corollary is also true: we shall not consider others differently from how we would like to be considered by them.»Clearly, reciprocity principle necessarily implies that «rights of one end where others' begin». Unlike moral, a strict ethic must rest on sensitive reality and human values.
11.7 Overpopulation
Even if all individuals obey the reproduction aim, allowing global population adaptation to ever changing environments and evolve toward stability and maximal efficiency, it cannot be inconsiderate. A bacteria placed on a culture medium into a Petri box will reproduce indefinitely until it used all ressources and covered total surface. So it is for humanity using earth surface available for mobility and space necessity and for food and energy resources. Those spaces are climate dependent and very sensitive to to human activity. Even confident on human progress and adaptation it is clear that there is a limit which is actually unknown. Whatever it is, limited planet space and precaution principle command to regulate human population expansion in order to keep balance between resources and consumers. Actual society being based on growth and its increase induce inconsiderate exponential expansion. This is impossible to be sustained indefinitely and like bacteria in Petri box, stagnation and civilization breakdown follows. Right now, a world future vision must be established, stabilizing population, protecting and developing planetary resources in order to reach equilibrium and insure civilization sustainability.11.8 To sum up
Interrogating and understanding or otherwise, to model origin or infinity of all things is impossible to anybody or any system whatever. Since no solution is possible a postulate is made, the power of an answer. Usurping knowledge it leads astray, it takes control on spirit under cover of a morale hiding a power trip. Only populations and resources management ethic based on upon human dignity can guarantee a healthy and happy life.12. What to do?
Before concluding we must have a glance at the path wandered and give indications to those who may have motives to interrogate history a little more.12.1 Summary
We began our quest by discovering man's deepest anxiety source, examined it and have shown how he pacified by a totally irrational lifesaving affirmation. In order to understand the how and the why of this behaviour we explored the profound nature whom indulge with such reassurance. We have seen how world knowledge blends with personality and private self-building and clarifying human uniqueness by a definition of his true nature. Resuming our route we followed historical evolution of the affirmation from its simplest establishment up to modern abstruse theologies, a universal phenomenon. Throughout that global action there have always been some refusal and negation of those ideas. Resting on modern neurological and psychological scientific research works, we showed those mental aspects are simply neurological processes founded on global anatomical structures dependent on personal actions and reactions toward environment. This permitted us to understand and define liberty and free will, consider moral universe founding elements and extending on notions of perfection, Good and Bad. Understanding movement as foundation of all things specially for life we appreciate its meaning as function of evolution. In a last step we integrate all those facts to brush a construction scenario for mental universe that is to say making of knowledge and information. Because this system is finite and bound it cannot answer adequately man essential questions. This way we understood impossibility and non-pertinence of interrogating upon beginning and ending as well as on finite and infinite ideas. So insolent is Truth we deconstructed, it implies falsity of any belief and myth whatever they may be. To conclude we review totality of process and insisted on the source of that profound global thirst being only a security research. Moral being a religious extension, discredited as a myth, shall judiciously be replaced by secular ethic, essentially founded on human values.12.2 Getting out
Knowing suffering origin and why feeling sickness allows applying prevention, healing and dodging contamination sources. And for present case, the solution is abstaining and keeping away from subject when coming. With its Truth man gave himself a reference for noble ancestry and build a conduct code allowing existence extension into the afterlife. Truth being nullified and obsolete how can he replace it?From time immemorial, Truth has been disputed by thinkers and philosophers seeing its absurdity. Unfortunately credulity overtook and outshone them prioritizing religion and theocracy charlatans. Being discredited and considered as human history accident there still are fruits of their labour, based on reality, on true human nature and social needs. Two thousand years later we must rediscover those philosophers and thinkers from Renaissance to the modern era and integrate their vision with present social values.
First of all, it is imperious to uncover absurdity propagators, obscure thinking terrorists percolating social web and sterilize shadow viruses infecting reason. Already many fight lingering odours of over ideas by education projects like libraries, children summer camps, internet sites, meetup, etc. Emancipation begins by salvaging readings showing belief absurdity, a sure pathway everyone will enlarge and assure with personal progression. Next section shows books by authors having realized evil wrongness and being altruist, help fellows to break their enslaving chains.
To assure society permanence and stability, it is necessary the State assures its members protection with rightful and unbiased laws prohibiting and excluding from its activities Truths, ideology and magisterium pursued by religions, sects and other organizations having similar objectives. The State must be secular and must confine Truths and their spokesperson to the private area.
As long as Truth stays within public place, daily fight against nonsense, even harmless one, must continue. Like encysted spores able to survive extreme conditions, Truth may resuscitate after many years. Like believed eradicated diseases which come back following travelers or uncontrolled migrants, Truth may flourish again. Vigilance must stays an all times matter even after the eradication conditions have been reach.
12.3 Conclusion
We conclude by affirming without restraint that gods, beliefs, religions, myths and all assimilated is absurdity disconnected from reality. They may have favoured society evolution at certain history moments but definitely as collateral effect with a lot of unforgivable damages. In present technologically advanced society they are anachronisms without any excuse to be. Non solely are they retrograde and counterproductive, they are pure humanity negation.Much credit has been given to oriental wisdom. Through meditation some could have understood what here we have demonstrated rationally and scientifically. We retain some abstruse sentences propagated by Japanese Zen koan. They perfectly illustrate the actual subject and here are three of those:
«A Monk searching awakening consults the master who claps his two hands and questions : "This is the sound of two hands clapping, tell me how it is with a single hand." The stunned monk goes back meditating for an answer.»There isn't any Truth whatsoever may it be and if met, it must be an idealistic construction to serve murky power. Any Truth is a lie.
«As an answer in a following consultation with the master, the Monk putting his teacup on his head runs around the room and do like a goose without head.»
«You are advised that if you ever encounter Buddha, you must kill him.»
Having demonstrated Truth nonsense, it follows that Gods and religious systems are nonsense too. Even if proof of assertion lies upon who pretends God existence and that never a proof has been provided other than tautologies, now we know that the idea itself even irrational is functionally impossible. From Truth nature logically follows atheism defined as :
«Formal and unconditional rejection of Truth, theism and assimilated all declared according to their nature or properties as absurdities incompatible with sensible reality.»The atheist becomes anti-theist, meaning opposed to belief of any God or assimilated, something he or she considers as dangerous, destructive or encouraging harmful behavior.
We maintain that we must always abstain from absolute and limit questions that don't reference in any way natural knowledge mechanisms.
13. Epilogue
God belief timeless fight belongs to all humans. It has always been cause of individual enmities and of nations war. To be in power of Truth and consequently being the Elected people, the King, the protagonist, peremptory ideology defender justify all fights, conquests and possible subjection. To be in power of Truth is to feel its philanthropic whim urge as a Love gesture, an invading passion, a gift no one may refuse to itself. Few are those who may quit the royal avenue salvaging their everyday life. Few are those who may fight conqueror unsustainable pressure. History is a long collection of Truth related tragedies.Logical and rational thinking lead to world physical and biological nature who collide with predominant mystical and magical world view. Letting only scientific method know and study itself, reality progressively evict Truth from public place and force it to restricted and delimited personal freedom. The "Truth-Love" get eviction as a hate and isolation action, so a frustration feeling, a degradation, a denial of another with its difference. So identified enemies are at war.
Society is animated by the world of idea who depend on civil law and ethic. Built on the multiplicity of individuals each with its own Truth, society put those in homogeneous groups with rights, benefits and responsibilities. Converging "Truth-associations" leads to mutual opposition awakening Truth historical tragedies. The State being responsible to keep society peaceful and stable, is able to hold back conflicts by the sole interdiction of required Truth public prescription exercises, actions conflicting with common rights. State secularism is the sole avenue guarantying everyone individuals rights and liberty. The State is secular; people aren't secular, they are believers or atheists.
The best attitude to have for our life is to follow Jean Meslier advice :
Use the most of your time, living well and enjoying soberly, peacefully and joyfully, if you can, life gifts and your work profits, because this is your way and the best orientation you may have, because death ending life also ends knowledge as well as good and evil feelings.And refrain from the question that drives crazy;
«Se abstinere ab incongressibilise percontatio».
14. Suggested readings
Following Jean Soler invitation «To the few who still read and take time to think», one must emancipate and forge oneself by selected readings. Following is a brief glimpse on bibliographical references content supporting this essay.14.1 Quebec
In «Croire en Dieu est désormais inutile», Marco DeRossi delves into contemporary religious fashion and belief manifestations. He seeks to raise religious Centres contradictions that never stop spreading their claws and claim supremacy of their ideology and God. He aims to slow down inclination to too easily abandon to varied teachings certainty and through argumentation, dialectic and materialistic thinking that will fill existential vacuum.In «Heureux sans dieu», Normand Baillargeon and Daniel Baril allow fifteen Québec personalities to show their atheism and get out of the closet and explain that one may be happy without requiring religious belief and affirm strongly it is possible without God.
In «Québec athée», Claude M.J. Braun praise atheism without slaying religions. He seeks to demystify atheism in general but Québec one from colony beginnings up to today. He outlines twenty Québec atheist personalities, a family album encouraging interrogation on belief, culture and past but future.
In «La Mort», Richard Béliveau and Denis Gingras demystify life. They present a global portrait covering all biological, molecular, psychological and philosophical aspects. They demonstrate what is life and degradation of all process supporting it down to evanescence in death.
In «La grande Illusion, comment la sélection naturelle a créé l'idée de Dieu, Daniel Baril offers to explain needs, universality and persistence of religion by evolution theory. Referring to adaptative advantages linked to religious affiliation, social morals, ritualistic behaviour and surnatural belief, he considers religious as a derivative of cognitive mechanisms necessary to social existence.
In «Le code pour une éthique globale», Rodrigue Tremblay offers a rights and responsibilities universal code applying to all be the simple citizens or country leaders, religious societies or organizations. Such code lay on rational humanism in a world characterized by a shrinking geography and political and economic dependence.
In «Le trust de la foi», Jean-Pierre Gosselin and Denis Monière show the exact role played by sects as they are capitalism in crisis important allies teaching their adherents apathy and contributing to dismantling conflicts through idealistic vision and fatalist view of history such Jesus movements, Mo children, Krishna consciousness, charismatic renewal or Moon sect.
14.2 French
In «La religion vue par un historien», Arnold J. Toynbee gives a historical philosophical analysis on religion studies. He peculiarly considers religion in occidental world and great 17th century revolution, an Occident reaction against his Christian heritage.In «Choisir d'être humain», René Dubos try to view man facing his future. To be human is to refuse passive submission to milieu influences, to enrich from creative abilities and imaginative difficulties.
In «Nouvelle histoire de l'Homme» Pascal Picq, paleoanthropologist, set down landmarks for a new evolution history, French Academy Moron Grand Prix for defence of a new ethic.
In «Dieu ne joue pas aux dés», Henri Laborit, as a biologist seeing living systems ending with human brain as a time and space local burgeoning, he explores organization levels notions where infinitely small and infinity points toward more and more complexity.
In «Impostures intellectuelles», Allan Sokal and Jean Bricmont denounce postmodernism relativism for which objectivity is only a simple social convention. They show that behind an imposing gobbledygook and an apparent misrepresented scientific erudition, the king is nude.
In «La violence monothéiste», Jean Soler study violence made for religious reason. He poses that collective slaughter extremism happening under our eyes is an inherent trend shared by all three monotheist religions who get their source from biblical ideology.
In «Qui est dieu?», Jean Soler lights up six misinterpretations of Bible God, relates its genealogy, and explains why its belief more than any other leads to violence and extremism as it happened under Crusade, Inquisition, religion wars and as seen actually with Middle East conflicts.
In «La fable de Christ», Italian original title «La favola di Cristo», Luigi Cascioli irrefutably demonstrate Jesus-Christ nonexistence. He analyzes Christianity proto-history and shows how bible was built, three versions of which were produced to create and give the desert people a proud nationality and history they never had. Doing so, he demonstrates Jesus fabrication as founded on history, exploit and identity stealing of Jean de Gamala, an Essenian terrorist.
In «Traité d'athéologie», Michel Onfray fights the three theism for their most morbid: existence, sexuality, women, pleasure, feminity, bodies, desires, pulsions hate, a crucified existence and oblivion celebrated. Having written more than thirty books in which he formulates a hedonist, ethic, political, erotic, pedagogic, epistemological and aesthetic project.
In «Les sagesses antiques», Michel Onfray devoted himself to the ancient philosophers ruled out by Christianity favouring an idealistic winner, outlawing from history opposing materialists.
In «De la nature ou De rerum natura», Lucrèce, a Latin Poet from 1st century BC living violence and oppression times, Epicurean orthodoxy guardian, scan Greek knowledge and universe to reveal the path to happiness accessible for all.
In «Cocktail toxique», Barbara Demeneix, biologist and Paris National Museum of Natural History teacher shows how endocrine disruptors may in a near future be a source of lowering human being global cognitive performances.
In «Sapiens, une brève histoire de l'humanité», first published in Hebrew by 2011, translated in 30 languages, Yuval Noah Harari blend history and science to contend what was understood about humanity. He proposes an evolutionist approach showing how our species, Homo Sapiens, succeed to dominate planet earth, to create religion, nation, human rights concepts, to be dependent on money, books, laws and more.
In «Origines de l'homme, origines d'un homme, mémoires», Yves Coppens, throughout his memories and under the light of important discoveries that rhythm his life recount humanity memories. He is a world-renown discoverer of numerous famous human fossils of whose Lucy is. He is a paleontologist, professor at the National Museum of natural history, teacher at Collège de France, member of Science Academy and Medicine Academy.
In «La philosophie devenue folle, (Le genre, l'animal, la mort)», Jean-François Braunstein, conducts a large and pioneering work on occidental world celebrated thinkers. He reviews their ideas, contradictions, career history, he analyzes, underlines, disputes and deconstructs. He is a contemporary philosophy teacher at Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne University. He teaches science history, medicine philosophy and medical ethics.
In «Pour sauver la planète, sortez du capitalisme» Hervé Kempf, explains how capitalism changed since 1980 years and forced an individualistic behaviour model marginalizing collective logic. To escape this we must in priority get rid of this psychic conditioning. Future is not in technology but in a new organization of social relations.
In «La Terre sur un fil», Éric Lambin makes a synthesis of recent scientific data and theories and propose original analysis and solutions in order Earth keeps going easy.
In «Le monde en 2030 vu par la CIA» CIA, the NIC National Intelligence Council presents a report on 2030 world state.
14.3 English
Joseph McCabe autobiography, shows a superior intelligence monk stepping Church internal structures, discovering its corruption, leave priesthood and his life long, debunk the system deceit.In «Pour en finir avec Dieu» English original title «The God Delusion», Richard Dawkins maintains that a surnatural creator doesn't exist and qualify personal god belief as delirium defined as a false and persistent belief staying even facing discrepancy. He recalls religion as non-necessary to be a moral person and religion and morality source can be explained in a non-religious manner.
In «Le Gène égoïste» English original title «The Selfish Gene», Richard Dawkins create the «egoist gene» term to describe evolution and natural selection, not belonging to the bearer, the survival machine, but to the governing gene. Genes command and the brain execute, the gene order the survival machine hosting it to do what it conceives as best to keep both alive. He invents meme the concept as the cultural evolution unit in analogy to the gene.
In «Dieu n'est pas grand» English original title «God Is Not Great», Christopher Hitchens fight world religion evil. A committed politician, recognized Atheist movement icon, recognized influential intellectual, he describes himself as an anti theist, champion of Enlightenment ideas. He condemns the supreme god entity as a totalitarian belief destroying liberty putting the world in peril.
In «La fin de la Foi» English original title «The End of Faith», Sam Harris is a celebrity for his religion cutting criticism and scientific skepticism is active activist for State and religion break-up, religion freedom and freedom to criticize religions. He is a radical atheist world figure, a renown champion of scientific thinking.
In «The shaping of modern thought», historian Crane Brinton traces modern thinking evolution from Renaissance up to today throughout varied worldview searching answers to crucial questions man asks.
In «Essays in freethinking», a collection of essays written by Chapman Cohen, third chairman of Great Britain National Secular Society, regarding many ethical situations concerning everyday life.
In «The Open Society and Its Enemies : The Spell of Plato, vol. I» by Karl Popper, there is a very interesting thought about tolerance (chap. 7, note 4, p. 265).
In «General system theory», Ludvig Von Bertalanffy, creator of the general systems theory, demonstrate laws applying to all fields of knowledge like biology, economics, psychology or demography.
In «The systems view of the world» Ervin Laszlo use general system theory to study complexity of the world where man evolves.
In «Goals for mankind», Ervin Laszlo, tells us that without a world solidarity, mankind cannot meet world challenges such as feeding the world, following energy growth, security and environmental problems before they worsen as catastrophe and put at stake if not destruct mankind.
In «Thinking in Systems», Donella H. Meadows shows with computerized mathematical models consequences of uncontrolled growth upon a finite planet. With more than thirty years of new data, she rings bells on mankind devastating effects on climate, water quality, fisheries, forests and other endangered resources.
In «Thinking in Systems», Donella H. Meadows offers insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global, showing readers how to develop the system-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life.
Antonio Damasio 1 2 3 4 5 is professor of neuroscience, neurology, psychology, philosophy and director of Brain and Creativity Institute at Los Angeles South California University. He is also joint professor at La Jolla Salk Institute and director of Iowa University neurology department. He is the most important and original neuroscience specialist, unveils emotions, feelings and consciousness emergence and construction. He sees homeostasis principle as the motor of life evolution since its early beginnings thru cultures and society construction. Author of five leading books published in many languages. We consider that Antonio Damasio definitively dismantle the soul myth and its divinity. He gives back natural meaning to emotions, feelings and consciousness returning man his humanity gods appropriated.
In «How language began» Daniel L. Everett, explains what we know, what we would like to know and what probably never know about manner humans transited from simple communication to language. He clearly demonstrates that language is a cultural artefact and without culture there is no semantic understanding, no background, no tacit knowledge to comfort thinking. He sees the individual as cultural depository and knowledge reservoir instead of the society as a whole.
In «Beyond Words», Carl Safina shows us a world of sensibility and emotion gifted mammals have. He gives a human and sensitive look to relations those animals keep together. He examines how we interact with them, how to protect their habitat, how to prevent poaching and climate change influence.
14.4 Enlightenment
XVIII century enlightenment thinkers were first to clean up mythical ideas by rediscovering ancients and building a new world vision on reality. The most celebrated without challenged is «L'Encyclopédie» de Diderot and D'Alembert.In «Le système de la nature II», Paul-Henri Thiry D'Holbach concern divinity, proof of existence, attributes and how it acts on man happiness.
«Esquisse d'un tableau historique des progrès de l'esprit humain» by Jean-Antoine-Nicolas Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet, the will of whom prepared and served enlightenment revolution. An attempt to encompass human history to discover, "human being perfectibility". He courageously tells what man has best realized since being on earth, educating, improving, having philosophy, sciences and arts, created critical thinking, democracy and liberty.
Well before enlightenment, Jean Meslier (1664-1729), a reserved and isolated man, the first openly atheist writer, bequeath his parishioner a large philosophical work in eight volumes « Preuves de la vanité et de la fausseté des religions» ending on a virulent social and political critic. He is a forerunner of coming revolutionary disruption he announces.
In «Le siècle de la Raison», Thomas Paine tells philosophical thoughts. Anti dogmatic work build as a will, following enlightenment, marks a scientific materialist critic of bible and monotheist religions.
In «Critique de la raison pure», Kant nailed down theology coffin.
In «Les anti-Lumières», Zeev Sternhell shows that those fighting enlightenment is from all times and 21st-century man, in order to avoid declining into the frozen age conformism, must keep an irreplaceable prospective view of present times if not future.
14.5 Media
HomnidésLes fondements neurologiques de la conscience, des émotions et de la mémoire selon A. Damasio
Qu'est-ce que la conscience
Functional areas of the cerebral cortex
Searching for the mind
Neural networks and deep learning
Développement et définition des systèmes d'information
Tableau synthétique des Lumières
Tableau synthétique de la critique des religions
Tableau synthétique de la philosophie des religions
Projet Gutenberg
Libres penseurs athées
David Rand
Charles Darwin
Luigi Cascioli
Pew Research Center
Culte des morts
La Déclaration universelle des droits de l'homme
15. References
Reference books.15.1 Books
[Baril 2006] D. Baril, La grande illusion, Comment la sélection naturelle a créé l'idée de Dieu, 2006, Éditions MultiMondes, ISBN 978-2-89544-100-7.[Baillargeon 2009] N. Baillargeon et D. Baril, Heureux sans dieu, 2009, VLB Éditeur, ISBN 978-2-89649-098-1.
[Béliveau 2010] R. Béliveau et D. Gingras, La Mort, mieux la comprendre et moins la craindre pour mieux célébrer la vie, 2010, Les Éditions du Trécarré, ISBN 978-2-89568-471-8.
[Bertalanffy 1969] L. von Bertalanffy, General system theory, 1969, George Braziller Inc., ISBN 978-2-89649-098-1.
[Braun 2010] C.M.J. Braun, Québec Athée, 2010, Les Éditions Michel Brûlé, ISBN 978-2-89485-469-3.
[Braunstein 2018] J.F. Braunstein, La philosophie devenue folle, le genre, l'animal, la mort, 2018, Bernard Grasset Paris, ISBN 978-2-246-81193-0.
[Brinton 1963] C. Brinton, The shaping of modern thought, 1963, Prentice-Hall, LCCC 63-14031.
[Cascioli 2001] L. Cascioli, La fable de christ, 2001, 01020 Roccalvecce - VT- Italia, Luigi Cascioli.
[Cohen 1987] C. Cohen, Essays in Freethinking, 1987, American Atheist Press.
[Condorcet 1988] Condorcet, Esquisse d'un tableau historique des progrès de l'esprit humain, 1988, Jean-Antoine-Nicolas Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet, Flammarion, Paris, ISBN 978-2-0807-0484-9.
[Coppens 2018] Y. Coppens, Origines de l'homme, origines d'un homme, mémoires, 2018, Odile Jacob, ISBN 978-2-7381-3605-3.
[Damasio 1994] A. Damasio, L'Erreur de Dascartes, 1994, Odile Jacob, ISBN 0-14-303622-x.
[Damasio 1999] A. Damasio, Le sentiment même de soi, 1999, Odile Jacob, ISBN 978-2-7381-1118-0.
[Damasio 2003] A. Damasio, Looking for Spinoza, 2003, Harcourt Books, ISBN 0-15-100557-5.
[Damasio 2010] A. Damasio, L'Autre moi-même, 2010, Odile Jacob, ISBN 978-2-7381-1940-7.
[Damasio 2017] A. Damasio, L'Ordre étrange des choses, 2017, Odile Jacob, ISBN 978-2-7381-3608-4.
[Dawkins 2006] R. Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006, Houghton Mifflin Company, ISBN 978-0-618-68000-9.
[Dawkins 1989] R. Dawkins, The selfish gene, 1989, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-192-86092-7.
[Demeneix 2017] B. Demeneix, Cocktail Toxique, 2017, Odile Jacob, ISBN 978-2-7381-4006-7.
[DeRossi 2014] M. DeRossi, Croire en Dieu est désormais inutile, 2014, Les Éditions Première Chance, ISBN 978-2-924408-10-0.
[D'Holbach 1990] P.H.T. D'Holbach, Système de la nature II, 1990, Librairie Arthème-Fayard, ISBN 978-2-2130-2630-5.
[Diderot 2010] Diderot et D'Alembert, L'Encyclopédie, 2010, Flammarion, ISBN 978-2-0812-2685-2.
[Dubos 1974] R. Dubos, Choisir d'être humain, 1974, Éditions Denoël, ISBN 978-2-7381-1940-7.
[Everett 2017] Daniel L. Everett, How Language Began, 2017, Liveright Publishing Corporation, New York, ISBN 978-0-87140-795-5.
[Gosselin 1980] J.P. Gosselin and D. Monière, Le trust de la foi, 1980, Éditions du club Québec loisirs inc..
[Harari 2015] Y.N. Harari, Sapiens, Une brève histoire de l'humanité, 2015, Éditions Albin Michel, ISBN 978-2-226-25701-7.
[Harris 2004] S. Harris, The End of Faith, 2004, W W Norton \& Company, ISBN 978-0-3933-2765-6.
[Hitchens 2007] C. Hitchens, God is not great, 2007, Warner Books, a division of Hachette Book Group USA, ISBN 978-0-7710-4142-6.
[Kant 1984] E. Kant, Critique de la raison pure, 1984, Quadrige / Presses Universitaires de France, No 61, ISBN 2-13-038545-1.
[Kempf2009] H. Kempf, Pour sauver la Planète, Sortez du Capitalisme, 2009, Éditions du Seuil, ISBN 978-2-02-097588-9.
[Laborit 1987] H. Laborit, Dieu ne joue pas aux dés, 1987, Éditions Grasset & Fasquelle, Le Livre de poche, 978-2-2530-5125-1.
[Lambin2004] E. Lambin, La terre sur un fil, 2004, Éditions Le Pommier, ISBN 978-2-7465-0473-8.
[Laszlo 1972] E. Laszlo, The systems view of the world, 1972, George Braziller Inc., ISBN 978-0-8076-0636-7.
[Laszlo 1978] E. Laszlo, Goals for mankind, 1978, The new American library of Canada limited, ISBN 0-451-08023-8.
[Lucrèce 1998] Lucrèce, De la Nature, De Rerum Natura, 1998, Flammarion, Paris}, No 993, ISBN 978-2-0807-0993-6.
[McCabe 1947] J. McCabe, Eighty years a rebel, 1947, Haldeman-Julius Publications, No B-636, Autobiography.
[Meadows2004] D.H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems, 2004, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, ISBN 978-1-931498-58-6.
[Meadows2008] D.H. Meadows, J. Randers and D. Meadows, Limits to Growth, 2008, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, ISBN 978-1-60358-055-7.
[Meslier 2010] J. Meslier, Mémoire contre la religion, 2010, Coda & Jean-Pierre Jackson, series = No 993, ISBN 9782-84967-080-4.
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[Tremblay 2009] R. Tremblay, Le code pour une éthique globale}, 2009}, Liber}, ISBN 978-2-89578-173-8.
14.2 Media
HomnidésLes fondements neurologiques de la conscience, des émotions et de la mémoire selon A. Damasio
Qu'est-ce que la conscience
Functional areas of the cerebral cortex
Searching for the mind
Neural networks and deep learning
Développement et définition des systèmes d'information
Age of Enlightenment
Criticism of religion
Philosophy of religion
Project Gutenberg
Atheist Freethinkers
David Rand
Charles Darwin
Luigi Cascioli
Pew Research Center
Culte des morts
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
