The Naked Eye

By Amanda C. Wray

 

           

            Sometimes it seems as though the human mind clouds its own ability to reason with the misty things of faith and the promise of what will be. Only when the last vestiges of these intangible webs are cast from the human conditon can we reason to the full extent of our intellectual capacity.

            The human race is like an infant, and, like a child it has the need to cling to some measure of security. A young child will cling to a security blanket even though this blanket provides the child with none of the physical requirements necessary for survival. The blanket does, however, provide emotional support, critical especially for the young.

            The human race, as yet a “child” race, meets this need for security in the adoption of religious ideas and principles. The practice of religion does not directly contribute to the physical needs of the human species, yet the emotional need is not an unimportant one. The gift or perhaps curse of the self-aware creature is that it seeks to justify its infinitesimal existence in such an immense universe. The God figure is a father figure to guide the human race through the course of its traumatic childhood and adolescence.

            The human mind prefers to deal with things in an orderly fashion, forming whole pictures from just bits and pieces of evidence. It is very difficult for the human mind to let go of its father figure, for with this would come the inevitable truth that the universe is essentially an extremely disordered place. Matter, it has been shown, tends towards the disordered. The notion of a God figure gives the unorderly a semblence of order. It is much easier for the human mind to think of itself as part of an orderly creation that is being watched over and cared for.

            The mind, for all its wonders, lacks perspective. As with a small child who cannot imagine ever being grown up, so does the human mind have difficulty assessing material not related to the here and now. The human mind tends to get so caught up in the here and now that the past or future cease to become meaningful.

            This is a trap, for perspective is a useful tool that only the self-aware creature is able to take advantage of. As people lose perspective they begin to get caught up in the evils of society and see an increasing need to cling to their security blankets in with the unspoken promise that Daddy will make everything all better. What it is important to keep in mind is a sense of perspective: the problems of today’s societies are by no means unique to the here and now. Perspective lets us see that the ills of society are like one side of an algebraic equation: as one side advances, representing increases in population and technology, the other side advances too: but only so far as to keep the equation balanced.

            “Evil” is necessary in society; for without it there would be no standard for judging “good.” In truth, “good” and “evil” are simply ways of measuring the practicaliy of social behaviors, and these, too, change with the times.

            The human being is essentially a social creature. It requires companionship, and has a strong need for approval. The formation of religious organizations not only gives the comfort of a “security blanket” to a child race but also supplies this child with a way of gaining social approval even in his insecurities.

            A child cannot remain a child forever. Just as a young person will eventually cast off a security blanket, so too must the human race. Eventually it will be necessary for the human species to realize itself for what it is: a species fully capable, after long practice, of managing remarkably well on its own.