15 - Good and Bad
QUESTION 6: The gist of our life
Our notion of Good and Bad may have to change
Have you ever heard of the Toxoplasma.gondii?
Humans, cats and mice have a common bacteria called the Toxoplasma.gondii and these bacteria have a problem. The T. gondii in the mouse needs to get into the cat before it can reproduce. Getting cat and mouse together does not happen naturally. You could not make reproduction more difficult. The bacteria have a solution. They make the mouse seduced by the smell of the cat. You may think that this is a dirty trick, but it works.
The result, of course, is that the cat eats the mouse, and the bacteria can reproduce. The small bacteria are in control. The poor mouse is marching to her death not even conscious of what is going to happen to her. We, humans, would decide that the death of the mouse is “bad”. It is even the worst thing that could happen to it!
Mother Nature may have a different opinion. Her goal is that everybody can find his place in the world. She sacrifices a few mice to make a place for the Toxoplasma.gondii. Is that not the right thing to do? If, someday, the mouse becomes an endangered species, the cats will go hungry. Mother Nature, in her infinite wisdom, will protect the mouse and restore the balance between cats, mouse and the T.gondii. For the Toxoplasma.gondii it is a life saver. For the cat it is an easy source of food. We would not blame the mouse for having mixed feelings about the whole thing.
Toxoplasma.gondii can also be found in humans. “Toxoplasma infection is classically associated with the frequency of schizophrenia, suicide attempts and "road rage". How can we be sure that the main reason the Homo sapiens survived 300 000 years is not that Nature kept a balance between us and our environment? We may have been the cause of the death of innocent animals and some humans may have been sacrificed for the survival of some animal species.
We may have to reconsider what we call Good and Bad.
Some questions come to mind?
How can the T. gondii know that they need a cat to reproduce? What do the bacteria know about smell? How can the small bacteria know what a cat is? Can the Toxoplasma.gondii think?
Who decides what on planet earth?
Nature also keeps a balance between animals and plants.
The African koudous eat acacias. When there is a drought, they eat acacias to the point that the acacias may not survive. Mother Nature’s solution is to make the acacias produce more tannin than the liver of the koudous can process. The plant kills the animal. The decision does not come from the acacias and their knowledge of the limits of the liver of the african koudous. There must be a mastermind somewhere in the immaterial world controlling everything. This is way above our head.
Could the life of human beings also be governed by something we can’t even imagine? The main decisions about life are not made at the human level. Our ideas of good and bad may not always apply.
What happens when we grow up?
Something important happens when the child is 2 or 3 years old and starts saying “I”. Instead of saying “I am thirsty” he starts saying “Peter is thirsty”. He is now conscious of being a separate human being. He has an individual ego. He divides the world into two: What is inside his skin and what is outside. Before this separation he was part of the world, and the world was in him. He is now going to spend the rest of his life trying to escape his isolation. This is his original problem. His first love may give him the illusion that he can escape his solitude. That can make the first broken heart even more painful.
The "Bad" can help understand the ‘Good’.
When you break a cookie into pieces you get the pieces and the link between them. We focus on the pieces because they have a shape, a color, a taste. They belong to our material world. This is a known territory. We discard the links between the pieces.
The "Bad" can help understand the ‘Good’.
When you break a cookie into pieces you get the pieces and the link between them. We focus on the pieces because they have a shape, a color, a taste. They belong to our material world. This is a known territory. We discard the links between the pieces.
Let’s see what happens when the human species gets broken into little groups. Each group fights for what they perceive to be their own survival. They forget that the only survival that matters is the survival of their species.
The “bad” appears when we focus on the parts and ignore the links between them. A country may start a war with another country. A religion may fight another religion. They have forgotten what is uniting them and would require a higher level of consciousness.
How does science fit into the picture?
Science starts with analysis. It divides the world into little pieces. Science neglects the links that are not in the material world. You cannot leave science alone. It must be associated with some consciousness. Look at all the killing machines that science has produced. Scientific thinking needs to be guided by non-physical feelings. “Knowledge without consciousness is the ruin of the soul”.
This leads to the general idea that Good and Bad result from different levels of consciousness. At a higher level of consciousness, we all belong to the same world. We are united through our souls. We have escaped the isolation of our body.
At a lower level of consciousness, we lose the general view and can only see the many separate pieces. We sink back down to the material world.
Instead of looking for “Good” and “Bad” outside us,
we may have to look inside ourselves, for a higher level of consciousness.