Foreword
by Tim Macartney-Snape
HARLES DARWIN’S The Origin of Species(1859) was one of the great milestones in the heroic journey of human ideas. In retrospect, Darwin’s theory was a very simple concept to grasp, even though it was not thought of until well after one of the giants of science, Isaac Newton, had invented calculus and worked out, almost perfectly, the laws of motion and the movement of the planets. While Newton’s ideas helped us begin to understand the physical world, we had to wait for Darwin’s ideas on evolution to begin to understand how life on Earth developed into the complex array of organisms that exists today. With an understanding of the basic idea that evolution is a genetic learning process (nature’s ‘trial and error’ method if you like, in which organisms are refined and improved through their genes) and that evolutionary change happens slowly, and by using our subsequent knowledge to interpret the fossilised remains of prehistoric life forms, we have finally found ourselves in a position to begin to understand our own origins.
This is indeed a triumph for the mind. For all recorded history we have struggled to find meaning in our existence, inventing elaborate stories to explain our origins, place and context in the world. Rational thinking and its product, science, have brought us a long way from when we recorded our myths on the walls of caves. Science has been a great winnower of superstition, but—as will become clear in this book—its mechanistic approach has had the effect of excluding us from the explanations that we needed and set out to find in the first place.
Is our thirst for meaning without justification or is there some hidden meaning to life? Jeremy Griffith deals with this question in these pages and in his earlier book, Free: The End of The Human Condition, published in 1988.
Jeremy may well be ahead of his time because his explanations lead to a great shift in the way we think. As for our need for his ideas, they may have arrived only in the nick of time. A handful of physicists, mathematicians and a few experimental scientists are beginning to hint that evidence suggests a purpose in the development of life. This is very bold indeed for as you will see as you read on, there are real problems with the scientific mind accepting this notion.
The science of life, biology, will generally deny any teleological or purposeful explanations for life and although many biologists hold religious beliefs, there has been no true, sound, scientific effort to solve the mystery of the mind’s obsession for meaning. There has been little effort to interpret our moral codes. In fact despite the vast inroads made by the mind into the uncharted territory of the universe, we still know very little about ourselves, about our psychological development and the functioning of our ‘on-board necktop computer’.
The human mind is capable of unsurpassed sensitivity to our planet. This becomes abundantly clear to me when I react to things I find beautiful in nature such as a flower or a mountain landscape. Despite suffering from lack of oxygen it was vividly clear to me when, after struggling up the north face of Mt Everest in 1984, I arrived at the summit to view a world bathed in the rosy glow of the setting sun and felt an almost incandescent warmth and love towards our planet. This sensitivity is clearly shown in our expression of wonder at natural beauty reflected in our art, music and poetry and is probably clearest of all when examining unconditional love. This emotion is so intense it seems to transcend explanation, making it even more inaccessible to scientific scrutiny.
Despite our great sensitivity and propensity for love and perception of goodness, there is also a dark side to our history: an equal propensity for evil. We are undoubtedly the most ferocious and destructive force and the cruellest animal that has ever lived on this planet. To say that we have outgrown this by the process of civilisation is clearly untrue. One only needs to look at the recent wars in southern Europe, the middle east, in Africa and in Indonesia, to see that 10,000 years of civilisation have done little to curb our anger, aggression and cruelty. One of these regions, the middle east, is the cradle of civilisation yet from an overview of our behaviour, all that has changed is the means by which we express our anger. It is true I think that the civilising process has taught us control but it seems to have done nothing to alter our nature. The person who appreciates Michelangelo’s art is still capable of murder.
This duality of good and evil, the essence of the human condition, has no doubt perplexed humanity from the dawn of the process we call thinking. It is only now, by virtue of what we have learnt about the mechanisms of evolution and human prehistory, that we can at last hope to reach an understanding. I believe the reader will discover in these pages as I have, that Jeremy Griffith has indeed achieved this understanding. Perhaps even more astonishing is that he brings us the realisation that the duality of human nature, the good and evil, is part of an essential process in the long journey to this remarkable understanding.
I should warn the reader Jeremy Griffith’s concepts are confronting. I cannot caution the reader too strongly that there will be incredulity then discomfort when you begin to realise the depths to which this information takes us, but you must be strong because to go beyond the human condition requires us to go through those depths which have hitherto been forbidden territory. The total relief from our condition that awaits us on the other side makes the struggle well worth while, if not imperative.
In his text Jeremy quotes the words of poet Gerald Manley Hopkins: ‘O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall Frightful, sheer, no-man fathomed…’ to illustrate the depth of uncharted territory in our mind. Having at last been safely guided through this region of our repressed self or psyche most of us will be fearfully numbed at first, but the momentum of reason will carry us through this inevitable phase of the reconciling process.
At last we have the knowledge that will allow us to climb triumphantly from the dark depths of our searching on to the uplands of our ideals which it has been our destiny to reach.
The proof of any idea depends on its ability to explain the situation it applies to. For me, Jeremy’s explanations have clarified so much that was inexplicable about myself and what goes on in the world. It is like having mist lift from country you’ve never seen in clear weather. Our age-old reliance on faith and belief is over now that we know our direction. Our new-found understanding brings such relief and beauty that it makes the wonder we once bestowed upon mystery appear trivial. Even though we are unable to change ourselves immediately, we can participate in the new order right from the start by recognising the truth and supporting it without reproach or guilt.
In time there will be elaborations written and spoken about Jeremy Griffith’s concepts. I believe that eventually, more words of importance will be spoken and written about them than about any others—ever. Eventually everyone will understand them, perhaps not for a few generations, but the sooner we all come to terms with them the richer and more exciting our lives will be and the sooner we will bring about real repair of our planet.