When mankind first awoke from the darkness of a mindless past and we began our journey toward today, something happened. For the first time in human history we could see the cosmos and our place in it. We were but specks floating free in an unfathomable ocean of time and space.

Everywhere we looked vistas that exceeded our comprehension opened before us. We saw the universe for the first time and it paled us into insignificance. Like any infant we were dwarfed by our parents; earth and sky. Wherever we would turn our gaze we encountered things which would cause us awe. Soon we began to worship those things.

Intelligence

The ages that followed the birth of the mind honed our intelligence, on the stone of struggle, to a fine edge. We were soon well prepared to match the tug-of-war between life and death. We could ensure our survival by virtue of our wits. The struggle of day to day existence was our teacher and through the give and take of daily life we could learn those things that increased our chances of survival. Thus this thing we call intelligence was born. But, intelligence could not answer every question.

The Unknown

There were still those things that our intelligence could not fathom. Plague, earthquake and the other multitude of uncertainties that make up daily life were still beyond our understanding. These were enemies with which we could not contend. Soon we realized that we had very limited control over the world we live in and the events that make up our lives. The driving need to control our environment pestered our souls and would not abate. Somehow the fledgling mind would need to find a means of countering this dilemma, it did so by worshiping the unknown.

The Birth of the Gods

Temples and shrines arose and stretched toward the heavens as if to appeal to the cosmos for favor. In these places of worship man sought to know and be known by the powers that control this world. Forgotten was that moment when we first stood before infinity, heir apparent to all that it held. The awe and mystery of creation gave way to the worshiping of gods which were only shallow reflections of a much deeper reality. We turned our eyes inward and began to live below our possibilities.

Today we stand at a crossroad that leads in one direction toward a dim and struggling tomorrow and in the other direction toward a new genesis. Our place in this universe is a lofty one. We carry within us the cosmos itself. We are life risen to the highest form of which we are aware. It is by virtue of our minds that this universe exists at all. Without the mind to perceive it the cosmos would not exist as a abstract thought. We are the cutting edge of reality. Our role then is a simple one. We must always seek after the truth. We have to see things as they really are not as we might want them to be. We can think, and because we can think we can discover what creation really has to offer us as its offspring.