"Our Creator; the Kosmos,..."

We begin by taking in the mind blowing scale of the observable universe and it provokes the question, “How did life arise on Earth?” 1) A perfect God created humanity and punished us all with disease, death, violence and natural disasters for our ancestors disobedience; eating forbidden fruit from a tree. 2) An antiquated and painful form of evolution (compared to what is possible) brought us into existence over the course of hundreds of millions of years. It was all chance that we survived to prevail over other species and another mass extinction will likely destroy us to reset the process so it can continue for hundreds of millions of more years, tweaking primitive life in the most painful, brutal way possible, until it destroys itself again or becomes truly intelligent. 3) An advanced alien civilization who arose through a more refined and efficient form of evolution, tried to emulate its perfection without fully understanding how, in turn creating a lineage of imperfect alien beings that eventually created us. (using evolution) This failed experiment accounts for the half baked nature of life on Earth and possibly many other worlds. This last theory is one that makes the most sense to me, but of course it could be even more complex and involve more than a singular alien intelligence as the primary actor. The story of how we came to be may be more grand and mind blowing than any of the most creative and exciting science fiction masterpieces our species has ever contemplated.

Western science and theology believe the universe was created through an act of God or the Big Bang. But what if there is another explanation? Our own life had a beginning but came from another life who in turn came from another in a succession of near endless lives. So why is it out of the question that our universe was born out of another universe within a multiverse of near infinite universes? If our minds are blown by over 200 billion galaxies in our universe, why is it out of the question they can’t be blown to an even greater degree where our universe is one among billions or trillions of others within a multiverse? Theists will always conclude this infinite regress had to have a first cause, “an unmoved mover” that got the ball rolling for everything. But perhaps the search for where the great mystery (some call God) begins and ends will be an eternal affair, taking billions or trillions of years and requiring a super intelligence. Perhaps the Kosmos created this vast expanse of reality as a process for transcending ego, thwarting our desire to know the Kosmic mind without the hard work and trillions of years required to do the job. And at the end, what if we discover the Grand Creator is just a creation of something even more grand at a level of ad infinitum?

"...excellent is your design."

What if there is more than one form of evolution in the universe? There is the one we are familiar with that yielded us on Earth, but what if there is another type that is profoundly more efficient, beautiful and meaningful on a scale we can’t even comprehend? What if this form of evolution created advanced civilizations with powers so profound, they would look like Gods to us. The possibility of a “utopian” form of evolution in the universe could be a source of peace, because it would explain with greater meaning why life is so horrendous for so many life forms on this planet and perhaps other worlds, who have systematically been forced to carry out the horrendous sentence of a broken and evil evolutionary design. There is a lot of beauty and good in our creation, and if it came at the hands of alien super beings, it reflects the good side of our creators. But what is broken and so messed up, must also reflect their dark side and ignorance.

There may be utopian civilizations out there who never fell from grace out of a desire to emulate themselves without fully understanding how. This thought experiment makes the most sense and is more appealing than the absurdity of a clockwork efficient universe yielding an evolution so flawed as to see a species close to destroying themselves and their planet, or a celestial dictator as Lord over the entire cosmos. Imagine humanity 20,000 years in the future if we don’t self destruct. We would most likely have technology beyond Star Trek. With our amassed knowledge, it’s fair to say we could create the biosphere on other worlds with all kinds of variations from our own DNA. So who is to say an alien civilization didn’t do something similar to create ours? Our world and all living things are very impressive. But we can see there is room for much needed improvement. And this potential for eventual utopia, means the overall structural design of the universe affording this freedom of possibility, is excellent.

Seeing the design of the Kosmos as excellent is a lot easier during good times. But when things go dreadfully wrong, how can we view anything as excellent? There are those who have shown (Nelson Mandela as example) it is possible to connect with a reality beyond what is seen where faith in a brighter future can live with potential transformation for what seems flawed and incomplete. It is the space of this infinite possibility where inspiration for artistic and scientific breakthroughs can be realized along with some of humanity’s greatest technological and social innovations. Many of these inspirations have been born from the imagination, nature and hidden realm of the microscopic. (biomimicry) Through the scientific method, we get a more complete picture of how our world was created by dust, particles and fragmented elements that coalesced together into a unified whole making way for simple organisms to come together in a more perfect union and create our present human form. Although our destiny remains a mystery, the Earth and universe appear to be evolving towards higher complexity and greater wholeness.

"Thy utopia we will help you build, toward this destiny we yield in this moment as it is eternal."

Utopia in our future translates to a united Earth Type 1 or higher civilization, where humanity is unified into a global country of peace and prosperity for all. In this paradise, the Oil Age would have died while being replaced by the birth of a Solar or Fission Age, providing limitless, free, clean alternative energies. The vast resources at our disposal from not having to fight each other, would provide the freedom to build massive starships like the Enterprise from Star Trek, allowing us to explore the universe as a spacefaring civilization in Utopian vessels simulating our Earth environment.

It is human nature to seek order out of what seems random while taming the jungle to create civilization. This of course can also work in the opposite direction. Clear cutting the rainforest to make way for human settlements, strip mines and cattle ranches threaten to lead us towards an environmental distopia. In its more balanced form, the utopian impulse can drive us to move what is incomplete, flawed and ugly towards the good, the true and the beautiful; including ourselves and damaging environmental policies wreaking havoc to the ecosystem. The utopian impulse can also exert strong feelings of revulsion within us when we witness our destructive activities, while propelling us to change and move forward with more effective and benevolent technologies. Utopia doesn’t always refer to some crystalline city of perfection on a hill in the future like Tomorrowland. It can be the most simple or mundane action in the present moment.

Utopia takes the most basic form through one’s attempts to cultivate within themselves, utopian personality traits; to help and not harm others. One may yield to Utopia every moment they remain awake and aware of their actions. One example is the act of operating a motor vehicle to be constantly conscious in practicing great care and awareness, so as to avoid the damage and suffering that could be inflicted on others around you through an accident. By seeing every human being as yourself and acting accordingly, peace is sustained and utopia is achieved at a personal level. Once the personal level is mastered, there is freedom to build utopia on the collective level. From a collective perspective, our universe could be seen as a massive construction project and we are a new level of being on Earth capable of becoming conscious co-creators with the evolutionary process.

Using a metaphor; If we were called to work on a magnificent mansion in the construction phase, it is easy to look at the site scattered with debris and find it difficult to believe that it will someday resemble anything good, true or beautiful. But if we have faith in the master builder; the blueprint (our spiritual DNA’s potential), we can play our part to help in the project. Although our species possesses all the weapons and hostilities necessary to fail in our journey, we also possess all the necessary attributes that can help us succeed. Will we yield to these positive qualities in our nature to reach our destiny as a spacefaring united species? Even if a prayer is based on something (hope or wish) that has not yet come to pass, is it possible to catch a glimpse of a utopian destiny in the here and now? Even if our personal hopes and aspirations don’t come true or our species fails and our planet is destroyed, life in the universe will most likely go on. And even if it doesn’t, how would we consciously know about it ending, just as how would we have known of its beginning after making our entrance on the galactic stage 14 billion years after its birth?

If we have the utopian impulse driving us from within, perhaps this impulse is shared by the Kosmos which explains why some religious people say we were created in the image of God. And if there is truth to this metaphor, the utopian destiny is a hope of something greater than ourselves, seen now in the present moment as infinite potential capable of unfolding into an enlightened future. And where we fall short or even fail altogether, this hope carries on past the dead into the living and can only die as a dream potentially reborn out of that which may someday transcend us, as galactic super beings with technology so advanced, they would appear as Gods to us.

"Provide us this day our vital needs. End all ignorance and free our hearts through forgiving deeds."

If we are receptive, the Kosmos is capable of nourishing us with what we need; sunlight, water, oxygen, food, etc. Once our basic needs are met, life is about the constant flow of data from the Kosmos into our awareness to create new consciousness. If we remain receptive, this steady flow of information is capable of ending our ignorance (war and its end game leading to nuclear annihilation) while helping to provide new perspectives that act like medicine in healing the source of suffering and generating peace within ourselves and others. Once ignorance ends, war can be subverted and transcended for the more desirable state of harmony. It is only through peace that we can experience our greatest collective potential.

"Guide our path with the light of peace and we shall not be lost to doom."

The most important data we can receive is the revelation that if humanity continues on the path of war with the weapons we have, we will destroy ourselves and most life on the planet. Peace is now an imperative if we are to survive!

"As all things shall come to pass, we entrust ourselves to you."

When we come to the realization that there is the potential of an enlightened super civilization at the end of time, we have more of a reason to trust this process of life / death regardless of how corrupt and evil it is. The possibility for a beyond Godlike alien civilization billions or trillions of years from now, is a more powerful and profound idea to place ones faith in than vindictive and childish Gods of our past, projected to judge us worthy of heaven or hell in the future.

(In the scene from Contact, in the Humanity's Prayer video above, Ellie Arroway is transported to an Earth beach simulated by an enlightened advanced alien civilization. As revealed in the novel, these aliens decode the equation of pi with their supercomputers, uncovering a vast and complex message embedded in the very structure of the Cosmos.)

"So keep us free of any fear through the power of love that endures forever. To leave this world in a better state is the greatest of all that we endeavor."

The power of love endures forever because we never stop pursuing it! In the most dire of circumstances, we are still beholden to its power, even if it is the futile act of trying to protect your loved one from a nuclear blast near ground zero.

Though the divide between theists and atheists may seem vast, both sides as a collective move towards the same higher power; love. They also look forward to the same destination of living in a better world. Theists envision a united Earth ruled by their God while atheists imagine a type 1 planetary civilization ruled by institutions evolved from the best democracy we have today. They may not agree on the government of this future planet, but they do agree humanity will be united.

And the atheist vision of an end state of the universe giving birth to an enlightened alien civilization, is not that far off from theists conviction born from scripture, that light and goodness has the last word over evil and darkness.

"Over the oceans of space and time we will eventually reach the other shore. Then your spirit that gave us life will return home again once more."

The other shore is a metaphor for enlightenment; a level of understanding gained by the Kosmic data flow that prepares us in the face of whatever may come next. Perhaps the entire Kosmos is a gradual expression of enlightenment, who at the end of time may possibly be reborn to perpetuate the endless cycle of eternal creativity.

From an atheist perspective, it took over 14 billion years for the universe to evolve to its current state that we inhabit. Jumping from fragmented pieces of dust and debris to stars and human beings is a huge leap. What the universe will become in the next 14 billion years or beyond, is a great mystery, but it is very likely that whatever is being built will look vastly different than it does today. Is it possible the Kosmos is creating an advanced level of being (super alien civilization) that evolves into a form theists would identify as God? Could this entity someday excavate our world with time travel capability, rewinding and reassembling our past with the same ease it takes us to piece together a child’s jig-saw puzzle? Perhaps the capacity for such beings to evolve to such a transcendent degree goes hand in hand with a desire to know the past and bring wholeness to what was once fragmented and incomplete. Another scenario counter to the projected heat death of the universe might be the birth of a super evolved being or civilization who literally cultivates and engineers the cosmos into an eternal form that never dies.

The same spirit of seeking truth, that has been passed down from life form to life form in the universe, may find fulfillment at the end of time, whose true home is enlightenment. It is in this spirit of seeking truth that we find hope for our unification. Even the idea of an afterlife can be shared by theists and atheists. Upon closer examination, both sides have the same experience of being at the mercy of the universe. The religious practitioners in East and West are utterly dependent on the great compassion of the cosmos in sparing them from a life of suffering in the flames of hell or imprisoned by a primitive body like an animal whose life many people don’t give a second thought to torturing, slaughtering or eating. Atheists are likewise just as dependent on this great compassion, whether it resides in the form of a divine being, Godlike alien or machine who has evolved beyond an intelligence conceivable to us. Those that cryogenically freeze their bodies are doing so with a religious like faith similar to those preserving them in caskets, that someday in the future a kind and benevolent entity may pity them enough to revive their form and provide an opportunity of a second life and potential shot at immortality.

It is possible the super civilizations who inherit the universe in the future, may rewind space and time, revisiting you & me & countless lives long past, integrating themselves with the collective memory of the Kosmos. And after this journey brings them back to the very beginning, they discover their creator was just another universe like theirs, with Godlike alien beings who decided to use their power to create a copy of them-self; a macrocosm of the micro imperative in all creatures to reproduce & continue forward into the unknown. And so there is another burst of light and another Big Bang explodes forth from our universe, moving forward into the unknown with a brand new story to be told and fulfilled.

Read the future time line of humankind and our universe minus this hypothetical being or civilization.

(In last scene from the film; Knowing in the Humanity's Prayer video above, two humans are taken from Earth and relocated to a pristine uninhabited world. The children are raised here to repopulate the human species, which was destroyed by a massive solar storm. Like the symbolic Adam and Eve from the Bible, their future potential is represented by the enlightened aliens whose ship we see rising in the distance. Might they have begun their evolution on a world like Earth, but had more time to evolve without the civilization ending disaster?)