The Danellian claims that the course of time guarded by the Patrol:
"'...does at last take us beyond what our animal selves could have imagined.'" (p. 435)
- the aim of the Psychotechnic Institute.
In Brain Wave, human intelligence not only increases but also gains control of instinct. The Hindu who wants to return to the lower intelligence level hopes to regain the sub-rational oceanic mystical consciousness but should have realized that the mystics, or at least some of them, aimed at supra-rational transcendence.
It seems that the Danellians have reached transcendence. I think that human beings can but, in any case, the Danellians are post-human so should not be held back by any "unchangeable human nature."
10 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Frankly, I remain skeptical the Danellians achieved, in this life, any kind of "transcendence." We never see more than two Danellians, at wide intervals, or their society. And I recall Manse wondering if Guion, another Patrol agent, but from the future, knew enough about the Danellians to be FRIGHTENED by them.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I am extrapolating only from the beyond our animal selves remark. To go beyond is to transcend.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And if the Danellians still have BODIES, can they truly be said to have become transcendent?
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Well, yes. To transcend animal motivations is not necessarily to become disembodied, if that is even possible.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
This may seem simpleminded of me: but what, exactly, are "animal motivations" and how do you "transcend" them?
I think we get some partial glimpses of what "transcendence" might be like in the post Resurrection accounts of Our Lord. The Gospels report things like Christ being able to past thru locked doors while still being PHYSICAL, eating food, and challenging the Doubting Thomas into putting his fingers and hand into the Lord's wounds.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Organisms are naturally selected to maintain, preserve and reproduce themselves. Consciousness is a by-product of natural selection because pleasure and pain have survival value. Thus, animal motivations are self-preservation, species-propagation, pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain. Human beings are naturally selected to help others either because they bear the same genes or because they might help us in return but we experience this motivation as moral obligation, not as calculating self-interest. Thus, morality transcends animal motivations. In human psychology, self-preservation becomes identification with an "ego," favored self-image etc but we can transcend this through understanding and meditation. Knowledge of the environment is necessary for survival but has led to the disinterested search for truth which transcends mere pragmatism.
My view of the resurrection accounts is stated in "Evidence for the Resurrection" on the Religion and Philosophy blog.
Paul.
Sean,
A transfigured, resurrected body would still be a kind of body. St Paul refers to a "spiritual body," not to a spirit as opposed to a body. The Christian concept of resurrection is quite different from the Greek or Indian ideas of an immortal reincarnating soul.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
What you said about the "animal motivations" of human beings makes sense and I have no objections to most of what you said. If the Danellians have physical bodies we have to assume those "animal motivations" apply to them as well.
Yes, St. Paul talked about aw "spiritual resurrection," but I have to insist, as Paul the Apostle strenuously insisted, that he also believed in the actual, literal, and physical resurrection of Christ. In fact, he considered the Resurrection CRUCIAL to Christian faith. For if Christ had not literally risen from the dead, then vain and futile was the faith of Christians.
Yes, Judaism and Christianity rejects as erroneous any ideas about reincarnation. We all have only one immortal soul for one body.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But I think that the NT idea is that the physical body dies, rises and is spiritualized. There is no immortal soul apart from the body. Later Christian theology added the Platonic soul to the resurrected body. Thus, there is a contradiction. People who have died are said to "await the Resurrection" but are also said to have entered Heaven, Hell or Purgatory immediately after death.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And I still disagree. It seems to me you are attributing to orthodox Christians ideas they don't believe in and disagree are to be found in the NT. I think it's only reasonable to ask those who don't believe as Catholic and mainstream Protestants do about the soul to take that into accouunt.
Ad astra! Sean
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