The Eternal Authority

[Summerlander]

THE ETERNAL AUTHORITY

During political upheaval in ancient Mesopotamia, a psychological watershed took place and, as a result, the god Marduk—astrologically associated with planet Jupiter—was placed at the top of the Babylonian pantheon, representing the ideal which can apprehend chaos and establish order. He is depicted as having eyes all around his head, symbolising heightened awareness, and has the power of speaking magical words or, in Buddhist prose, 'correct speech'. Marduk is the only one that can successfully confront Tiamat, the goddess of primordial chaos depicted as a sea serpent; when the former captures the latter with a net, we have a symbolic conceptualisation of chaos in consciousness, meaning that the potential for disorder in the world has been identified and can be dealt with.

The sci-fi comedy adventure 'Sonic the Hedgehog' is a good example of the typical story of good versus evil repeating itself with strikingly familiar archetypal imagery, where Sonic is advised by his guardian Longclaw the Owl—a bird symbolically associated with clear vision, intuition and protection—to hide his powers for his own safety. Sonic, however, does not remain hidden for long and embarks on a hero's journey in the unknown territory that is planet Earth, where he travels to San Francisco's Transamerica Pyramid to recover a portal-opening ring and ends up facing the evil genius Dr. Robotnik, a narcissistic villain who despises and looks down on everybody.

A particular scene in the film shows the malevolent roboticist pursuing the heroic alien through the Egyptian desert and wreaking havoc in his wake; chaos is literally following the blue hedgehog as the villain fires in his direction, destroying the Sphinx but missing the pyramids! The Sphinx is a mythical creature which possesses the body of a lion (beastly impulses), the wings of a falcon (recognition that new heights are possible), and the head of a human (a being who is fallible but intuitive and aware of a hierarchy of values—the pyramid symbol to be remembered and guarded. Psychologically speaking, if the Sphinx is hit, the individual's hierarchy of values is threatened and destructive evil forces may cause the victim to experience doubt and perhaps a momentary loss of faith. But what lies at the top of that proverbial pyramid is true for all time and as long as the struggling hero is alive, there is a chance to overcome the immense challenges that chaos brings; in other words, as long as the possibility to do one's best remains despite unfavourable circumstances, he who believes there is still a chance to surmount the incoming threat will continue to strive for new heights. So, as long as Sonic is still breathing, he will continue to run to safety until there is a chance to counterstrike and avert the enemy's efforts.

The archetypal imagery and narratives seem to convey the inner workings of the human brain and its concurrent psychology—where mythical beasts speak for primeval parts of the brain and godly ideals along with honour, dignity and moral virtue can be meticulously formulated in the neocortex. The hippocampus inhibits emotional sensitivity whereas the amygdala heightens it which is why people who develop PTSD undergo a shrinkage of the former and a growth of the latter. Antidepressants increase serotonin levels and cause the hippocampus to grow back, and when you feel better, the more you feel like a punctilious winner, willing to tackle anything that life throws at you with confidence and alacrity.

Does God exist?

If you just asked my left-brain hemisphere, it would most definitely say, 'No.' If you asked my right-brain hemisphere, it would probably say, 'Yes.'

What does this mean? Logically, given what we understand and don't understand about the world, and seen as our epistemic awareness of reality originates from physical stimuli as far as we can tell, there is absolutely no way to tell if the universe was created by a godly entity of some sort. In science, it is called the God Hypothesis, which has not made any progress since its conception. In the realm of science, a 'hypothesis' is inferior to a 'theory'. The latter, unlike the former, is backed up by a body of empirical or evidential work which supports a proposition—such as evolution by natural selection, gravity, cosmic inflation, etc.; in other words, a scientific theory can be a 'fact' if it survives the test of time. The hypothetical, on the other hand, is mere speculation even if it sounds philosophically plausible. The de facto atheist stance adopted by the likes of Richard Dawkins is quite tenable because if the proposition lacks convincing evidence then there is no reason to accept it as a truism. To be an atheist is merely to disbelieve in God or gods/deities until proved otherwise. Until then, God, as an objective entity, is deemed to be as probable as real magic, a gnome, fairy or ghost—that is to say: highly improbable. Such logical stance is to be distinguished from agnosticism, which sees the proposition as being more in the 50% chance and thus speak from extreme uncertainty.

The holistic brain region tends to think outside the box, as it were, thus connecting dots outside of what is deemed to be reasonable by its cerebral counterpart—hence the reason why even the right hemisphere of an atheist would generally claim that God exists. If we can conceive of an omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent being, or even imagine an unattainable ideal—which can inspires us all to reach new heights and conscientiously make progress—and associate that imaginary apex with the word 'God', then it is true enough to make a real difference in the world.