I am of the insufferable opinion that the notion humanity is somehow "evolving towards a higher state of consciousness" to be nonsensical and bizarre.
Rather, it seems to me that inherent human nature has been more or less the same for at least the past 5500 or so years -- ever since the first written literature of the Sumerians revealed what a complex, all-too-clever, often foolish, sometimes wise, species of fur-challenged, poo-flinging, super-sized great apes we were back then (and still are today). The notion that our consciousness has somehow evolved since then strikes me as hopelessly wishful.
Now, having said all that, I do not mean to imply there has never been any cultural "progress". I think there has been a great deal of cultural change in the past 5500 years, and that some of it might even be considered "progressive" -- at least, progressive according to some value schemes. But such cultural change does not necessarily imply any genetic change. That is, it does not necessarily imply any change in inherent human nature.
But what do you yourself make of the notion that humanity is somehow evolving towards a higher state of consciousness? Truth or woo? What do you think?
Rather, it seems to me that inherent human nature has been more or less the same for at least the past 5500 or so years -- ever since the first written literature of the Sumerians revealed what a complex, all-too-clever, often foolish, sometimes wise, species of fur-challenged, poo-flinging, super-sized great apes we were back then (and still are today). The notion that our consciousness has somehow evolved since then strikes me as hopelessly wishful.
Now, having said all that, I do not mean to imply there has never been any cultural "progress". I think there has been a great deal of cultural change in the past 5500 years, and that some of it might even be considered "progressive" -- at least, progressive according to some value schemes. But such cultural change does not necessarily imply any genetic change. That is, it does not necessarily imply any change in inherent human nature.
But what do you yourself make of the notion that humanity is somehow evolving towards a higher state of consciousness? Truth or woo? What do you think?