Love grows and shrinks in depth and breadth for each loving being in a chaotic and sometimes correlated manner. But such growth in breadth and depth can be realized by humanity as a whole. I say that humanity has progressed its love to describe this process. This progression is a much slower, much more gradual change. It is analogous to our physical selves where each of us grows independently, even as our species itself evolves at a much slower rate.
This progression of love, I believe, is of fundamental importance to The Greatest Love. For it is in progressing to these higher forms of love that we become closer to Them.
Will love continue to progress in the Universe? Yes I believe so. My faith in The Greatest Love informs my belief in this.
Will humanity be a part of progressing that love? Yes I believe so. My faith in humanity informs my belief in this.
In the past have we seen the hand of The Greatest Love working to allow love to progress? I think so. But we must be careful about reading too much into events of the past when looking for The Greatest Love less we fall victim to cognitive biases and logical fallacies.
Still there is one event that I do find compelling. Is it objective proof of The Greatest Love? No. We are talking about thoughts and beliefs here. Not objective proofs. The example I am about to cite details not only what happened but why I think The Greatest Love allowed it to occur. Needless to say attempting to understand why The Greatest Love allows any event to occur is treading on dangerous ground. It is an attempt to read the mind of The Greatest Love which is impossibly constrained by the limits of our human minds. I do so only hesitantly in the interest of illuminating what I think The Greatest Love is capable of in the name of love.
The event occurred long ago. Long, long, ago.
Let us step back some 160 million years ago when the first mammals were introduced and with them breastfeeding, which is a highly intimate and emotional experience. Then fast forward nearly 100 million years later and imagine how that elapsed time could have impacted those same mammals. Millions of years of physical evolution but also millions of years of emotional evolution as well. Intimacy and bonding between mothers and offspring unlike anything experienced by the apex predators of the time: the dinosaurs.
It is here where scientists believe love first evolved on Earth and it emerged from within the mammals. Nearly 100 million years of bearing children and protecting them from predators as fearsome as the dinosaurs. Would the mammals love have become deeper than anything experienced by the other animals alive during that time?
I think it would.
However there was a problem. The physically dominant dinosaurs of the period ensured that the mammals did not grow to be anything more than small insect-eating creatures. Their physical evolution was obstructed and with it their cognitive reasoning, and emotional centers of the brain where the feelings of love form.
Under these conditions the most progressive form of love on the planet, that borne by the mammals, had limited potential. But love needs to progress; it’s potential maximized. I believe ensuring that love achieves it’s potential is at the core of The Greatest Love’s Divine Plan.
And so something had to give. It was then that, I think, The Greatest Love intervened. Before I talk of that intervention it is important to note that I do not believe every weather forecast, natural disaster, or cosmic event is intentionally invoked by the hand of The Greatest Love. There is not some divine master control room with The Greatest Love pushing buttons. Instead They have put in place our World and Universe as a complex system of interdependent processes and bodies that behave according to the laws of nature. This is what I believe.
But I also believe that sometimes they specifically intervene. Such interventions must not defy the laws of nature. A proposition for how such interventions can be realized is a topic for another post. For now let us assume that The Greatest Love can intervene in the natural world without compromising Their laws. And so it was that 66 million years ago that I think The Greatest Love intervened in the form of an asteroid, at least 10km wide, which streaked across the Western sky and slammed into what is today the Yucatan peninsula. It is known by the town sitting near the center of the 150km wide by 20km deep crater that resulted: the Chicxulub impact event. In the climate-altering aftermath of the asteroid impact 75% of plant and animal species on Earth became extinct. The impact location was particularly disastrous to all non-avian dinosaurs, which were wiped out by the event and its aftermath.
The mammals however survived.
As such it is seen today as the single event that marked the end of the age of the reptiles and the beginning of the age of the mammals.
I think The Greatest Love intentionally destroyed three-quarters of the living creatures on Earth, not as a test or an act of vengeance against the reptiles or any other creatures, but as an act of love for the mammals and more specifically to ensure that their form of love continued to grow and progress as They had intended. The Chicxulub impact crater stands today as a testament to Their power of love.
In the aftermath the number and diversity of mammals exploded as they were able to physically and emotionally evolve thus helping to reach their true potential. Fast forward 66 million more years and today we see the emergence of sacred love from within humanity, the most highly progressed form of love in the history of the Earth.
The delivery now of the fifth message also leads me to believe the emergence of sacred love happened only recently. I believe its emergence is presaged by a series of events illustrating humanity’s higher love. Such events included:
- A World War ends and along with it a Holocaust. I believe the Earth will never again see the industrialization of such death and destruction on such a massive scale
- A King delivers a sermon of love on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and his Dream becomes one for the ages
- A wall comes down and ushers in the end of a Cold War. With it the term mutually assured destruction leaves our lexicon
- The compassion of the masses allowing that no citizen of a nation should be denied healthcare coverage due to their pre-existing medical condition(s), social status, or financial resources
- The acknowledgement that all human love is the same and that any marriage between consenting adults regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity should be recognized by the state
- The emergence of a global environmental movement recognizing the World itself as a body requiring our love and protection
And many more.
But these are just a few events that are reflect upon a more general trend. A progression that has taken place over millennia and which has culminated in the threshold of sacred love being crossed only recently.
I believe that crossing occurred when the love proclaimed outside of the great Abrahamic faiths became greater than the love proclaimed within them. When the love preached outside the synagogues, churches, and mosques better reflected the love of the One god worshipped within them.
That may sound disheartening to some but it is how I believe it was meant to be. Secular society incorporated the best of love from sacred scripture and added to it their own. While at the same time relegating those passages that must be considered aberrations of love today, to the distant past. And I believe our love will continue to progress and reach new heights in the millennia to come, each time coming closer to the Divine’s love and yet never quite reaching that pinnacle of perfection.
Consider one addition that secular humanity has made to the love proclaimed in the holy books, that of secular liberalism that brought about laws such as the following:
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance
United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights – Article 18 (c. 1948)
Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: (a) Freedom of conscience and religion; (b) Freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression …
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms – Section 2a,b (c. 1982)
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the exercise thereof …
The Constitution of the United States – 1st Amendment (c. 1791)
In producing and defending such jurisprudence humanity welcomed all beliefs and said people are to be judged based on the love found in their actions, regardless of their beliefs.
It did not stop there. The idea that all persons are deserving of equal dignity and respect regardless of age, race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, etc., can not be found in any holy text of the Abrahamic religions but similar words are found in the foundational charters of many secular nations.
Despite the fundamental truth of these ideas, what for me are also personal truths, they were not revealed by gods, or delivered by prophets, or transcribed into holy books. Instead they were discovered by secular society. Secular society led the change, by enshrining rights and freedoms under the law for all people. This at a time when the voices of the great religions remained unaltered from the past. Those religious voices which helped lead us through our moral infancy were now being questioned as we reached adolescence and gained our own voice. The result was that secular humanity’s voice became just as important as those of the great religions on issues of morality and love. In an age of sacred love, holy books form only the opening chapters of this new Book of Love. The later chapters, just as important, have been written by secular society.
This does not mean that sacred scripture from the past can now be ignored. But it does mean that such canon cannot fully prescribe how to live and love in our modern world as it must be viewed within the context of the time and place that it was written.
This does not mean that loving religions should now be abandoned. But it does mean that all views from all people within a society deserve to be considered under a secular framework that promotes liberal values and a loving ethos.
This does not mean that the voices of the great religions should not be heard. But it does mean that they are but a few voices among several others now that also require our attention.
This does not mean that further messages from The Greatest Love will not be revealed in time. But it does mean humanity is growing up and learning to speak for ourselves.
