In the city of Chicago at the Henry Crown Space Center there are artifacts of the space program of the 1960s. One of the displays is that of a space capsule—the actual original Command Module from Apollo 8 which transported the first human beings from this world to the moon and back in 1968. Apollo 8 symbolizes the power of science to explain our universe and it is the product of the optimism that stimulates the best science. It exemplifies how the unknown should not engender fear or suspicion but instead is really a motivation for us to ask pertinent questions to seek answers to what constitutes reality.

While the space program changed the way we look at the moon and the solar system and the universe, genetics and paleontology are also changing the way that we view the human race—ourselves—and as we increase our knowledge we comprehend more about previously unknown realities. We are living in an age of increasing discovery as science is revealing the genetic factors which make humans so distinctly different from all of the other living creatures in our world. Now when we combine those powerful new insights with significant spiritual realities which are coming to light we become able to view our history with increasing clarity. So what do millions of years of earth’s history mean for our lives now? Answers to such fundamental questions which have intrigued humans for ages will come from understanding how we have emerged — the basis for our humanity and our spirituality.

There have been remarkable developments since the beginning of the 20th Century in all of the sciences, and technological innovations continue to provide improved communications. Even so we may quite well resemble the primitive jungle peoples of New Guinea who listen for the signals of distant drum beats while the very atmosphere is teeming with electronic transmissions they could never ever imagine. For instance, our knowledge of spiritual realities may be quite primitive in comparison with actuality, while our religious leaders sanctimoniously exhort us to return to spirituality based on ancient, primitive superstitions and beliefs about the jealous God of the Old Testament who carefully scrutinizes our every move and rewards good and evil in some vague afterlife, and sanctioned the death of an innocent in order to assuage the guilt of evil men.

Evil is the inevitable consequence of wrong human choices—God did not create good and evil. We have free will within certain limits of choice which enables the existence of evil. Morality and spirituality are higher levels of consciousness and existence to which any and all may aspire, though many do not. We must accept that the ultimate questions we have will not all be answered in the near future or that we will know everything about the universe or about spiritual reality in the present age. What we should do is refuse to accept anything from teachers which demands faith, since so many times it has proved wrong because human beings behave poorly when they believe that they have absolute knowledge which they insist on imparting to those who will listen to them. We should reject all knowledge derived from authority and all inherited moral and intellectual ideas and ideals and begin to rely entirely upon God’s spirit leadings for guidance, because many religious instructors in every religion have prejudiced their students. Whatever does not shine the light of truth about God upon the world sheds darkness.

Whether absolute knowledge does or does not ever become attainable in the future most great truths may at least become beyond reasonable doubt and until then we should be patient, and each of us individually should aspire to live on the highest levels of moral and spiritual existence, at peace with ourselves and our world and each other. Only then will there cease to be primitive internecine wars, and truth, beauty and goodness will prevail in our world.

To attempt inner spiritual discovery one should not neglect their mental development because the mind can be equally a great help to us or a great hindrance. In its natural state the human mind is limited in its vision, quite narrow in its understanding and rigid in its conceptions, and so a certain amount of serious effort is needed to expand and develop it. Unfortunately for most people, the more they think the more they believe themselves to be correct. Their mind becomes satisfied with its self and does not aspire much for progress — it thinks it knows enough about everything and many people believe that their way of thinking is the best.  

They cannot comprehend that there are always several ways of thinking about the same subject, and it is vital that one should consider everything significant from as many points of view as possible. As our scientific knowledge develops and newer cosmology becomes known it is going to trigger within theology a renewal of the old debates about a finite versus an infinite universe and over the relationship between science and religion. Cosmology remains entangled with religion — there are parallel conflicts within science and religion and there may well be some dissension between the scientific conception which requires neither a beginning nor an ending to the universe and theology. The finite universe of orthodox beliefs implies a limitation of the Creator but surely an infinite God would not create a limited universe.

Given enough time and sincere efforts it will eventually result in individuals developing an understanding of the truth of these things for themselves, for who among us can set possible limits upon the material and spiritual potential of human beings?