THE DOUBLE TRIANGLE
The Double Triangle celebrates what it means to be human intellectually, culturally, and biologically. It emphasizes human origins and human legacies. The Double Triangle applies Revelation 1:8 (I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come.), not to a god, but to each of us. A family tree has the form of this Double Triangle, with the individual at the focus where the two points meet. The upper triangle represents our ancestry, which expands as one goes back in time: two parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four, and on and on. The lower point of the upper triangle is the culmination, the omega, of this long descent in a single individual. Each of us is also the alpha, the beginning, sitting atop the lower triangle, representing our descendants, which also tend to expand in number with successive generations. Each person is thus a singular gateway between a vast past and an expansive future. We revere our ancestors since they have made us what we are, both genetically and culturally. We do not revere them for their sake. They are gone. We revere them for our own sake so we can understand our human identity. God is not our maker. Our ancestors are. We should carefully educate our children and treasure them since it is they that provide an afterlife for us in their thoughts, actions, and genes.
The Double Triangle’s meaning is more powerful when applied to ideas. The upper triangle represents the culture, history, and thoughts that have come before us. A selection of this vast information converges in our minds. Through the amazing process of human cognition, we are able to use this information as the launching point for new insights, ideas, and creative expressions. These products of our intellect truly define us and form the most significant basis for our future legacies in our lower triangles. Our thoughts, unlike our genes, can draw broadly from a wide range of places, times, and cultures. We can work and study to increase the size of our upper triangles. And, unlike our genes, our thoughts have the potential for an influence that goes far beyond our biological descendants. The Double Triangle represents the convergence and subsequent divergence of information–genetic, intellectual, and cultural–as it flows through each of us, from the past into the future.
All the double triangles of all the people who have lived, are living, or will ever live overlap to create the fabric of human existence. Each of us is the focus of our own double triangle, but we also reside in the lower triangles of everyone who has taught us something, either directly or indirectly. We reside in the lower triangles of the important thinkers of past ages, and the people that invented, among other things, the pneumatic tire and the flush toilet. We will sit in the upper triangles of all those that we influence either directly or indirectly, now and through the generations.
There are double triangles of light and double triangles of darkness. Open minded, well intentioned people project the light of their own ideas and tolerance for the ideas of others into the world and into the future. By contrast, narrow minded people, those that would force doctrine upon others, are double triangles of darkness. They would have their views block out the light of reason and free inquiry for others. Significant sources of double triangles of darkness include racism, repressive political regimes, and organized religion. Of course, these dark influences frequently occur together in various combinations. Any system of thought that emphasizes obedience to revealed truth rather than open debate and inquiry generates double triangles of darkness through its followers.
The Double Triangle’s meaning is more powerful when applied to ideas. The upper triangle represents the culture, history, and thoughts that have come before us. A selection of this vast information converges in our minds. Through the amazing process of human cognition, we are able to use this information as the launching point for new insights, ideas, and creative expressions. These products of our intellect truly define us and form the most significant basis for our future legacies in our lower triangles. Our thoughts, unlike our genes, can draw broadly from a wide range of places, times, and cultures. We can work and study to increase the size of our upper triangles. And, unlike our genes, our thoughts have the potential for an influence that goes far beyond our biological descendants. The Double Triangle represents the convergence and subsequent divergence of information–genetic, intellectual, and cultural–as it flows through each of us, from the past into the future.
All the double triangles of all the people who have lived, are living, or will ever live overlap to create the fabric of human existence. Each of us is the focus of our own double triangle, but we also reside in the lower triangles of everyone who has taught us something, either directly or indirectly. We reside in the lower triangles of the important thinkers of past ages, and the people that invented, among other things, the pneumatic tire and the flush toilet. We will sit in the upper triangles of all those that we influence either directly or indirectly, now and through the generations.
There are double triangles of light and double triangles of darkness. Open minded, well intentioned people project the light of their own ideas and tolerance for the ideas of others into the world and into the future. By contrast, narrow minded people, those that would force doctrine upon others, are double triangles of darkness. They would have their views block out the light of reason and free inquiry for others. Significant sources of double triangles of darkness include racism, repressive political regimes, and organized religion. Of course, these dark influences frequently occur together in various combinations. Any system of thought that emphasizes obedience to revealed truth rather than open debate and inquiry generates double triangles of darkness through its followers.