ORIGINAL THOUGHT
Given the vast number of people that live and have lived, and the fact that we share the same genetically programmed instincts, most of our thoughts are not unique. Someone, somewhere, and at some time has thought the same thing. In most cases, many people, in many places, throughout much of history, have had similar insights. However, anyone who does any kind of creative work, either professionally, or as a hobby, has the potential to carve out new lines of cognition for humanity. When we write, compose, draw, paint, photograph, perform, build, or even redecorate, we hover between the points of the double triangle, drawing from the past and producing unique thoughts for the future. People that work in research or in industries based on innovative technology are almost by definition producing original thought. If you want to create new products and new markets, obtain patents or publish research papers, then the results and ideas must be original. As we think original thoughts we are performing the most divine act of secular humanism. We cannot count on the existence of a God, but we can count on our own ideas.
A few people have world altering ideas that greatly impact subsequent human history. Akhenaten, a heretic, ancient Egyptian Pharaoh, went against the religious establishment to invent, or at least be the first to promote, the idea of monotheism. His ideas either strongly influenced those we now attribute to Moses, or it is even possible that Akhenaten and Moses were the same person.[ref] The shock waves of Akhenaten’s profoundly original ideas reverberate throughout the world today, having only gained in strength over the millennia.
Why would a doubter of religion revere the inventor of monotheism? Because I am, first and foremost, a secular humanist. I revere human ideas and human achievements as they are devised, executed, and passed on through the Double Triangle. The courage and the genius of the individual who opposed entrenched authority to cast away thousands of years of polytheistic mythology and mumbo jumbo in favor of simple, monotheistic sun worship is truly inspiring. Given that virtually all the energy that animates the face of the earth comes from the sun, Akhenaten’s reverence makes perfect sense for his time, and still makes much more sense than the layers of mythology later generations imposed on his one god. We should not worship gods. We should revere great achievements in human thought. The transition from polytheism to monotheism, initiated by Akhenaten, stands in the first rank of those achievements, even if we now need to take the evolution a step further and admit that the existence or nonexistence of a God is unknowable.
Other examples of transformative religious thinkers are Abraham, Paul of Tarsus (the originator of Christianity), and Mohammed. In the world of science, people like Newton, Einstein, and Darwin come to mind. How about George Washington, one of the very few leaders of a successful, armed revolution to insist on imposing limits on his own power and limits to his own term of office? Today, Washington has become a symbol, largely divorced from the historical person, onto which people project what they admire or what they hate about the country he helped found. This is a great disservice to a dedicated public servant that towers as a good example over other victorious revolutionaries (Lenin, Mao, Napoleon, Fidel Castro, Oliver Cromwell, Robert Mugabe, etc.) who more often than not seize and hang onto personal power, repress dissent, fail to establish a legacy of workable governance, and end up presiding over something worse than what they overthrew. Mahatma Gandhi came up with an even better idea for achieving revolutionary change: non-violent protest.
How some individuals at certain points in history have conceived very original and important ideas is a mystery worth contemplating. This process requires just the right upper triangle. The individual needs the right cultural and educational background to enable their ideas. However, many others have shared this culture and had similar education and even similar experiences, yet produced no original or important thoughts. The process also requires just the right lower triangle. Their ideas need to be disseminated and adopted by others. No doubt, many more earth-shaking ideas have been conceived in people’s minds than have ever been communicated to the public or acted upon. There are important philosophies to be discovered on skid row and great geniuses in insane asylums. Some people may be insane because they are unable to deal with the torrent of their original ideas—ideas that do not interface well with the time and place in which they live. Perhaps they have gone insane because they can’t get anyone to listen to them or take them seriously. Some of these ideas may be truly profound and capable of transforming the world, but alas no one will ever know about them.
Finally, the process of transformative, original thought requires just the right individual interacting with the right set of immediate circumstances at the focus of the two triangles. The three components of upper triangle, lower triangle, and the individual need to come together in just the right way, and this matching of components is subject to the fluctuating nature of events. By random chance, some people may have the right background and the right ideas, but might be killed or otherwise muzzled before they can disseminate them. Others might have a bully pulpit, but nothing significant to say. In an analogy to the role of chance in genetic evolution, the set of great ideas and great thinkers that we have in the world is profoundly influenced by randomness. If we could do history over again, the fluctuations would be different, and thus the individuals and their ideas would also be different.
We should revere our intellectual and cultural ancestors because they have built our upper triangles. We should also meditate on the mysterious coupling of culture and technology, original thought, and randomness.
A few people have world altering ideas that greatly impact subsequent human history. Akhenaten, a heretic, ancient Egyptian Pharaoh, went against the religious establishment to invent, or at least be the first to promote, the idea of monotheism. His ideas either strongly influenced those we now attribute to Moses, or it is even possible that Akhenaten and Moses were the same person.[ref] The shock waves of Akhenaten’s profoundly original ideas reverberate throughout the world today, having only gained in strength over the millennia.
Why would a doubter of religion revere the inventor of monotheism? Because I am, first and foremost, a secular humanist. I revere human ideas and human achievements as they are devised, executed, and passed on through the Double Triangle. The courage and the genius of the individual who opposed entrenched authority to cast away thousands of years of polytheistic mythology and mumbo jumbo in favor of simple, monotheistic sun worship is truly inspiring. Given that virtually all the energy that animates the face of the earth comes from the sun, Akhenaten’s reverence makes perfect sense for his time, and still makes much more sense than the layers of mythology later generations imposed on his one god. We should not worship gods. We should revere great achievements in human thought. The transition from polytheism to monotheism, initiated by Akhenaten, stands in the first rank of those achievements, even if we now need to take the evolution a step further and admit that the existence or nonexistence of a God is unknowable.
Other examples of transformative religious thinkers are Abraham, Paul of Tarsus (the originator of Christianity), and Mohammed. In the world of science, people like Newton, Einstein, and Darwin come to mind. How about George Washington, one of the very few leaders of a successful, armed revolution to insist on imposing limits on his own power and limits to his own term of office? Today, Washington has become a symbol, largely divorced from the historical person, onto which people project what they admire or what they hate about the country he helped found. This is a great disservice to a dedicated public servant that towers as a good example over other victorious revolutionaries (Lenin, Mao, Napoleon, Fidel Castro, Oliver Cromwell, Robert Mugabe, etc.) who more often than not seize and hang onto personal power, repress dissent, fail to establish a legacy of workable governance, and end up presiding over something worse than what they overthrew. Mahatma Gandhi came up with an even better idea for achieving revolutionary change: non-violent protest.
How some individuals at certain points in history have conceived very original and important ideas is a mystery worth contemplating. This process requires just the right upper triangle. The individual needs the right cultural and educational background to enable their ideas. However, many others have shared this culture and had similar education and even similar experiences, yet produced no original or important thoughts. The process also requires just the right lower triangle. Their ideas need to be disseminated and adopted by others. No doubt, many more earth-shaking ideas have been conceived in people’s minds than have ever been communicated to the public or acted upon. There are important philosophies to be discovered on skid row and great geniuses in insane asylums. Some people may be insane because they are unable to deal with the torrent of their original ideas—ideas that do not interface well with the time and place in which they live. Perhaps they have gone insane because they can’t get anyone to listen to them or take them seriously. Some of these ideas may be truly profound and capable of transforming the world, but alas no one will ever know about them.
Finally, the process of transformative, original thought requires just the right individual interacting with the right set of immediate circumstances at the focus of the two triangles. The three components of upper triangle, lower triangle, and the individual need to come together in just the right way, and this matching of components is subject to the fluctuating nature of events. By random chance, some people may have the right background and the right ideas, but might be killed or otherwise muzzled before they can disseminate them. Others might have a bully pulpit, but nothing significant to say. In an analogy to the role of chance in genetic evolution, the set of great ideas and great thinkers that we have in the world is profoundly influenced by randomness. If we could do history over again, the fluctuations would be different, and thus the individuals and their ideas would also be different.
We should revere our intellectual and cultural ancestors because they have built our upper triangles. We should also meditate on the mysterious coupling of culture and technology, original thought, and randomness.