Meaning stories deal with our beliefs about the nature of reality, our human nature, our relationship to creation, and the purpose of our existence. They are embedded in the creation stories that are the foundation of most human belief systems.

    Since the birth of the scientific revolution in the 1500s, Western society has been shaped by a deep conflict between science and religion that plays out in the contemporary contest between the patriarchal Creationism story of religious fundamentalism and the material Evolutionism story of science fundamentalism. These are the religion and science stories most familiar to the public mind and both support the dominator values of Empire. Religion and science are far from monolithic, however, even within themselves.

    Less known to the public, the wisdom of the religious mystics is a basic source of the partnership values of Earth Community. Similarly, when freed from the more mechanistic interpretations imposed by the ideology of conventional science, the findings of quantum physics, evolutionary science, and the new biology make monumental contributions to our understanding of the partnership potentials of Earth Community.

    Note that we are dealing here with three primary belief systems distinguished at their core by the very different ways in which each deals with conscious intelligence. Conventional religion postulates an all knowing external intelligence in the image of a distant patriarch. Conventional science recognizes only material mechanism and chance, denying the existence or intervention of intelligence. Earth Community embraces a synthesis of the understanding of the mystic traditions with the data of the leading edge of science to postulate a unifying intelligence integral to all being.

    Each of the perspectives briefly characterized here, some would say caricatured, has many variations. A complete exposition could fill several volumes. My intention is to highlight contrasting perspective in ways that illuminate the significant practical implications of contrasting beliefs about the nature of reality, each of which has significant followings.

ORIGIN OF THE COSMOS

EMPIRE STORY: (Empire Religion):  A distant and jealous Patriarch brought forth heaven and earth whole and complete in six days as an act of divine will and gave his children dominion over them in return for faithful obedience.
(Empire Science): The Cosmos came into being in a great burst of energy governed by the laws of chance and material mechanism. Intelligence, consciousness, and free well are illusions.
EARTH COMMUNITY STORY: Creation is the manifestation of an integral spiritual intelligence from which all being manifests in an unending journey of discovery in search of yet unrealized possibility. It is the ultimate cooperative enterprise, Separation is an illusion.  

HUMAN NATURE

EMPIRE STORY: (Imperial Religion):  Sinful by nature and surrounded and polluted by evil, humans are incapable of goodness except by divine grace. Violence and crime are the natural human condition in the absence of strong authorities with the ability to impose order.
(Imperial Science): Products of a brutal competitive struggle for survival, humans are by nature individualistic, violent, materialistic, and competitive. Brutal competition, war, and material excess are the natural human condition. Order depends on strong rulers and/or the discipline of the unfettered competitive market.

EARTH COMMUNITY STORY:  Empirical evidence shows that human beings are a choice-making species and that emotionally and morally mature humans are naturally cooperative, compassionate, and peace loving. It is our nature to create and live in caring, cooperative community. Those who seek meaning and identity in a brutal competition for wealth, dominator power, and ostentatious displays of material excess reveal the disabilities of an immature human consciousness.

HUMAN PURPOSE

EMPIRE STORY: (Imperial Religion):  Honor and obey God the Father and those He reveals to be His favored by bestowing them with wealth and power. He will forgive the righteous their sins, cleanse them of evil, and grant them perfect bliss in the afterlife. The faithless will expire in a violent apocalypse and be condemned to eternal damnation.
(Imperial Science): Human existence has no meaning other than to compete for survival, dominance, and breeding rights.

EARTH COMMUNITY STORY: We humans are cosmic experiment in the potentials of a reflective consciousness. Empire suppresses this potential. Earth Community nurtures and liberates it. To fulfill our distinctive role as co-creators in Creation’s epic creative adventure we must liberate our potential by taking the step to species maturity. It is our ultimate test as a species. We have a choice to take the step to maturity and assume our intended role or expire to make way for the emergence of a more promising species. It is no accident that the pleasure centers of the human brain are wired to reward us with happiness when we engage in acts of loving service to the community of life. It is our nature.