We’re So Vain, We Probably Think This Song is About Us

by Judy Pilat

Our most recent topic for discussion in our Metaphysical Theology class was Eschatology.  Clearly, the word just rolls off your tongue as it does mine, and what’s even more energizing is the meaning of the word itself – a branch of theology concerned with the end of times and the ultimate fate of mankind. 

Admittedly, that first comment was a bit tongue in cheek, but no exaggeration, no satire, and no irony when it comes to the liveliness of this debate.  Even if I can’t ever say it right the first time, it is absolutely true that eschatology is an energizing topic.  Even non-believers have an opinion and something to say about this one!

Ideas and beliefs about what will happen at the end of times are numerous and varied including Judgment Day, the rapture, the Second Coming of Jesus, immediate one-way tickets to heaven, hell or purgatory, and for some – a big, fat nothing.  Some more contemporary theologians believe in a rebirth of the world rather than an end to it.

The prophets of the Hebrew Bible believed it was possible to repent and gain God’s forgiveness.  The apocalyptic prophets believed that our fate was sealed, that our prognosis was not good, but that there would be some sort of divine intervention or revelation to establish the kingdom in spite of everything we had mucked up along the way.

In addition to thinking about what happens to the individual upon death (nothing, reincarnation, eternal bliss), there are also questions about what happens to humanity when the world ends, and also questions about the planet itself - which has been around a lot longer than we have.  And this is where many traditional religious explanations seem to go off track, ignoring science and evolution - presuming that humans are the main event.  Too anthropocentric!!

Let’s get real!  The universe is over 13 billion years old, and we have been here how long?? The answer is either a few hundred thousand years or a few million, depending how far back on the evolutionary scale you want to go.  The story of the emergence of the universe itself might be a more valuable source of information about how the future will unfold than the words of the prophets or the Book of Revelations.  

Carter Phipps talks about awakening to evolution and in his book, “Evolutionaries:  Unlocking the Spiritual and Cultural Potential of Science's Greatest Idea”, he gives credit to the work of three individuals who have done much to bring about an awareness of conscious evolution – Barbara Marx Hubbard, Michael Dowd, and Brian Swimme.    According to Swimme, four billion years ago, our planet was molten rock, and now it sings opera.  Dowd describes it this way:  we are the universe becoming conscious of itself.  We are stardust that has begun to contemplate stars.

The death of the human body releases the energy of the soul and closes the final chapter on a particular human incarnation.  At that moment, human consciousness ends, but Divine consciousness continues.  What that soul experiences next will be unique for that soul.

At a point in time when human incarnation is a thing of the past on this planet, human consciousness will cease, but the Divine Consciousness goes on because it is part of God – panentheism.  If nothing else, God remembers us and we then exist or are preserved in the mind of God – process theology.

What the world will look like and be like post-humans is anybody’s guess, but given all that has come to be, let’s not limit our imagination to just our small chapter in this really big story.  Yes, we are a part of the song, but it’s not just about us.