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The world is known by the mind through logic, senses and experiences. For each individual, the world is a picture painted distinctively different than that of every other individual in existence. To say that reality however, is an illusion is a premature thought. Instead, it is the way reality is perceived that differs from every known conscious mind. In saying so, reality for every individual should therefore be unique and a stand alone perception of the physical world.
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
~ Albert Einstein
Even if we step into another dream every time we awake from sleep, an independent reality persist as a constant and unchanging truth. Through imagination, we are able to conceive things or events that defy the laws of nature and physics. But even in doing so, all products of our imagination are but a combination of matter and ideas taken from a persistent and independent reality. Take for example, the ancient imaginary creatures of mythology. The minotaur is but the combination of a bull and a man while a mermaid, the combination of a fish and a woman.
Like a pendulum swinging back and forth and never stopping in the middle, so does our mind swing from one extreme to the other. We commonly think that certain things like ethics and morals are absolute principles when history have often proven that the accepted norm of moral and ethics change in each age. Consequently some people think that absolute relativism of morality is a possibility even though it is an absolute principle. Obviously, this is an impossibility because one cannot state that all absolute principles are ‘absolutely’ wrong. Indeed, this would be a great folly committed by an irrational mind.
“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.”
~ Rousseau
For anything to exist in its entirety, it must be for the observing mind both a cause and effect or an action and reaction. The egg for example, is the cause of the full grown chicken as certain as every egg is the effect of a full grown chicken. All things ranging from the mind and matter must therefore be understood not as a stand alone truth but as a sum of its relation with all other things known to the mind. Thus, it is impossible to understand something that is absolutely independent of everything that exist in reality.
The relationship between the society and the individual also falls into the boundaries of cause and effect. Every individual is the product of the society and is chained to a reality set by its immediate environment. From the other end, society would not exist without the individuals that give meaning to its existence. When relations are concerned, a book is only a book when it is treated and perceived like a book. Should a book fail to be read by a human being who understands the language used in its construction, the book degrades into a mere object or matter and thus not a book anymore. It is the human being, the creator of languages and its written forms that the book must exist for because without humans, the book loses its meaning of existence.
“All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone. Everything is in relation to everything else.”
~ Buddha
Reality is the product of the interactions and relations between the living and non-living, the conscious mind and the environment, the individual’s identity with society. A person’s identity and the justification of its existence is not independent from society. No man is an island or a hermit that is totally free from his environment. Having said so, the conscious mind is only an incomplete factor that constitutes an individual’s identity. Throwing aside the consciousness of thought, memory and emotions, a person’s identity is also defined by the unconscious mind to which the individual has little or no control of.
What we think of ourselves is only a small fraction of the true reality of our identity. The understanding of ones ego is limited by the very same limitations that set the boundaries between absolute knowledge and that capable of human understanding. One must understand that although the philosopher Descartes advocated that one must look from inwards to outwards to understand himself and the world, it is also equally important to understand the relations of the external to the internal. In simple terms, we must know both the role we play in society and the role society plays in shaping our identity.
“I think, therefore I am.”
~ Descartes
I think, therefore I am is only ones perspective concerning himself and his external environment. According to this perspective, what I think concerning the role I play in the greater picture of society takes precedence over external factors. But since every other individual would also have a different perspective on the role I am playing in the world, both my perspective of myself and the perception of others about me would seldom agree with one another. The combination of these two parts of one would show that an individual’s identity consists of the summation of all causes and effects of his existence to both the living and the non-living. Thus, I think, therefore I am must be coupled together with you think, therefore I am.
The other element that is essential that constitutes ones identity is time. For the better part of this essay, time is left out and identity is judge as a static object both rigid and without motion. In truth, this is impossible because time is an unstoppable flow from the past to future limiting all men by its current. A man is not only defined by what he has done but also by what he will do. Before World War II, Hitler was regarded even by some British as the savior of Germany and the hero that would defend Europe from Communism. After World War II, Hitler would always be remembered as the cruelest mass murderer the world has ever seen!
“Without knowing life, how can one know death?”
~ Confucius
The very sound of our heartbeat shows that we are the bounded by the flow of time. Like a clockwork toy edging closer to its end, the steady rhythm of our heart proves that we are both alive and moving closer to our death. As this process inevitably happens, our identity transcends from one form to another influencing more and more events in the physical world. An individual’s identity in contrast to the conventional wisdom, is not just a static object but a dynamic growth to which the sum of all parts until our death and beyond is its true form.
As a person’s identity changes, so does his reason for being. This is probably the reason why ones perceived purpose in life is often changing as one ages. In fact, it would be exceedingly peculiar if an individual’s views and goals remain exactly the same after an interval of prolong development either in mind or in body. As certain as a person’s physical stature changes as he age, his state of mind is also compelled to change in relation to his environment and condition. Therefore, it is motion with its velocity and magnitude rather that a stationary unchanging element that is the fundamental constant of our identity.
“We know the mind, only as we know matter.”
~ David Hume
“How can we explain mind as matter, when we know matter only through the mind?”
~ Schopenhauer
It is extremely hard to determine which is the cause and which is the effect when it comes to the mind and matter. In an ever changing reality of time and space, it is the mind that understands matter although the mind resides within matter itself. While it is common to say mind over matter, one must remember that there is an independent reality separate from the mind’s ability to perceive it. The laws of gravity for example, holds true even before its formal discovery by Isaac Newton. In line with this, the truth that the Earth is not the center of the universe also holds true before its revelation by Copernicus.
The presence of an independent reality that we will not understand with absolute certainty is perhaps the clearest prove that our identity and mind is real. Consequently, this means that an absolute truth that is independent of the senses and experience is also possible should the boundaries to which this ‘truth’ revolves in is set with proper care and consideration. The limitations of these absolute truths, for example time, numbers and change, is limited only by the boundaries of a relative reality. This enables the possibility of an absolute truth to reside within a relative world.
While absolute knowledge is impossible for human beings, each and everyone of us can still learn enough to understand his purpose and reason for being. One must however, acknowledge that the answer to this can only be true relative to a certain environment within a limited time frame. It is an imperative that one must embark on a neverending journey to discover the very answer to the meaning of ones own existence.
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Human beings, you and me, love to define things. In fact, we are in love with definitions. While we despise following rules, we love making them for others to follow. Look at how we ‘define’ God. Omnipotent and omnipresent. Alpha and Omega. While I will not (and I cannot) give any better definitions of the Creator, I would like to point out that the Creator is above the description of anything the human language can come up with.
We cannot define God. We cannot set boundaries and say that God should operate within them. That would be foolish as it would constitute a reversal of roles. If one believes that a Creator exists (like I do), it should be the Creator that set the rules and not us, humans!
The same goes with evolution. First, the theory of evolution states that a species undergoes gradual changes to survive and reproduce in a competitive and often changing environment. Second, evolution also states that a new species is the result of change from its ancestral forms. Notice that none of the two sentences mentioned the word God.
Many people made a mistake when they thought that believing in evolution means that they embrace atheism or the belief that there is no God. This is a fundamental mistake in understanding the whole concept of evolution. Evolution does not prove that God does not exist as certain as evolution does not contradict anything that religion has to say about creation! Indeed, the title of Charles Darwin’s book was the Origin of Species and not the Origin of Life!
The difference is like night and day.
Two Sides of the Same Coin
The theory of evolution claims that organism compete for natural resources to survive. Any student of economics would know this to be true. All of us have unlimited wants versus limited needs which causes scarcity in the world. Because there is scarcity, we must compete for the rationing device that enables us to triumph and survive.
Moving on, survival of the fittest ensures that only lifeforms with features adapted to their environment are most likely to live long enough to reproduce. Having succeeded in reproduction, the fittest lifeforms pass on their desirable genetic characteristics to their offspring. As these features becomes more and more common over time, the population evolves.
The creationists on the other hand believe that creatures started out as distinct and separate organisms when God created them and believe the theory of evolution is flawed. Creationists stresses that there is no recorded history of one species becoming an entirely different, more evolved organism (monkey becoming man).
Furthermore, some creationists argues that there can be errors in carbon dating and other methods that are used to determine the age of all fossils and non-living objects. To add to that, DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) and RNA (Ribonucleic acid) comparisons between similar and dissimilar species at times confirm evolution but is in other circumstances inconsistent.
The problem about evolutionists and creationists is that seldom do people realize that the two theories could coexist side by side with minor or virtually no friction at all. Why are we so sure that God did not create the world and all living things through evolution? Who are we to say what God can or cannot do?
In the book of Genesis, the story of creation did not happen overnight but over a period of six days. On the first day, God created light (energy). On the second day, the skies. On the third day, God separated the skies from the seas and created vegetation. On the fourth day, God created night, day and the stars. On the fifth day, God filled the seas and the skies with living creatures. On the sixth day, God created land animals and lastly man. God rested on the seventh day.
Why did God create the world in a period of six days? Why not in a sudden bang, boom and instant Earth? Why did God create the light first and man last?
Perhaps we will never know (this is my stand).
One thing is for certain is that God went through a process to create the universe (at least according to the major religions). While many people claim that God used just six days, the same people also say that God is omnipotent and omnipresent. If God is omnipotent (all powerful) and omnipresent (not limited by time), how can we equate six ‘God’ ‘days to six human days?
Therefore, there is no reason that absolutely proves God did not create the world through evolution. Similarly, there is no reason why evolutionists cannot synthesize its theory with creationists.
Evolution Proves God Exists More Than It Disproves It!
Evolutionary theory is supported by a huge body of ’scientific’ evidence, including the fossil record and observations of organisms alive today. Yet we must bear in mind that ’science’ is not always absolutely correct. The inductive, deductive and systematic approach of science has occasionally in history been wrong or inaccurate.
If the Creator created the world and the science of the world (this is my belief). How can the science of the world explain the Creator? However, the beauty in science is the ability to replicate the results of an experiment over and over again. Replication and in some ways reproduction, is the ultimate testimony of the validity of a theory or hypothesis.
Evolution that took billions and billions of years cannot be replicated in a lab!
While this does not mean that evolution should be chucked into a shoe box, it shows that evolution remains a mystery yet to be solved. Furthermore, evolution may explain the diversity of species through mutation and variation but not why life exist on Earth. In refuting evolution, people often make three mistakes:
- Evolution is atheism! We come from apes and apes come from amoebas and God does not exist!
- Evolution must be wrong because we do not see any monkeys changing into man (though we do see man turning into monkeys on a daily basis)
- If we believe in evolution, we must drop our existing religion
All three are misconceptions! First, evolution might be a process under the will and hand of God. Second, evolution is a process of billions of years (so monkey into man in an instant ain’t happening, and since we are Homo-Sapiens, we are no longer monkeys!). Third, I am a Christian and I still do not see why I cannot belief in evolution.
After knowing that the sun is the center of the solar system, Christianity has continued survived. Why? The sun being in the center does not prove that God does not exist. Similarly, evolution proving the diversity of species does not mean the hand of God is not at work!
The Evolution of Evolution
610-546 BC:
- Greek philosopher Anaximander suggests nature is ruled by laws and that all life-forms evolved from fish
1735:
- Carl Linnaeus publishes his Systema Naturae, which lays foundations of taxonomy – classification of living organisms
- He suggests that all plants descended from a common ancestor
Feb 12, 1809:
- Charles Darwin born in Shrewsbury, England
1830:
- Charles Lyell publishes Principles of Geology.
- Central argument that the present is a key to the past influences young Darwin’s thinking
1831:
- Darwin leaves on five-year journey around the world on HMS Beagle
1838-39:
- Darwin develops his theory of natural selection which states that some kinds of organisms survive better in certain conditions than others
- Such organisms leave a progeny and so become more common with time
1858:
- Fellow naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace sends Darwin his own essay on evolution through natural selection, based on near identical theory
Nov 1859:
- Under the pressure from Wallace, Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species – the book provokes great controversy
1865:
- Czech Monk Gregor Mendel publishes his research on inheritance, but importance of his ideas are not recognized until early 20th century
1871:
- In the Descent of Man, Darwin ties human lineage to primate ancestors
- Despite outrage in some quarters, book wins favor among scientific community
April 19, 1882:
- Charles Darwin dies aged 73
- He is buried in Westminster Abbey
1925:
- Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee US, finds John Scopes guilty of teaching evolution
- Case is based on Tennessee state law prohibiting teaching of any theory that denies divine creation of man
- Conviction is set aside on appeal because of technical difficulty
1933: Eugenics
- 19th century pseudoscience aimed at improving society through selective breeding is adopted in Nazi Germany
- In California, epicenter of eugenics movement, some 60,000 Americans are coercively sterilized and thousands barred from marriage
1953：
- James D. Watson and Francis Crick discover structure of DNA, making it possible to study molecular biology of evolution
2005:
- Genetic analysis show evidence of relatively recent human evolution over past 10,000 years
Feb12, 2009:
Source: Scientific American, UCMP
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Flammarion Woodcut depicting Aristotelian conception of the universe
Evolution does not prove God does not exist. If anything, evolution is a testament of the Creator’s glory. In my essay on evolution, I stated the possibility of the hand of God directing the process of evolution. Due to the flaws of humanity’s pure reason, external senses and subjectivity to time, we can never comprehend the absolute will of the Creator. This imperfectness in the quality and characteristics of humanity’s faculty, establishes a priori in my philosophical works. A priori knowledge is one that is independent of experience or empirical evidence (the senses) and thus is true even for your fathers and forefathers (for example, all triangles have three sides) .
In my essays found in the meditations, I stated that there were two limitations to which humanity would never breach. The first meditation, is the limitations of human understanding and the seventh meditation, is the limitations of man himself as a physical being and an object of matter. As long as one is human and not God (I believe it is impossible for a human being to become God), he is subjected to these two limitations. Similarly, man’s work and product (including this essay) is also subject to these two limitations. However, as long as man acknowledges his imperfectness, he can work to understand things that are within its confines.
Just as doubt is the only thing that is undoubtable (which is why we have faith and trust in God and a philosophy in religion and a religion in philosophy), change is the only constant that is unchangeable. As certain as time flows from past to future (there is no ‘present’ for the ‘present’ has already pass), change is something that flows from one form to another. A clear example of this is the rotation of planets around the sun. Thus change in its essense, is related to the four dimensions, namely, length, height, width and time. Where there is matter (length, height and width that has both mass and volume), there is time. And when matter is subject to time (matter I believe cannot be independent from time), there is change.
Prevailing model of space time
Therefore, if change happens, evolution which is change should also happen. People in general, hates change. Take for example, how the human resource department of companies these days, hates change more than any other thing in the company (change of employers, change in employees, trying to nurture new corporate cultures, shift in workloads, proliferation of duties and longer working hours). However, people working in the human resource department often forget that if there is no change in the company, they would lose their jobs! Ironically, people still hate change after knowing this. Perhaps this is the ultimate reason why people hate evolution.
My friend once said. “My great great great (times a million times) grandfather is not a monkey or a pokemon!”
I did not quite agree with my friend (he is still my friend) on whether his great great great (times a million times) grandfather was a monkey or a pokemon. However, I do know that after whatever change that humanity has gone through, my friend is no longer a monkey or a pokemon (this is not true for all people as I still see some men becoming monkeys on a daily basis….take a look at Malaysia’s political situation….we can study zoology when we read political news!). Barring monkeys and pokemons aside, change is one of the beauty in life. Look at the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly, the changing of seasons, the blooming of flowers, the migration of animals and the rise of modern human architecture.
Change is beauty in its fullest!
We often assume that we know a lot about a lot things. In truth, we should know a lot about a lot of things we do not know.
Just take a look at how big our solar system is and judge for yourself.
The solar system has an estimated 19 trillion miles to explore and study! There is unlimited possibilities of the impossible happening! There are three scales to which the solar system can be divided into. The first is the inner planets, followed by the outer planets, and lastly the oort cloud.
Inner planets
The inner planets comprises of Mercury, Mars, Earth, and Mars. All four are terrestrial planets with solid spheres of rock and metallic cores. Because they form close to the young sun, the tremendous heat of creation evaporated their gases, leaving dense airless planets.
Newly designated dwarf planet, Ceres is the largest of the million plus rocky bodies in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists were recently surprised to discover three comets orbiting within the asteroid belts. They appeared to have formed there rather than the outer solar system beyond the planet Neptune. Since they contain water ice, it is possible that such asteroids comets brought water to Earth.
Outer Planets
Born in the cooler parts of the swirling nebula from which the sun emerged, gas giants Jupiter and Saturn swept up stupendous amounts of Hydrogen and Helium. The Planet Uranus and Neptune on the other hand have no solid surface and are ice giants comprising of largely water and ice. Dwarf planets Pluto and Eris reside in the Kuiper belt.
The Kuiper belt is a realm of rocky, and icy bodies whose existence was confirmed in 1992. Sedna, discovered in 2003 is a sphere smaller than Pluto and is now regarded as the most distant solar object ever seen.
Oort Cloud
The oort cloud is never ever directly observed but is thought to surround the system about 19 trillion miles away from the sun. All these parts coalesced from the material thrown off during the birth of our star 4.6 billion years ago.
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Time is perhaps the most important element that exists in our world. It is hard to imagine the existence of any form of life without time. Indeed, I daresay that as long as there is life and motion, the presence of time is inevitable. One should not confuse himself by concluding that time is the cause of all life. This statement would be highly inaccurate and deeply flawed. On the contrary, one should view time and life as inseparable. One of the basic characteristic of living matter is motion. As long as there is motion, the object that is subject to movement must also be subjected to time. In other words, time is change as surely as change is time.
Our early ancestors would have most probably measured time with the rising and setting of the sun and the changing of seasons. Both of these natural situations would essentially be a measure of the interval taken for a cycle to complete. Humanity has since measured time using the same method all around the world. If you ever wondered why your clock is round, the answer is that the only way we know how to measure time is through the repetition of one event back to its original state.
In physics, time is considered one of the fundamental quantities that is used to generate other units. For some philosophers, time is one of the fundamental structures of the universe itself. While some people think time as an illusion, the truth is that as long as we choose to believe that we exist (a wise choice indeed), we are all subjected to time. Time waits for no man and is independent of the observer. How can time be an illusion when there is movement? Even if all life were to be extinct, the movement of any non-living matter would still prove the existence of time.
We normally think we know what is time. More often than not, we are wrong. Time as far as human beings can observe is unidirectional. It is in essence a continuous process from past to future that grows as it changes. One need not think too deep to prove the unidirectional flow of time. If time can move backwards, why is it we can remember the past but not the future? Similarly, if time is not unidirectional, we should be able to see broken cups recreating themselves into their original state. Even the movement of planets around the sun shows that time is unidirectional as they move not in all directions (a physical impossibility) but in a constant one-way direction.
Time is not universally the same for all individuals. It is an old myth that there is a universal quantity called time that all clocks measure. Absolute and universal time is an illusion! Instead, every separate individual has his own personal time that is independent to a certain extent from another individual. Einstein’s theory of relativity proves that universal time is a lie because two accurately precise timepieces would show a difference in ‘time’ if one is stationary while the other is moving. Many experiments conducted on this subject have indeed proven the relativity of time.
Thus, the relativity of time simply shows that the measurement of time is relative to the observer. Fundamentally, the principle of time remains the same because no matter what difference is shown between two different time pieces, time is still a continuous movement from the past to the future. For our world, this fundamental principle of time is a priori, a truth that is independent of experience. In saying so, all our ancestors would be subjected to the same principle of time.
Of the Past and the Future
The connection of the past and the future is time. The fundamental difference is that the past is unalterable and set in stone while the future is usually seen as a variable that to some people seem random. The possibilities of total randomness is highly unlikely. I consider it logical to belief that even if we do not know what will happen, it does not mean that future events are totally random. My birth is certainly not random. This shows that the past defines who we are and set a scope in which the future is to unfold.
This is in line with the principle of causality to which every effect must have a cause. The cause of my existence in this world is because of my parents and the cause of their existence is because of their parents. To say that my birth is a random occurrence would be really ridiculous because everything that happens in the future is due to something that happened in the past. Without the seed, the plant would not exists. If the planting of the seed is not random, how can the existence of the plant be random? Randomness would then simply be an excuse when one cannot predict the future.
Similarly, the laws of physics can be applied as an action is always followed by a reaction. Without an action, the reaction would not happen and since an action in history is not random, the reaction must also not be random. The past is unchangeable unless the Creator should will it. The arrow of time would point in one direction as long as reality persist. If time was to flow backwards, all reality that we know would crumble and all life would cease to exist. The closest we can achieve in reversing time would be to rewind a recorded film and watch everything backwards. Memory, a tapestry woven by time however, cannot be rewinded so easily. Imagine remembering the future and not past memories!
Of Free-will and Fate
In establishing that the past and the future are not just random occurrences, one must question the validity of free-will and of fate. The concept of free-will in which every individual is free to choose is often a misleading philosophy. While I am an ardent supporter of human rights and the freedom of speech, I must admit that there are rather rigid limitations to free-will. First and foremost, we cannot choose who our parents are. Because of this, the immediate choice of what environment we are thrown into when we come into this world is also not for us to decide.
Second, to say that a child with down-syndrome has the freedom to choose to be a genius is an outright lie. Whether we like it or not, different people are born with different talents, competence, characteristics, physical appearances and mental faculties. In terms of these aspects, we almost never have a choice. While I admit that a person who learns music would become more and more proficient in playing a musical instrument, talent would ultimately be the determining factor of how far a person’s musical achievement can reach. Of all the numerous schools teaching music and students learning music, the number of famous composers and virtuosos, are limited to only a small number in comparison! This shows that both talent and training is needed to create a Mozart out of a man!
The third limitation of free will, is the necessity of choice. Whenever we reach a crossroad in our lives, we are force to choose where we want to go next. There is no escaping the necessity of choice. Even if an individual decides not to make a choice between two or more alternatives, this event itself is a choice. Since choosing not to choose is also a choice, one has no freedom in escaping this reality set by time. I consider it a great folly when one says that he has decided not to make anymore choices in his life. An absurd statement.
Even with its limitations, free-will to a small degree is available to us. Because we are all relative to time, we are unable to know the full consequences of our actions. When we look in retrospect, we should understand that things are fated to happen as the past is unalterable and out of the realm of choice and free-will. Events of the past has already happened and cannot happen in any other way. The future on the other hand, is only predictable to a certain extent and holds many possibilities. In relation to the future, free-will is present at a magnitude relative to the individual. As time passes and the ‘future’ is transformed into history, free-will concerning that event in the past disappears.
Of Illusion and Reality
Time defines almost every aspect of life. As long as we believe that we exist, time is present. How then do we know whether we exist when our senses usually mislead us on a daily basis? Sometimes we wake up in the morning not knowing whether we are still in a dream that might be as vivid as reality itself. While it is common to pinch ourselves to prove we are awake, one must admit that one can experience ‘pain’ even when one is dreaming. The lack of our senses as an absolute agent to sense reality would cause us to doubt on whether everything or anything is actually real.
The answer to this question is simple. Whether reality is an illusion is inconsequential. Even if everything we know, touch and see is a lie, we cannot choose do deny our own existence. If we decide to kill ourselves, we are acknowledging that there is something to be killed. Similarly, if we choose not to eat, hunger would inevitably cause great discomfort to our bodies and would serve as a reminder of the futility of denying our own existence. Our mind simply cannot handle the notion that we do not exist.
Even if we wake up to a different reality everyday, the laws of time would still hold. As long as we can see motion, we exist and thus a reality to which we reside in exists. The only way that our reality would crumble is that if everything become static and time stops to a halt. If there is no dynamic movement of any kind, even thought, reality would crumble indefinitely. Therefore, whether our reality is an illusion is really inconsequential because we cannot choose to deny our own existence as long as dynamic movement is possible.
The Time Machine
It is a common mistake to think that humanity can control time with a time machine. Being able to travel back and forth through time does not mean that one controls time. This is due to the fact that the ‘time’ taken to travel from either the past to future or future to past is also unidirectional even though the direction of time for the person in the time machine has changed. Furthermore, as one exits the time machine, he is subjected once again to the limitations of time and space. Even if a time machine becomes a reality one day, complete control of time would most probably be beyond the ability of mortals. With that being said, nobody knows what the future holds. Only ‘time’ can tell.
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Cuneiform
The most important invention of man is by far language. The very existence of social organization lies with an individual’s ability to communicate with another individual either by touch, gestures or utterance. The possession of verbal language is perhaps the greatest reason that mankind has survived through all forms of natural challenges and still emerge as the dominant species on Earth.
Language is common to all human societies and is fundamental in the development of culture in the human race. While language is something compulsory to every toddler, its importance is often forgotten, left unknown or taken for granted. Through language, mankind is able to share information which would otherwise be buried through the death of an individual. Without language, the accumulation of knowledge from preceding generations would be loss and subsequent new generations of man would have to relearn painful experiences.
Fortunately, man created thousands of languages either independently or through interactions with other human civilizations to ensure not only their survival but the continuous development of culture, science and art. This in turn, provided the force needed to accelerate human knowledge as descendants of the previous generation is able to start from where their forefathers left off. However, in the perceived attainment of glory and pride is man’s ultimate weakness. As certain as ones greatest strength is also ones greatest weakness, language must suffer from the same fate.
In order for language to be useful, each and every one of its users must be subjected to a universally accepted set of rules, or grammar. Only then, can an individual create new statements that will be perfectly understandable to other individuals using the same language. This is a double-edged sword as it permits language to be used with a delicate and great precision while at the same time clouding it with considerable ambiguity. The same can be said of both sentence structure and vocabulary that must be generally accepted by the wider majority in order to be of any use to the individual. Thus, in attaining the flexibility of communication, language betrays its tail of rigid rules.
It is a lie to say that all languages are equal. Indeed, it would be an even greater folly to believe that they will ever be equal. Although almost all kinds of spoken languages operate by similar principles which enables their translation, certain language are indeed more advance and developed than others. In all ages, a Lingua Franca dominates the world of humanity. The first was probably the Egyptian and Sumerian languages, followed by a clear acceptance and dominance of Greek, Latin and English in chronological order. English has remained the dominant language to this very day.
There are three undoubtable factors that enables a language to become a Lingua Franca. First and foremost, the language must be widely used. This is evident because the civilization to which the Lingua Franca originates must be at its finest moment, dominating in trading activities, in higher education and in international relations. The second factor, is the scope of vocabulary both contained within and newly created of the language itself. All languages that has previously attained the status of Lingua Franca must have a wide range of words that enables it to describe numerous objects and abstract ideas. Whether its vocabulary is borrowed, like how English enriched itself with Latin, French and German, is inconsequential and irrelevant as long as English is the medium of communication.
The third factor and often the most tricky to ascertain, is the practicality of the written form of the language. The earliest script was probably in the form of pictographs – sequences of pictures each of which represented a specific object or actions. The written form used by the Egyptians as early as 3,000 BC were signs and symbols gradually added to represent things that could not be easily depicted. Although the hieroglyphic method was able to transmit complex messages, its users needed the knowledge of several thousand characters that made the refinement of the language’s written form increasingly impractical. The Lingua Franca on the other hand, is more often than not a practical language that enables its users to describe complex ideas as simple and as accurate as possible.
Base on the three factors mentioned above, one can understand why higher level education is dominated by English. First, English is the common language used in international relations and trading activities. Second, English has incorporated the words of many other languages into its vocabulary and is able to be a suitable medium of communication for complex ideas. Last but not least, English is practical. One does not study science in the language of the Red Indians simply because no substantial books of science was ever written in their language!
The 15th century brought the dawn of paper manufacturing and printing upon mankind. The ability of large-scale production of books changed the landscape of language for all foreseeable time. The coming of both the radio and television bypassed the need for the written form of language in many aspects. The Internet resurrected the importance of a Lingua Franca in international relations and communications. All these developments are only made possible by building on the invention that our forefathers have given us. Language. And in the near future, English and Mandarin will be the Lingua Franca of our day.
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The Geographer by Johannes Vermeer
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Nearly 306 million years ago, the supercontinent Pangaea dominated the globe. Encompassing all seven continents of the world we know today, Pangaea evolved. Like everything else, the Earth is never permanently stagnant but in a constant state of change. The right question to ask is not whether or not the Earth would change but how and when the world would change.
Around 237 million years ago, India was still wedged between Antarctica and Africa. The world then was very different from what it is today. Approximately 130 million years ago, North America started to split from Africa while China and Indochina joins with Siberia to form Eastern Asia. The world at the time, was divided into Laurasia in the North and Gondwana in the South.
Similar to Pangaea, Laurasia and Gondwana did not last forever and around 94 million years ago, the South Atlantic opened and vast shallow seas dominated the Sahara in Africa and the interior of North America. Around the same period of time, a new seaway separates Australia and Antarctica from the rest of the world. Following that, the next great change of Earth’s surface happened aroung 70 million years ago, when India which was then an island detached from the rest of the world started to move northwards and ended up crashing into the rest of Asia.
Today, we can still see the extent and impact of the crash of India into mainland Asia by looking at the great collision belt extending from Indonesia, across the Himalaya and into Europe. Most notably is the height of the Himalayan mountains which is the direct result of crash. The atmosphere of the earth is also in constant change. Look how fast the weather changes in some parts of the Earth and how temperatures across the globe fluctuates. Just as the outer surface of the Earth is not the same throughout the ages, the inner structure of the Earth is constantly changing. Earthquakes and Volcanoes are a good testament to how volatile the Earth really is.
While we cannot see with the naked eye many of the changes that is happening to the surface of the Earth, we do know that these changes are happening in reality. Fault lines located on top of the boundaries of tectonic plates gives us solid evidence that earthquakes and tsunamis happen due to the volatility beneath the Earth’s surface.
Ggeography maps the changes happening to Earth’s surface and is fundamentally the knowledge of the evolution of Earth.
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jamesesz
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