I think that the whole competition between faiths is a waste of time. We all have a narrative, whether shared with a group of people, or our own, from which we take the experiences that give our lives a profile. These are also necessarily geographically and culturally diverse, shaped by living conditions, historical developments and most importantly, previous mythologies and legend, metaphors from common experience, and day to day experiences.
When looking at the traditions of the world, I tend to ask myself what is probable or plausible. Stories of miracles and wonders I put to one side and try to figure out what a normal progression might look like. I haven’t found narratives that rely upon a miracle, but only those that are embellished by them. I have found narratives that arise from something exceptional, but none that depend on a divinity intervening.
What I do find, however, is the fact that life, capable of sentience, imagination, cooperation, and overcoming the challenges and hardships of life on this planet, including cataclysms that wipe out large numbers, is rare in the part of the universe we live in. And despite searching for comparable life outside of our solar system, we haven’t come across it yet. This is enough for me to say that we constitute something special, albeit precarious, and asks many questions as to how we could come about without our potential being a part of the universe to begin with.
So, to conclude, setting aside miracles to look for plausible progressions makes a lot of sense, especially when considering how myths evolve from real events, metaphors, and psychological needs. Even without invoking divine intervention, the mere fact that we exist as self-aware beings in a vast and seemingly indifferent universe is extraordinary.
It raises profound questions about whether consciousness is an inevitable emergence of complex systems or something far less common. When sentience emerged, it suggested that the conditions for it were embedded in the universe from the start—whether as a latent potential within matter and energy or as an inevitable outcome of complexity. That does imply that consciousness is not just a random accident.
This perspective aligns with some scientific and philosophical ideas—like the notion that life arises where conditions allow, or even the idea that the universe has a kind of built-in tendency toward increasing complexity. Vedanta, particularly in its Advaita (non-dual) form, sees consciousness as fundamental to existence rather than a byproduct of material evolution. In this view, the universe is not merely evolving toward greater complexity but toward the realisation of its inherent consciousness. Some interpretations align with the idea that evolution isn’t just biological but also spiritual, leading to higher awareness and self-realisation.
Sri Aurobindo, for instance, blended Vedantic thought with evolutionary theory, proposing that life evolves toward what he called the Supramental, a higher state of consciousness beyond the human mind. This idea resonates with Teilhard de Chardin’s concept of the Omega Point, where consciousness advances toward a culminating realisation. I believe this idea has been influencing religious traditions for some time.
