How Big is Big History?

I was following the trail of an article on evolutionary spirituality and ended up on a website dedicated to “the Great Story” or “Big History.” Here’s an excerpt from that site.

“The Great Story (also known as the Universe Story, Epic of Evolution, or Big History) is humanity’s common creation story.

“It is the 14-billion-year, science-based, sacred story of cosmic genesis, from the formation of the galaxies and the origin of Earth life, to the development of self-reflective consciousness and collective learning, to the emergence of comprehensive compassion and tools to assist humanity in living harmoniously with the larger body of life.

“‘In the course of epic events, matter was distilled out of radiant energy, segregated into galaxies, collapsed into stars, fused into atoms, swirled into planets, spliced into molecules, captured into cells, mutated into species, compromised into thought, and cajoled into cultures. All of this (and much more) is what matter has done as systems upon systems of organization have emerged over thirteen billion years of creative natural history.'” — Loyal Rue, philosopher at Loyola College

“‘Big History’ is the academic discipline that looks for patterns and interpretive significance within the mainstream scientific understanding of cosmic, geological, and biological evolution over the course of 13.7 billion years, plus the patterns and lessons drawn from the flow of human and cultural history.” (1)

I wondered to myself how we’re going to feel when even our most advanced reaching out, backed in some cases by spiritual adepts who regard themselves as being at the leading edge of spirituality and inquiring scientists at the leading edge of science, realize that even their most progressive views are not going to survive, oh, perhaps another year or two into the Golden Age of Gaia.

The view that evolution is somehow random, sparked by mutations or even adaptations to outside stimuli, the view that the human race developed on Earth and can be found nowhere else in the universe, the view that the human race developed on its own in a descent from, I suppose, single-celled amoeba – all these treasured views that survive even cross-fertilization with spirituality, all these views that represent the farthest reaches of an empirical materialism that has “gone about as fer as it can go” are destined to yield to the truths that will soon emerge.

None of them allows for the existence of a Divine Plan. None of them accounts for the role in creation of the force known colloquially as “the Divine Mother,” not a she, not a mother, but decidedly divine. None of them sees that we arose from emptiness at the command of a Divine Source and that to emptiness we’ll return. None of them recognizes dimensions of frequencies or the existence of other universes or the creative intervention of celestial beings, the real scientists.

None of them has room for other human races existing elsewhere in the cosmos. None of them acknowledges that other lifeforms can reach the level of human existence by descent from other lines than mammals. Perhaps none has a suspicion that humanity on this planet is in fact “amongst the least advanced life forms.” (2) Star beings looking down at us Earthlings from the reaches of outer space conclude: “Without being disrespectful to you, you are more like babes in arms.” (3)

One galactic civilization said of us: “Indeed, our continuing observations of your scientific, political, and cultural arenas reveal that you still have much progress to make to meet our nominal preconditions for first contact.” (4)

In light of this, how big is “big history”? And how great is “the great story”? And how will we survive the bruising of our egos when we find that our most umbrageous and benign attempts at conceptualizing it, at bridging all views, at arriving at a comprehensive synthesis – our grandest schema to date – won’t even begin to capture the truth in any of its particulars?

Some among us will have to serve as the equivalent of grief counsellors to assuage the potentially-hurt feelings when the truth becomes known. History is so much bigger than we can possibly imagine and the great story is so much greater than our wildest dreams.

And the first spaceship that lands on Earth will begin a process that revolutionizes everything in our imagination and knowledge base. Everything written on this site, which took us scads of time to write, will have had a shelf life of perhaps a few years. It’ll then slide into the dustbin of history. Everything written (period) will be obsolete. Speak of a need for detachment!

Time to start afresh with an open, empty mind. Time to let go of everything we’ve been told, everything we’ve “learned,” and everything contained in every book on every library shelf, on this soon-to-be Nova Earth.