THE
BIRTH
OF
THOUGHT

Try to imagine being without thought. Not merely to stop thinking, or to rest your mind, but to be without the means of thinking, without the power of imagination. Not to be merely conscious, but to be unable to reason.

We were conscious long before we were thoughtful. Conscious, conscience, consciousness all derive from the same root "to know." Think and thought are different. To think is to give entrance of an idea to the mind, to call to mind, to center one's thoughts. Thought is a reasoning power, the power to imagine, the process of thinking.

If you can imagine yourself only as you see yourself reflected in the mirror, a flat surface with nothing going on inside, see yourself only as your mirror image is reflected to your eyes, without any interior entity knowingly responding, you will begin to understand that something noteworthy happened when thought was born.

Because we are endowed with thought, we tend to take it for granted. We assume that it always was, and like the unaware owner of an article of real value, we fail to appreciate its true worth. We find it natural to endow others with what we find commonplace and comfortable in ourselves. Shaw thought that anyone could write; he envied the different talents of others. The athlete finds golf an easy game, the mathematician finds no mystery in numbers, and both expect as much from others. It is little wonder, then, that we associate thought with mankind and do not wonder what the human race was like before thought, or when thinking came to mankind, or how.

Before the birth of thought, the human species was well along the biological path of evolution. When intelligence in the brain exceeded instinct in the genes, nature combined instinct and intelligence and the human race began to organize group efforts, to form simple societies, and to worship. As a worshipper of many gods, any chosen image became a god, not the image of God. Humans were conscious, knew and saw. But they saw with their eyes, not through them. Humans knew, but did not know that they knew; they asked, but did not reason why. A person was a spectator, a vassal, a number as much as any number in a herd. And then, some began to think.


FROM VASSAL INTO VESSEL
From vassal into vessel the human species was dramatically changed through the birth of thought. And this, not so long ago. In terms of evolution, this happened within our recorded history. In terms of our times, reflect upon our calendar, for the years since Anno Domini have meaning here. This most recent development in the progress of evolution cast the human race in a new and different role signaling a new and different world inhabited by new and different beings.

Perhaps it is too recent a development to have earned the recognition that it merits. Even Darwin failed to convey its significance, and succeeded only in churning discord when he titled his pioneer work, "The Descent of Man." More recently, Bronowski came closer but failed to fully focus our attention with his title for a similar work, "The Ascent of Man." Bronowski did, however, develop the thesis of the uniqueness of mankind in the progress of evolution, and had he added only one letter in the title of his work, and called it "The Nascent of Man," he would have conveyed that which happened so recently. For it was our coming into being that we must associate with the birth of thought, the nascence of an eternal life process within the biological life process. It is necessary to understand the significance of what happened if we are to appreciate that this event was a change in the very nature of the human race. For when mankind became manned, nature revealed her secrets; through the power of thought the unseen atom was visualized, the building blocks of life were translated into chemical formulas, and travel to distant stars become as certain as used to be the nomadic journeys of herdsmen from season to season. But before we examine too deeply the meaning of what happened to our state of being when thought was born (not so long ago) it may help us to understand if we know in more detail when it happened, and how it came about.

THE NEW POWER
When did mankind become manned, and how did it come about? It is not presumptuous to ask, for the inquisitive mind of mankind never rests and is capable of more than we credit it. Thought is to the mind what appetite is to the body. To keep asking questions is to keep the mind well fed. Descartes served us an appetizer, but stopped short of a whole meal. Had he followed, "I think; therefore I am" with the question: “I am what” we would have had more substantial food for thought, and perhaps could have answered three hundred and fifty years sooner - "I am to think."

The birth of thought (not just the past tense of thinking, but rather the full powers of reasoning) took place during a thousand-year period about 3,500 years ago. It can be fixed because it was recorded in the literature of the time. Prior to that time, there is no recorded concept of free will: instructions were given from afar, decisions were sought from graven images, people warred because the gods told them it was propitious to do so. The people of those times did not sit down and reason out their next move. They had no wills of their own and certainly no reasoning power. It is difficult for us now to image what it was like then. Back then, the gods took the place of individual thought. It was not an invention, like the machine gun or tank, or other technological improvement which gave the victors their victory. It was a transcending evolutionary development that gave the new breed a superior power - the power not only to unlock nature's safe and open up the secret files, but also to become one with nature and to participate in the process of life itself.

Two epic poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey, mark the event. The Iliad, which deals with human nature before the birth of thought, when humans are still blindly obedient to their many gods and to the voices and signs which direct them; and The Odyssey, which reflects the depth of the changes and the trial by fire which ensued. By 500 B.C., Delphi had lost its hold over the rulers of the times, and one by one the prophets were being silenced.
The Old Testament also records this transition. The New Testament spells out the difference. Trial and error created turmoil and terror in the process. Because the power of thought could be applied for evil as well as for good, people had great difficulty adjusting to its use, and society in general became alarmed over its misuse. It was under these conditions that the moral leaders of the day began to advocate the power of good thoughts, and to caution against the consequence of evil thoughts.

In Paul's letter to the Church at Philippi he urges the congregation "to think on those things which are true, honest, just, pure, lovely and on all things of good report." The problem then, as now, was how to exercise individual control over thought. Thought out of control, or applied to unworthy goals can cause illness, injury and even end in self-destruction. This was recognized then, and has been the subject of admonitions ever since. In parable after parable, page after page, the New Testament sets forth moral standards for the new condition and tells of the rise of the new force, of the source of the new power within. It is all there for the understanding. It is there in the parable of the talents, in the admonition to love, in the revelation of the power of personal prayer. "The Kingdom of God is within you." Listen. Look within.
Think!

THE TIP OF THE POINT
It was in 600 B.C. Solon of Athens gave mankind the injunction: "Know thyself." From Solon to Socrates, to Aristotle to Hebrew thought, to Roman thought, the process gathered force. By the end of the first millennium, during the attempted reformation of Judaism by Jesus, sufficient numbers of people had become actively manned to tip the scale, and the power of thought became a dominating force in society.

With the birth of thought, mankind set out on a voyage of discovery. A different world in the making, a major evolutionary event. It marked a turning point as much as the other major evolutionary events of the past; from fin to foot to wing to thumb.
The human race embarked on an amazing odyssey, and like Homer's Ulysses, what was greatly thought, was nobly dared. With the birth of thought, the human race emerged as more than an advanced biological species. No longer just part of the inventory, mankind achieved status, became part of nature's management, a trustee with an evolutionary role, with responsibility within the process. With the birth of thought, the human race took on immortality.

With the power of thought, we have opened our minds to the meaning of life. We have awakened our awareness of the eternity of the life process.

With the power of thought, we have conceptualized conscience, soul, and spirit; we have exercised free will, challenged fate, and celebrated life, all with the knowledge that a lifetime is measured by birth and death, but that eternal life lies within, within our thoughts and through our thoughts, within our grasp.

Count the stars, add up the light years from here to there, be impressed by the immensity of the universe, stir your imagination, and then ask the question: "Is there any point to it?"
Yes, I believe there is a point to it. We are the point, the very tip of the point. I believe that it is important for us to think, to give more thought to the power of thought, for to whatsoever we put our thoughts, we shall become. What we are is the product of what we think, and what we shall be will be shaped by the same process. To think is to create; therefore choose your thoughts carefully, since they act upon you.

In the process of evolution we are fulfilling a purpose through thinking. Like no other species in the universe, humankind reciprocates the force, which generates the power of thought. Think on the things you would become; think on these things…..

Whatsoever things are true,
Whatsoever things are honest,
Whatsoever things are just,
Whatsoever things are pure,
Whatsoever things are lovely,
Whatsoever things are of good report,
Think on these things.

Philippians 4:8
The Letter of Paul to the Church at Philippi

 

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