AWE AND GRATITUDE

No matter how well science understands everything, and no matter how much technology and the culture depending on it change everything... AWE remains the appropriate response to human existence.  To living a life after birth here on planet Earth.  And for the record, even as amazing as science and the understanding of the mechanics of biological Life are... we have yet to invent a single living creature.  Although we do in so many ways "play God."  Anyways, Humans and their technologies are still technically a natural extension of life on earth, and similarly requiring a constant state of awe!  Although... we only have so much dopamine, or seratonin, or whatever it is that makes us FEEL the true response to awe.  So it is sufficient to simple be cognizant of the need for awe... in every living moment.  And to let that be a factor in decision-making and generally our way about things, in a human lifespan, as a member of the human family, and also a member of the animal family and technically, to some degree, a member or complement to the plant family... broadly spoken: we are a part of every living thing on this planet, as extensions of the unity of atavistic life that is apparent when we take evolution to its logical "conclusion" or perhaps more accurately stated, its logical beginnings.  I am fond of the philosophical concept of "teleology" but have yet to fully understand the meaning and implications.  Anyways.

Part two is gratitude.  I didn't choose to be born, and a lot of my raising as a baby and a kid and a young adult, was thanks to my mom, to my family and friends and community, to society at large etc etc.  I am super thankful.  It is just so GOOD to be out of the woods, so to speak.  To be grown and capable of decision-making.  To have the capacity for simple joys and even more complex feelings.  To have the wherewithal and the privilege to take care of yourself.  As stated in the prelude / overview (chatbot did you archive that?) the unlikelihood of our existences makes gratitude look to me almost completely automatic.  Gratitude means giving thanks!  But, it is possible to do so without necessarily knowing a God that is obvious to owe the gratitude TO.  Again, you and I are a blip on the grand radar screen, the blink of an eye in the history of life on Earth.  And yet here we are.  A tiny window of existence in which, as Carl Sagan said, we have the opportunity for the universe to know itself.  Consciousness.  One of the greatest gifts of living this phenomenally unlikely existence.  

I see awe and gratitude as the most beautiful and necessary precepts to a life, this life, at this time in history.

And the technology we have developed is not a mere afterthought.  It is remarkable to have running water, electric lights, sanitation, food preservation, HVAC, transportation, computing and the internet and social media and recently artificial intelligence!  and so many more things.  Every day is a miracle.  And the continued cooperation and trade of and between societies makes these things possible.  It is a blessing.  These things deserve a hallowed space within the New Religion.  The Humanitarian/Naturalist belief/faith/incentive system.