Time

 The division (and harmony) of time — the calendar as the singular achievement of Nature and Human Civilization working together, and a thing worth worshipping.

INTRODUCTION

There is a singular achievement — one of Nature and Human Civilization working together. We couldn’t have done it alone. Either of us.

Well… technically it always existed in Nature, and we humans just came along and observed it. Discovered it, if you will. As we tend to do, we will say that we human people “invented” it. But Nature’s people — plants and animals and weather and the elements — have been using it since day one.

What is it?

It is the calendar.

It is so monumental that most of us take it for granted, every day. But it is something to believe in, and, in a sense, to worship. It is the truest and most natural thing that we have.

DETAILS

We might re-word it as: the division (and harmony) of time.

It has existed since the beginning of time? Well. Actually no. Cosmic time has no division, and therefore, no harmony either. Or rather, cosmic time has an infinity of strange divisions, but no Nature (that we know of) and thus no consciousness to have any duration of awareness of time.

Time on earth started when the earth started turning, which speculatively may have been when this piece of rock came into being. I don’t know! Who does?! But what a religious scope of idea, no?

When a planet turns, it creates day and night, because the star that it orbits (and they all orbit stars, it would seem) shines on exactly one half of the planet, one half of the time.

Wow.

And that orbit creates a year, one might think, by happening one lap around the sun at a time. Nature notices this more in some places on Earth than others. This has to do with the equator and the poles, and earth’s precession— the way the planet tips back and forth during its orbit. Believe it or not, this is enough to create more sunshine for one season, and more shade for the other. (There are basically two seasons, astronomically.)

Then, thanks to these two balances — day and night, summer and winter — Nature came along and evolved.

WOW.

Into plants first, and then animals.

Flowers bloom in the Spring, and harvests come in the Fall. I can’t figure that one out. It is almost enough to build any religion!

Nature has another cycle. Life and Death. Poetically, Spring and Winter bring about life and death. Realistically, thank God, we humans and many parts of Nature (working together) survive many a winter.

Holy shit right? No — literally, fertilizer is one of the holiest things there is. In this new religion. Good topsoil is hard to come by, and allows for plant life (that under-rated first half of the evolutionary tree) to survive underground (or in-the-ground rather) all year long. I don’t claim to understand this either. But I think it is worship-worthy.

The Mayan civilization, one of if not the most radical foundations of Human Civ., probably invented astronomy, and with it, the observation of one more massive cycle. Every 26,000 years. They thought Life as we know it would come and go with this cycle. They were wrong. (2012 anyone?)

SUMMARY

Unfortunately, apocalypse is still a looming threat for us, even if not predicted by the cycles of Nature. I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a major influence for this New Religion project. It is my hope that some clarity might help us all SAVE THE WORLD.

In the meantime, it feels refreshing to have a more perfect reality to worship. With awe and gratitude for, toward, and with ALL.