"In the middle of the journey of my life I found myself astray in a dark wood where the straight road had been lost sight of. How hard it is to say what it was like in the thick of thickets, in a wood so dense and gnarled the very thought of it renews my panic. It is bitter almost as death itself is bitter. But to rehearse the good it also brought me I will speak about the other things I saw there."     

 Dante Alighieri

Greetings and welcome. My name is Charles Sage and I invite you to explore the contents of this ongoing work which seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of the intrinsic nature of Homo sapiens and our profound connection to both the Earth and the cosmos. At the heart of this inquiry is the Gaia Hypothesis, a theory that has sparked considerable debate. This hypothesis proposes that our planet, rather than being a lifeless entity merely inhabited by various organisms, may, in fact, be a living organism in itself.  The implications of this perspective are profound, suggesting that each individual life form on Earth can be understood as a distinct organism, while simultaneously functioning as a part (or holon) of a larger, interconnected planetary system or holarchy, much like the cells that constitute our own bodies. In light of this emerging framework, it is possible that longstanding models of spirituality and religion may require re-evaluation. These insights offer a transformative perspective on the controversies surrounding belief systems that, in the words of Albert Einstein, arose during the "youthful period of mankind's spiritual evolution." Such insights also intersect with deeper understandings of the psychological, evolutionary, and biological dimensions of the human experience, highlighting their relationship to the paradigm shift in consciousness that is being explored here. We sincerely hope that you will find our efforts to be a valuable guide on the path toward a rational, less violent, and more compassionate world. more...    

 Charles Sage

Addendum: 9/21/2021

The content presented on this site, though not scholarly in the traditional sense, aims to illuminate the ancient concept of "oneness" — the idea that all sentient beings, as well as the Earth, galaxy, and the universe as a whole, are interconnected as part of a single, organic entity  (organic implying alive). We, as humans and conscious beings, are not standing outside of this reality as separate observers but rather are deeply embedded within it and, are almost certainly, integral components of this vast cosmic machinery. Although, most likely due to the enormity of the scale involved, we appear to be disconnected and apart from the planet, the universe and even others of our own species. This misperception, once again to quote Albert Einstein, "is an optical delusion of our consciousness".   

 Charles Sage

“Are you a G-d?” they asked the Buddha.

“No,” he replied.

“Are you an angel then?” “No.”

“A saint?” “No.”

“Then what are you?”

Replied the Buddha, “I am awake.”

 Siddhartha Gautama – The Buddha 

“That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary.” – Rabbi Hillel

In “The Ethics – Part 1; Concerning God”, Spinoza spells out the hypothesis that all things, animate, inanimate, and even the concept of God, are bound into one grand “Organic Interdependence of Parts”. From this hypothesis it logically follows that obedience to the Golden Rule is an act of self-interest and not altruism.  – R. H. M. Elwes

*   *   *

The Gaia Hypothesis

The Gaia hypothesis is an ecological hypothesis originally proposed by James Lovelock as the earth feedback hypothesis which views the Earth as a single organism. It was named the Gaia Hypothesis after the Greek supreme goddess of Earth. Lovelock and others now regard it as a scientific theory, not merely a hypothesis, since they believe it's passed predictive tests. more...

Philosophers

• Francis Heylighen

• Ayn Rand

• Dalai Lama

• Lynn Margulis

• Thomas Nagel

• James Lovelock

• Ludwig von Bertalanffy

• Herbert Spencer

• Arthur Koestler

• Elisabet Sahtouris

• Jodi Magness

• J. Krishnamurti

• Baruch Spinoza

• P. Teilhard de Chardin

• Etienne de la Boetie

• Shakespeare

• Sir Fred Hoyle *

• Fred Hoyle - Life From Space

• Fred Hoyle - Website

• Fred Hoyle - Videos

*

"If one proceeds directly and straightforwardly in this matter (evolution), without being deflected by a fear of incurring the wrath of scientific opinion, one arrives at the conclusion that biomaterials (living cells) with their amazing measure of order must be the outcome of intelligent design. No other possibility I have been able to think of..." — Sir Fred Hoyle

Published in his 1982/1984 books Evolution from Space (co-authored with Chandra Wickramasinghe), Hoyle calculated that the chance of obtaining the required set of enzymes for even the simplest living cell without panspermia was one in 1040,000. Since the number of atoms in the known universe is infinitesimally tiny by comparison (1080), he argued that Earth as life's place of origin could be ruled out. He claimed: "The notion that not only the biopolymer but the operating program of a living cell could be arrived at by chance in a primordial organic soup here on the Earth is evidently nonsense of a high order."   — Sir Fred Hoyle[31]

Would you not say to yourself, "Some super-calculating intellect must have designed the properties of the carbon atom, otherwise the chance of my finding such an atom through the blind forces of nature would be utterly minuscule. A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question."

Sir  Fred Hoyle[24]

Though Hoyle declared himself an atheist,[38] this apparent suggestion of a guiding hand led him to the conclusion that "a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and ... there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature."[39] He would go on to compare the random emergence of even the simplest cell without panspermia to the likelihood that "a tornado sweeping through a junk-yard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials therein" and to compare the chance of obtaining even a single functioning protein by chance combination of amino acids to a solar system full of blind men solving Rubik's Cubes simultaneously.[40] This is known as "the junkyard tornado", or "Hoyle's Fallacy". Those who advocate the intelligent design (ID) philosophy sometimes cite Hoyle's work in this area to support the claim that the universe was fine tuned to allow intelligent life to be possible.

The Case for G-d

• Mathematical Challenges to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution

• By Design: Behe, Lennox, and Meyer on the Evidence for a Creator

•  Stephen C.  Meyer - Philosopher of Science

• Return of the God Hypothesis in Cambridge with Stephen Meyer

 Books & Courses

• The Age of Reason - Thomas Paine

• Common Sense - Thomas Paine

• A Confession - L.N. Tolstoy

• What I Believe -  L.N. Tolstoy

• The Kingdom of God Is Within You -  L.N. Tolstoy

• Biocosm - James Gardner 

• The Intelligent Universe - James Gardner 

• Janus: A Summing Up - Arthur Koestler

• The Fourth Way - P.D. Ouspensky

• A New Model of the Universe - P.D. Ouspensky

• Jesus and his Jewish Influences - Jodi Magness

• The Theory of the Leisure Class - Thorstein Veblen

• On Truth and Reality - Geoff Haselhurst

• JSTOR Digital Library

• Google Scholar 

• Library of Congress

• Library of Congress - World Digital Library

“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay undiscovered before me.”  

- Isaac Newton 

The content of this website is best interpreted in light of author James Gardner's hypothesis,

The Selfish Biocosm, elucidated in his books Biocosm and The Intelligent Universe.

© 2011 évolution exponentielle: The Metaphysical Ruminations of an Apostate