Quando ullum inventiet prem? When shall we look upon his like again?
Horace (Odes Bk I, Ode 24, 1.8)
To the best of our current knowledge we humans are the most complex systems to have emerged in the physical universe.
Physically we are sustained by complex biochemistry, made possible by bio-friendly terrestrial physical conditions of air pressure, temperature range, a planetary mass that enables locomotion while keeping the bodies earth-bound.
Cognitively, the complex faculties of perceptions enable us to become aware of umpteen aspects of the external world.
Experientially, the same sensory organs also generate possibilities for pleasure and pain through taste and smell, sight and sound and touch.
Mentally, the extraordinary labyrinth of human brains with billions of neurons generate intangible and powerful thoughts of all kinds, making life immensely colorful and rich.
Intellectually, we have been stirred by curiosity about the world and quest for the unknown, resulting in science.
Emotionally, we are tossed by love and hate, kindness and cruelty, angst and serenity, passion and patience, and such.
Creatively, we have come up with poetry and philosophy, music and mathematics as also tangible works of art, architecture, and sculpture
The human spirit has enabled us to develop self-awareness, and longing for connecting with the cosmos, resulting in religions and rituals, prayers and pilgrimages, music and meditation. Whether, in the phrase of Teilhard de Chardin, we are human beings having a spiritual experience or spiritual beings having a human experience, has been debated over the ages.
These are just some aspects that make us exceptionally complex blobs of matter in an insignificant niche in the wonder that is the stretch of space and time.
Some humans lie and cheat, kill and torture, fight wars, conquer and subdue, destroy places of worship, preach and persecute in the name of God. Some oppress and exploit, some over-consume and swear, hate and hurt, and destroy the very earth that sustains us.
But many – perhaps the vast majority – of us also love and care. We do physics and biology, calculus and number theory. We sing and dance and play. We paint and sculpt. We make gourmet food, enjoy sports and convene conferences. We build pyramids and pagodas, cathedrals and mosques, temples and synagogues, and gurudwaras. Through all these, and through poetry and chants, telescopes and microscopes, hymns and scientific theories, we strive to commune with the Unfathomable Mystery of existence in a hundred different ways. We are surely a species capable of limitless nobility and creativity!
Every one of us is an amalgam of Good and Evil, actual or potential. They are both latent in our hearts and words and deeds, as in the world outside of us. Evil is ever present, ready to explode, and Good is always there, ready to be tapped.
Spurts of Thought 