The Inner Dinosaur

 

• A grandkid displaying her inner dinosaur

Natasha visited last week showing us her hallowe'en mask. For me, it recalled the theory proposed by Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919): ontogeny recapitulates philogeny; that is, development of the individual repeats evolution of the species, a notion supported by the gill slits and tail of the human embryo, which are resorbed as the embryo matures. Sounds complicated, but it's actually too simple, as most theories are when first conceived. 

If you read the link above, you will see that Haeckel's idea has evolved. Like species, ideas go through  replication with variation and selection in the collective mind, thinker to thinker, teacher to student and generation to generation. The understanding of the individual may follow similar developmental stages as one matures. Perhaps ontogeny recapitulates philogeny in the realm of ideas. And perhaps that notion is also too simple.

First, some philogeny. Early on in the Abrahamic religions, came the notion that mankind was made in God's image. I think of this as an inversion of the actual process in which mankind made God in our image, eventually ascribing to God the full range of motives, passions, intentions and capabilities we are familiar with as conscious persons. The idea of God begins with what we know from experience, and advances as new experience raises questions. Unfortunately we cannot think of an answer that will serve in every possible situation. So we begin by saying what God is and proceed by discovering what God is not, and then repeat the cycle of affirmation and denial through the generations, while God evolves from creator of everything to tribal god of war to heavenly father to personal saviour to indwelling spirit to universal ground of being and becoming.

Now about ontogeny. Each person advances through cycles: at first receptive, then convinced, then skeptical, then questioning, then innovative. With each turn of this wheel we dress up the unknowable unknown in some metaphor that fits current circumstance to make God thinkable. 

This looks like ontogeny replicating philogeny. If we are tempted to label it progress, notice how it is punctuated by side trips and reversals and dead ends. The assumption of privilege, the justification of violence, the retreat into self, compassion for others, forgetting self in the quest for the greater good, and many similar themes we learn from experience when we fail to learn from history. Life is messy. Making sense of it is holy work. 

So, look around and see how metaphor,

forgotten, ancient, overlooked, naive,

once served so well as wisdom's reservoir
now fails to move the seeker to believe.

And racing on postmodern, we explore

new thoughts and old, emerging and evolved, 

for God in us seeks out the metaphor,
relentless till the mystery is solved.