Thought and Action
Think and Act!

Building A Model of the World
  
1. Humanity and the Cosmos: A Sense of Purpose
2. A New System of Values: Ecosystem and Community 
3. Creating A Sustainable Future
4. Our Wisdom: Culture & Knowledge
5. Plan of Action: Oikonomia and Organization

Bound for Eternity
1. Humanity and the Cosmos: A Sense of Purpose
Immortality; Infinite Intelligence; Spirituality and Religion.
Who (or what) are we? 
Where do we come from, and where do we go to? 
What is life? 
What is death? 
Where do we stand in relation to everything else in the cosmos? 
How does it all work? 
What is the purpose? 

What are we and where do we come from?
Cosmologists now say the universe is 13.7 billion years old.

According to the Big Bang Model, a broadly accepted theory for the origin and evolution of the universe, “The universe began with an unimaginably enormous density and temperature. This immense primordial energy was the cauldron from whence all life arose. Elementary particles were created and destroyed by the ultimate particle accelerator in the first moments of the universe.” http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_uni/uni_101life.html

It is believed that at the beginning hydrogen, helium and lithium, the three lightest elements in the periodic table, were formed throughout the universe as a hot gas. Carbon (on which our life is based) oxygen, and water (on which our survival depends) were created later in nuclear fusion reactions in the heart of the stars.

Quantum Fluctuations
Thus Quantum Fluctuations created the cosmic structure for life.

"Quantum Fluctuations are the random nature of matter's state of existence or nonexistence. At these incredibly small sub-atomic scales, the state of reality is fleeting, changing from nanosecond to nanosecond. 

"The motor for making stars (and galaxies) came early and was very subtle. Before the completion of the first fraction of a second of the universe, sub-atomic scale activity, tiny 'quantum fluctuations', drove the universe towards stars and life. With the sudden expansion of a pinhead size portion of the universe in a fraction of a second, random quantum fluctuations inflated rapidly from the tiny quantum world to a macroscopic landscape of astronomical proportions."
http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_uni/uni_101life.html

Our universe, by the virtue of its birth, created the conditions that were necessary for life (as we know it) to begin. CASF calls these conditions "opportunity".

As our universe evolved so did its intelligence, and each created more opportunity for life (and intelligence) to evolve.

To support the development of life, even more opportunities were needed. The next set of opportunities came with the creation of our Sun 4.6 billion years ago. Scientists believe that an interstellar cloud of dust, gas, and ice gradually coalesced and formed a spinning mass known as a nebula. This nebula gradually formed into the sun.

Solids formed from some of the remaining dust, gas and ice near the edge of the nebula.  Those solids smashed into each other, stuck together and gradually grew larger. These larger masses attracted more masses and grew larger still to form the building blocks of the planets, moons, asteroids and comets, thus creating the opportunities for Solar System to form.

The next cluster of opportunities came with the creation of our planet Earth some 4.5 billion years ago.

Earth was heavily bombarded by a fusillade of asteroids, comets, and meteors for nearly a billion years.

Scientists believe that life began on Earth at the end of this period, which they call the ‘late heavy bombardment,’ some 3.85 billion years ago - just as soon as life had the opportunity to form on Earth.

The asteroids and comets provided further opportunities for the development of life on Earth. First, they delivered the building blocks of life, carbon-based molecules and water, as they struck Earth; later, they wiped out the least adaptable life forms, thus allowing only the most adaptable species to survive and evolve further.

Biologists now widely believe that humans have evolved from single-celled organisms. In the last 3.85 billion years life and intelligence have evolved considerably.

Scientists think that Humans have existed as a species for a few million years. Humans can think, discriminate, learn, and transfer their knowledge to posterity.

The opportunities enabled life to begin and evolve to its present day forms, but that is not the end, because life will continue to evolve and intelligence will go on pervading the universe.

Why do we die? Must we fear death?
The best answer to the above came from the mystic poet J. Rumi (1207-1273 CE) nearly 800 years ago. In the following poem he describes the past, its relevance to the present and the state of future in relation to evolution of consciousness and infinite intelligence:

What Shall I Be;
I have again and again grown like grass,
I have experienced seven hundred and seventy moulds.

I died from minerality and became vegetable;
And from vegetativeness I died and became animal.
I died from animality and became man.
Then why fear disappearance through death?

Next time I shall die,
Bringing forth wings and feathers like angels;
After that soaring higher than angels — 
What you cannot imagine. 
I shall be that.

Why share this valuable information with everyone? BECAUSE as intelligent, discerning and altruistic humans we have the obligation to reciprocate: Help create opportunities for intelligence to propagate and pervade the universe. Each of us can have a role, and in our roles we act as a tributary to the Infinite Intelligence…

2. A New System of Values: Ecosystem and Community 
Life is not possible without a healthy ecosystem - the life support systems. Understanding, preserving, and achieving harmony with nature must form the basis for a sustainable future.  

We need a new set of values - based on ethics and morality - as our guiding principles. 

A major attribute that is associated with life and that has protected and enabled it to evolve seems to be a phenomenal pool of intelligence that is remarkably ethical naturalistically.

Ethical Behavior
Human species evolved gradually as did its morality passing through various phases of ethical development. Ethical behavior is therefore infused deep within our consciousness. However, in recent times, the human conscience in some societies has been subject to intentional distortion by synthetic factors such as mind-control techniques, hallucinogens, and narcotics.

Animals act instinctively, whereas humans have the capacity for making deliberate choices. Biologist Ernst Mayr says that ethical behavior facilitates conscious thought, which in turn enables deliberate choices. The choices that we make determine whether or not we are the targets of natural selection, as individuals, reproducers, or members of a social group.

So what keeps us going?

Altruism
Genuine Altruism is the essence of responsibility for the common good, for the welfare of our life base Earth and the entire life community (including humans). 

Awesome Forces
In its purest form, altruism is love in a cosmic sense – the most refined, and of the highest order and magnitude. Physicist Louis de Broglie wrote: 

Perhaps philosophers might call it ‘love’ in a very general sense – that force which directs all our actions, which is the source of all our delights and all our pursuits. Indissolubly linked with thought and with action, love is their common mainspring and, hence, their common bond.

3. Creating A Sustainable Future
Past: where we started... Present: where we are now... Future: where we want to go... 

So what are the possibilities? Our universe matures as intelligence continues to propagate and pervade it throughout. Compared to the past, most of the events will occur in the future; therefore, the future is more important and more meaningful than the past.

In the short history of its civilization humans have made massive advances in science and technology. In fact the advances have been so copious, we can safely assume there is no end to human achievement [what you cannot imagine I shall be that] and given continuity of life AND future opportunity, knowledge and intelligence can soar to infinity. But will it?

4. Our Wisdom: Culture & Knowledge
How do we create a sustainable future? 
Use existing knowledge base.

5. Plan of Action: Oikonomia and Organization
How to start:

Oikonomia (economics for community)