The Arrogance of Human Beings – Awe and Wonder

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We are microbes on the surface of a small planet.

Our planet orbits around a small, insignificant star – Sol.

Our star is out in an outer spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy – not even near the middle.

There are 400 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. It is a mere 100,000 light years across. (It would take light 100,000 years to get from one side to the other!)

The biggest galaxies are 2 million light years across – hugely bigger – with 10 trillion stars. They make ours look tiny.

We know of 2 trillion galaxies so far.

The distances between them are beyond our comprehension. The universe is 46 Billion light years from the centre to the expanding edge.

Yet human beings, with our tiny brains, think we can understand something as stupendous as this. We can work out where it came from, its laws and its future. What a remarkable arrogance.

It is the equivalent of bacteria living in your toilet for brief seconds thinking they can work out the nature of the backside lowering itself into position.

The fact that we have worked out so much is amazing! Science is stupendous and exciting.

For those fundamentalists of all religions who think that god created all this for the sake of us little bacteria on this insignificant planet – I find your belief ludicrous. That is the height of arrogance and super-inflated egos.

The universe is a wondrous, mystical place. The one thing I’m certain of is that it wasn’t created for us. We have a brief lifetime in which to be astounded by it and enjoy it. How lucky we are.

My influences – Music – Viscerally

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My Influences – Music

 

Viscerally  
Little Richard I was eleven years old when I first heard Little Richard. I’d already fallen in love with Buddy Holly but Little Richard blew me away and awakened some deep excitement in the core of my being the like of which I had not known existed. The energy he poured out poured into me and set my heart pounding. I’d discovered something so earthy and powerful that it awakened something inside of me and made me feel good – so very good.
Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry That same energy that Little Richard produced was also released by both Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. Bo was more seminal and primitive and Chuck more visually enthralling but both homed in on that primordial creature that lived in my glands. They set the juices flowing and filled me with life. They brought me alive. That music rocked.
Beatles I must have been fourteen when I first heard the Beatles. My friend Tony took me off to his room, put the needle down on his latest acquisition, turned the volume right up and hit me with She Was Just Seventeen. It hit me in the depths of my abdomen and sent blood roaring to my brain. I had never heard anything so exciting. Life would never be the same.
Rolling Stones Later that same year I was hit with another body blow when I bought the Stones first album. It was every bit as good as the Beatles – rawer, rougher and bluesier. It was so rebellious and sultry, so low down dirty that it reeked of illicit sexuality and heat that it took everything up a notch for me.

My influences – Music – Cerebrally

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My influences – Music

 

Music has had the biggest impact on my life of anything. I have been transported by it, emotionally excited and cerebrally engaged.

 

Cerebrally  
Roy Harper I was fortunate enough to catch Roy when I was a mere slip of a lad and he was just starting out. I was at those gigs where epic songs such as McGoohan’s Blues and I Hate the Whiteman were new. I witnessed the passion and fury of a young Roy as he railed against the society we were imprisoned it and what it was doing to us and the world.

He seemed to mirror my own views and I spent hundreds of hours listening to Roy live, talking and explaining and in song and poem, and on record. What he was talking about resonated with me and caused me to think more deeply about what I was doing with my life. Roy fed my rebellious streak and made me take a long hard look at the society I was growing up in and its values.
Bob Dylan Back in the sixties there were two major issues – civil rights and war.

Bob Dylan in his early albums created songs that articulated the plight of blacks in the South, the civil rights movement, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers and the cruel murder of Emmet Till.

He wrote of the futility of war, the threat of nuclear disaster and the stupidity of extreme right wing groups such as the John Birch Society.

He deployed humour and poetry to create a barbed attack on prejudice and Jim Crow and highlighted social injustice.

He awakened my awareness and raised my sensibilities.
Phil Ochs Phil also addressed those same civil rights issues but tended to focus more on the struggles of the working man, the trade unions and people’s rights. His songs were documentaries on politics and social issues.

Dylan sneered at him and called him a journalist. Well he wasn’t the poet that Dylan was but he certainly could bring political and social issues alive.

He made me think about exploitation, racism and communism.
Woody Guthrie Woody was where songs about social issues started. He used his guitar to oppose fascism, fight for workers’ rights, equality and a fairer society. He stood up against exploitation in the face of violence.

Woody took his philosophy with him where-ever he went – on picket lines, in radio studios, recording studios, and rambling around the country. He befriended and played with black musicians at a time when that was not condoned. Woody fought for what he believed in. His strength, fortitude and uncompromising attitude were an inspiration to me.

Quotes 19 – Henry Miller – on life!

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Henry Miller has always been one of my heroes. He lived a life that was wild and creative, outside of the rules of society, yet with morality and passion.
I idolised him.
He was like a 1930s Beatnik in Paris!
I could write quotes all day they are all so brilliant:
‘The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.’
yes!!
‘I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive.’
Yes again!! To live wild and in the moment!
‘Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.’
If we could only live naturally again. In tune with our needs.
The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.
All life is a mystery – a wonder – awe and majesty!
‘The only thing we never get enough of is love; and the only thing we never give enough of is love.’
How true – love is all you need.
‘Chaos is the score upon which reality is written.’
The chaos of quantum and multiverses.
‘One’s destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.’
The journey is what it’s about – extracting every nuance and joy.
‘If there is to be any peace it will come through being, not having.’
Feeling – loving – doing – being.
‘Back of every creation, supporting it like an arch, is faith. Enthusiasm is nothing: it comes and goes. But if one believes, then miracles occur.’
I believe we can change the world. We can build a positive zeitgeist.
‘The real leader has no need to lead – he is content to point the way.’
Henry pointed the way for me!

These are my six books of poetry. They are available as paperback or on Kindle from Amazon – all for under £5 for a paperback. You could buy the whole lot for just £27.62!!

They are not conventional poetry books. They are like you find on my blog with a page of explanatory prose followed by the poem. The prose is as important as the poem to me.

 

Codas, Cadence and Clues – £4.97

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Codas-Cadence-Clues-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1530754453/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460847766&sr=1-4&keywords=opher+goodwin

Stanzas and Stances – £5.59

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stanzas-Stances-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1518708080/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460882298&sr=1-9&keywords=opher+goodwin

Poems and Peons – £4.33

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Poems-Peons-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1519640110/ref=sr_1_25?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460882335&sr=1-25&keywords=opher+goodwin

Rhymes and Reasons – £3.98

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rhymes-Reason-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1516991184/ref=sr_1_28?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460882443&sr=1-28&keywords=opher+goodwin

Prose, Cons and Poetry – £4.60

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prose-Cons-Poetry-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1512376566/ref=sr_1_35?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460882506&sr=1-35&keywords=opher+goodwin

Vice and Verse – £4.15

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vice-Verse-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1514792079/ref=sr_1_36?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460882560&sr=1-36&keywords=opher+goodwin

 

 

Science Fiction books:

 

Ebola in the Garden of Eden – paperback £6.95 Kindle £2.56 (or free on unlimited)

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ebola-Garden-Eden-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1514878216/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1461831172&sr=1-11&keywords=opher+goodwin

 

Green – paperback £9.98 Kindle £2.56 (or free on unlimited)

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Green-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1514122294/ref=sr_1_17?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1461831333&sr=1-17&keywords=opher+goodwin

 

Rock Music books

 

In Search of Captain Beefheart – paperback £6.91 Kindle £1.99 (or free on unlimited)

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Search-Captain-Beefheart-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1502820455/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=146183144

3&sr=1-1&keywords=opher+Goodwin

 

Other selected books and novels:

 

Anecdotes-Weird-Science-Writing-Ramblings – a book of anecdotes mainly from the sixties and other writing.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anecdotes-Weird-Science-Writing-Ramblings/dp/1519675631/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1461832001&sr=1-9&keywords=opher+goodwin

 

More Anecdotes – following the immense popularity of the first volume I produced a second

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/More-Anecdotes-Essays-Beliefs-flotsam/dp/1530770262/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1461832001&sr=1-5&keywords=opher+goodwin

 

Goofin’ with the cosmic freaks – a kind of On the Road for the sixties

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Goofin-Cosmic-Freaks-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1500860247/ref=sr_1_13?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1461832001&sr=1-13&keywords=opher+goodwin

The book of Ginny – a novel

 

 

In Britain :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1461306850&sr=1-2-ent

 

In America:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=opher+goodwin

In all other countries around the world check out your regional Amazon site and Opher Goodwin books.

 

The Legal system – Restorative Practice.

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Restorative Practice

At school, as a Head of Year, Deputy Head and Headteacher, I used Restorative Practice to solve incidents. It is a philosophy which is efficient and highly effective.

You bring together the parties concerned and establish what has happened. This is often achieved through questioning but may require witness statements or further investigation. Once the facts have been established the people involved are confronted with their actions, the consequences on others and guided through what they should have done. Then suitable punishments are ascribed. I always asked both parties what they thought the punishment should be.

This is what I found:

  1. It was relatively easy to establish what had taken place
  2. Once confronted with evidence the guilty party invariably admitted their guilt
  3. Rarely was it one sided – there were mistakes made by all parties to one degree or another
  4. The punishments selected by the victims were usually lighter than I would have imposed
  5. The punishments selected by the guilty party were usually harsher than I would have imposed.
  6. By the end I had established what had gone wrong, who was to blame (and to what degree), and what should be done to make amends.
  7. Both parties left feeling that justice had been done
  8. Both parties were usually guilty to an extent
  9. The punishments fitted the crime
  10. Both parties accepted the verdict and felt the punishments were appropriate
  11. There was modelling of what should have happened.
  12. It was speedy.
  13. Both parties apologised and made up and could appreciate the impact, physically, emotionally and psychologically, on the other.
  14. The participants left the room without feeling aggrieved, feeling they had been listened to and justice had been done. Their punishments were an atonement.

I believe the Legal System could adopt a similar process for most, even serious, crimes. For perpetrators to see the effect they were having on real victims and for victims to see and understand real reasons that perpetrators had for committing crimes and for punishments to be applied fairly – it is a win win for me.

My Beliefs – Quantum Physics – weird and wonderful.

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My Beliefs – Quantum Physics

We stand on solid ground.

That’s not true.

In effect we are standing on a force-field that our force-field, our the force-field of our solid body, cannot penetrate. There is relatively more ‘space’ between atoms that there is between the stars. If it wasn’t for the force-fields holding things in place the atoms would simply slide past each other without a single one touching.

That’s weird. You think of solid things hitting something solid but there is no solid thing to hit.

But that is as nothing to the world of Quantum Physics.

This is a world where nothing makes sense. Things can be in two places at once. This is a world explained by mathematical theories. It is the world of energy, atoms, subatomic particles and atomic forces. It does not behave like the universe we inhabit.

I believe the universe we live in is an illusion.

I believe we only see it partially.

I believe we are living in a sandwich of ‘reality’. The macrocosm, full of quasars, black holes and dark matter, full of galaxies, neutron stars and astronomical size, is a universe of incomprehension of Newtonian Physics, Einstein’s magic and String Theory. The microcosm with its neutrinos, Higgs-bosun, quarks and particles that go back in time, is another world that you couldn’t make up.

I believe the reality we live, suspended between the two, is much more peculiar than even we can imagine. We don’t know half of it.

I don’t understand it but I am fascinated by it.

I believe the human mind is amazing. We have invented maths and we have invented tools that enable us to learn and understand to levels that are stupendous.

We stand on the backs of giants.

Our knowledge and understanding expand beyond all comprehension (except for a few).

I believe our understanding of Quantum Physics makes the religious fundamentalists, like ISIS, look like primitive savages. They would have us chuck aside all of our knowledge for the sake of a medieval book of dubious ramblings.

The next time I hear one of the ignorant fools tell me that evolution is not true I will think on the minds that worked out the mysteries of the microcosm and macrocosm and feel sorry for them.

I know we are far from understanding it. But we do know that the earth is billions of years old and that the ark was never a reality.

My beliefs – Creativity, Music and Art.

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Creativity and Art.

You have to have a purpose for life. In the past, in our nomadic, tribal days, we had a clear purpose. Our lives would have been filled with hunting, gathering, creating tools and weapons, shelters and clothing, adornments and decoration, and cooking, playing and teaching children, and then rituals. It seems that it was a full and satisfying life to me. Certainly one I would have found fulfilling (even if it was full of danger, fear, disease, periodic starvation and death.

Modern life does not have the same appeal.

Some people turn to religion for their purpose but what gets me out of bed are two things. Firstly I have a desire to become involved, communicate and improve things in line with my philosophy (tolerance, freedom, equality, empathy, respect, responsibility …..). Secondly I enjoy creating and making things with meaning.

Writing enables me to do both of those things. It gets my head buzzing with ideas. I find it fulfilling, exciting and stimulating.

Writing gives my life purpose.

If I was a potter, artist, dancer, actor, musician ….. I believe I would feel equally alive.

I believe that creating, music, poems, art, dance, craft, tools, ideas, decoration, ….. anything, is firmly implanted in our psyche and plugs right in to a primitive centre in our spirit. It’s an essential part of our humanity. Without it we are less. That is why fundamentalists, like ISIS and the Nazis, try so hard to suppress it all. It is about life and they are about death.

I believe that if humans are not able to use their imagination and skills to create they die a little.

Beliefs – Human consciousness

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Human consciousness

I think therefore I am.

Inside my skull there is a gelatinous mass that is bull of billions of neurons with trillions of dendritic connections. It functions like a supercomputer providing me with self-awareness, a sense of identity and consciousness.

That is spectacular. But even more remarkable is the fact of most of what it does happens below the radar. My body and the world is constantly monitored and responded to, my subconscious sorts, stores and responds.

I have awareness of this amazing universe.

I am conscious.

I believe that this consciousness is the result of all that biology. That does not reduce the wonder of it for me. It leaves me with a multitude of questions.

What would the universe appear like to me if I had more senses to detect magnetism, infra-red, X-ray and the entire myriad other sources of energy? We are so poorly equipped.

Do other people have the same consciousness as me?

Do animals and even plants have a similar consciousness?

Is it possible that we can build computers who are really conscious?

Can I improve my level of consciousness?

Will science ever fully understand how a group of cells can, through chemical and electrical forces, create the mystery of consciousness?

My beliefs – The creation of life.

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The creation of life

Isn’t that amazing?

We seem to be on a planet with a vast array of other living animals and plants. Of course – I could be dreaming it!

Over billions of years organic molecules accumulated in the seas and joined together. The building blocks of protein, ribonucleic acid, carbohydrates and lipids bonded together and the first organism came into being.

From that first simple organism, through a series of evolutionary steps, all life evolved.

As a biologist I can appreciate the chemistry involved and the way these steps might have occurred. I can see why people find it incredible to understand. It is remarkable, stupendous and amazingly unlikely.

Yet it happened. Somehow it happened.

Given billions of years and the infinity of space I believe anything that is possible to happen will happen.

Yet the creation of life is stupendous.

Given more stars and planets than we can conceive it seems likely that it will have happened elsewhere too. If there are enough monkeys with enough keyboards sooner or later they will produce the complete works of Shakespeare. But that does not make it any the less wonderful.

The cop out is once again to put in a deity and put the mystery one step removed. Presumably the deity is alive? So life started somewhere before?

Life is awesome. It’s complexity is majestic.

I do believe that it happened spontaneously through natural laws. The human body is too badly thought through to have been designed (unless we have a deity who is inept or has a warped sense of humour). Why have one opening to the lungs? A neck that breaks? A excretory system and egestory system that opens into the genitals?

No – I believe animals, with all their design faults, are the functional result of evolution and not some cosmic designer.

But that doesn’t stop me from shaking my head at the wonder of it, the sheer improbability and the stupendous results of all this teeming life.

I believe we, as conscious, sentient and supposedly intelligent, animals, have a duty to nurture it.

My beliefs – Awe and Wonder – The Big Bang.

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My beliefs – Awe and Wonder – The Big Bang.

 

There are a number of things that simply do not make sense to me. They are hard for my mind to comprehend. That is probably not at all surprising given that the human brain is tiny and limited and the concepts we are trying to deal with are ginormous. We’ll probably never know. I find them fascinating to think about. They fill me with awe and wonder.

 

The Big Bang – The universe is expanding. If we extrapolate it back to a point we are back at the beginning.

I believe that this universe started with a big bang; that all matter and energy was spontaneously created out of nothing. Matter and antimatter, dark matter and energy burst into being and the universe came into existence.

I do not know how. I do not know if we are one of an infinite number of polyverses. I do not know what was before the Big Bang.

I believe science will tell us more and more but may never know. It might be beyond mankind’s understanding.

This is hard to accept.

I do not believe that this presumes the presence of a god – the creator. That is convenient but explains nothing to me. It seems a very human response and merely puts the mystery one step further away – where did god come from? Where was he living? What was there before god? Who gave him these divine powers? That seems even more simplistic and far-fetched.

I believe there is a mystery that is awe inspiring. Whatever caused it leaves me full of wonder.