I liked this...

The implications of such a change of thought could be profound. Philosophically, the idea of the relative changelessness of the physical elements led most scientists to see life as an aspect of matter. Now it is finally realized that in fact it is the living organisms which transform the elements. Hence it is life that is more relatively permanent than the matter which forms the raw material for the bodies or vehicles of living beings. Thus one might say that it is physical matter which conforms to the laws of life, of consciousness, rather than the reverse.

Thus also would the consciousness of Western mankind be freed from the degrading and unjustified assertion that man is but a mass of highly sophisticated dirt. Instead, we might see ourselves, even from the scientific viewpoint, as living, self-conscious beings, whose dignity arises not out of our material intricacy, but out of our own inherent life essence And hence we may see ourselves, not as competitors in a material struggle for dominance, but rather as brothers, each sharing an inviolable life essence, each helping all others to grow -- to become an ever more harmonious expression of the whole.

(From Sunrise magazine, April 1975; copyright © 1975 Theosophical University Press)

http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/science/sc-wad2.htm


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