Genetic Memory Part 2 - evolution of the mind

A lot of people argue that evolution is a myth. Not a majority, but a lot. Just because the creation theory cannot be justified, 'intelligent design' was used as a excuse. Why can't they accept that evolution has, is and will always occur? Intelligent design focuses on conventional biological theories mixed with religious theories on the creation of the universe. It states that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection."

Maybe it's true. That's the bad part about theories like this. You can neither prove it nor disprove it.

But back to the main topic. Let's take a look at a prime example. Most people say we evolved from monkeys. In truth it's apes, not monkeys. And what is the key similarity other than the obvious mind power of chimps and the facial structure? It's our opposable thumbs! Which other animal has opposable thumbs? No other animal can open a door knob as efficiently as humans/apes/monkeys can? Sloths? Bears? Not really. The biggest evolutionary jump from ape to man, in my opinion, is not the mind, but the feet. Yes, the feet. Take a good look at them. They have similarities to that of an apes, but ours is reconstructed to be able to support us on our hind legs. And since man have stopped climbing trees and mountains, the shape of our feet have change dramatically. Slowly, we will witness our 'pinky' toes shrinking, or getting smaller. Why? Because we no longer use it. Apes and monkeys use it to grip branches. We don't even use it for balance anymore.

Then we have people who say evolution has never been observed. But how would you explain this: If you somehow went back in time some 500 years ago and explained that the world is round, gravity is real, earth revolves around the sun, etc, people would not have accepted it. In fact you would have been executed for blasphemy or something like that. But slowly, the human mind has evolved. Carrying genetic messages, making the process of learning easier. That's why technology that seemed like a breakthrough 20 years ago (eg: computers) is now taken for granted and so easily accepted. It is our minds evolving. One generation's genetics learning about the world and passing it on to the next.

Another way to observe human evolution (though this is harder to accept) is race. As in colour of skin, etc. Why are people in Japan mostly small, and why are people in Africa black? Japan is a tiny country, and thus the people have to naturally adapt to the size. The dark skin pigmentation of Africans are actually a natural sunblock, making darker people less prone to skin cancer.

I'd just like to say a few words of nonsense.1) just because man only live to see 70 - 90 years of life, doesn't mean the countless millennia that have past are non existent. 2)The universe can survive without humans, but humans cannot survive without the universe. 3)Next time you are happy about something that happened to you or something you received that made you happy, thank those responsible (even if it's yourself) and not the heavens. Do not find someone or something to blame, blame is the expression of dissatisfaction, dissatisfaction is the expression of anger. And anger sucks.

Time

Firstly, I'm going to be direct. I didn't like what I said in my last post. That's why it took me so long to post something new. Even though I said what I meant, and I meant what I said, I don't think I have enough experience or knowledge of politics to be giving extreme criticism to the critics. But that's all I'll say, no apologies; remorse is for the dead.


"What then is time? If no one asks me, I know: if I wish to explain it to one that asketh, I know not." St. Augestine.

Honestly. Who can define time?
Newton says time is a container, just like space, and is REAL as the objects and events it contains.

But is time real?

Maybe it's as real as we want it to be.

It is. Not because the clocks spin, and not because the sun rises and falls, but because, I think, that we can define and relate time to an event or something. But that would make time relative to each and every person, just like how I discussed that good and evil is relative to each person.

Thus consider this;
What may be a long and boring day for me, could be a fun adventure for someone else. I doubt there's a day that time passes a little too quick (or slow) for every single person on the planet.

I can also conclude that most other animals have only a basic idea of time. Or perhaps, they know what time really is and are not surprised, making US the fools! But I doubt it. If an animal knew about time, it would know that its time is limited, that it had to do whatever it had to do and die. But that's not the case for most animals. Animals like cows have no feeling of urgency or care for the short lifespan it has, but this could be because of its genetic memory not allowing it to care.
Otherwise there would be "prison break" cows, escaping their farms to find their own way before their time is up.

So back to the original question; what is time?

This is quite hard to break down.
We all just look at time as a long path, with the past behind us, the future before us and the present right under our feet. But this is just in the minds eye. It is the definition of time as our minds see it, or have been thought to see it.

But I doubt time is just a line. And it would be beyond my imagination to conclude that every action done by ANYthing in the ENTIRE universe would spawn a new path, or a new time line. In some cases a parallel universe, where in one universe a boy buys ice cream, and in the other, he saves his cash. Both universes came from the same event, but had different outcomes, which lead to more possibilities of the future. That's just plain scary. And if that is the case, I think we should wait for evolution to take its course and evolve our minds to better understand that whole concept. It is beyond out minds right now. Or at least my mind.

Another thing, which I have already poked around with in one of my previous posts is that humans live only to see 100+ years of the universe at the most. That's only if they're real careful not to die. But, we cannot understand, comprehend, yet alone define how a billion years of life is. That is why we cannot imagine exactly how it would feel to be 50, But then what about a billion?! You'd be amazed, but the universe has seen much much much more than a billion years. We humans only arrived 10000+ years ago. Every action that was made by the infinite particles in the universe since it's beginning has lead, through the course of TIME, to the creation of human beings. In short, unlike religion and language (and many more) , time, science, knowledge, space, and numbers have been here long before men arrived, and they'll all be here long after were all gone.

Time creeps me out.

The Politics in Ecstasy

You know what really entertains me when I read the newspaper.
Not the comics, or the headlines(if there is a difference between the two nowadays).
Its the criticism on the government.
The local paper that I read has, like most of the local papers, a daily opinion section dedicated to the public.

I read it as often as I can.

They say how racist our government is.
They say how corrupted our government is.
They say how they would have done a better job running this country.
On and on.

Its really amusing.
I'm not an "anti - anti - government" sort of person,
and opinions are opinions, but what did they expect.

Its the same all over the world really.
If you have a society, you'll need a government.

The ideal government would be:

Non racist, fair to all people, open to suggestions, fair on taxation, uncorrupted, financially stable.
Would you expect ANY form of rule (democracy, liberalism, communism, socialism, dictatorship, monarchy, etc.) to bring the perfect balance? Or even be the perfect government?

Is there a country in the world with the perfect government?
Is there a country in the world with all its people satisfied with what the government is doing?

They're many people in the world suffering because of their government.
The people of Myanmar can't get foreign aid, but thats another story.
African political parties cause conflicts to gain the upper hand.
Malaysians racism and too much housing development projects.
(which is least of our worries)
Americans dissatisfied with the Bush administration.
The German upper class not being happy that their tax money is used to help jobless citizens.
The list goes on...

Actually, I think it's understandable that we're getting unfair treatment here in Malaysia, whether your poor, different colored, or even under appreciated, you can somehow blame it on the government, right? Just go on and say how unsatisfied with how things are run.
But like I said, what did you expect?
That those "powerful" words of would sway the titan corporation called the government?

I've done some digging,
And the most simple thing popped up.
Powerless people, like the Tienanmen Man, can have heavy influence on the image of the government and eventually lead to change, much like how Martin Luther changed many things.

Tienanmen Man
Just look at that picture. It's the most moving picture I've ever seen in my life.
There's many more, like monks setting themselves on fire, and stuff like that.
But to stand in front of colossal Russian made Chinese Tanks.
To deny 4 tanks passage, knowing the world is watching you, and to remain unnamed.
Communism is just as retarded as democracy, liberalism, republicanism, tyranny, and all the other -isms and -nys that this world is run by.
But

"The world will not accept dictatorship or domination."

-Mikhail Gorbachev

That whole Tienanmen Man fiasco turned out to be very moving,
Communism, which was going a bit too far, is slowly withdrawing its grasp on the Chinese's necks
(They've moved on to beat up poor Tibet and threaten Taiwan now.....)
It's not a more stupid concept than any other form of politics.
They all have their drawbacks,

But if you truly want it,
what that man did is as close as you can get to the best way to change things.
Selflessness.
Don't think about how you want things run,
Think of how things should be run.

Matricide, mankind, and its biggest mistakes

Matricide.

The act of killing your mother.

We're all doing it.

Directly or indirectly.

Mother Nature is dying.

It can't be stopped; would you stop using your car?
It can be reduced, but not by much.
We weren't polluting as much as we were 3 years ago, and we'll be polluting more than what we're polluting in 3 years to come.
The graph of pollution and destruction of nature will always go up.

The only solution : 2012.
The end.

Not the end of people,

not the end of the world,

not the end of all things,

the end of the way we've run things around here.
Mankind's biggest mistake was stating the rule that the universe revolves around everything we do.

We all think that we were put here by God for a reason.
We search for the meaning of life, why we should live to die another day.

Is there a reason?

Were we actually placed here by God?
Or were we, just like everything else that lives and breaths, evolved out of the tiniest particles.

Just because each generation of man only see less than a hundred years of human evolution,
doesn't mean the countless millenniums of evolution didn't take place.

We live each day, thinking the universe was made for us,
when in reality, we were made for the universe.
We evolved to adapt to the nature of the universe.
And now, we are making the universe adapt to what we have become.

In a whole different context, the universe could just be what we think to be God..
It was the universe that made us begin, the rules were written by the universe.
Everything lives in the universe.
It scares me.
That we are killing the universe.

Matricide.

God vs Science

Today, I encountered the most extreme verbal argument between the atheists and monotheists in my class. Yeah, it was exciting, but with everything in considerations, I think the atheists view of life is, although more pointless, it is generally more open to wisdom. The monotheists views, even though more closed to new concepts, is more "secure" and blissful. Having the support of an entire community and some sort of reliance in talking to the sky made them feel like they were always in the right even though the facts that were presented contradicted them.

One of the theories that was presented by the monotheist was that God was like the wind, you can't see it, but its there. And he tried explaining that God wasn't something you could see, but you could feel. The atheist argued that science was like colored smoke or gas, when you spray it onto the wind, it revealed everything true.

In the second argument, a monotheist said that science was false. He said that we all are controlled by God, because it is impossible for cells to work together so flawlessly and for the mind to bare thought. In other words, that we all had a soul. I didn't want to argue as I didn't think it was my place to disprove what they had believed, or thought to believe all their lives. But the argument of the soul is very unbalanced. Take this example. When someone says we all have a soul, they say it without proof, just theories and do not make room for arguing semantics. But when science wants to know if there is a soul, and finds evidence that there isn't such a thing, the believer says science is false, it has no right to question the work of God, and ignores evidence completely. Well referring to the whole process of cells working together flawlessly and thought forming in the mind is not easy to explain. But
1) our cells don't work together flawlessly, just 1 mistake can lead to cancer and stuff
2) our minds are more complex than any other living organ in our body or in any being known to us.
3)gray matter is proven to be real, we're all still waiting on proof of the soul.

3rd argument was, if science can make a human perfect and just about explain everything, how come there are still babies born retarded, homosexuals and other flaws in humans? Why can't science with all its "might" cure our ails? They argued that if something happened, it was Gods will, and humans shouldn't fight it or question it. Just accept it. This got me a bit angry really. But I still didn't say much. Most of what I said was in defense not offense. Because it ain't nice to be saying bad things about what other people believe in. Whether its a football team, or a religion or a way of life like being vegetarian, its just how they want to live. But I really need to give an example of why science can't explain everything.

1)Science isn't a Holy book that you cannot question. In that way, even though the complete truth is still hidden, every now and then modifications are made when new evidence is found.

2)Science depends on the one thing left in humans that is undergoing evolution in every new generation of thinkers : our brain.
Just like if I give a villager a computer, first he would probably use it and stuff, get around the controls and stuff. If that pc still survives, his young would probably try dismantling it, and slowly through generations of villagers who know nothing of computers, they will ultimately devise tools to study the property in which computers are made of like plastics and stuff.

That would represent science. The villagers represent the unknowing human race at first, then slowly going through evolution of the mind. And the computer would probably be life, or the universe we live in. slowly we get to know more of it. Slowly it seems less Godlike and more...explainable.

3)Science can't make sure 6 billion people on earth are satisfied with their offspring. In fact most of the world is to afraid to implement science in reproduction. I am too. But its all a matter of time. Its happening as we speak, the "perfect" humans are being created to be sports athletes in China, which is getting criticism from religious groups.

So there you have it. I cannot take sides in any argument on this blog. All I seek is opinions on matters that have no proof. Like in this post. But I have to say, its all in a matter of time before science finds the ultimate truth, or multiple truths whichever it may be, and eventually lead to end of the world. Because with everything science creates, it has the seeds of destruction deep inside it.....like in plastic....

And I meant no offense to anyone in this post....

Genetic Memory

Genetic memory is real. More real than I once thought. I witnessed it in games, novels and documentaries but never took it seriously. Do you remember why asexual reproduction produces less superior offspring than that of sexual reproduction? Because genes from 2 organisms are better than from 1. But why? The reason; better evolutionary changes. Because when chromosomes from 2 organisms combine, you get more varied genetic memory. Unlike personal memory, genetic memory is not something you can actually remember as it did not happen to you personally.

Genetic memory is that which makes the offspring of the parent organism immune to the same disease that was fought by the parent in some cases. Another use of genetic memory is for survival.

There was an experiment done that involved a new born chicken(I've mentioned this in my previous post) was shown a silhouette of a hawk. Without any contact with its "mama" hen, the chick seemed to recognize the silhouette and run away in the opposite direction. Also in some animals like bears, it is genetic memory that tells the bear, "it is no longer winter, you may stop hibernating now".


Genetic memory is what is often misconceived as the soul or spirit in an organism. It is actually the subconscious part of the brain that stores and uses genetic memory. That is why sometimes when you pass by a place you have never seen before, you may get a sudden chill up your spine or feel like you've been there before. It isn't your soul talking to you about its afterlife but you genetic memory. It is possible that an ancestor or parent of yours found that a wooden "kampung" house to be comforting and home-like. That triggers your genetic memory to suddenly make you feel safe for no reason at all. Other times, the sight of an unending jungle might trigger the genetic memory to warn you that an ancestor of yours might have been stuck in a jungle for a long time like say, during WW2 when the Japanese arrived.

How else would a bird know how to construct a nest, or fly south for the winter? Genetic memory of their predecessors that had to go through trial and error for many thousands of years to perfect the survival of their species kicks in and lets them know how to survive.

However, it is nearly impossible for most animals, especially mammals to survive without "parental guidance" as genetic memory is not something that teaching directly, but more of an adviser that makes logical suggestions without using words, which would explain why humans, with a fixed language, find it sometimes hard to interpret, and how animals with NO language find it much easier.

I was also told a great many things of how genetic memory is what influences many decisions that we make in everyday life. Like when your "heart" tells you that you should, it is more likely your subconscious genetic memory "advising" you. The indecision and surprise that something IN you is telling you what to do, leads to the increase of blood flow, and your heart starts beating a lot faster(or sink), thus leading to most humans believing that your heart is telling you something.

In the I can conclude that I am either getting somewhere or going completely nuts and babbling stuff that I know nothing about. But I did do my research!

The Soul

Some say our soul is our essence. They say that when we are born, our soul is pure, and as we grow, our soul is either tainted or purified, thus reflecting the nature of the physical being that the soul occupies. And once the physical being wears out, or dies, the soul is sent to cycle of life and death/heaven/hell/paradise/any other planes of the afterlife based on how it has lived in its physical being. In fact that has been the concept that I have been following most of life until very recently.

Another view, is that the soul is the life force of a being, not necessarily something religiously bound, but more of a natural thing. A personality, or something that gives instinct/consciousness to a being. People like Deepak Chopra support this theory. I almost did, but then I got to questioning(again).

What if there is no soul. That its all a myth. A myth that was reinforced because of the lack of knowledge on the subject. The questions I asked myself were: What happens to the soul, when a person becomes "brain-dead"? If the soul is something that is from God, or from the cycle of LIFE, then why does a clone have similar characteristics as a natural being? And if a soul occupies every living thing, what of plants and single cell organisms, do they have simpler souls?

It dawned on me, that it just might be possible that the soul is non existent. Ethics, morals, consciousness, rationality, all of that might not be from the soul, but from our own minds. Could it be that simple? That because our brains are more powerful than anything else on this planet, that our brains are our souls? A human judges better than a chimp, a chimp judges better than a dog, and a dog judges better than an ant. That is the truth. That would mean that instead of having an equal "soul" in every living being, we have more advanced minds in different organisms, just like it has been proven. Therefore, we humans, having the most advanced minds, also have the most ethical, moralistic, self conscious minds.

When humans become extinct (it's possible)(2012), will other organisms be judging and "feeling" the same way humans did? Well, no. They'll most likely just be animals, uncaring about what happens around them. Nearly every animal on Earth doesn't even know what the Earth is. Not because its ignorant, or it doesn't have a soul, or is doesn't care, but because it CANNOT know. It's mind is less developed than ours, and is more focused on the here and the now. Instinct has already been proven to be false. What we believe to be animal instinct (a.k.a birds flying south for the winter) is actually genetic memory. A long line of trial and error by their ancestors, that is passed down in their offspring's DNA. That is how a new born chick know that its in danger when it sees the silhouette of a hawk. Not because its soul knows the danger, and the parent hasn't even taught it yet. It is because in the past, a "granpa" chicken was nearly killed by a hawk. Its basic mind imprints this onto the DNA and passes it down as a warning.

And why all these warnings? Is it the soul that needs to survive, or the species? Obviously, the species needs to survive because it is aware of mortality. In fact, mortality may be the only thing nearly all complex organisms are aware of.

In conclusion, I believe what we've been taught to be called the "soul" in reality is just our minds, our judging, blaming, caring, loving, endearing, hating, loathing minds. NOT our "souls". The reason why an elephant doesn't worry if it's going to heaven or hell, is because its mind is not developed to think that way. Its all in the mind, not in the soul.

Good and Evil

We've all been thought the concept of good and evil. We look at a murderer, thief or drug dealer and we instantly label them as evil. It is not necessarily a completely natural reaction, but it does happen spontaneously without consideration of the one we label. But its just the way we are thought. But considering that GOOD AND EVIL ARE COMPLETELY RELATIVE TO EACH PERSON....

a person who is raised in a certain way and been thought to worship a certain religion would view an action as either good or evil. But there are more than 6 billion people on earth. Meaning more than 6 billion views on good and evil because no 2 people think EXACTLY the same. Does this mean that religion determines what is good and evil? Who sets the boundaries then, for modern practices like stem cell research? Men? Its not stated in religion that stem cell research is evil or good. Even if there is something that connects a religious judgment to stem cell research, not all religions say the same thing. Which one do we follow? How do we know which religion is more true than the next if we can never come to a compromise and discuss religion openly? All that later because I'm discussing(with myself) good and evil first.

Is there a possibility that good and evil don't exist at all. according to Brendan Vive 4 years ago, good and evil are from the words God and Devil. How sure are we that both those characters exist. I don't mean to be harsh but its a valid question. My retarded but all too human curiosity wishes to KNOW not to BELIEVE without fact. Stupid me. There goes my soul. But that doesn't matter, what matters is, IS THERE GOOD AND EVIL.

To answer that question, the first step would be to know that EVERYTHING happens for a REASON. The reason why we can hear is because of that whole complex ear system and the vibration of particles and stuff, the reason why the heart beats is because of the passive nervous system that gives out electrical charges and stuff.. I don't know the exact details, I am not a specialist.

The REASON why a heinous act is committed. We do not always think of that when it happens to us. But we immediately place blame and get angry or scarred and such. There IS a reason. ALWAYS a reason, no matter how small, confusing, irrational, unbelievable it might be. We must look for that reason, because it IS human nature to accuse, to judge and to blame when we are not in control or not satisfied. Look for the reason.


Is good something socially acceptable? Something emotionally, or rationally acceptable or praised? Or is it something that brings feelings of gratitude and such? All of the above perhaps? But there is always 2 sides to every story isn't there. World war 2 wasn't about the Allies struggling over waves of evil Germans bent on world domination. That is not the definition of WW2. Both sides had their story. Many civilians were murdered, raped and robbed in this conflict due to the action of the Germans. But saying Nazism is evil is very single and closed minded. The Germans were a very proud race, with a great past. Their defeat and humiliation was too much to handle and with accumulation of problems and shame, with certain events and people, Nazism was formed. It had its reasons and purpose, but it was not EVIL. It was just proud, ignorant, selfish(which was also present in the forces of the Allies as with the Axis powers).
Of course the Allies were triumphant and I am very proud that they overcame such a blind and retarded tyrant rule of Nazi Germany. Still what is good? To me, it is completely relative to EACH and EVERY religion, person and teaching has a different opinion to both good and evil.
As I said before, There is always a reason. Nobody gets up in the morning, and says, "i don't know why, but I'm going to go kill someone now". And if somebody does, the reason is simple, he might be crazy.

The Music Industry

I figured out how hard some of the real talented musicians have to struggle to keep their music alive. I'm quite sure there's a million other genres and sub genres that suffer, but look at people like Jeff Loomis, Mike Portnoy, Chris Adler, Rustey Cooley, and people like that. They are genuinely happy with the type of fans they have and don't ask for anything else. Mike Portnoy even sells bootlegs and pirated copies of his own band and side projects even though he's been hailed as the greatest progressive metal drummer. I mean, he's got like 20 awards for drumming and he's still so down to earth(in a way, he still makes fun of other drummers). Chris Adler didn't have enough money during production of his latest album with Lamb of God. He couldn't afford to repair his car or buy a new one, so he quit smoking and started using his bike to get to the studio. Now that's dedication. Jeff Loomis and Rustey Cooley are just guitarist that I think have a lot of skill but aren't getting what they deserve. I don't blame anyone (i just blame MTV). I don't really like guitarists that much, but I know these guys deserve a lot more than just hardcore fans and a few million dollars.

While all this is happening, people like ... well lets not point fingers, but a lot of 'artists' nowadays just play very recycled stuff. I don't mind simple music, or music that you don't need to think to listen to. But a lot of them get other people to write music, lyrics and produce their albums. They end up singing about unimportant and insignificant things. Most of the time its ok, because we need balance in the world between shallow and deep music. But MTV is force feeding often really freaking lousy music that soon becomes a hit because everyone is playing it. All in all, MTV is a poison Godmachine. Why? Lets break that down. (remember I'm not crazy, just extremely bored).

Ok, Poison, MTV, obviously poisons. They aren't evil(good and evil is relative to individuals), they just want to exploit music for money. Who can blame them? We all need money. And people do weird things to get money. But what I mean by poison, is that it falsifies what music should and can be. Music shouldn't be limited to verse, chorus, break. It can be anything. Jazz has its own style of writing, but how many Jazz bands do you see on MTV? Off course MTV would say, "Thats not what people want to hear". But it is MTV themselves who is choosing the most marketable, profitable music to be made mainstream, packaged and sold.

2nd Keyword, God. God meaning they have absolute power. In many peoples eyes MTV never goes wrong. Whatever music is on, thats whats 'cool'. The moment MTV releases a single or something, every radio station and other music television station plays it. How god like is that??

3rd keyword, Machine. MTV, isn't a one man band. It is kept in motion by an industry. An industry that started off as an artistic one, but now has been made into a commercial one. Never before in the history of mankind have 'artists' been this famous or rich. There is very little drive for real music anymore. Many artists release, or are asked to release music for nothing but money. That is why there is a constant stream of new artists, new music, new videos. To keep the gears of the industry in constant motion.

I do not think anyone should stop watching MTV though. I still watch it because I think that the evolution of the clown is complete. They are called rappers now. And thats my source of entertainment.

Utopia

Ever since civilization began some thousands of years ago, mankind has tried over and over to achieve 'perfection', but has failed each and every time. This is because we will never find the perfect source to base our perfection. To base perfection on nature is almost absurd. Most modern civilizations live on the silent code that they are always a step above nature. When I say that, I mean natural societies such as schools of fishes, flocks of birds and stuff like that. So technically, we can only copy and 'improve' on these natural societies as humans are well, different.

So what else can we base our Utopia upon? Religion? They've tried, in fact some still trying but will eventually fail when something like the renaissance era occurs. Religion traps people in a thought cage. When one is bound by religion, every thought is judged by god and every action has a significant a equal consequence in the afterlife, or on your karma. So that would lead people to be 'good' right? Of course! When you are threatened by something you cannot control like religion or god, you must conform. But this will lead to the holocaust of thought. Just like what happened in Europe in the dark ages. And thought suppression is hard for people to deal with. Well some people at least. In conclusion, religion cannot be what we base the perfect society upon because we need people who can work outside the box, people who can question the orthodox and move against the flow without fear. Otherwise, we will never advance.

Could we base our perfect society on science? Hell no! Science and the advancement of technology are the most destructive forces when put in human hands. Almost every thing that science produces/discovers/invents is only morally neutral before placed in the responsibility of humans. Yes, science does cure many things, but ultimately, it leads to destruction. Cars, weapons, technological breakthroughs, synthetics, and such have lead to the degradation of the Earth. And these were all products of science. The MAIN reason why science can never be used as a basis for a perfect society is because science is based on not having ethics. For example, a dedicated scientist who is not constrained by the rules of religion, law, and ETHICS would most likely do experiments against peoples will and such. So science is definitely out.

A perfect blend of all the elements? Guess what? Thats whats happening right now! So an equal blend where one element looks after the other would sound like a win win situation. Maybe it all depends on how you look at it. After all, nature is still being destroyed, science isn't satisfied with the boundaries that have been placed, and religion isn't very happy with the way people are now. But all of them are getting their slice of the pie. In the end, Utopia will always be unique to each person. One might argue that we should go back to our roots, but thats impossible, not with the thousands of years of evolution of civilization that it took for us to reach this point. And when any of these elements try to outdo another, we have disaster.

When nature wants its voice to be heard, we have cyclones, disease outbreaks, earthquakes and such. When religion wants to dominate, holy wars, crusades, holocausts, jihads, and stuff like that break out. And when science unleashes its terror, we have atomic bombs, nuclear winter, biological weapons, etc. These 'element' disasters are uncontrollable and will definitely occur once in a while to bring balance. If we still want anything close to a perfect world, there must be compromise. A perfect balance (which is somehow still going to bring the apocalypse in 2012), where 'good' and 'evil' acts coexist, where destruction and creation are in harmony. Impossible....

The Mayans

The Mayans were awesome bunch of people. And they we're extremely smart too. They had technology and culture more advanced than anything else when they first began. But their history still remains, largely, a mystery. From what archaeologists could gather, the Mayan ideograms depicted the Mayan gods teaching them many skills such as irrigation, farming and astrology. Based on the fact that before civilizations like the Mayans, such as Babylonian and Sumerian civilizations, mankind was scattered, but much like apes and chimps, humans had small social groups. So how did civilization just pop out in a matter of years. Humankind went from discovering fire to building pyramids in a few hundred years.
This has led many skeptics to believe that we were visited by aliens many thousands of years ago. These aliens thought were thought to be the gods that were depicted in the Mayan ideograms. Think about that. Could it be that the Gods of the ancient civilizations were actually aliens that came to our planet, sowed the seeds and now wait to harvest them. Could it be that the reason the Mayan calender ends on 21st December 2012 is because they were told by their 'gods' that that would be when their time would come. Where their 'gods' would come to claim their prise.
Personally I do not believe in aliens, or more accurately said, I do not believe in the aliens that have been 'invented' by man. Maybe aliens do not have physical form. They could be a sentient force that sweeps across the universe. Or maybe even a non sentient organism such as a microorganism or virus that travels through space. Think about that too. Viruses are almost literally 'dead' in their crystalline form, but once in an organism, they become alive. They cannot reproduce but they can occupy a cell and multiply using that cells DNA code. Or something like that. Which is very weird an unnatural. It could very much be called 'alien' as no other organism displays similar characteristics.
Go back to the question at hand. What did the Mayans mean when their calender only went on to 2012. Most archaeologists agree that the Mayans believed that their Sun God, Quetzalcoatl, would return and engulf the world. Maybe thats not exactly what will happen. Let us explore the astronomic point of view. We can concur that the Mayans were either taught or talented in the field of astronomy. Back then, their high priests could predict eclipses of the sun and moon without any technology. And there is a myth that certain people, most notably Nostradamus, can gaze into the future by staring deeply into the stars (will discuss Nostradamus' later). So could the Mayans have predicted an asteroid or meteor or even a comet colliding with earth. If it did, that could spell the end of the human age, just as the dinosaur age had ended. A lot of freaky shit happens with our sun. And it could be something likened to a massive solar flare might wipe out every living thing in the Milky Way with intense radiation. Who knows. Until my next vision/revelation.