{"id":9139,"date":"2014-05-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-18T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/blog\/the-venture-of-independent-thinking\/"},"modified":"2014-05-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-05-18T22:00:00","slug":"the-venture-of-independent-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/en\/blog\/the-venture-of-independent-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"The venture of independent thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--\n\n<h2>Science is the source from which  we take our insights in our first and  last questions. We find our  question 'What is a human being'  extensively thought over in the theory  of evolution. We accept the  contents of this theory - it all has been  scientifically proven, so we  think. But why wouldn't we make a little  trip by ourselves? We don't  always have to be in leading-strings of  science. It is possible to try  some independent thinking.<u><em><a title=\"YouTube\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">YouTube<\/a><\/em><\/u><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a title=\"ouTube\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"><img  alt=\"Mieke Mosmuller\" data-src=\"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1a73e22b8be3454a1a894ad8615407c4.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n\n--><\/p>\n<h2>Science is the source from which  we take our insights in our first and last questions. We find our  question &#8216;What is a human being&#8217; extensively thought over in the theory  of evolution. We accept the contents of this theory &#8211; it all has been  scientifically proven, so we think. But why wouldn&#8217;t we make a little  trip by ourselves? We don&#8217;t always have to be in leading-strings of  science. It is possible to try some <em><strong>independent thinking<\/strong><\/em>.<\/h2>\n<p>The  first thing that strikes us is the word &#8216;theory&#8217;. It has to be a theory  of course, because no one can pretend that he has watched all the stages  himself, and proven them to be true in their acceptation. There is a  wealth of scientific information. Skeletons have been found that point  to extinct types of animals, and of course there seems to be a proof for  the theory of evolution in the range of species in the animal realm,  animals that are still there. An evolution can be recognized &#8211; this  evolution has to go on in our times and also in the future. But the  exact understanding of the scientific data forms a theory till now, not  an absolutely proven certainty. It could be that the scientists made  mistakes in their interpretation of the facts. If these mistakes would  be found, they would put everything into question.<\/p>\n<p>So let&#8217;s think  something else, than what is prescribed by the theory. We are on a quest  to the essence of the human being. Let&#8217;s consider man as the highest  species of animals. We see the monkey &#8211; it is not extinct &#8211; and then the  human beings that seem to have developed from the monkey, for instance  the Neanderthal &#8211; who is extinct &#8211; and at last there is a development of  the homo sapiens.<br \/>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"The venture of independent thinking\" src=\"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Neanderthaler_mens.jpg\" alt=\"The venture of independent thinking\"><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"The venture of independent thinking\" src=\"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Skelet.jpg\" alt=\"The venture of independent thinking\"><br \/><span class=\"P\">Skeleton of a Neanderthal and a homo sapiens<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Viewing  this, there seems to be no other way to think about the development  than is given in the theory of evolution. Still we could try to think  about these images without any prejudice. What do we actually see? The  stature of the monkey has stretched itself upward; the snout seems to  lie more backward, and has become the upper and lower jaw(s). The  forehead has become much higher, and in the hips there seems to be a  state of lightness. The arms are relatively shorter, the legs longer.  The arms don&#8217;t have to be used for support and so they can be used for  acting. <br \/>In this way you could learn to see thinking, or to think  seeing. You can learn to move along with the form-changing, and by doing  so, you learn to feel the changes. You can experience how a monkey  lives in the horizontal plane, a bit more upright than other animals  though. Man lives in the vertical plane, and has his overview over  everything.<\/p>\n<p>These are no theoretical thoughts anymore; they are facts  of inner experience. You are sure about them, just as you are sure when  you feel water on your skin &#8211; or like you know for sure when you get up  in the morning (out of your bed). You can see through thinking that a  human being lives in a different position than a monkey &#8211; and the  Neanderthal already had this different position, less refined though.  You can see the faculty of overview in the stature of a human being. His  changed position shows it clearly. You can see that his faculty to  speak and think comes from this change. It doesn&#8217;t look like a gradual  change &#8211; it looks like a jump from one condition to another.<\/p>\n<p>Of  course you can criticize this; I can find many arguments against it  myself. Much more difficult seems to be this independent thinking, this  viewing thinking, or thoughtful viewing. It is unusual, and so it is  very difficult. The only thing that can happen to you is that you lose  your point of view &#8211; and have to find it again, or to find another. <br \/>As  an experiment you can also try to view and experience these stadia in  development of eight living beings. Look at them with your mind &#8211; and  wonder about man&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"The venture of independent thinking\" src=\"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Haeckel.jpg\" alt=\"The venture of independent thinking\"><br \/><span class=\"P\">Drawings by Haeckel<\/span><em><strong>The venture of independent thinking by Mieke Mosmuller<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Science is the source from which we take our insights in our first and last questions. We find our question &#8216;What is a human being&#8217; extensively thought over in the theory of evolution. We accept the contents of this theory &#8211; it all has been scientifically proven, so we think. But why wouldn&#8217;t we make [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}