Two descendants of spiders whose ancestors met several generations ago got together in one unlikely place. Keep in mind a generation for spiders simply means about two years compared to about twenty five for humans. The Pholcus phalangioides and Argiope trifasciata, both obviously from different species, have co-evolved the same way that their ancestors who met years ago. The descendants have kept up with each other although their development in intelligence and view of the world remained divergently different. Pholcus phalangioides proved to be more attuned to human culture and behavior than Argiope trifasciata. The latter was naturally respectful of the former's status. For clarity, let's identify them as, Pholcus phalangioides 3 and Argiope trifasciata 3.
Just as it was years ago, I cannot reveal how I came across the transcript of their conversation. The two got together in a closet of the narthex of a church. In the olden days the narthex was that part of the vestibule of a church close to the entrance reserved for the unbaptized. This was a moderately-sized church with ample membership to match.
The following is a transcript of a conversation between the resident spider, a Pholcus phalangioides and and a visiting Argiope trifasciata.
Transcript (01/08/26):
Argiope trifasciata 3: Well, well, this is quite a place you picked to settle in.
Pholcus phalangioides 3: To be honest, I really like the place. It is structurally safe as you can imagine and when the weather's nice I have easy access to the outside where I hunt for a variety of prey. And then when the weather is bad, prey will come inside to take shelter and I have wide choices too.
Argiope trifasciata 3: Yes, indeed. I have a few questions though. Humans come here to worship, right? So, do you have any idea what it is all about. Forgive me to be asking this question.
Pholcus phalangioides 3: That's funny that you use the word forgive. Yeah, well, this is in fact the place humans come to ask for forgiveness. Not in the same context that you used it. So, what is it you want to know? Your ancestors did always ask about human behavior.
Argiope trifasciata 3: : Well, I'm curious about what it is they worship about? I mean, humans are much too superior in intelligence compared to us, no offense, even compared to you, right?
Pholcus phalangioides 3: You really think so? That they're more intelligent compared to whom? Or, as you conjectured, more intelligent than my species, is that what you meant?
Argiope trifasciata 3: Remember, I said no offense, okay?
Pholcus phalangioides 3: This is really a very interesting place to live in, if you can stand long periods of uninterrupted silence on most days. Then it gets really loud on one day a week. And every now and then there would be special days for weddings and funerals. We'll not get into that because if I surmise correctly you are thinking about something else. Isn't that right?
Argiope trifasciata 3: Yeah. I'd like to know what it is about worship and praying and hoping that they do. Let's just focus on those.
Pholcus phalangioides 3: Well, weddings and funerals are special occasions too. But not to be diminished are baptism and other rituals. Humans have special affinity to hope, faith and everything beyond what we see as the physical world.
Argiope trifasciata 3: You mean, things not seen but perceived to be real or true.
Pholcus phalangioides 3: Simply put, yes. But it's more than that. Let's go back up to something our ancestors, yours and mine, had been discussing a while back.
Argiope trifasciata 3: What was it?
Pholcus phalangioides 3:Humans spent years and billions of their dollars to develop a system they call LIGO that can detect gravity waves. My species of spiders had been detecting it for thousands of years before humans developed their first telegraph. Actually, gravity waves when they come to earth are a source of annoyance to our senses. Sometimes, if the gravity waves are too strong our brains feel severe irritations.
Argiope trifasciata 3: But my species doesn't have that ability, right?
Pholcus phalangioides 3: Yes. You'll know it if you have the ability.
Argiope trifasciata 3: So, what has that got to do with my original question.
Pholcus phalangioides 3: Let me show you something from outside this closet. This big area is called the nave of the church. Look at the stained glass from both sides. Do you notice the theme of three separate or distinct parts in each window panel?
Argiope trifasciata 3: Yeah, I see the pattern of three.
Pholcus phalangioides 3: It is called the Holy Trinity. You asked about what it is they worship. And why, perhaps? Well, the Trinity stands for God, the Creator, The Son and The Holy Ghost or Spirit.
Argiope trifasciata 3: Wow, it is already too much to take in one gulp. I see symbols ...
Pholcus phalangioides 3: Now, look. Have you ever wondered how you came to be? How did this world you and I live in first begin? Do you consider yourself a creature?
Argiope trifasciata 3: Well, yes. Every living animal is a creature, right?
Pholcus phalangioides 3: Yes. All right, so if you and I, a mouse a caterpillar, and so on and on are creatures then there must be a creator, you agree?
Argiope trifasciata 3: Well, I will accept that for now. So there was a creator.
Pholcus phalangioides 3: Still is. The Creator still exists today.
Argiope trifasciata 3: And the Son and the Holy Ghost?
Pholcus phalangioides 3: Okay, here it is. Man, representing all humans, is the apex of the Creator's masterpiece. However, humans are not exactly good or consistently possess proper morality and they are not perfect stewards of the world's environment we live in - the planet earth being that world. The Son in the Trinity is the human manifestation, made of flesh and blood, like you and me, of the Creator God.
Argiope trifasciata 3: Why?
Pholcus phalangioides 3: It is believed, the way humans understand it, that the Son, during that time that he lived among ordinary humans was to prove that humans are capable of possessing qualities of goodness - total and pure manifestations of morality - if they worship and believe in one true God.
Argiope trifasciata 3: Wow. Really, really wow. Let me accept those for the moment. What about the third one - the Holy Ghost or Spirit?
Pholcus phalangioides 3: That is why I mentioned gravity waves earlier. But first this. You and I are gifted with eight eyes. We see because we detect light waves, just as humans and other creatures can. But you know what, we can also detect ultraviolet and polarized light that no humans are capable of. I already mentioned gravity waves and our highly enhanced motion detection abilities.
Argiope trifasciata 3: Okay, okay. What has that got to do with the Holy Ghost?
Pholcus phalangioides 3: You are so impatient. I am giving you as much background so you can grasp what I am leading to.
Argiope trifasciata 3: Sorry, go on please.
Pholcus phalangioides 3: Sound travels through the air. Without air, as is the case in outer space or in a vacuum, sound cannot propagate from its source. Ocean waves travel through water. If you fall on a still pond you will create waves the moment you hit the water, spreading the energy of your impact. Even on land waves travel during earthquakes and the up and down motion is visible as it travels on the ground. The waves in every case I just mentioned are actually energy traveling on and over a field of water, air and ground. Remove the field and wave energy cannot travel. Now, in the case of gravity waves the energy that produces it is unimaginably stronger than what the sun produces in its lifetime. Two massive objects collide in a massive explosion. The energy causes massive waves to propagate over space time. Let's not get what space time is but it is real. A massive object causes it to curve so that smaller objects will be forced to follow that curve. That is what gravity is. That is why you and I are on the ground right now - gravity.
Argiope trifasciata 3: Wait, wait, this is just all too much for me. Slow down, please.
Pholcus phalangioides 3: Listen. What I'm saying is that a field is needed, actually required, in order for wave energy to travel. Air is a field so sound can travel through it. Magnets act on a piece of iron without touching it because there exists a magnetic field for the attraction to have its effect. I can see you because light is reflected from you to me. Light through the window glass comes to us as energy. You know what light travels on? An electromagnetic field. Light travels through space from the moon, from the sun and stars, through a field. Actually, no matter how empty a vacuum is, a field exists. The entire universe is a field.
Argiope trifasciata 3: I wish you would slow down. So, there's field everywhere but why can't sound travel in a vacuum?
Pholcus phalangioides 3: Good question actually. I'm proud of you. Specific energy waves are tuned, so to speak, to specific fields. And, mark this, because this is important. This is also about specific detectors such as the ears and eyes of most creatures that have the ability to sense different waves. Like I mentioned earlier, we - you and I - can detect ultraviolet energy waves through our special set of eight eyes that humans can't. Pigeons, salmon and other creatures can detect the earth's magnetic fields. Again, humans can't.
Argiope trifasciata 3: This is just too much. Can you at least get to the question I asked earlier.
Pholcus phalangioides 3: Okay, I think I have given you enough background.
Argiope trifasciata 3: It'll take me time to really absorb, let alone understand all of them, but please go on.
Pholcus phalangioides 3 Humans are special creatures, you see. I've been in this church for so long that after repeated quotes the minister reads from their Holy Book - the Bible - I've memorized many of the texts. There is one that explains the special place reserved for humans, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” – Genesis 1:27".
Argiope trifasciata 3: Okay, again that explains just the two of the three. What about the Holy Ghost or Spirit?
Pholcus phalangioides 3 I am trying to explain it to you slowly but deliberately, okay? I needed to explain human's special place in creation. They have consciousness and as a whole it becomes what is described as the human collective consciousness. Collective consciousness exists in a field. Now, set your mind back to fields as I explained earlier.
Argiope trifasciata 3: I got it. Okay, go on.
Pholcus phalangioides 3 The Holy Ghost or Spirit works in that field that is supposed to connect God's intentions and plans for humanity - through that field. You see, consciousness is meant to live through their physical lives and beyond. Again, let me remind you of how I explained the different fields, okay?
Argiope trifasciata 3: Yeah, I got it.
Pholcus phalangioides 3 Now, connect God, The Son and The Holy Ghost. Do you see it?
Argiope trifasciata 3: Yeah, but don't you see how complicated that is.
Pholcus phalangioides 3 Not complicated. It is just a complex idea.
Argiope trifasciata 3: I should have asked this early on. How do you know all of these?
Pholcus phalangioides 3 That I cannot explain. It just came to me. I guess from spending a lot of time here.
Argiope trifasciata 3: What else do I need to know?
Pholcus phalangioides 3 Remember, I said earlier that the entire universe is a field? Streams of consciousness could be, as we speak, flow back and forth, making connections and every now and then some are received as insights, inspirations, even as gut instincts, unexplained premonitions among sensitive humans, perhaps gifted with special sensitivities. I don't know that for sure because you and I have no access to human streams of consciousness but the Creator does.
Argiope trifasciata 3: I can't stop saying, wow!
Pholcus phalangioides 3 On the other hand that is exactly how it explains an All Knowing God. You know where I got that idea? From a spider's web.
Argiope trifasciata 3: How?
Pholcus phalangioides 3 Many of our species make elaborate spider webs. Some as wide as a huge umbrella. The spider at the center of the web knows everything that is within the web, what touches it whether it is a leaf or a struggling prey. A slight movement anywhere on the web the spider knows instantly. The universe is one unimaginable web - an infinite field - where everything that happens is revealed to The Creator in an instant. That is how I would explain it.
Argiope trifasciata 3: Wow and wow! Well, I must go. This has been an interesting visit. Thank you. I will not remember everything but maybe the field will stay with me.
Pholcus phalangioides 3 Thanks for visiting. And indeed, please remember that God knows everything through that field.
P.S.
The idea of the "field" is a real scientific phenomenon and well enhanced through the principles described by quantum mechanics. Now, we already know how the electromagnetic field makes possible the internet, how our cell phones can be tracked, how satellite navigation is possible with our cars and cell phones, how images are transmitted via TV, and so many others that include MRI, cat scans and how ultimately AI can be harnessed to "know everything". The detection of gravity waves is not only real but that it proved what Einstein predicted through his theories long before we had satellites and radio telescopes.
The human intellect is perhaps how it will be possible to live up to being created in the image that God will allow us to aspire for. Perhaps, and indeed humanity will be able to live up to God's expectations of achieving a perfect moral character and the pinnacle of goodness.
Oh, and the one not supported by scientific proof is the idea that our spider-character can detect gravity waves.
I hope I have inspired some of the readers to look up and do a little research on fields and gravity waves, for starter.
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