INTRODUCTIONHuman society seems to need God because there has never been a
society without Him (or her or It). Even those societies that deliberately
set out to be secular could not escape what we call God.
In none of these
countries has God disappeared. This part of the MeetingHouse for Aspiring
Spirits compilation introduces the background to the belief in God. To the
spiritual but not religious it is clear that belief is deeply embedded in
the human brain and body. Belief in what we ought to believe-in is a very
serious question. True, many humans never think about why they believe or
how they believe. Most of them, however, do give some thought to what they
believe. Although, they are often careless about the consequences of what
they believe in,its effects on their selves and others are not denied.
They just do it. What is God, At the dawn of history, thinking men and
women thought it was the Wind. The Wind could not be seen, nor, did we
know where it came from. The wind was mighty, cold, hot and warm, it could
caress you like a lover, it brought rain, and it could be terrible in a
driving storm or hurricane and so forth. Others, experiencing the Sun in
all its glory, with its effects on nature and life were sure they should
worship the Sun and its rays.
Why did Man
use his/her imagination to find something like God to take the place of
these obvious targets of awe and respect, We hope it is obvious that we will
not answer that question. Still, The MeetingHouse hopes that the
discussion helps you to examine, or reexamine, your own belief(s) about God. We
never see fear or beauty. Nevertheless, we sense (hear, see, etc.)
those things that carry within themselves signals that evoke emotions. We do
not see God but we do see properties of the Earth, Universe, and
our immediate environs, which produce appropriate emotions. If we did
not, soon we would be dead. Some of these emotions are responses of
awe, wonder, worship, thankfulness, and fear. On occasion there is a
powerfully affective emotional response that is both attractive and
awe-inspiring. It is a feeling that we are in the presence of something
greater than ourselves. It gives many of us meaning and purpose. For most
of us it is the natural sense of God. Some confuse It with Love and others
feel that if they had enough Money they could and would buy it. Before we
go on, please consider this paraphrase from an early Celtic Christian's
words of praise to God:
I am the wind which
Breathes upon the sea,
I am the wave of the ocean,
I am the murmur of the billows. . .
I am the beam of the sun,
I am a trout in the rapid water,
I am a marshy lake in the plain,
I am words of knowledge , . . .
I am God, who created the
Fire in Your Head.
(Anon.)
We hope the MeetingHouse has
prepared the Way. As you read about God, Love, and Money we hope your mind
compares how human imagination has perceived these quite different
creations, objects, or beliefs.
GOD, LOVE, &
MONEY
Does Love have a
future, Does Money have a future, No one doubts that they do, But, for
some reason many doubt that God has a future. As we enter the 21st century
of the Common Era (CE) we will consider the idea of GOD. God is a very
serious subject. To lead into its discussion, first, lets us consider Love
and Money. The world as we knew it is fading into the past. As a
preliminary to consider God,consider the meaning and nature of Love.
To read more on the meaning of love and
money, click here
What is Love, What is the Future of
Love,
We are now beginning to perceive the extraordinary
range and power of the human imagination. Is love a product of the human
imagination, What is love, It is a question as well as a feeling. Age and
geography are irrelevant. Those who have been in love know its
awe-inspiring power. Love seems to be similar to the obsessive-compulsive
disorder. We were happiest when we knew it as the powerful emotion that
inspired song and verse. Now we are told that it has to do with serotonin
levels. When tested, levels of serotonin were 40 percent lower in both
passionate lovers and those with the obsessive disorder. They have a
similar chemical profile. What is Love, Still we do fall in love.
Sometimes over and over subjecting ourselves to a sick state of mind. Have
you heard, giddy with love, Forlorn with love, Psychiatrists have
concocted too many theories about why we fall in love and with whom we do.
Love is reactive not proactive. He or she just feels right.
Anthropologists used to think that romance was a Western idea. A product
of chivalry and the like. It was assumed that non-Westerners with their
broad social and family obligations did not respond to particular
passions. (Since we do not want to weigh down our discussion about God
with a prolonged discussion of this other powerful human emotion, love, we
will truncate the discussion here.
To learn
more about emotion and love, Click Here
In some major cultures such
as India and China many see romantic love as dangerously disruptive. In
India, it is a threat to a caste system crafted over centuries. These
cultures, including much of China, arrange marriages as a means of
preserving lineage, gene pools, and social status. Sad to say, from recent
events, there are gruesome tales of parents hanging a boy and girl who
dared to follow their dopamine (should I say hearts,). Another couple who
eloped was stripped and beaten. Still, another couple committed suicide
when their parents forbade them to marry. Obviously, the emotion labeled
love is not merely a figment of the imagination. Some sublimate love (or
divert it) into a pursuit of money and its accumulation ,wealth.
For some the love of God is the highest objective. Humans can be
intense about their love for art objects, music, and mathematics, need I
go on, Does human imagination know no bounds, The power of these objects
over humans' minds would border on the amazing if it were not so common
place. Before we turn to the more serious discussion about , The Problem
of God,we consider the power of fiat (paper) Money. Most of us must trust
available paper money as the legal tender for human transactions. Money is
used for transferring goods and services. Our trust in these pieces of
paper (or electronic blips representing the same) is required by law , we
must trust.) I say must because the sovereign nations compel our
trust. Some hoard valuables such as gold because they don't trust forced
trust. We use our human imaginations to trust the current money that
circulates in good Earth's economic system.
What is Money, Why do we Love it,
Where is its Power,
Money has a history almost as long as the history of
both God and Love. The first successful substitute for things of real
value that could be bartered or exchanged was probably the cowries shells
exchanged over a wide area of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and parts of
Europe. The shell was easily transported, it was small, glossy, brightly
colored, and durable, and it had no other utility, and was relatively
scarce and not easily imitated. It was one of the first pieces of money to
gain wide currency. It enabled humans to rise above mere barter and the
exchange of like-things in face-to-face negotiations.
Money is
without a doubt one of humans' best and greatest inventions. It enables
people to deal at great distances without meeting the other party. It
provides a common unit of value so a horse could be exchanged for some
land, or, worse for a man to buy a woman who had been enslaved by her
family. (A tragic note: There are more slaves on the planet Earth today
than at anytime in the history of humans.) Money was a magical transformer
that even increased trust which is a scare commodity among strangers.
Overtime, the cowrie shells were replaced by precious gold and silver
because was better. They had very little utility except as adornment. Yet,
unlike shells metals could be melted down and reshaped. Best of all money
as a store of value could be security for a loan to one who needed money
more than the owner did. The owner became a lender of something artificial
and the creditor of a debtor until repaid.
Through the use of
a piece of paper (representing the debt) the debtor promised his full
faith and credit to repay the loan. The lender trusted him. (Seldom her ,
women were generally barred from commerce.) Another miracle of the human
imagination had occurred by means of money. Magically, genuine money ,
gold coins and silver , could be used to expand the supply of money by at
least a multiplier of one. The community multiplier was born! Money begat
money. Amazing as it may seem the community multiplier was extremely
powerful. Often the piece of paper (a bank note) changed hands , buying
good and services , many times before it became due. The circulation of
paper claims on vault stored real money multiplied wealth for the
community many times over. The history of money is filled with stories of
human ingenuity as giant intellects found yet another way to extend its
magic.
Today, we trust our banking system to have our
so-called money in our account so we can draw upon it. Obviously, there is
no gold or silver there. In fact, there isn't even a stack of paper
currency. All that awaits our contractual power to draw upon it are the
electronic blips on magnetic media. No more money, Does that mean there is
no there , There, Well it has become more complicated than that. If God
had any interest in the subject I feel he might forbid the following
expose'. Because, as you will see, the emperor has no clothes. Still, this
is not necessarily a fraud on the public. In any case, it is an exercise
in trust and hope. We will now make an apparently bald assertion. The
value and price of gold, silver and other precious substances can not be
trusted any more than paper money. This is especially true as population
pressures on the use of commodities soars.
We
sorely need to expand credit to facilitate the growth of capital for our
very needy billions of humans. Gold and silver can not do it unless paper
money is used to expand credit. It is obvious that we can not trust . Gold
(and its equivalents) to provide sufficient capital for the Earth's fast
growing population. Though the history and the fate of paper money is of
interest to many, because our main interest, here, is to consider the
"Problem of God" we will set aside our discussion of money. Still we go on
trusting fiat money.
To Read More about
Money, Click Here
Why trust paper money, Governments obviously can be
mismanaged. They can manipulate the supply of their paper money by using
their printing presses to pay their bills. They can and do default on
their obligations. This can result in severe austerity for the local
public because other nations no longer will accept the full faith and
credit of the defaulting nation. This seems better than turning one's fate
over to the gold traders because in a democracy the ordinary public has
the power of the vote to put bad managers out of power. If they vote. The
entire foregoing enables one to see that today fiat money is less subject
to market vagaries and human manipulations than gold and silver so long as
the governments can be trusted to do the right thing.
The central
banks of the nations of our global economy are all forced by the floating
value of their currency against the value of the other currencies to
maintain sufficient reserves to settle their accounts. In this way a vast
network of national treasuries is standing behind the illusion that paper
money is worth more than the paper it is printed upon so long as other
nations will play the same game according to agreed rules. Why do we
believe in the illusion that paper money is valuable and can be trusted,
There are many reasons all of which are rationales for the illusion.
Obviously, buying good, productive land makes more sense. (What does
productive mean?) But it would ill behoove the world to turn away from
fiat (paper) money.
The big reason is the growing pressure of
increasing population demand on the supply of real goods such as land,
commodities, food stuffs, transportation etc. We can expect a billion more
mouths to feed in less than twelve years because of uncontrolled human
baby production and lowering death rates. This huge increase in demand has
obvious needs. Money, marvelous money provides the easy expansion of
credit to facilitate the movement of goods anywhere in the world where
they are needed so long as the needy party has money. So long as the
creditors who have a surplus of money are willing to expand credit by
issuing money to those in need the illusion of valuable money solves the
problem by increasing the quantity of money in circulation. Can this go on
forever, Yes, so long as the ordinary public is hard working and their own
productivity increases the quantity of real goods to pay for the paper
money. Isn't money a miracle,
Many readers of the foregoing having never examined the nature of
money are probably confused and perplexed by what has been said. How can
money be nothing, but still be something we trust for buying and selling
valuable things, It is profoundly simple. We have put our faith and trust
in the abstract idea that all will be done right in the end. Doesn't it
sounds like we should pray and hope. Right, In God we Trust is printed on
the money. With paper money around believing in God seems to be an act of
wisdom. But can humans be trusted, Does it seem to you that money has many
attributes and characteristics that are similar to those we attribute to
God, Never gave it a thought,
WHY DO WE THINK ABOUT GOD,
HOW DO WE THINK ABOUT GOD
How do we think about God, Those who are spiritual but not
religious have given it serious thought. Darwin's God was kind, loving,
and just. When his beloved young daughter, Anne, died, his choice was to
stop believing in God Both Isaac Newton and Johannes Kepler the architects
of the theory that underlies our understanding of the motions of the stars
and gravity saw God as a divine mathematician. On the other hand, Einstein
accepted virtually none of the traditional images of God, seeing God
exclusively in the explicably rational and ultimately inspiring foundation
of the universe. Many, but not all, physicists are greatly moved by the
beautiful underlying rationality of the universe. Others, say God can not
be known by the powers of human knowledge. What do we say about a God who
seems to inspire suicide bombers, What we can know with the greatest of
clarity is: how little we can know in the rational sense about God. God is
not knowable.
Einstein on Science and Religion
Below is an extended excerpt from an article
about science and religion by Albert Einstein. It should set us on a
useful quest for God:
Religion and
science are clearly marked off from each other. Nevertheless, there
exists a strong reciprocal relationship. In the past, religion
determined the goals of science while religion has learned from science.
Good science can only be created by those who are thoroughly imbued with
aspirations toward truth and better understanding. I (Einstein) can not
conceive of a scientist who does not have faith in the possibility that
the rules of existence are rational and can be known. Science without
religion is lame,religion without science is blind. I must qualify what
I have said with reference to the actual content of historical
religions. In the youthful period of mankind's spiritual evolution, Man
sought to alter the apparent will of God by means of prayer and magic.
At
present the idea of God in religions is a sublimation of that old concept.
Its anthropomorphic character is shown by the fact men appeal to the
Divine Being in prayers and plead for the fulfillment of their wishes. The
idea of an omnipotent, just, beneficent and personal God accords man
with solace, help and guidance. In addition, by virtue of its simplicity
God is accessible to undeveloped and unexamined minds. This being
omnipotent of course includes human actions. But, how is it possible to hold
men responsible for their deeds and thoughts before such an Almighty
Being, for if he is omnipotent then he must pass judgment on Himself. In
view of questionable actions how can we ascribe only goodness
and righteousness to Him, This personal anthropomorphic God is the
main source of the present day conflict between religion and science.
Science is mainly a programmatic idea. Science seeks to establish general
rules which determine the reciprocal connection between objects and events
in time and space, or laws of nature , absolute general validity
is required, not simply proven.
The principles are founded on
partial successes. However, this is not human deception. On the basis of
these generalities, we are able to predict the temporal behavior of
phenomena in certain domains with great precision and certainty. This
ability is deeply embedded in the consciousness of modern man,even
though he has grasped very little of the contents of these laws.
Clearly, some phenomena are too
complex for scientific methods. One need only think of the weather. We
know that occurrences in weather are beyond exact prediction because of
the variety of factors not because of a lack of order in nature. Also,
we have only recently begun to penetrate the regularities obtaining
within living things. What is still lacking is a grasp of connections
that enable profound generalizations. Though the doctrine of a personal
God interfering with natural events will never be refuted by science
this is because the believer in such an idea can always take refuge in those domains within which scientific knowledge has not set foot.
Are the unexplained domains
inexplicable as some humans believe, Science is putting that question to
the test in the long run. A widely respected modern guru, once said,
The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based a religious sense arising from the experiences of all things natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description... If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism.
(Albert Einstein.)
Albert Einstein's
universe was a miraculous place to ordinary humans. Atoms congregated in
discernible numbers, moved in detectable directions, danced on the heads
of pins so to speak. Light traveled as a wave, and as a flow of particles.
The intricacies of the Earth and the cosmos could be captured in a single
elegant equation: E=MC2. He said, I want to know how God created this world,I am
not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or
that element. I want to know His thoughts,the rest are details. Another great
physicist, Steven Weinberg, said, . . . .Even when physicists will
have gone as far as they can go, when we have a final theory, we
will not have a completely satisfying picture of the world, because we
will still be left with the question: why, (One is reminded of Archibald
MacLeish's words in the mouth of God when Job asked, Why, God's reply
was, Who are you to ask? Why not, see JB, the play.)
The Cosmological Constant
Weinberg said that some seem to find fine-tuned
values that allow for the possibility of life in a way that could be
explained by the intervention of a designer with some special interest in
life. Weinberg, among others, is not impressed with the supposed evidence.
However, he does find that there is one constant whose value does seem
remarkably well adjusted in our favor. It is the energy density of empty
space, also known as the cosmological constant. Astronomical observations
show that the cosmological constant is quite small. Very much smaller than
might have been guessed by first principles. Still we seem to be in a much
bigger universe in which big bangs go off all the time, each one with
different values for the fundamental constant.
Some of these values could
very well be constants that take values favorable to life even though many
fewer wherein life is possible. Weinberg goes on to say that you don't
have to invoke a benevolent designer to explain why we are one of the
parts of the universe where life is possible: in all the other parts of
the universe there is no one to raise the question. It is possible that
there is some tiny fraction of planets somewhere on which there are living
beings that are capable of thinking about the universe, as we are doing,
here. But should we borrow money against the future to find out about that
when we have so many large problems to solve in the here and now such as
world-wide poverty, Plus poverty of the spirit among many world leaders.
There are few signs of external benevolence that might show the hand of a
benevolent designer. The sun which warms us is not a constant because it
is dying. So what do we do, Turn to God for counsel,
Religion Has Done Big Bad Harm in
the Name of God
Tragically, there are endless examples of big harm done by small
minded men in the name of one religion or another. In the twentieth
century it was a Muslim who killed Sadat, a Jewish zealot who killed
Rabin, and a Hindu zealot who killed Gandhi. No one would say that
Hitler was a Christian zealot. Yet, it is hard to imagine Nazism
taking the form it did without the passing of centuries during which
Christians' educated there young in the methods of anti-Semitism.
Such careful industrious planning for the final solution had to have
a training ground.
For another hideous example, it was pious Christian English and Dutch who plied the slave trade that caused other devoted Christians to demand an end to the preaching from the pulpit that was justifying slavery. Before Man found the moral strength to end this earlier stage of the horrific injustice, arguments for slavery
quoted scripture in the Parliament and US Congress. Pitt was among those who led the battle for abolition yet, he was not known for his piety. With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil,but for good people to do evil it seems that they take the robes of religion to cover their sins.
So what do we do, Certainly,
man is not God nor is he a God. But, then man is not merely an animal. We
seem to be something-in-between afflicted with hubris.The disease of
humans who would be God. Obviously, humans need more humility, especially
after we have created such terrible weapons that we have enabled the
warriors of science to solemnly say that they could use these inventions
to wipe out human life on this planet, or worse to end the planet itself.
We forward our tax dollars to them so they can do this horrible work.
Looking at the historical record, most of the humans who occupy this
planet, with other animals and plants, seem to have little if any respect
for the Earth. In our time, we are facing the possibility of a
catastrophic eco-spasm.
Within two or three generations excessive
baby production and unthinking application of health measures to decrease
infant mortality (God's way to maintain the balance,) will threaten our
good Earth's carrying capacity with a human population too large in
numbers for the planet to support. In the face of thousands dying of
famine and drought, religious leaders continue to urge humans to procreate
without reasonable restraint. It is time for us to consider Plan B3.0
offered by the Earth Policy Institute. We must rescue the planet from
ourselves. The planet Earth is under extreme stress and our civilizations
are in trouble. Though technology holds out some promises, more and more
humans doubt the ability of humans to resolve obstinate social and
political problems that stand in the way of resolving our differences. Can
we cooperate to solve the dire threats, Religious ought to be providing
the ideas that would make working together possible for humans.
Maybe the Idea of God no Longer
Works For Enough of Us,
Secularists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
saw agnosticism as a product of reasonable analysis of the present facts.
Atheists are convinced, by application of reason, to accept the idea that
the absence of God is a necessary first step toward confronting the
problems of Man. Like the crowd of amused people surrounding Nietzsche's
madman when he cried out in agony over the apparent death of God, many are
unmoved by the prospect of life without God. Should people defiantly
reject God to conserve their energies in order to pour out all their love
upon mankind, Certainly, God has been used by those claiming leadership to
stunt human creativity so humans would focus on unproductive praying in
the face of obvious need for healthy change. We have said that science
tells us there may be intelligent life on some far planets. This is not
meaningless because we can see how humans could verify or deny it once the
necessary technology is available.
Similarly, a simple believer in
the traditional Old Man in the Sky is not making a meaningless statement.
This is because after a human's death he/she ought to be able to find out
whether or not this is true. Yet, to speak of scientific verification of a
belief (as in religion) or unbelief (as in atheism) is logically
impossible. There is nothing in the concept of God to deny or be skeptical
about. Like poetry or music, religion is not amenable to this kind of
discourse or verification without hidden assumptions by either side of the
argument. As the MeetingHouse has demonstrated in providing readers with a
review of many religions, not all religious people have looked to God to
provide them with an explanation for the Universe and/or a meaning for
life. Science has been threatening only to fundamentalists such as Western
Christians.
To scientists and philosophers who find no room for God in
their rational system such as Jews, Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Taoists,
and mystics of the middle Ages,God is an idea that can not be proven. Nor
can heaven be located within a physical universe anymore than the Buddhist
nirvana. More and more people are saying the old mythology is invalid.
Simple faith in the Old Man in the Sky is clearly impossible without
naive, blind, acceptance of works of human imagination.
Why Not Believe in the Beau Ideal
of- The Meaningful Existence of Those Who Walked With God,
Sophisticated theologians, like Thomas Jefferson,
are saying we must do without God and hold on to Jesus of Nazareth,
Gautama the Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi, Lao Tzu, Mohammed, the words of the
Jewish Prophets and Rabbis, and leading holy women such Teresa of Avila,
Hildegard of Tubingen, and others. Why can't we see the Gospel as, The
good news of Jesus, a free man, who set other men free, Jesus of Nazareth
was the liberator who defined what it meant to be a man. Like Luther,
humans must leave the cloister and go out into the neighborhood to serve
secular man in the world of technology, power, sex, money, and the city.
Living the life of Jesus everyday was to be the solution for those who
could not find God. Still, how many humans are capable of living by such a
golden but demanding standard,
Turning to the Incomprehensible God
-the Supreme Being Is it better to return to an overarching idea of a
God who is greater than human beings - a God who may be incomprehensible,
At least people would have an option of believing in this inscrutable God
and choosing to affirm a meaning for life as lived even in the midst of an
indefinable meaninglessness. Believing in a reasonable explanation for the
tragedies of life many is better than a fanciful myth. With the power of
modern knowledge humans can not have faith in a weak and indifferent God.
But, instead they can draw strength from a living presence in their minds
of God , a God who made people strong enough to pray and envision hope at
Auschwitz. We have the awful present knowledge that if this God is
omnipotent he could have prevented the Christian Germans from the
horrifying sins of the Holocaust at Auschwitz, Buchenwald and other hell
holes such as Rwanda and the slaughter of the Christians in China during
the 20th century. Worse, if he could have prevented these sins of Man and
chose not to, he is blameworthy and not trustworthy.
Jews are not the only people who suffered and died
because of the Holocaust, nor are they the only people who feel that the
Holocaust put an end to conventional religions. Nevertheless, the
spiritual but not religious, in the face of it all, find that believing in
God is better than the negation of being.
It is also true that even in Auschwitz some Jews continued to study the Talmud and observe the
traditional festivals, not because they hoped that God would rescue them
but because it made sense. There is a story that one day in Auschwitz, a
group of Jews put God on trial before the Rabbi. They charged him with
cruelty and betrayal. Like Job, they found no consolation in the usual
answers to the problem of evil and suffering in the midst of their
insufferable loathsome experience. After the trial presentations they
could find no excuse for God, no extenuating circumstances, so they found
him guilty and presumably worthy of death. The Rabbi pronounced that as
theverdict. Then he looked up and said that the trial was over: It was
time for the evening prayer.
The MeetingHouse's Spiritual but Not
Religious Know Our Modern Image of God has Changed
The spiritual
but not religious are convinced that the personal God of traditional
Western religions will go. But they also believe that God is necessary for
the well being of: body, mind, soul, and spirit of most humans. This is
because of the nature of reality in the real world. For humankind, a
deep-rooted anxiety is part of the human condition. It is not a neurosis
because it is ineradicable Therapy and chemicals can not permanently take
it away. We fear loss of much that we have,and death is threatening,
always, as we watch our bodies gradually but inexorably decay. A god who
interferes with natural events, or is an independent cause of natural
events makes God an object. Maybe he or she would be the highest being,
but, nevertheless a personified object. Too obviously, the Old Man in the
Sky is a creation of imaginative minds.
If God is seen as a Self
in a world of his own,an ego that is related to a thou,a cause separate
from him,then He (or should we say She) becomes a Being among other
beings. Surely, humans are ready to see that an omnipotent, all knowing
tyrant is not much different from earthly dictators who make everything
and everybody cogs in their machine. Instead, we should seek to find a God
beond this personal God. All humans have to use symbols (words) when they
talk about being. Many Chinese do not use the word God they use the word
Tao. For centuries, humans in the West in order to bear the terror of life
and the horror of death, we have symbolically expressed it as God.
For humans the experience of faith in this God or that God is not
a unique state from other emotional or intellectual experiences.
Since God is Being which precedes and is the fundament to all our
emotions such as courage, hope and despair, it is not a distinct
separable state from each one of our normal human experiences. God
is inseparable from human psychology.
What has happened is that as human knowledge such as science has accrued it has propelled us away from magic, superstition and ignorance. Modern men and women see an unfolding universe evolving from our understanding of things, to personalities, to spirit and finally to a pervasive God-spirit,the climax is. God is within us, God is everywhere, and living is a sacrament of His /Her presence. The scriptures of major religions tell us that God is love and Compassion. Science shows that the natural world progresses toward both ever greater complexity and greater unity.
For example, should Christians focus on Jesus, the Man, rather than the cosmic portrait of Christ in Paul’s epistles?
Today, they could see Christ as an example of the climax of the
evolutionary process when God becomes all in all. By the grace of God
there is no reason why Taoists, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, and
others could not follow similar paths to such enlightenment. Obviously, no
religion could have an exclusive franchise on knowing God. The history of
science of man shows that the unaided intellect can not reach the vision
it seeks. Humans have in the past and are now continually coming up
against barriers to understanding. As always we change or attitudes. In
all cultures, human beings have been driven by the same imperatives: to be
intelligent, responsible, reasonable, loving, and, if necessary - change.
Instead of seeking God through logic and abstractions, we look to drama,
art, music, dance, poetry, fictional literature and so forth to help our
senses feel and see God.
Muslims and Jews have also attempted to look back
to the past to find ideas of God that will suit the modern state of mind.
In the Koran one finds a way of feeling God that is not so transcendent as
to become a nullity, and not so personal as to become an idol. The Koranic
discourse balances the metaphorical, figurative and anthropomorphic
descriptions with constant reminders that God is incomparable and not
seeable. Since God is the only reality, nothing exists but him, and the
world itself is properly divine. Taoism from China encourages one to accept
and live with an unseeable incomprehensible God , the Tao. Still, world
peace demands that we should be more tolerant and respectful of those who
do reject the word 'God' because so many appalling things have been done
in His name to this day.
God is Such an Important Ideal to
Humans That Believing in Him May Be Superfluous God is such an important ideal that whether he exists
or not, or, whether we believe in him is superfluous.
Without the
idea of God there is no absolute meaning, no truth, and no morality.
Worse, ethics becomes simply a matter of taste, a mood or whim. Unless,
politics and morality somehow includes the idea of God those concepts will
often be the domain of the shrewd, the clever, and the cynical. If there
is no absolute there is no reason why we should not hate, or, that war is
worse than peace. One of our earliest dreams is a longing for a just world
, who has not heard a child say: That's Not Fair! Our spirits call out for
justice in the face of suffering and wrongs. The fact that the spiritual
but not religious keep returning to these central themes from the history
of God that speak to the reality of God is not so alien to us today as
many assume.
Doctrines
such as the Trinity and the mythology and symbolism of other mystical
systems all strove to suggest that God was beyond personality while
holding on to a God incarnate. In modern times, this blurring of imagery
has clouded the minds of the faithful. Today, there is a growing uneasiness
with such inadequate images of the Absolute. This healthy iconoclasm
is because the iconic ways of looking at God often have been abused
by self-promoting religious leaders with disastrous effects on unity
among God loving people.
The Backlash to Modernism ,
Fanatical Fundamentalism
One of the characteristic new developments since the middle
twentieth century has been the rise of militant forms of religiosity
that we usually call,fundamentalism. This world view is present
in most of the major religions of the world including the three
religions of the Book or the Word of God.
A great Christian theologian recently observed, The most fanatical, the cruelest, political struggles are those that have been colored, inspired, or legitimized by religion.
The spiritual
but not religious take seriously the fact that religions share the
responsibility for bringing peace to our to torn and warring world.
In the USA our Constitution protects religious minorities to
feel free to practice their way of loving and serving God, or not, openly
with a free conscience. But the whole world is afflicted by zealous
sycophants of power hungry leaders who delude their followers by urging
them to hate those who disagree with their own version of religion. In the
USA, an aggressive form of fundamentalism known as evangelical Christians
is a highly political form of spirituality that is literal and intolerant
in its interpretations of the Bible. Whether it was the early Pilgrims,
the Millenarians who assembled in Kentucky for a false End Time during the
1840s, or, the present day Christian fundamentalists, they have always
been prone to extremist and apocalyptic enthusiasm for their
self-righteous world views.
The fundamentalists campaign for the
abolition of legal abortion, for censorship, for control of schools'
curriculum, along with an all encompassing hard line on moral and social
decency. They excuse the parental child abusers in their midst because the
abusers assert they have been born again. Their leaders have openly
condoned murders who have gunned down physicians or bombed abortion
clinics. They say that belief in miracles is an essential hallmark of true
faith. Faith in Jesus as God is a sine a qua non for acceptance,while
service to God by helping others is devalued by many of them as
irrelevant. They seem to have little regard for the teachings of Jesus
about loving compassion for one's neighbors. They are swift to condemn the
people they see as the enemies of God. Most of these so-called Christians
consider Jews, Muslims, and Unitarians as destined for hellfire.
Some of their leaders have fervently argued that all oriental
religions are inspired by the devil. They have encouraged the view that
actions to protect the environmental biosphere are a waste of time and
money, because the End Time is here, again. During the Reagan and Bush
years these zealots, sure of their exclusive franchise on the golden
arches to the gates of heaven, have aggressively pushed their agenda on
other citizens. They believe God will give the righteous believer anything
that he or she asks for in prayer. This includes success in business,
selected material goods, and more food. Obesity is a form of happiness
that has been promoted in the past. (For a fuller discussion of various
Christian sects see the hyperlink at the HomePage , Christianity).
Unfortunately, There have been similar fundamentalists developments in the
Muslim dominated nations of the world. Muslim fundamentalists have toppled
government leaders, assassinated opposition leaders, and declared,their
intent to kill those who point out the personality flaws of their
self-appointed leaders. In our modern day, so-called Jihads, have been
carrying on a dishonest corruption of the idea of the Jihad- or the
personal struggle - for devote Muslims which is set forth in the Koran,
These criminal leaders abuse their own religion in the name of their own
war for personal power in a restructured
Islamic state. We look for Islamic sects who are opposed to
using violent means to gain more followers.
There are
some. Similarly, Jewish fundamentalists have used extreme forms of violence
to drive away Palestinian inhabitants and to seize land elsewhere. They
believe they are paving the way for the advent of the Messiah, again. In the
words of Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York in 1990: There are not
several messages in Judaism. There is only one. And this message is to do
what God wants. Sometimes God wants us to go to war, sometimes he wants us
to live in peace, but there is only one message: God wanted us to come to this
country (USA) to create a Jewish state. The exclusionary attitudes
expressed by these various kinds of fundamentalists are actually a retreat
from God. It is not surprising that many who are spiritual but not
religious have decided to relinquish their belief in God on hearing the
profane words of these hate-mongers and power seekers who want to deny
other people's human rights Our modern understanding of humans enable us
to see that these historical phenomena that are labeled Christian Family
Values, or,
Islamic States,or
obtaining the promised Holy Land are the focus of a sort of religious
devotion that is a modern form of idolatry. It is being encouraged by
false leaders who seek personal power at the expense of world peace. This
type of belligerent righteousness has been a constant temptation through
the long history of God. Surely, it is not authentic.
The biblical
God of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims got off to a warlike start. The
tribal deity Yahweh was murderously partial to his warrior invaders when
they conquered the Promised Land, Canaan. History has seen the early
success of the Mohammedan horsemen who spread the Word of Allah with an
offer that could not be refused , death by the sword or conversion to the
faith of the Prophet. The insanity of the Christian Crusades in the name
of Jesus the Lord God all elevated the war-like values of the tribe to
high status. Their human leaders substituted man-made ideals for God's
transcendent reality which challenges all prejudices. More important, by
their bad leadership they are a denying the crucial monotheistic theme ,
compassion and love. In spite of the blood lust of human males, there was
a change begun by the prophets. Since that time, the old pagans, Warriors
for Yahweh, have been led to the ideal of love and compassion.
The
compassion for others was an ideal of the ideologies that arose when the
world religions broke away from tribal-centric local gods during what is
called the Axial Age. Even Buddhists made a major change in their
religious orientation when they introduced devotion (bhakti) to the
bodhisattvas who followed Buddha. The prophets had insisted that cultic
worship was useless unless society adopted a more just and compassionate
ethos. Jesus and the Rabbis suggested major changes in Judaism for that
same reason. Paul made certain that his new Christianity implemented it.
Mohammed's expression of God's will through the Koran made the creation of
a compassionate and just society the essence of the reformed religion of
al-Lah. Humans find compassion is a difficult demanding virtue. To live
compassionately, humans must go beyond limiting egotism and insecurity and
prejudice. It is not surprising that all of the religions of the Book have
failed to achieve these high standards.
In 2008, power crazed immans leaders of JIHADIC Islamists are fanning the winds of hate and war following their tragic terror at the World Trade Center. Leading Christians and Jews, of the other religions of the Book are feeding the fires of counter-attack. The good Earth is threatened with a blood bath. The MeetingHouse urges that all religions should seek counsel from The Wisdom of Balsekar -The Essence of Enlightenment (see References at Endnote this chapter.)
Ramesh Baalsekar, born a Hindu, follower of the Hindu sage, Ramana Maharishi, considered by many the world's greatest living sage has made a study of the spiritual life. He teaches a Hindu philosophy, Advaita Vedanta, which concerns non-duality in that everything is one. That we are all intrinsic parts of the universe, not separate from it. (Please see Balsekar's Poem of Creation found at the introduction to Hinduism.)
If the world is to be saved from the war of terror of the religions of the Book we all need to learn more about the spiritual life. Though human history tells us that when faced with a choice between peace and war, humans choose war, there is still time for a better choice.
The Deism of the American
Constitution by the Founding Fathers
It was an
original change to the better when many of the USA's founding fathers
personally chose Deism. They did it because Western Christianity had
become so conspicuously, cruel, intolerant and hypocritical. Jews,
Christians, and Muslims who punctiliously attend worship yet denigrate
people who belong to different ethnic and ideological camps are denying
one of the basic truths of God - a loving and compassionate religion.
Surely, the proverbial cock must crow three times every morning, as it did
for Peter, in the face of this continuing hypocrisy. By the teachings of
their own scriptures it is wrong for people who call themselves Jews,
Christians, and Muslims to condone inequitable social and political
systems that they control. The God of historical monotheism demands mercy,
not sacrifice, compassion rather than decorous liturgy.
At an earlier time, there was what is called the Axial Age.
It is the term historians use to describe a phenomenal
period from 800 , 200BCE, during which many of the most influential
religious leaders in history were contemporaries. Isaiah, Socrates, and
Zoroaster all gave a distinctive shape to peculiarly Western ideas. In the
same brief period, Buddha, Lao-tzu, and Confucius emerged in the East. The
legacies of these six men were philosophies or schools of religious
thought still claim vast numbers of adherents today. All six shared
certain striking similarities: each developed or refined an abstract
system of thought that challenged the brains of all who attempted to
understand them. All of them were based on literacy. None of these men had
a relationship with a woman or men that each valued above solitude. One
plausible explanation for the Axial Age is that complex abstract systems
of thought came into existence because literacy, the ultimate abstraction,
was the impetus that propelled these literate spiritual leaders. But,
there is an appropriate question troubling feminist historians which is:
Why did misogyny so often accompany their message, (This
important question will be taken up in the Homepage hyperlink God Is Also A Woman.) The misogyny of these leaders is atypical, the vast majority
of men love women and have families. Most men are not the ones who
withdraw from conventional life to preach doctrines that others who follow,
similarly disposed, then commit to writing. These six highly influential
religious leaders promulgated a new way to relate to the world.
Each of them proposed a new method, path, logic, a Way, system, or Law
to achieve spiritual awareness to relate to God. Only something as powerful
as literacy could have stirred up the human condition to bring to the
surface six such unique personalities. Why this was the same age when
the Goddess began to lose her hold on the people's imagination, These men
muddied the waters, as far as women were concerned. It would take twenty
five hundred years before some women, and a few men, would begin to
see through the muddle again. We are living that time of change.
God's Central Theme, Love and Compassion for Your Fellow
Humans Now
In Taoism,Buddhism, and Hinduism
there is concern for the here and now and how we conduct ourselves
in this life. Concern for the here-and-now was especially marked in
Islam. Muhammad who was both a
political and spiritual genius was a realistic human. Generations of
Muslims have shared his concern to incarnate the divine will in human
history by establishing a just and decent society. The Holy God of Israel
demanded a similar holiness and separation from old ways on the part of
His people. Jesus' teachings were relentless in insisting on compassion
and caring for the poor. The ideal for all these world religions is
personal responsibility. Yet, observance of the Torah, Shariah, and
Christian principles of faith has often been seen by the devout as
sufficient compliance with God's objectives. However, nothing could have
been further from the intentions of the men who originated and compiled
these codes.
Atheists who preach emancipation from a God who
demands servile obedience are protesting against a God who is sort of a
Big Brother in the Sky. Obviously, for Western religion to avoid death
from the rays of modern knowledge. God mist be updated from the divine
Tyrant imposing his law on reluctant human servants. This ancient error
must be corrected. The anthropomorphic idea of God as Lawgiver and Ruler
is a poor fit for the humans borne to the post-modern era. The
descriptions of the experience of God must be kept abreast of a world view
seen by humans aware of DNA/RNA, the uncertainty principle of Quantum
Physics, and the multi-dimensional world of the holographic universe.
To
push God to inhabit the intellectual (or magical) isolation of the holy
ground of heaven is now known to be unnatural and unhealthy. In our
scientific age we can not think about God in the same way as our
forebears. Still, the challenge of science can help us to appreciate some
of the old truths. Albert Einstein, for one, had an appreciation of
mystical religion. Originally, cosmology was not a scientific description
of the origins of the universe but was a symbolic expression of a
spiritual and psychological truth. Taoism has been more effective in making
such a view of creation as a part of human life. The old metaphysical
notion of God as a personified Supreme Being is unsatisfactory except for
the naïve and lazy of mind in the face of modern knowledge and thought.
We hasten to add that kind and compassionate hearts who believe in the spiritual life should never,
never,destroy the faith of non-violent traditional believers.They will be led to the next step when they are ready.As we should be tolerant and patient,we ask them to be patient and respectful concerning our enthusiasm.
The Modern Mystics' Definition of
God The God of the mystics seems to present a
possible alternative. Mystics have long insisted God is not an , Other
Being- that the He does not exist and it is better to call the idea a
Nothing. Albeit, a sophisticated form of nothing. The mystics approach God
through the imagination as a kind of art form, an expression of ineffable
beauty. The mystery, the value of life is expressed by the mystics using
music, dancing, poetry, fiction, story telling, painting, sculpture and
architecture to express a Reality that goes beyond word concepts. Still,
mysticism calls for intelligent application of discipline, self criticism,
and introspection. The God of the mystics may be more satisfying to women
because it introduces the female element into the divine. Taoism with its Yin/Yang and Buddhism, and
Hinduism has been
more successful than the West in embedding mysticism in a rigorous manner.
The God of the mystics is not easy for the mind to ingest. Mystics have to
work to attain this elevated sense of reality known as God - without a
name.
We are learning it is possible to acquire
some of the mystical attitudes even though most of us are not yet capable
of the states of higher consciousness achieved by a mystic. Humans can
learn that the word God is a symbol of an ineffable reality that is
transcendent. Biofeedback machines are a help because they take ordinary
humans to a theta state. Combining the power of a home computer with CD
programs and biofeedback devices is already enabling many to experience
enhanced elevated states. Today most people seem to have lost the will to
make this imaginative effort. But, there are the fortunate few among the
spiritual but not religious who can feel the emanations of the universal
God when they chant:
I am a part of the Light, the Light is within me,the Light
and I are One with God., or,
I am a part of the Water, the Water is within me, and the
Water and I are One with God, and,
I am a part of the Universe, the Universe is within Me, and
the Universe and I are One with God.
In the ancient and recent past people always
created new symbols to act as the focus for spirituality. Humans have
always created a faith to carry them through life's dynamics,from
happiness to grief, to renewal, even in times of adversity and great
uncertainty. For many, nihilism, aimlessness, and alienation a state of
mind further dulled by stress and violence seem to characterize modern
life. They are among those who are not acting to create a faith in God or
Tao , it matters little what the word is , Just do it! Humans can avoid
despair as a state of mind. The presence in America and elsewhere of the
escapism of Big Brother fundamentalism, media generated End Time,and the
magic of instant gratification intoned by the charismatic media preachers
is not reassuring. Working toward a healthy, compassionate human society
is not easy.
In Europe there is a growing empty space where God
once existed within the human consciousness. Humans who see the empty
space have failed to listen to the warning of those who foretold the death
of the spirit if one was no longer able to create a faith in life's
meaning. Humans can not endure for long the emptiness and desolation of
such a vacuum. The media generated idols of fundamentalism are not working
substitutes for God. The history of God and Man tells us that to
capitulate to nihilism opens the door to the false leaders of fascism and
the death of freedom and liberty.
Encouragement for the Questing Journey
During the 21st Century
This is a Message from the MeetingHouse where one finds those who flow with the One Spirit's
Stream of Consciousness. Follow the Light.
A strong belief in almost any force for good is now recognized as having health benefits.
According to health givers, including allopathic physicians (western medicine), whether
it is faith in God, or some benevolent power, this strong belief has
efficacious healing power. There is an emerging paradigm of subtle energy
medicine that supplies support for ancient health-giving practices such as
herbal medicine, massage, acupuncture, hypnosis, nutrition, meditation and
so on. Today, we recognize that the human cell wall is much more than a
physical barrier with receptors designed to protect the cell's contents.
We are beginning to see that the cell wall is an interactive window.
The cell membrane is so permeable that millions
of ions flow into and out of the cell in nanoseconds. We have become
aware that we are dependent on mitochondria - microscopic
organelles- that reside within human cells, which are necessary for
energy production and respiration.
Do the energies produced course through the body and mind in a way related to the ancient
concepts of chi,meridians, and prana, chakras,
Until recently, Western Medicine
researchers concentrated on how mood, cravings, responses to stress,
behavior are mediated by hormones functioning as neurotransmitters.
Examples are serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins, among others. Medicines
for depression have been developed based on such research. Clearly, the
mind and body converse by way of hormones, neurotransmitters, and chemical
and electromagnetic forces.
We are discovering the mind/body energies that are the powerful
resonating signal amplifiers, which allow the cells to make appropriate
responses. The body contains its own best pharmacy. If there is a physical way
to experience God, then mere belief will become not necessary. We don't
have to believe in gravity in order to experience gravity. Humans are
gaining more understanding of the healing ways of nature. The Way could be
a religio-scientific approach that blends our understanding of the unity
of nature with the different levels of reality material; quantum, and
virtual. Thereby we will understand how the human brain/ body,
particularly the nervous system, works in response to its environs.
Getting close to God through a true knowing would heal the fear of death,
for it would confirm the existence of the soul, and give an ultimate
meaning to life. Consider what we know today as we continue the questing
journey (The word God is a symbol for the Good Force).
As Humans we all Have SEVEN
Different Biological Responses:
- When we experience the primitive survival response fight/flight we
know we need protection so we seek it from God. This primitive survival
response is part of our evolved human nature.
- If we feel the need to react to a threat or opportunity we pray for the Almighty (The Force for Good) to help us to control that event in
our life and to reward us or punish us for our wrongdoing. We see God in
the reactive response of Job and Moses.
- Feeling peace inside, we experience the God Force as providing peace of mind. The sainted leaders of various religions are worthy of study.
Seeing our world through the eyes of those such as Lao Tzu, Isaiah,
Buddha, Christ, Mohammed, Hildegard, Gandhi, and others, who walked with
God enable us to better understand the value of meditation and
contemplation. Thus we find we can access consciousness.
- When our
intuition is responding better and we are beginning to understand
ourselves better, then we thank God and continue to hope.
- We are responding to God, the Creator of the Universe,
when our own creative powers are
synchronizing with the World as we feel it ought to be. The Book of Genesis is about the
creative response.
- When we have a Visionary response we are in communication with the Infinite Mind. We are channeling the God-Force as did the alchemist, miracle
worker, and magician. This does not mean one is clairvoyant or more
spiritual than others. Though for some that may be true. For most, it
just means one has opened a channel because one has a brain that
developed that way, or, one has that ability gained through practice or
learning. The many miracles we see or hear about are the visionary
response.
- If you are in the sacred response then one is experiencing God,
as the immeasurable potential of all that was, is, and will be.
When Moses asked God for his name, God said, I am that I am.
Our role is to love and to experience unity-consciousness ,
to know at the deepest level of our being that we humans are One Spirit in different guises.
These seven responses are the all in all of the world religions.
These responses correspond to levels of awareness and spiritual
experience.
The Global Experience of the twenty first century ought to be
for all to unite in carefully conserving the Earth with its myriad
cultural heritages that embellish this planet. By loving Earth and
God and serving others we transit to knowing the Global Experience
with the Spirit of God.
Respectfully Submitted to One and All, By Dr. James R Cooper, Pastor
MeetingHouse for Aspiring Spirits
2822 Peavine Trail
Lakeland, Florida, 33810-2332
863-859-7909
Click here
to e-mail.
Other Web Sites:
Recommended
Readings:
- Armstrong, Karen, a History of
God, Knopf Publishing, New York, 1994. Alan Jacobs, Editor, The Wisdom of (Ramesh) Balsekar, Watkins Publishing, London, UK, 2004.
- Slater, Lauren, Love, National
Geographic, February 2008
- Bowker, John, GOD, A Brief
History , The Human Search for Eternal Truth, DK Publishing, Studio
Cactus, 2002
Steven Weinberg,"Without God,"The New York
Review September 25,2008 p. 73 - 76. Weinberg asserts that the
world view of science is (paraphrase)"There is no point to life; no
objective moral principles; no correspondence between moral law and the
laws of nature. We humans act on chance mutations over millions of years.
A chilling prospect. But, he adds: we must not sink into nihilism. We live
on a knife-edge between wishful thinking and despair." He leaves this
end-game dilemma without offering a practical alternative for the living.
The MeetingHouse adds this
comment: If bad human actions push one off the edge into the pit
of despair what should we do? Is there nothing that we can appeal to that
will give us hope that we can climb out of despair back on to the knife
edge again? Where in the world is the compassion to lift our hopes that
nihilism and despair are not the dismal prospect for us all? Can most of
us go through life to its end without a belief that if we try to do right
it will be worth doing? Camus was wrong!- Suicide is not a viable
alternative to Life!.It is death. Choosing some sort of belief that there
is a high value in doing of good virtuous works by serving others.This way
seems to be a practical alternative to the chilling prospect. Is the
choice of belief based on proven evidence? No. Does it really matter that
it is not scientific fact? If it works, isn't it better than the prospect
of living every day with nihilistic despair, on the one hand, or, a belief
in magic, on the other?
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