Preface: I wrote this piece for a personal journal on July 18th, 2005. I'd like to share it with you today.
There has never been any subject that has eluded the grasp of mankind more than the divine. Perhaps this is simply because that is what the divine is in its most basic principle: unfathomable. Certainly, it is part of its draw. To have access to a reality that is untouched by the work of human intervention is an escape, a refreshing vacation from the many quagmires we have placed ourselves in over the passage of time.
However, as awe-inspiring as God is, I have not taken the traditional route in getting to know its reality. Organized religion is inherently flawed, as it is 1) contradictory on both logical and emotional levels and 2) a product of humanity. With so many religions marketing themselves as the “one true faith”, there must be millions of people who are mistaken in assuming they are infallible. Faith, in this regard, is utterly absurd (however, I do maintain that faith is necessary and a vital component of spirituality outside of faith in the context of religious correctness).
Secondly, organized belief calls for the unification behind the masterwork of many human hands. This brings in a large societal aspect, which seems to completely contradict the main focus of spirituality: connection with the divine. How can a large group of people dictate the correct methods of worship and communication with our creator without mucking it up somewhere in the process? Again, human intervention can spoil the divine source of the message.
I have come to the conclusion that, in order to get the complete message and to get to know God, one must access Him as unobtrusively as possible--through the self. I do not think that God inhabits the priest in confession; I think that God inhabits the confessor during confession.
This is a closed-loop system. If God is perfection, then in a spatial-temporal sense, this would conceptually be the most efficient method of influencing human events on earth. It eliminates the “middle man”, if you will. It removes all excess and ensures the purest communication possible.
That’s why I’m listening. I’m looking for and pondering for answers--not picking up a book and infusing its contents into my brain as absolute truth. One has to find a more intelligent route to the truths and the rules of our world. This route is not found by those of the “brainy” kind, but rather those of the spiritual kind. It calls for an emotional review of one’s experiences and their implications in the world; their connections with the divine.
However, this is not to say that intelligence hurts this pathfinding experience. It can open up many new avenues of thought which could lead to further solutions, and real answers. One must simply be careful what (s)he assumes to be fact, and to maintain utmost spirituality during their journey.
Science can provide a wealth of answers to very large, abstract concepts that border on information about the identity of the divine. Recent physics, especially, can completely humble one’s own dated conception of what God is. As physics continues its research, we have found that the world is much stranger than the average person might anticipate. Even today, ideas such as Special Relativity and Quantum Physics have completely rewritten the truths of our universe. They propose drastic ideas that may seem foolish and imaginary, yet many are real, tested concepts that have proven themselves through experimentation time and time again. They allow for a God creating our universe, a God interacting in real-time, and make us rethink the traditional conceptions of the Soul, the Mind, and the Self. Physics is not the enemy of spirituality. Physics is merely the enemy of stick-in-the-mud religion.
I know that “physics” doesn’t sound as catchy as “science”, but I’ll tell you why: biology. Charles Darwin has completely mucked up biology for ages to come. It’s amazing that people have stuck to his radical conceptions, even when evidence comes up that is quite contrary. And I’m not talking evolution in general -- there’s plenty of evidence for it -- I’m talking Darwinian evolution. Biology has a tendency to be reductionist, which completely devalues the living being to a mere cluster of cells, proteins, molecules, and atoms. Physics takes a look at this aspect, but it also investigates a greater level: the whole being of a thing. Everything does seem to have a natural place, and biology is forcing the abstract concept of creation and life to a place where it just shouldn’t be. The search for truth should be the search for meaning: if there are two levels to investigate, take the one where there would yield a sensible outcome. Taking the other would simply lead to more muck-ups and human defamation of the divine truth that persists.
You might be wondering where I got all these ideas about this science and God. Well, firstly from my last religion class in high school, Science and Religion, and secondly from one of my father’s books that’s been sitting on the shelf for years, God and the New Physics. They’ve both had their ups and downs in accuracy (mostly downs on account of the High School class), but I take it as a good thing -- it means I’m discerning what I know myself to be reasonable and what I know to be borderline crock.
All that I hope I get out of this is further spirituality and a wider sense of what’s going on. Anything that can lead me towards rationalization or rejection of what has already been established by those before me will help tremendously in how I live my life the way I have discerned to be most appropriate.
