Religion Part 5 - Defining God
It's about time I updated my religion series. My last serious post on this topic was on March 17 when I pondered on the bi-polar aspect of life. My recent post on Abstract Thinking had some religious tones to it, but I can't really classify it as theology or religion.
I am an ardent believer in the notion of "truth" to the extent that I often suggest that the word "God" is synonymous with the word "truth." I have a new word in the mix that I encountered in the book I am currently reading. The word is "sophistry." In my thinking, simple reasoning, natural reasoning, is usually much closer to what is true than complex or clever reasoning. I am a believer in nature, not in the complex reasoning abilities of man. Generally speaking, nature is not a deceiver. This holds especially true if you are able to perceive nature to the fullest. Experience tells us, though, that human reasoning, especially clever complex reasoning, sophistry, is littered with deception. So which is best to trust?
In my first posting on the topic of religion on February 16, I referenced a passage from Daniel Quinn's book Providence where he almost magically is able to perceive nature as divine energy radiating truth. If you haven't yet read that passage, you should.
I have recently come to a belief, perhaps more like an understanding, that everything that exists in the natural universe exists not as material random objects or particles, but rather as entities of intelligence. Somehow everything that exists has stored in its existence the reasons for its existence. I don't see those reasons as being dictated by some supernatural all-encompassing mind, either, as most God theorists seem to think. I think God IS those reasons. God IS the reason for everything and since those reasons are stored in the very existence of everything that exists, God IS what we all express as "creation." God exists within everything that exists, has existed, or ever will or even could exist.
Intelligence permeates all of nature. If we don't perceive nature that way, it is not nature which is blind. It is us. In our sophisticated understanding of science and reality there exists not only uncertainty about the known but also complete blindness to the unknown. Only nature itself knows everything. Only nature itself knows God.
Quinn's story expressed his experience with these few fleeting moments of openness within his own mind, within his own vision, to nature's truth. Yet even from this brief encounter, his life experience changed and from that change emerged his own ability to reach out to all the rest of us with new perceptions, new ways for us to see who we are and why, new ways to see the errors of our ways, new ways for us to view the future. Yet Quinn is far from being alone. I honestly believe that many people have shared this vision of nature's truth and now from this insight reach out to the rest of us, reach out not with "sophistry" but with truth. Are we listening?
I am an ardent believer in the notion of "truth" to the extent that I often suggest that the word "God" is synonymous with the word "truth." I have a new word in the mix that I encountered in the book I am currently reading. The word is "sophistry." In my thinking, simple reasoning, natural reasoning, is usually much closer to what is true than complex or clever reasoning. I am a believer in nature, not in the complex reasoning abilities of man. Generally speaking, nature is not a deceiver. This holds especially true if you are able to perceive nature to the fullest. Experience tells us, though, that human reasoning, especially clever complex reasoning, sophistry, is littered with deception. So which is best to trust?
In my first posting on the topic of religion on February 16, I referenced a passage from Daniel Quinn's book Providence where he almost magically is able to perceive nature as divine energy radiating truth. If you haven't yet read that passage, you should.
I have recently come to a belief, perhaps more like an understanding, that everything that exists in the natural universe exists not as material random objects or particles, but rather as entities of intelligence. Somehow everything that exists has stored in its existence the reasons for its existence. I don't see those reasons as being dictated by some supernatural all-encompassing mind, either, as most God theorists seem to think. I think God IS those reasons. God IS the reason for everything and since those reasons are stored in the very existence of everything that exists, God IS what we all express as "creation." God exists within everything that exists, has existed, or ever will or even could exist.
Intelligence permeates all of nature. If we don't perceive nature that way, it is not nature which is blind. It is us. In our sophisticated understanding of science and reality there exists not only uncertainty about the known but also complete blindness to the unknown. Only nature itself knows everything. Only nature itself knows God.
Quinn's story expressed his experience with these few fleeting moments of openness within his own mind, within his own vision, to nature's truth. Yet even from this brief encounter, his life experience changed and from that change emerged his own ability to reach out to all the rest of us with new perceptions, new ways for us to see who we are and why, new ways to see the errors of our ways, new ways for us to view the future. Yet Quinn is far from being alone. I honestly believe that many people have shared this vision of nature's truth and now from this insight reach out to the rest of us, reach out not with "sophistry" but with truth. Are we listening?
posted by Bill | 1:39 PM
1 Comments:
You might find a book called "The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design" by Richard Dawkins interesting. You probably won't entirely agree with him, and of course I totally disagree with him. You can read the first chapter on the amazon.com website.
Post a Comment
<< Home