Article 28:
It Gets Much Better
by Wendell Krossa
(From the series "Creating A Horizontal
God", Copyright, W. Krossa)
The Big Why | The Limitations of Science | The Mystery Beyond | Intuition And Imagination Are Credible Faculties
| All For Love | All we see is because of God's love | Our Physical Reality Is Only Energy | A Return Of The Spiritual
| Freedom In Love | The Necessity of Chance | Surprise, Accident, Suffering | Dying is Living | God's Realm or Reality
| No Heaven Above, No Hell Below | What Is The Standard? | A Horizontal Reality | God Is Not Religious
| We All Mimic God | Unity | Eastern And Western Views Of Unity With God | A Dynamic Open Future | God's Great Party
I would like to take you on a little imagination excursion. I use imagination in the sense of the faculty that we use for perceiving what is referred to as spiritual reality, that which is beyond or behind material reality. This is where God is more clearly known and seen. While such exploration is imaginative, it is not just speculation or fantasy. What we are trying to imagine is far more 'real' than anything we know here. In fact, all that we can say about the spiritual reality is infinitely short of the reality. It is infinitely better than anything we can say about it. But we want to try to point in the direction of this reality of God.
Lets start by grappling with the big why- why does this universe exist and why do we exist as conscious beings at this stage of evolution? Here intuition will inform each of us in important ways. Don't be afraid to trust and follow your intuition on these issues. Far too long a rationalistic scientific viewpoint has discredited intuition, imagination, and emotion as being too 'irrational' and of no value in perceiving reality. And by reality, science means observable and measurable material reality, which it holds to be the sum of all reality.
Just a note of caution: In noting the existence of a spiritual dimension to reality and in stating that so-called material reality may not be as separate from spiritual reality as was assumed in various modern scientific worldviews, we are not saying that God is nature or part of nature (pantheism). But let us be clear that all reality- both so-called material and so-called spiritual- is God's reality, held in existence by him.
Beginning with Galileo and Newton some three centuries ago, science developed a materialist view of the universe. This view has now come to govern people's thinking, attitudes and behavior in totalitarian ways. "Its basic principle is reductionism: it is the reduction of everything to certain material principles and to its material base... Fritjof Capra has shown convincingly in The Turning Point how this mechanistic system has come to dominate every aspect of science and of practical life today. He shows how modern physics was at first an attempt to explain everything in terms of atoms, where everything was reduced to material particles which obeyed mechanical laws and could be known by mathematical calculations. So the whole physical world came to be reduced to a machine" (Bede Griffiths, A New Vision of Reality, p.276).
Griffiths further notes that another major development in Western science was the separation of the material from the psychological and the spiritual (Ibid, p.58). This is known as the Cartesian division between mind and matter (From Rene Descartes idea that the material universe was a machine with no purpose, life, or spirituality in matter. Nature was simply a machine governed by exact mathematical laws- The Turning Point, p.60). Material reality then came to be observed in isolation and apart from the psychological/spiritual world. Science in limiting itself to merely quantitative aspects of matter, limited investigation "to a very narrow sphere of reality, and when that narrow sphere was taken for the whole of reality the result was a tragic illusion... In our Western style of thinking we have separated matter from mind, and have separated both matter and mind from the Supreme Reality, from God" (Ibid, p.59).
In Capra's words, "The physical phenomena themselves were not thought to be divine in any sense, and when science made it more and more difficult to believe in such a god, the divine disappeared completely from the scientific worldview, leaving behind the spiritual vacuum that has become characteristic of the mainstream of our culture" (Ibid, p.66).
The scientific age has been dominated by rational thought, says Capra, and scientific knowledge is often considered to be the only acceptable kind of knowledge. Intuitive knowledge or awareness is not recognized as valid and reliable (Ibid, p.39).
This entire movement of Western science has led to something entirely new in human experience- a new and strict form of atheism as the refusal to acknowledge God or the spiritual in any way. Forms of atheism as a rejection of distorted religious, institutional views of God are fully understandable. Even early Christians were called atheists for rejecting pagan views of gods for a new view of God. Traditional atheism has always functioned in this manner of discarding old views for new ones. But scientific material atheism is of a new variety altogether.
The rejection of the spiritual aspect of reality to focus solely on the material has led to truncated and underdeveloped or deformed human beings. It leads to a severely distorted view of life and reality and destroys essential elements of our humanity- intuition, emotion, spirituality, and imagination. As Griffiths says, "If one concentrates too much in the mind this can result in what is basically a kind of schizophrenia, and that is precisely what has happened in the West: we have over-developed our minds and have under-developed the other complementary parts of our being... Stopping at the mental, rational consciousness, with science and technology seen as the highest achievement, the ego is exalted as the center. Everything is referred to the ego, the center of the individual self, and life is lived as if there is nothing beyond that. Western materialist philosophy has contributed largely to this arrested development and most Western science and philosophy is being kept down at that level" (A New Vision Of Reality, p.194, 48).
The consequence of denying an essential part of our humanity and an essential part of life and reality is that we are left in a lonely, isolated, and meaningless universe. The result has been all sorts of psychological and social pathologies- isolation, alienation, loneliness, despair, and suicide.
But even the so-called hard scientific disciplines such as physics have now run into a huge impenetrable wall of mystery behind what they thought was all of reality. Research into the subatomic world has found an infinite inner universe that is turning out to be more weird than anything imagined by science fiction. Rationality and reason are taking a beating here. As Griffiths says, neither sense (the five material senses) nor reason have access to this reality (Ibid, p.136).
Research into the outer universe has led to an acknowledgment that the more we search, the less we understand in materialist terms, what we are finding. We are hearing more and more from scientists that they have no idea yet what is behind it all. This has led to talk of a truce in the centuries old science/religion opposition and an acknowledgment that both are necessary to understand all of reality. Something mysterious is out there behind material reality and scientists are calling some elements of that mysterious reality by such terms as 'dark matter'. They may yet find out something more about that aspect of matter, but will then again inevitably run into a wall of mystery as to what is behind that. It becomes an endless cycle. As Capra says, "The phenomena of the subatomic world are so complex that it is by no means certain whether a complete, self-consistent theory will ever be constructed... Scientific theories can never provide a complete and definitive description of reality. They will always be approximations to the true nature of things. To put it bluntly, scientists do not deal with truth; they deal with limited and approximate descriptions of reality" (The Turning Point, p.93, 48).
One of the theories that has emerged in regard to material reality suggests that all material reality may simply be waves or fields of energy. Atoms may be no more than vibrating energy. There is also particle theory and mixed wave/particle theory and an 'it depends on the observer' theory. We will note more on this below.
Intuition And Imagination Are Credible Faculties
Even in the hard science of physics, intuition and imagination are coming more and more into play in an effort to perceive so-called material or physical reality. As one professor stated, "Many physicists are turning to forms of spirituality, such as Bhuddism" (Bill Rees, University of British Columbia). Griffiths says, "We no longer see the material world as separated from the spiritual, but rather we are coming to grasp that the whole material world is pervaded by consciousness. David Bohm, for instance, also says that ultimately you come to a field of energies pervaded by consciousness and having the nature of compassion or love... There is no such thing as non-living matter; all matter is alive in some sense" (A New Vision of Reality, p.235).
For the reality that is behind or beyond what we see as material reality (and these so-called different realities may not be as separate as we think they are, the shadowy material realm we are more aware of may be more vitally connected to the spiritual than we can imagine), intuition, imagination, and feeling are once again being recognized as fully credible means of perceiving that reality. We recognize that all reality is God's reality, but the so-called spiritual realm is where we all will see and experience God more fully. To perceive this realm in the present, we need the fully legitimate human faculties of intuition and imagination.
Religion tried to respond to rationalism using the terms of logic set by science. It tried to present God and spiritual reality in terms of logic or reason and it failed miserably. That effort of religion to be rational in scientific terms produced only atheism. God simply can not be perceived, known or discerned through logic or reason as defined by rational science. God is spiritual and beyond material reality. He is incomprehensible to rationalism. God can only be discerned or known through intuition, imagination, or feeling. God is expressed and known in art, music, poetry, symbol and myth (see Karen Armstrong's 'A History of God').
In saying all the above, we are not trying to set up some sort of bipolar dichotomy or opposition between physical and spiritual or between reason and imagination. All of these faculties together are important in the perception and enjoyment of the whole of reality. Reason and rationality, for instance, are useful in preventing irrational fantasy.
We are urging people not to be afraid of their 'gut feelings' about the things they intuitively imagine to possibly be there- such as a spiritual dimension to reality. We say this even though it may upset religious types who feel the only credible view of reality is contained in holy books like the Bible and is to be accepted by a strictly defined religious faith. While there is useful symbolism in holy books, that symbolism is too often taken literally by religious people and that only distorts reality and disillusions many who feel such literalism violates common sense. Religious symbolism needs more informing from emerging research and advancing human thinking and evolution. This is where reason can help irrational intuition or imagination.
You will notice that we are avoiding the use of the word faith. We feel it carries too much religious connotation and is too full of religious baggage to be of any use in defining the reality we are pointing to. It relates too much to the acceptance of religious dogma. We want to make sense to a broad range of ordinary people, not just to religious people.
All right, having argued a bit for intuition and imagination, lets get back to the big why? Why do the universe and we as conscious beings, exist? We ask why it is all here in order to understand better where it is all going. Bede Griffiths has given as good an explanation as any other (Mystics, Puritans, and many others through the ages have said similar things). He says that the creation of the universe "is an outpouring of love... the Spirit is the source of all energy. It is the uncreated energy which flows forth eternally from (God) and which then brings into being the energies of matter and of nature. So nature and matter arise as created energies springing form the uncreated energy of the Spirit. The universe can be seen as coming into being as an overflow of this energy, which is love. The love-energy of God is precisely what the Spirit is, and that love-energy flows out to express itself in the universe. God calls into being all the creatures of the universe to express himself, to manifest himself, to manifest his love and to bring forth that love in them. And so the Spirit flows out in this love to cause the whole creation..." (Ibid, p.270).
All we see is because of God's love
Griffiths also notes that the whole movement of creation is out from God and at the same time is all returning to God. This overflow out and return back is fundamental to the movement of creation and the universe. All moves out in love and returns to love. All life, the universe, and all creatures are an expression of love, they exist to know love and to ultimately return to love. "The world is created by God as the sphere in which human experience can be worked out, which is essentially God giving himself to the world in love and drawing the world back to himself in love. That is the essence of creation. So rather than a fall, it is an outpouring of love" (Ibid, p.252). The entire process of evolution of the world and evolution of human consciousness, says Griffiths, converges on an Ultimate Reality, a Supreme Being (Ibid, p.255).
All that we see, then, and all that we do not yet perceive, exists due to the energy, breath or life of God. There was the initial explosion of energy, life and breath from God in what moderns call the Big Bang. And from that initial beginning there was also an organizing power in the energy. As Griffiths says, "the universe is conceived as a field of energies which is structured by an organizing power" (Ibid, p.149). This organizing power developed forms from the very beginning (see Griffiths thought provoking book 'A New Vision of Reality'). Griffiths says further, "this organizing power, this form, begins to emerge into consciousness. We have seen that there is an organizing power at every level and this organizing power has the character of a mind. Mind, it has been said, reveals itself as a 'pattern of self-organization and a set of dynamic relationships'. In a sense it can be said that mind is present in matter from the beginning... It causes the self-organization of all organic structures and creates a set of dynamic relationships. So mind is present in matter, and in plants and animals, and that mind becomes conscious in us" (Ibid, p.259).
Whether it was the organizing of basic matter (atoms) or superstructures of the emerging universe, from the very beginning God was organizing all to move toward consciousness and then to move on toward God and love. The whole movement of creation and the universe has developed from and moved toward this- a loving God. The universe is then a very friendly and warm place.
Our Physical Reality Is Only Energy
Remember what we said earlier about physics theorizing that all we see as material reality may simply be waves of energy, ghostly forms, more nothing than something. Brian Swimme has said regarding quantum fluctuation, "Elementary particles fluctuate in and out of existence. What a strange realization! Don't think that physicists have any easier time of it than you! Elementary particles leap into existence, then disappear. A proton emerges suddenly- where did it come from? Who made it? How did it sneak into reality all of a sudden?... We say it simply leapt out of nothingness. There was no particle, then there was. I am not speaking here of the manner in which mass and energy can be transformed into one another. I am speaking of something much more mysterious. I am saying that particles boil into existence out of sheer emptiness..." (The Universe is a Green Dragon, p.37).
"We are here approaching an Ultimate Mystery, something that defeats our attempts to probe and investigate. There was no fireball, then the fireball erupted. The universe erupted, all that has existence erupted out of nothing, all of being erupted into shining existence" (Ibid, p.37).
Regarding the nature of what erupted out of nothing, Swimme says, "What I would like you to understand is that this plenary emptiness permeates you. You are more fecund emptiness than you are created particles. We can see this by examining one of your atoms... Nothingness. All empty. You are more emptiness than anything else. Indeed, if all the space were taken out of you, you would be a million times smaller than the smallest grain of sand" (Ibid, p.37-38).
Others have said that all the matter in the visible universe, all the stars and galaxies, exploded out of something smaller than an atom at the big bang. In effect, it all exploded out of nothing. Modern science is simply reluctant to go back any further and their explanatory power ends with the initial moment after all emerged out of so-called nothing.
Interestingly, at the instant of the explosion, energy and mass were undifferentiated matter as particles did not yet exist (The Fingerprint of Creation in Discover, October, 1992, p.78). And it was a hot little atom. At 10 minus to the forty third power of the first second it was still 100 million trillion trillion degrees.
In noting the above comments on all matter coming out of nothing we want to emphasize the point that all we see in material reality is more nothing than something. It is, as Griffiths says, energy fields or waves of energy with forms, not real material substance or solids.
Capra makes some interesting points in regard to the nature of matter as energy. We will quote him at length because he offers one of the better descriptions of matter as energy. In noting Capra's research, we recognize the fact that all material reality is a shadow reality consisting of forms of energy which appear out of nothing, this reveals more than ever the presence of God who sustains everything in existence every moment.
Capra argues that classical physics was based on the Newtonian idea of atoms as hard and solid building blocks of matter (The Turning Point, p.68). But emerging research (quantum theory) in the early part of this century "made it clear that even the subatomic particles- the electrons and protons and neutrons in the nucleus- were nothing like the solid objects of classical physics. These subatomic units of matter are very abstract entities which have a dual aspect. Depending on how we look at them, they appear sometimes as particles, sometimes as waves" (Ibid, p.78).
He continues, noting that matter at the subatomic level does not exist with certainty at definite places, but rather shows 'tendencies to exist'. These tendencies are like waves, not 'real' three-dimensional waves like water waves or sound waves. They are probability waves. This discovery, says Capra, has demolished the classical notion of solid objects. "At the subatomic level, the solid material objects of classical physics dissolve into wave-like patterns of probabilities. These patterns, furthermore, do not represent probabilities of things, but rather probabilities of interconnections" (Ibid, p.80). He says that subatomic particles have no meaning as isolated entities but can be understood only as interconnections or correlation's between various processes of observation and measurement. He notes Niels Bohr's comment that "Isolated material particles are abstractions, their properties being definable and observable only through their interaction with other systems" (Ibid, p.80).
Subatomic particles, says Capra, are not 'things' but are interconnections between things and these things are in turn interconnections between other things and so on. In quantum theory you never end up with things, he states, you always deal with interconnections. Therefore, modern physics reveals the basic oneness of the universe, says Capra. "It shows that we cannot decompose the world into independent existing smallest units. As we penetrate into matter, nature does not show us any isolated basic building blocks, but rather appears as a complicated web of relations between the various parts of a unified whole" (Ibid, p.81).
Capra continues, "The concepts of nonlocality and statistical causality imply quite clearly that the structure of matter is not mechanical... Today there is a wide measure of agreement... that the stream of knowledge is heading towards a non-mechanical reality; the universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine... the apparent similarities between the structure of matter and the structure of mind should not surprise us too much, since human consciousness plays a crucial role in the process of observation, and in atomic physics determines to a large extent the properties of the observed phenomena" (Ibid, p.86). He is referring here to the idea that the universe exists only as it is observed by the human mind. In Bill Rees' words, "we make it up". In a very real sense, though still hard to comprehend, we develop ideas, worldviews or ways of seeing and understanding things and then project these onto reality around us. That imagination and projection in some strange manner helps create our reality.
Noting Capra again, "The crucial feature of quantum theory is that the observer is not only necessary to observe the properties of an atomic phenomenon, but is necessary even to bring about these properties. My conscious decision about how to observe, say, an electron will determine the electron's properties to some extent. If I ask a particle question, it will give me a particle answer; if I ask a wave question, it will give me a wave answer. The electron does not have objective properties independent of my mind... The patterns scientists observe in nature are intimately connected with the patterns of their minds; with their concepts, thoughts, and values" (Ibid, p.87).
The interconnected web of relationships in matter is one of the major discoveries of modern physics. The other major discovery is that this cosmic web is intrinsically dynamic. "The fact that particles are not isolated entities but wave-like probability patterns implies they behave in a very peculiar way. Whenever a subatomic particle is confined to a small region of space, it reacts to this confinement by moving around. The smaller the region of confinement, the faster the particle will 'jiggle' around in it... This tendency of particles to react to confinement with motion implies a fundamental 'restlessness' of matter which is characteristic of the subatomic world... Matter is always restless, never quiescent... When we magnify a 'dead' piece of stone or metal, we see that it is full of activity. The closer we look at it, the more alive it appears. All the material objects in our environment are made of atoms that link up with each other in various ways to form an enormous variety of molecular structures which are not rigid and motionless but vibrate according to their temperature and in harmony with the thermal vibrations of their environment... Modern physics thus pictures matter not at all as passive and inert but as being in a continuous dancing and vibrating motion whose rhythmic patterns are determined by the molecular, atomic, and nuclear configurations" (Ibid, p.88).
Capra says that the most important consequence of these discoveries of modern physics is that mass is nothing but a form of energy (Ibid, p.90). This forces us to modify radically our concept of particles. Mass, says Capra, is no longer associated with material substance and particles are not seen as consisting of any basic 'stuff' but rather are bundles of energy. Energy that is associated with activity and processes- intrinsically dynamic. Particles can no longer be pictured as small billiard balls, says Capra, or small grains of sand. Particles are dynamic patterns. "These energy patterns of the subatomic world form the stable nuclear, atomic, and molecular structures which build up matter and give it its macroscopic solid aspect, thus making us believe that it is made of some material substance. At the macroscopic level this notion of substance is a useful approximation, but at the atomic level it no longer makes sense. Atoms consist of particles, and these particles are not made of any material stuff. When we observe them we never see any substance; what we observe are dynamic patterns continually changing into one another- the continuous dance of energy... there is motion but there are, ultimately, no moving objects; there is activity but there are no actors; there are no dancers, there is only the dance" (Ibid, p.91-92).
Nature can not be reduced to fundamental entities like fundamental building blocks, says Capra. This idea, he says, constitutes a radical departure from the traditional pattern of basic physics research which had always been oriented to finding the fundamental constituents of matter. New physics now accepts no fundamental entities whatever, no fundamental constants, laws or equations. The universe, says Capra, is now seen as a dynamic web of interrelated events and none of the properties of any part of this web is fundamental. "The fact that all the properties of particles are determined by principles closely related to the methods of observation would mean that the basic structures of the material world are determined ultimately by the way we look at this world; that the observed patterns of matter are reflections of patterns of mind" (Ibid, p.93). We now have to accept, says Capra, that consciousness may well be an essential aspect of the universe that will have to be included in any future theory of physical phenomena (Ibid, p.96).
Capra states that the discoveries of modern physics are leading to a new acceptance of spiritual reality among scientists. "Mysticism is being taken seriously even within the scientific community. An increasing number of scientists are aware that mystical thought provides a consistent and relevant philosophical background to the theories of contemporary science, a conception of the world in which the scientific discoveries of men and women can be in perfect harmony with their spiritual aims and religious beliefs" (Ibid, p.78).
From what we have noted above, we will state frankly that all this energy that is the universe, is held in existence and held in its diverse shapes by God, by the breath, life or Spirit of God. In its most essential nature it all exists due to God's energy and that is the ultimate reality. That is the mystery science continually runs up against and tries to explain in theories of subatomic waves or particles or dark matter, which then must be comprehended by the five senses alone, and measured and expressed in mathematical formulas. It can never be done.
We believe that all these energy forms and patterns we see in so-called material reality, came into being as an expression of God's love, to love and to receive or experience love. Love is the fundamental reason for it all. It all came into existence from God and will all return to God. All the universe and all life exists to know, to meet, and to fully experience God and his love. It is destined to be with God in true unity and oneness. As Griffiths says, "the whole universe returns to God enriched by the experience of self-consciousness. He wants to be known and he brings out this experience of consciousness in life and particularly in human beings... So we are created to experience this otherness and to return again to the One" (A New Vision of Reality, p.162). The reunion with God overcomes the otherness or differentiation experienced in created material existence.
The entire process of evolution of the universe and the evolution of life toward full consciousness in time and space is to know God and God's love. The highest consciousness is designed for this- to experience a loving God. The understanding of this basic purpose for creation will profoundly affect the way we think and live.
But in a universe created for love, something else has emerged- cruelty, suffering, accident, and death.
An essential thing to understand in regard to love is that it must always be free if it is to be genuine love. What is coerced or brought forth by threat of punishment or enticement of reward, is not love. Therefore God in love never coerces or overwhelms with his so-called will or power. God never imposes his will on creation or on his creatures. He grants genuine freedom as essential to all life. The quote above from Capra on the wavelike patterns of probability that characterize basic matter underscores the freedom that exists in all life, even at the most basic level of subatomic matter. The later movement of evolution and the development of creatures is therefore free to move spontaneously in any direction they choose.
This is why some 3 billion years ago, early life chose to prey on other life forms to gain essential nutrients for survival. This was not a necessity for survival but simply a free choice made by early life forms. Consequently, predation, competition and domination entered the interrelating of all life forms.
Freedom is also why there exists in the evolution of life what is known as entropy. Entropy is the movement of all systems from order toward disorder. This is known as an aspect of the second law of thermodynamics- any system will proceed spontaneously in the direction of ever increasing disorder (Fritjof Capra, The Turning Point, p.73). Biologists, however, note that in contradiction to the second law of thermodynamics "the living universe evolves from disorder to order, toward states of ever increasing complexity" (Ibid, p.74).
Note that the basic trend of emerging life toward order and the concurrent trend of systems and matter toward disorder are not trends that are in conflict with each other. They are two complimentary trends of a greater movement of life.
We would agree with Griffiths that the disintegration or disorganization that occurs in all systems and creatures ensures that freedom is maintained in life. Forms and order emerge but are never allowed to become rigidly closed or final. The element of randomness and disorder that exist in every system ensure the break-up and disintegration of all forms and systems. This enables systems and life forms to continually develop, diversify and advance anew.
We noted that mind, intelligence, or consciousness organizes matter from the very beginning, but entropy ensures that it is an organization of freedom, with spontaneity, randomness, and diversity continually entering and affecting the development of all life.
It requires some effort for us to wrap our minds around this idea because we tend to think of order and organization in terms of conformity, uniformity, and rigidly finalized patterns such as laws. The view of order as fixed patterns has led to a life destroying tendency in our societies and organizations to control all in the interests of uniformity for supposed efficiency.
The universe is purposeful and not random in the sense that it is from God and moving toward God and love. But while all evolution and life have purpose, they also emerge in freedom where there is lots of room for spontaneity, randomness, and change on the way toward God. We make these comments on the nature of love and freedom because we suspect the reality of God will be similar. Also, it is important to understand the true nature of freedom in order to make some sense out of suffering, cruelty, and accident.
Entropy, then, is to be viewed as part of the creative, spontaneous freedom of evolution, life, and all systems. It enables life to continue to be diverse, to organize in ever increasing complexity. Griffiths says that new forms come into being and there is a dissipative element in them. This means structures tend to dissipate their energy, de-structure themselves, and then restructure themselves again somewhat differently. This is how development takes place, "always a disequilibrium tending towards the organization of a new structure" (A New Vision of Reality, p.257). He says further that things develop according to patterns that could be viewed as similar to mechanical laws. "But at the same time there are also continual chance variations and the new form that emerges from these apparently chance changes integrates the chance elements, creating a new structure. So form and matter, order and chance, are working one on the other the whole time. At each stage the organism becomes more complex and the organizing principle more powerful and more structured" (Ibid, p.258).
Entropy or disorganization adds the element of randomness, dispersal, breakup to systems. It enables the basic organizing trend of life to be free, open, spontaneous, changing, and undetermined. Entropy or disorganization is not opposed to organizing as though it were a foe in conflict with order. Rather, both work together as one evolutionary trend, keeping organizing from rigidity, finality, closed-ness.
While noting the existence of randomness and chance as an essential element of the movement of life, we should not lose sight of the miraculous and complimentary emergence of order and purpose from the overall trend of matter toward dissipation and disintegration (entropy).
Chance, then, is not something that disturbs order. Our ideas of order as systems and patterns that are rigid and closed (strictly uniform) may lead some to think so. These ideas of order as unchanging law, stem from Newton's mechanical view of the universe as closed, eternal, and governed by rigid laws of cause and effect. But order and organization in evolution and life do not follow eternally rigid patterns. Chance is an essential part of real order, making it flowing, open, subject to change. We need to view the order and organization of evolution in a new way as free, open, random, and leading to spontaneous change in systems and organisms. These elements do not oppose order but are an essential part of the true order of life.
This basic trend of life toward an open, free and increasingly diverse form of organizing or cooperation is important to note in light of the ongoing struggle to understand the tension between unity and diversity in social systems (human community and relationships) as well as biological systems. It is also important to note in light of God's sustaining presence of all things, but concurrent respect for the freedom of his creatures (another form of diversity in unity). Unity does not mean conforming agreement on all issues, ideas, or practises. Too often the demand for such agreement has led to domination and control of others with rigidly unchanging positions and systems of law. Such systems are used to govern all members of groups and organizations in an often dictatorial manner.
Unity has more to do with love and acceptance of diverse others. It is a free and open attitude toward others. Unity removes the sense of isolation between people, but while doing so, it refuses to view disagreeing others as enemies or as being in opposition to oneself.
And on the other side, diversity does not mean each person becoming an isolated little unit completely on their own. Diversity is an enhancing element of a greater cooperation and it operates within the sense of belonging to a greater whole. Diversity can operate well within a mutual interdependence and a sense of responsibility to all others. In truly human community, it is all right to disagree and to be different, yet still relate cooperatively to others. Diversity in unity simply means allowing and accepting human uniqueness and free spontaneity.
In thinking through such issues, we need to be careful that we do not fall into simplistic bipolarism. This approach can lead to creating a position on some issue and then viewing anything that does not neatly fit the position, as being in opposition to it. This limited view of issues can distort seriously and lead to confusion.
Unity and diversity, like order and randomness, are not opposing movements but rather are cooperating elements of one greater overall movement of life.
The existence of chance in life means that there will always be surprise. Life is not predictable except in a statistical sense- there are averages and the potential for things to occur according to those averages. But strict predictability and security are not guaranteed. The consequence is that accidents will happen. Suffering, disaster, disease, and even death occur randomly and can affect anyone by surprise.
And God will not rush in to deliver. There is an element of profound mystery here. Old ideas of a predetermining God are of no help and only distort and confuse the issues involved. According to religious views, God's will is expressed in all accidents and suffering and there is some purpose for every accident or disaster. God has predetermined all and there is therefore some lesson to be learned in everything. It all works for good. But how do innocent children who die in disasters and accidents learn lessons? When the populations of whole regions die in natural disasters, who is left to learn the lesson?
Is the point of suffering to always be learning lessons and trying to understand purposes of very random events? An interviewer asked Christopher Reeves, the actor who was paralyzed in a fall from a horse, what was God's purpose in the accident? Reeves' response was "There is no purpose, it was just a random accident". Harsh as that answer may first appear, it is closer to truth than religious explanations of predestination of all things.
Such explanations that God is somehow involved or responsible for disaster or the carelessness and cruelty of others only leads to attributing cruelty or carelessness to God.
When children are abused and die in disaster, or due to the carelessness and intentional cruelty of others, it is not the predetermined will of God. It is the incomprehensible consequence of freedom that exists in life. Yes, there is an underlying purpose for all, in that everything is from love and returning to God and love. But within this great overall purpose for life there is freedom for spontaneity, chance, surprise and accident.
Ultimately, such freedom is a mystery beyond explaining. It can be terribly frightening and seemingly unfair at times. And perhaps the best that can be offered to people suffering the slings and arrows of chance, is that God is with you in love. Griffiths says, "Israel had experienced the loss of everything that made up their religion, their king, their land, their temple, but it was then that they awoke to the deepest realization of God. The concept of the suffering servant arose when they realized that God was in the midst of their suffering and their death and not in their conquests and triumph. It is through suffering and death that confidence in this world and in the triumphs of the rational mind is broken and humanity learns to surrender to God" (Ibid, p.102).
In suffering we realize anew the temporary and fragile nature of this existence and that we are only passing through on the way to God. And the hope of a far better reality enables us to endure all the injustice and pain of this existence.
In saying these things, we are aware that to suffering people, any explanation may sound trite. Ultimately, like Job, we are left with the still incomprehensible mystery of suffering.
There is no easy explanation to these difficult issues- how God is present sustaining all things in life, yet respecting the freedom of all creation. Does God ever intervene in his creation? Probably, but who is qualified to clearly know? Too often people claim God has intervened in some event, but questions are raised when the claimed intervention clearly overrules human freedom and involves overwhelming force or coercion. Questions are also raised when the claimed intervention is for the special benefit of a few over all others or is claimed to be an instance of God punishing someone.
One thing we definitely can be clear on- accidents, suffering and death are not punishment from God. That barbaric idea has caused more human misery than probably any other idea or belief in human history and it is simply wrong.
Also, in thinking of suffering, we are led back to the supposed reality of this material existence and this may help some people in suffering. Griffiths says in regard to the spiritual world, "We must remember that all the time we tend to think of this as vague and unreal, presuming that the real world is the world we see around us, when in fact the physical world is but the outer fringe of reality. It is real, it has a reality, but it is a limited reality. The whole scientific world, the world of stars and galaxies and electrons and protons and so on, all that is the outer fringe of reality" (Ibid, p.200). Beyond this created world is the true Reality- God.
We want to drill this home. This existence is only a shadow of true reality. We set our hearts on this material reality far too much. We spend far too much time, emotion, and energy on getting comfortable in this existence, on accumulating possessions and enjoying material affluence. Consequently, we are devastated at any form of material suffering or loss.
In saying this, we are not pressing for an other-worldly asceticism that refuses to enjoy life or the beauty of life. No. We are not going anywhere near that. We can love this world and everything about it. But it is passing on. It is only a passing shadow of true reality where God is fully known and experienced.
Part of the reason we sometimes settle on this reality too much is because for the last few centuries science has successfully convinced us that all reality is material reality. The only reality, materialist science has often argued, is that which can be observed empirically, measured, quantified, and expressed in mathematical terms. Anything else, science has argued, is irrational fantasy. This has led many to a sole fixation on this shadow reality and a denial of spiritual reality. As we noted before, this emphasis has led to the aberration of a strict atheism for the first time in human history.
Fortunately, the grip of this materialist ideology on human consciousness is now weakening.
We need to turn contemporary conventional wisdom upside down and recognize and reaffirm once again that the spiritual is true reality and existence. It is not, as is commonly perceived, a ghostly, shadowy realm of spirits. Remember, modern physics is discovering that it is our so-called material realm that is the realm of shadowy waves or shapes of energy, of nothingness. God's reality is the true reality. "This subtle world (spiritual) is more real than either the physical or the psychological world and enfolds itself in both" (Ibid, p.274).
To get to the next reality- to fuller comprehension and experience of God- we must all pass through the experience of death.
Death is often viewed as an end, as life ending, a separation from life, loss, burial, suffocation, darkness, closure and finality. Death is seen as a descent into darkness and the grave. Consequently, we terrify ourselves with the thought of death as the final cessation of life.
Death has become the greatest fear and terror of humanity and all life. And the fear of death is intensified multiple times over for many people by the thought of meeting an angry God who threatens people with loss of reward, punishment and even hell after death.
In Jesus we see a radically new view of death. Instead of a final end, it is a transfiguration or change to something infinitely better. It is the start of real life with a new form- spiritual (And by spiritual we do not mean some ghostly, ethereal, or wispy form of existence). It is the entry to a life where nothing negative from this existence is allowed to continue. There is in that new life no suffering, sickness, pain (either physical or emotional), tears, loneliness, misunderstanding, rejection, abandonment, isolation, or anything that would diminish infinite happiness.
Death, then, is a liberation from all the misery and suffering- physical, emotional, psychic- of this existence. It is liberation from bondage, domination, cruelty, carelessness, destructive chance, and predation.
Death is a gateway to the reality of God. It is a passage from darkness to light. It is liberation into God. It is liberation from our dim perception of God to the full experience of God. We are not really living here in this shadow existence- this is only a very weak taste of life that is still to come.
Also, may we say that in death we do not go anywhere for we are already in God, held in existence by him. We are already in the safest place you can be- the presence of a loving God. Much mythology regarding death and the afterlife speaks of a journey at death- crossing rivers, etc.- but the reality is, there is nowhere to go for we are already in the center of God. The idea of going somewhere after death comes from the archaic notion that there are places to go after death, such as to heaven above or hell below (as a consequence of performance here on earth or as a consequence of choices here on earth).
In some way, the view of death as a liberation into real life and love, a freedom from all suffering and limitation, may explain why God does not intervene here to prevent suffering, catastrophe, or death. God views life and death very differently than we do and that may be why he is not in any hurry to prevent it.
This is not meant to trivialize suffering and death or loss in any way. Horrible disasters and massacres occur repeatedly and they expose cruelty and inhumanity in ways that can only be called evil.
But God does not intervene to prevent suffering and death. To him, death is a welcoming back home again of absent friends. God looks forward to welcoming back friends and family. He looks forward to the passage of people into his fully visible presence. This is also very much the attitude of people who have had near death experiences. They do not want to return here but want to move on to the next reality.
We do not fully appreciate this view of death as a passage into true life, so death is to us loss, a great tragedy. We are too focused on this reality and not aware enough of the next life, which then compounds our misunderstanding of the true nature of death as liberation.
The sting of death could be alleviated somewhat if we could only see it more as release from suffering, limitation, loneliness, and entry into real life, love, and happiness. Such a view of death would lesson the sense of tragedy and increase the perception of death as a freedom from all that is negative here- time, space, predation, suffering. In viewing death that way, we can then understand more why God is not too interested in having us stay too long in this shadow reality. God prefers that we be with him in the next reality. Why stay here when there is an infinitely better reality and existence?
Also, we might suggest that the reality of a better life to come may be why God allows suffering and pain to exist here- to remind us not to settle here forever in a shadow existence. In freely allowing suffering, he may be encouraging people to set their hearts on real life.
Ultimately, we can never find fulfillment in this reality because our humanity is made for the ultimate humanity found in God alone. The experience of unity with God and the full experience of God's love, that alone will satisfy the deepest drives and desires of human beings.
Note: some of the above ideas are covered in more detail in articles 12 and 13We now want to move on to try to describe something that is infinitely beyond human understanding or comprehension. Words and symbols can not properly describe that reality but they can help point in the direction of it. Griffiths says that no language is remotely adequate. "All language defeats itself and one has to go beyond words and experience God beyond thought... Dionysius says about the language we use to speak of God, that all words like Father, Son, being, light, Word, Spirit, are communications or revelations, but their 'ultimate nature which they possess in their own original being is beyond mind and beyond all being and knowledge'. So all words we use about God are symbols in which divine reality is present but is beyond the grasp of the mind. This is an extremely important point. Here we are at the heart of mystical theology. God can not be known directly. He is only known through signs and symbols" (ibid, p.245). And we might add that God is known through story which Jesus used so effectively.
But whatever we say about God and the realm of God, we always remember that "God is utterly beyond... God is God, Father,... Word, truth, and love but in a totally transcendent sense, beyond human comprehension" (Ibid, p.247).
We will try to use words to describe what the reality of God is like, but we will continually press home the point that the reality itself is infinitely better than anything we say. We will use words like love, peace, beauty, freedom, life, consciousness, personhood, relating, union, joy, happiness, creativity, exploration, change, evolution, diversity, cleanliness, purity, cooperation, and many others that come to mind. But all these words describe in a very dim way a reality that is infinitely better than the best thought that has ever entered a human mind.
What we can be sure of is that the next reality will not be an endless church service. Religions, like Christianity, would have us believe people will be prostrated before a supreme King who will abolish all freedom and will control all, and who demands endless singing of praises. The ultimate self-cantered dictator.
The thought of an eternal religious service or church service is frankly many people's vision of hell. The human species has created few things more purely boring than church services. Surely they were designed to test, oppress, and destroy the human spirit with sheer boredom. What of that dictatorial monologue from the religious authority who claims to speak for God? Is God in the business of sleep initiation?
And the hymn singing! In a Pavlovian response, just the suggestion of hymn singing automatically sets me off yawning. Will heaven be an eternal choir?
Thankfully, that religious vision of God's reality is merely a religious creation and has led many to declare they would prefer Hell instead. Smart alecs.
No. We reject all such mythmaking as totally incapable of representing the reality of God and it is in fact destructively distorting. Sadly, religious people take such symbolism literally which only further distorts the reality. Many even believe there will be streets of gold. That sounds like a human projection of Western free enterprise utopia onto God's realm.
We would argue that heaven is a dead word and a dead idea. It has far too much baggage and simply can not serve any more to describe or even point to God's reality. It connotes too much an ethereal place, a ghostly existence with winged angels, thrones, rewards, very church-like and religious through and through. Heaven is a religious term and idea that limits too much the inclusiveness of God and the freedom, life and love that exist where God is.
Neither is the term eternity very helpful anymore in describing or pointing to God's reality. Because we live in time, eternity is viewed through our time consciousness and that makes it seem awfully long and boring. Our consciousness is simply too locked into time and space to properly perceive a reality without these elements.
Because our consciousness is bounded by such things as time and space, we tend to view all reality in terms of three dimensions and subject to forces like gravity. This limits our perception of potential existence to shapes, forms, and motion. It limits our ability to perceive other ways of existence, development, exploration, change, creativity, movement and freedom. Our space/time consciousness can not even imagine a reality without the limiting elements of physical existence. But the infinite freedom of God's spiritual reality will not be subject to such material limitations. These limiting elements of our universe were created only for this temporary shadow existence.
God's reality will offer infinitely more and better opportunity for exploration, curiosity, innovation, creation, growth, change, evolution, freedom and love.
And may we say again that using terms like spiritual to describe God's reality does not mean that the forms and nature of existence there will be ghostly, wispy or ethereal. Spiritual may no longer even be a suitable word to describe that reality. Whatever the terms used, that reality is infinitely more 'real' than this present shadowy existence of forms consisting of vibrating energy.
No Heaven Above, No Hell Below
God's reality will have no heaven or hell. These religious ideas stem from and are related intimately to pagan ideas of angry punishing gods and systems of strict payback justice. In these systems, vengeful, angry gods would reward religious followers with heaven and punish the bad (those refusing to submit to religious ideas and practices) with hell.
Jesus parables blow these vengeful ideas away once and forever. In parables like the returning son or the workers in the vineyard, God is presented as scandalously generous and forgiving. There is no anger or payback justice (see Brinsmead essay- No Payback Justice). God welcomes all gladly. These stories shocked, stunned and enraged religious people who held to systems of strict justice. If you worked hard and were faithful to your religious system then you would be rewarded accordingly with heaven. It you were disobedient, a sinner, then you would be punished with hell.
Jesus shocked everyone by turning all conventional wisdom regarding justice completely upside down. He turned the whole known social order of things upside down. All common systems of logic and sense of right and wrong as measured by standard systems of human justice (payback) were thrown out for a radically new view of God and love.
In Jesus' vision of reality, there was no angry punishing God waiting to damn anyone. God was instead forgiving, tolerant, friendly- a daddy who desired intimacy and closeness and a warm family atmosphere. Better yet, he was a God who wanted to welcome and party with everyone.
Also in Jesus new view of God's reality, there is no distant, supreme King or Ruler demanding subservience. Instead, the God of Jesus would rather serve. He is not a dominating Patriarch, but rather a Father who will inspire by example and not by threat, coercion or command. He is an intimately friendly person who is open and accessible to all, and equally so.
Jesus also taught that God is deliriously happy to be with people, to welcome and accept them. He can not help but be generous, scandalously generous. That is the nature of his love. There is nothing in this view of God about groveling, begging for mercy or repenting in sorrow. This God of Jesus is all for celebrating and partying.
The universe is ultimately a friendly place. It is from love and it exists in love. Yes, predation has entered life and messed things up a lot. Out of the suffering that stems from predation there developed the idea that suffering was due to the anger of the gods- it was punishment for sin- and therefore the angry gods needed to be appeased with blood sacrifices. The idea that developed was that we suffer because we are bad, we have sinned somehow and we need to make amends for our sin. Out of this thinking the concept of atonement, appeasement and salvation developed. Eventually, religions like Christianity developed elaborate theology of an infinite sacrifice to appease infinite anger and holiness. This required the need for a God to make an acceptable atonement for us. Heaven and hell followed as consequences of human choice regarding atonement. Heaven for acceptors and hell for rejecters. All this elaborate religious teaching developed because early life made the choice for predation billions of years ago.
The entry of predation into life (with all the consequent religious explanation of the reason for the suffering that predation brings) has made life and the universe appear to be a nasty reality and it has clouded the reality that God and the universe are fundamentally loving and friendly.
So let us state it very clearly again, there is no judgment, anger or punishment in God's reality. We realize this will still be very difficult for religious people to accept. Scores of Bible verses will immediately come to mind which speak of judgment, punishment, hell and damnation. We won't even try to argue on that basis. We are fully aware of the doctrine of biblical inspiration- the teaching that God gave a revelation where every word is inspired directly by God and therefore final truth.
We will only point out that even within the religious traditions that hold to divine inspiration there are many who question such beliefs. Read, for instance, books like "Who Wrote The Bible" and note alternative views on the process of the development of scriptures. It is helpful to see such writings more as ancient people's effort to make sense of mystery and to wrestle with issues particular to their time and culture. They often expressed their understanding of those issues in myth, poetry and symbol. They never intended for others to take all of those writings as literal historical fact. Those writings expressed spiritual truths for those peoples. As Morwood says, they may not have been literally true, but they were spiritually true for those people. We often deal with very different issues today, informed by very different views of reality and life.
We would also suggest to people in a religious tradition that in regard to ideas of punishment and judgment, it may be helpful for them to start the questioning of such things by reading books like "The Unquenchable Flame" and "Unconditional Good News". The Unquenchable Flame deals with the myth of a literal hell from a biblical perspective and the Unconditional Good News deals with the issue of salvation for all as a clear biblical teaching. These biblically based sources may offer a 'safer' starting point for some people to access new thinking.
Religious people face a huge block in terms of what is the standard by which to evaluate and judge anything in life. Many simply can not get around the fact that there is a holy book (Bible) which they have been told is God's revealed word and truth. That book, they are told, gives them complete and infallible information and answers on everything they need to know here and in the life to come.
We would remind such people that both Jesus and Paul argued against a written tradition or standard and urged the dependence on an inner sense of truth. This is seen in the radical statement "Letter (used synonomously for scripture, law or religion in Galatians) kills, but spirit gives life". Also, Jesus never urged anyone to write anything down and it may have been due to his understanding of the danger of people taking such writings and turning them into final, closed forms of law to control other's thinking. He himself often showed a very cavalier and contradictory attitude toward written scripture in his repeated habit of saying "It was said long ago (in scripture) but I say unto you..."
Martin Luther showed the same attitude as Jesus in saying that not all biblical revelation was God's word. His standard was the gospel or the good news of grace in Jesus. That was the Word of God in Luther's view. He rejected anything that did not meet that test of scandalous grace in Jesus. That led to his dismissing books like Revelations, Romans, Hebrews, and James. He knew mere men in often shameful powerplays had assembled the books of the Bible and therefore men could discard those same books. Luther understood that spirit was the guide to truth, not letter (scripture). In modern terms we could say that the spirit or image of God in us, our humanity, is a helpful guide in evaluating issues of truth. Also, we can rely on intuition and a sense of God. Such means of evaluating truth and reality may sound airy fairy and are open to abuse, but God is not too worried about the blind alleys we may run up every once in a while. He is not afraid of heresy or error.
We would also note that studies have pointed out that the term 'Word of God' used in the Bible refers there almost exclusively to a spoken word, not a written word. It is a term that points to a diverse, free and changing oral tradition, not to a closed and final written scripture.
We do not want to deny the value of the cumulative wisdom and insight contained in written scriptures. But we must always guard against the enslavement of minds to the complex theological systems that emerge based on so-called sacred scriptures.
For others not constrained by a religious belief system- we would argue, use your common sense. Truth is to be found everywhere in life, not just in holy books.
Religion, with its scripture tradition, has too long been the domain for afterlife thought. We need to break out of this straitjacket and move away from the sole dependency on sources like ancient scriptures. New emerging information from all areas can help inform our views on the afterlife. We also need to break away from the old parameters of the views set by religion and move afterlife ideas in entirely new and uncharted directions. In this way, we can then move beyond the limiting religious view of the next reality and discover more of the amazing nature of the life to come.
Having made this little diversion, let me return to the point that there is no judgment or punishment in God's reality. It is a reality of unimaginable generosity, peace, love, and freedom. There is no threat or fear in that reality. Jesus often said to people "Fear not" or "Be of good cheer". He understood the horrible burden of fear that most people labored under, a burden placed on them by religious leaders or elites.
But there is absolutely no reason to fear God. Everything has been forgiven. No past will intrude into God's reality to haunt or influence that future. God and the universe are basically friendly and accepting.
God's reality will be a truly human existence in the sense that all true humanity originates with God. God, as the supremely human God, then inspires people to replicate that humanity here in this life. That humanity is the image of God in us. It is loving, forgiving, tolerating, sharing, serving, and treating all others as equals.
There will be no hierarchy in God's reality, no domination or control of others, and no subservience or oppression. There will be no relating of superiors/inferiors or dominance/subservience. Religious views of a mythical heaven have a many-tiered hierarchical reality with God at the top, angels in the following strata, and creatures below. This replicates the power structures of brutal human societies. And projecting such brutal ideas onto God, enables people to justify their domination of others here in this life. But such vertical relating does not exist in God's reality.
Some 3 billion years ago life made a choice for predation, competition and domination. This was not some inevitable necessity for existence, it was simply a free choice to prey on others for nutrients. It was one option among others. The result was the harming of others with the consequent competition, fighting, isolation, rejection, and misery that comes with a predatory lifestyle.
After predation entered early life, it became the dominant reality of all life. We have been enslaved to this brutal reality ever since. The whole animal hierarchy developed out of this early choice, with the stronger dominating the weaker. This reality of domination moved on into early emerging human existence also. Emerging humanity with its god consciousness and true human consciousness should have opted for a new reality of equality, but instead opted for the continuance of the dominant feature of surrounding existence. Where emerging humanity should have introduced a new view of God as truly human, they instead created views of gods as animals, relating vertically to followers, dominating and oppressing. Early views of gods were created to reflect and validate the domination of animal reality, instead of encouraging the emergence of genuine human reality as free and equal.
So early human society was structured to embody continuing animal features- competition, domination, and oppression of the weak. There were rulers, patriarchs, kings, and more recently, leaders. It all embodied the worst features of animal existence.
Christian mythology regarding the future life continues to project this animal-like hierarchy onto God's reality. They have developed ideas of a future multi-tiered hierarchy of position, power and control. But it is simply not true. All the hierarchy, powerholding, domination and control that emerged from animal existence will be obliterated in God's reality.
Jesus introduced a radically new view of God as serving, not ruling or dominating. He revealed that God inspires people by example and by invitation not by coercing command or by threat. He revealed God as truly human, relating to people in a horizontally oriented manner.
The first response of many religious people to such suggestions of God as not dominating but serving is often- blasphemy! They feel God is being somehow degraded and dragged down to the level of sinful humanity. But arguing for a future of equality in relating does not affect God's transcendence. God is always qualitatively different from his creation. However, he is not above in the sense of distance or superiority, which is an animal concept. There is no simply no superior/inferior in relating with God.
God is infinitely 'better' than his creation, but God relates to all in freedom and love as an equal. It is an issue of relating horizontally, not vertically.
God's transcendence is also seen in that God has more true reality than any part of his creation. He has more true humanity than any person- love, generosity, patience, tolerance, and all the truly human qualities. This makes God transcendent along with all the other mystery that makes God, God.
And what makes God transcendent is also what makes the new reality we will enter, truly human. In that reality there will be no more of the old animal existence and relating. There will be no competition, no fighting others for more or better opportunities or power. There will be no free enterprise capitalism with its few winners, many losers. There will be no winning and losing at all with the human God. The competing, fighting and domination of animal reality has led only to enmity, jealousy, bitterness and isolation and has destroyed the truly human values of love, unity, and cooperation.
No. All the animal relating and other such features that Christianity tries to project onto God's reality only distort freedom, equality, and love, just as Christian beliefs in eternal punishment distort forgiveness, mercy and love. As Brinsmead has said well, "If God can not forgive unless Christ pays our debt, then he does not really forgive at all. If a debt has been paid, then there is nothing to forgive. Atonement and forgiveness, therefore, are mutually exclusive" (Verdict, Essay 1E, No Atonement, p.14).
God's reality, the spiritual realm, will not be a Christian reality in any remote sense. It will not be religious, ideological or institutional in any way. There will be no liberal/conservative or left/right divisions in that community. Rather, it will be life and liberty for all. It will be every person's reality with every person's God. There will be former (unconverted) Bhuddists, Muslims, Hindus, animists, and atheists, all as members of the same intimate family. It will be an open, free and diverse community. This fact should inspire us to tolerate others and try to get along now. We ought to start the sharing and the living as equals now.
God simply does not inspire anyone to become religious, nor even moral. He inspires people to be human in any way they choose. He desires only love, tolerance, freedom, forgiveness, and sharing in normal daily life.
Remember, spirituality is the drive to be human. Spirituality is humanity being expressed in normal, daily life. It has nothing to do with religion or separation from normal life.
There will be no front rows or back rows, no bigger or smaller mansions, and no first, second or third places in the next life. There will be no positions that reflect more reward or opportunity for some above others. The parables of Jesus about God's scandalous generosity to all, obliterate all such base human ideas of strict payback justice and reward.
If we seem adamant about the things that we are stating about a reality that can not be seen, it is because we know that reality of God can not be inhuman in any way. What we are denying is inhumanity in any form. This universe exists for love- to know love and to express love. Therefore, we can be adamant about what is not love.
It is important to say the things we have been stating above, because it has long been known in anthropology and sociology that people replicate in their own societies what they believe to be the divine reality or order of things. This has been a drive in humanity since the earliest emergence of god consciousness. We replicate the divine because of a primal sense within us that tells us God's reality is where we are from and it is what we are intended for. We have this drive to be like God, to be fully human as God is human (Note: It is not a drive to be religious).
The fact that views of God's reality have powerfully influenced human thinking and behavior in this life, demands that we try to outline something of the truly human nature of that coming existence.
For instance, as we come to understand and appreciate that God's reality is one of infinite love, freedom, and equality, so we will be inspired to live in like manner as we pass through this life. Therefore, in looking at the life to come we are not trying to escape from present reality, but rather we are trying to understand the ultimately true reality, so it may influence and inspire us to live better in this shadow reality.
It has always been true that for some ( world-denying types), that the promise of the next life can become an excuse for not living here and now. It becomes an excuse for not getting involved in community and social issues, for not acting for justice and equality in the present. This has led others to respond that the next reality is of no value or import to this life. But these are wrong conclusions based on serious distortions of God and his reality.
God's reality should have profound impact here and now on our thinking and living. It should give hope and courage to change things here for the better. It should encourage us to reflect love more as we realize we exist for love and are returning to love. Love is what we are intended for; it is the very reason why we exist. Knowing this more clearly should inspire us to live out the reason for our creation.
But our minds and consciousness are so locked into this time/space material reality that we often lose sight of the reason why we are here. We have great difficulty in imagining and appreciating what God has for us. We have been taught that material reality is all there is and therefore we must value it supremely, getting and enjoying as much as we can now in competition with all others. We then set our hearts on this reality in an insane pursuit of possessions, prestige and power. In doing so, we then deny God, his reality and love.
Such excessive focus on the present life is due in part to the distortion of past scientific worldviews. The truncated scientific emphasis that material reality is the only reality, makes it necessary therefore to re-evaluate and restate new views of all reality and especially of God's reality.
It is also necessary to create new views of all reality because far too long the description of reality (especially the next life) has been left solely to religion and religion has given the impression that it holds exclusive claims to truth in this area, based on ancient scriptures. The result has been a narrow religious view of God's reality. This has distorted the essential humanity of that existence. We remember Nolan's comment that not all views are the same. Some are more humane, more in tune with true humanity and more in tune with all reality as we now know it to be. New emerging information continues to inform our thinking on these issues and we all have access to a sense of humanity so we can judge all things for ourselves.
At all times we remind ourselves that our words, stories, and symbols never express fully the reality of God but only point to that which is infinitely beyond all expression. The reality of God is always infinitely better than the best we can imagine or say. As Griffiths said, "The ultimate is beyond conception altogether. It is totally ineffable. That is why we constantly have to remember that all the words we use to speak of this are only pointers to that which is totally beyond" (A New Vision of Reality, p.275).
In thinking of the influence of the next reality on this life, Bede Griffiths has made some important points on oneness or union with God and hence with others. This relates to the symbol Jesus used of the vine and branches. Griffiths says that we are all in the process of a movement back to God and unity with God. This is the fundamental direction of the universe and life. We are all being drawn back to God. This is what he calls the impulse of love. God, he says, wants to make himself known and he wants us to know him, to return to know him in love (Ibid, p.172).
Just a note about the word return. It can connote distance from God and that is not a correct meaning of the term, for we all exist in the center of God right now. But in another sense we do not enjoy a full and clear realization of God's presence and love due to our existence in a material realm and the domination of our consciousness by materially oriented senses. So in that sense we need to 'return' to the realm or reality of God where we will 'see' and know God infinitely more clearly than now. We need transfiguration or change into a spiritual existence and reality with a new consciousness that can more fully know God.
Griffiths says that when all the disintegrating forces are overcome, we will return to God to be restored to unity with God. "We are able to return to God and to exist eternally in God, each participating in the one divine reality, yet remaining distinct... we do not merge in the Godhead like a drop of water into the ocean as is sometimes said, but we enter the Godhead. We are transfigured by God, as Jesus was in the resurrection, and we become one with God, but we do not lose our distinction" (Ibid, p.173). It is a unity with ongoing relationship.
The unity we will have with God is one of infinite closeness and intimacy. It will obliterate and heal every iota of isolation, loneliness, rejection, abandonment, separation and conflict ever experienced by human beings. It will be love at its utmost. It will be a love, closeness, intimacy, and fulfillment to overwhelm every heartbreak and misunderstanding or inability to communicate. It will be infinite acceptance and love.
But as Griffiths said above, that unity will not entail a loss of individual personhood or personality. It is unity but not diminishing of uniqueness. It is a unity which "which yet embraces all diversity" (Ibid, p.175). It will involve a new consciousness that will be much better than present self-consciousness, which can be isolating. God's reality will be unity but continued interrelating with no sense of distance or separation or isolation.
Griffiths says that "Jesus experienced God in utter closeness to himself and addressed him as 'Abba' which is a term of great intimacy... Jesus makes known this relationship of intimacy, of relationship to God, so that we can also share in that relationship and can know ourselves as children of God" (Ibid, p.218, 219). He says that the experience of God is always in terms of community. Regarding the early Christian movement, he states that their experience of God united them together as one community. "The descent of the Spirit forms the community and the community is such that in it everything is shared, even at the economic level... God is always seen in relation to the human world, to human history, and to human relationships... This love of God is totally expressed in the love of our neighbor. Love of God and love of neighbor can never be separated" (Ibid, p.221).
Further, "the whole humanity is brought together in this unity of the Spirit... the whole person, and eventually the whole creation, is restored to unity with the Father... the human person is not lost in the divine but enjoys perfect oneness in love... The Spirit is drawing us back from our disintegration, from our self-centeredness, into the life of the Spirit, into the life of God" (Ibid, p.229, 253). And once again, "in reality nothing is lost in the process. Every person and every thing is reintegrated into the One in a total unity transcending our present understanding" (Ibid, p.273). I have quoted these statements by Griffiths at length because they are helpful comments to understand true human relating and community. And if they reflect God's reality then they offer truth to replicate in our present existence.
We have now and will have even more so in the future a unity which binds us all as one people, one family. It transcends all family, tribal, national, racial, or others separating walls/boundaries that we create. It is our unity as all intimately related children of God.
Albert Nolan describes something of the radical nature of the unity that should characterize all people. He notes that our present existence retains a tremendous amount of group loyalty and group prejudice (Jesus Before Christianity, p.60). Many people, especially in the Western world, base their identity upon the loyalties and prejudices of race, nationality, language, culture, class, ancestry, family, generation, political party and religious denomination. He says Jesus taught that "Satan's kingdom is based upon the exclusive and selfish solidarity of groups whereas God's kingdom is based upon the all-inclusive solidarity of the human race. 'You have learnt how it was said: you must love your neighbors and hate your enemy. But I say unto you: love your enemies' (Mt. 5: 43-44)" (Ibid, p.60).
(Note: Instead of 'Satan's kingdom' we could use the term animal kingdom)
This is a radically new understanding of unity and solidarity. Jesus, says Nolan, extended one's neighbor to include one's enemies. He wished to include all men in this solidarity of love. "This saying is almost unbearably paradoxical: the natural contradiction between neighbor and enemy, between outsiders and insiders must be overlooked and overcome so that enemies become kinsmen and all outsiders become insiders!... 'Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who treat you badly'... 'If you love those who love you, what thanks can you expect? Even sinners love those who love them' (Lk. 6: 32)" (Ibid, p.61).
Nolan says that Jesus appealed for an experience of solidarity with mankind, for an experience of unity that is non-exclusive, an experience of love that includes even those who hate you, persecute you or treat you badly. Jesus, he says, appealed for a loving solidarity that would exclude nobody at all. This must be a basic attitude of unity and love that "takes precedence over every other kind of love and every other kind of solidarity' (Ibid, p.61). Jesus, says Nolan, is asking that even the group solidarity of the family be replaced by a more basic solidarity with all mankind. Even the solidarity of the family is not allowed to stand in the way of this new solidarity with all people. This new universal solidarity must supersede all the old group solidarities (Ibid, p.62-63). This is a profoundly new and radically different understanding of unity and love.
Eastern And Western Views Of Unity With God
On this issue of unity, Griffiths notes some differences between Eastern and Western spiritual traditions which reflect differing cultural traditions. These include oneness/personhood and individuality/community. He notes that in the East there has been a tendency to view unity with God as the loss of individual personality, a total merging. This is the tendency to think that when one reaches God, all differences disappear and there are no more individuals and no longer a personal God (A New Vision of Reality, p.174).
Western spirituality, on the other hand, has tended to emphasize oneness without the loss of individual personhood. These differences reflect the different cultural emphases and the development of different ideas in the evolution of cultural thinking.
In the West we have developed more of a tradition of individualism, even to the extent of neglect of community responsibility or identity. We Westerners fear too much connectedness to community as stifling to individual liberty. And we pay for our reaction to community with a deep sense of psychic isolation, separation, loneliness, rejection and abandonment. Western societies have notably higher suicide rates and numerous other social pathologies. We have abandoned our relatedness to others and our essential interdependence with others and with all life, at great cost to ourselves.
In the East there is more cultural emphasis on identity with the community or larger whole. But a strong emphasis on community is not always healthy and can at times even be stifling to personal development, freedom, and creativity. It can also lead to clannishness and tribal conflict if not embodied in a greater unity with all others. However, strong community relationships do generally lead to less sense of alienation, isolation, and despair in people. Such community emphasis may also help explain the tendency in Eastern spiritual traditions to focus on oneness with God as a more total merging and loss of personal identity.
Whatever the differences we may have regarding these issues, we need to recognize that everywhere in every culture and place, God is at work inspiring true humanity and unity to emerge. Everywhere we find people trying to be human, decent, and loving. That is God at work everywhere. And often such humanity and love is finding more expression and freedom outside of religion. The Spirit of God is telling people everywhere that they are all the children of the same God and have an incredible future together with God.
Ultimately, if we have personality or personhood and self-consciousness, then God does infinitely moreso. The intimacy and unity we will experience with God will not extinguish personhood but will encourage an infinitely greater freedom with a God who respects freedom yet can meet the deepest longings for oneness, intimacy, closeness, love and acceptance. This is all part of what it means that in God's reality there will be no more pain, tears, sorrow, loneliness or separation.
The realization of our unity in God and with each other should inspire us to more cooperation here with others. As Griffiths says we are all members of a whole, interrelated and interdependent (Ibid, p.263). This should transcend personal and group consciousness.
The inability to perceive and recognize this essential unity of all people and things and unity with God has had destructive effects on human existence. In the West, the development of a mechanical view of the universe, absent any spiritual content, existing as just a machine composed of separate entities obeying rational laws of cause and effect, has contributed to the loss of a sense of essential unity and interrelatedness in God. This has fed into the widespread abandonment of community in the West and has resulted in an insane emphasis on extreme individual freedom and identity. Along with ideas of humans as competing, dominating animals and economic ideologies encouraging each to pursue their own interests, we have a modern world of individuals brutally competing against each other for advantages, resources, opportunities, and power. The result has been immense social damage, fighting and pyschopathology, along with enormous environmental damage.
Anthropologists speak of the apparently innate drive in humanity toward bipolarism, the constant separating and creating of the 'other' in opposition to me (male/female, old/young, stronger/weaker, good/bad, and many others). This leads to separation and isolation from others, the making of endless enemies. It is visible in our societies in all sorts of social oppositions- political, economic, and religious. We create some idea, group, movement or ideology and then all who disagree become the enemy to be opposed and defeated.
As Griffiths says, we have fallen away into ourselves and into separation and conflict. This is expressed most powerfully in the modern ideology of free enterprise capitalism with its extreme emphasis on individual interest. Each individual is encouraged to pursue and to hoard all the material good they can. It is an ideology that encourages unlimited possession of resources with no concern for the greater good. It has resulted in a world where 400 individuals (the world's billionaires) now have more resources than the bottom 3 billion people in the world. And in a world of limited resources, when some take more than they need, then the rest suffer loss. There is also the reality of the humiliating powerlessness of those who are deprived of resources they need to survive and therefore suffer an embittering dependency on the whims of powerholders. The consequence of such isolation, separation, and opposition has been enmity, jealousy, and the insanity of all out war.
As profoundly incomprehensible as it is, God in love granted life freedom to choose and tragically many choose to fall away from love and unity into separation and isolation "becoming isolated individuals in conflict with one another" (Ibid, p.271). But the Spirit of God constantly works to draw people back to unity, to draw back from separation, enmity and self-centeredness. God inspires and invites us back to love. In doing so, God does not coerce or threaten but inspires, often by example. God invites us to live as Jesus and others did so magnificently, in sharing, giving, in supporting one another and treating each other as equals in true community. This is true humanity and love.
We need to realize that our existence is not just in a material reality and we were not created to get all we can for ourselves. We are all moving on to a great unity with God and with one another. It is time to end this insane competition with all others, fueled by selfishness and greed, to gain more possessions, power and prestige than others. Such competition has resulted in a profoundly inhuman society of hierarchical strata which reveal who won and who lost. For most it has meant brutal inequality and loss of true freedom.
We are all children of the same intimate family. We all belong to each other. Races, nations, tribes, families are all just human creations that too often cloud our essential unity in God and separate us and encourage us to fight each other for resources and opportunities. We are all moving back to an infinitely profound unity in God's reality. It is a closeness, intimacy and love that is beyond imagining. The awareness of that reality should give hope and energize us to live here in a way that reflects something of that unity and love to come. Let the drive to replicate what we believe is the divine order of things, be informed by these profound ideas of unity with God. Such reality should inspire us to overcome selfishness, greed, and the drive for power. The infinitely more human reality of the next life should inspire us to be more human in this life.
Whatever we can imagine about the future in God's reality, we can be certain it will not be a static existence, multiplied forever. Archaic religious views of heaven give the sense of not much happening aside from hymnsinging and exposing bums to the skies forever.
But we now know that even this present material reality is alive and developing dynamically. All material reality is alive, growing, changing and the process of constantly creating anew. It is not a dead, static machine as was suggested by Newton's and Descartes' mechanical view of the universe (Fritjof Capra, The Turning Point, p. 63). The structure of matter is not mechanical with individual units reacting to each other in eternally unchanging cause/effect relationships (Ibid, p.86). This supposedly mechanical or machine universe is alive with power, energy, and spontaneity- in a word, it is life.
If this reality is so alive, creative and developing- then how much more so, infinitely more so, is God's reality and realm. (Note again: This material reality is also God's realm. In using the term 'God's realm' we are simply referring to that beyond-death time where God is much more clearly seen).
Capra says that present reality or matter is a dynamic web of interrelated events (Ibid, p.93). "Subatomic particles are not separate entities but interrelated energy patterns in an ongoing dynamic process" (Ibid, p.94). This realization regarding the nature of matter has led to a new view of the world and the universe as a dynamic web of relations (Ibid, p.96). It is not a collection of physical entities operating according to strictly rigid mathematical laws. Matter is better viewed as energy or life that is free, and constantly evolving or changing. It is a conscious, living intelligence that is ever evolving, exploring, experimenting, and creating.
Some physicists have suggested there may even be infinite numbers of universes- all different realities with differing forces (laws) at work, constantly splitting off in infinitely new directions.
If all this mysterious dynamism is true regarding the limited material reality we know here, then how infinitely moreso it is true of God's reality. Again, we are careful of drawing too distinct a separation between this reality and God's 'spiritual' reality. They may be far more intimately parts of one whole than we are yet aware of.
What the understanding of this reality as being alive with energy and creativity does, is lead our imagination to intuitively sense that it must be infinitely more so with God's next life. God's reality will involve ever fresh exploration, co-creating with God, exploding complexity and diversity, growth, spontaneous change and evolution. It will be a free and open future to incomprehensible extent.
In terms of psychological and emotional development and freedom, we can be assured there will be complete freedom from all separation, loss, pain, suffering, isolation, loneliness, fear, anxiety, misunderstanding and any other element that would diminish celebration with God. All that drags down the human spirit here will be obliterated in a flood of love, peace, and sheer joy.
We are piling word upon word in an effort to point to something far beyond imagining.
There will be no predation, domination, prestige, or stratification of persons to cloud human relating. Instead, in infinite measure there will peace, equality and cooperation to enhance the intimacy of family with God. And no one will get less or enjoy less than any other person.
And what a party it will be. Jesus revealed something of God's scandalous desire to party. God would celebrate in festivity, laughter, fun, and joy. He will banish all despair, anxiety, insecurity, alienation and fear in a great celebration of true life.
We pause here. Let your imagination roam free. Then go out with great hope and love and try to live like God in the inspiring presence of God.
From the series 'Taking The
Vertical Out Of God'
copyrighted material.
