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| - You sure that´s God? - Just continue meditating, bruh! |
What is the most compelling argument for God? Or, rather, what is the most persuasive fact of reality which points to the Divine? When I started my "spiritual quest" over 20 years ago, I would have said the moral argument and the hard problem of consciousness. Of course, back then I had a more "theist" view of the Divine and was Christianity-curious.
Today, I would say first and foremost that the case for the Divine is cumulative. It´s like assembling pieces of evidence and connecting the dots. How do I know whodunit? Let´s call it a hunch! I would say that the hard problem of consciousness is *the* major hunch that materialism simply can´t be true. First, materialist scientists still haven´t been able to solve it (and not for want of trying). Second, it simply can´t be solved.
Even if somebody conclusively demonstrates a causal connection between atoms and consciousness, I would *still* suspect there is something more to it. Obviously, since I have immidiate first-hand knowledge of my own mind and its subjectivity. I perceive and know that my consciousness simply cannot be reduced to whatever material stuff scientists claim caused it (or is identical with it). The hunch won´t go away and the quest would continue.
The above doesn´t necessarily prove theism, deism or dualism. Pantheism and panentheism are other possibilities. But the point is that we are "plugged it" to something that isn´t brute matter in the sense usually understood by that term. Come to think of it, isn´t the materialist claim that matter can generate consciousness in itself a kind of pantheism, animism or even animatism? The pantheism that dare not speak its name...
Everything else feels like commentary to this. Very interesting commentary, to be sure!
Who knows? I would guess the energy emanating throughout the perceived material world has many "vibrations" some of which we sense, such as light and heat, solid and fluid. Some more of which we do not have instruments to measure quite yet. That does not disqualify their existence. Some humans may be empathic, extra-sensory or whatever, and have experiences of existence outside of the "norm". What is it that makes the flowers return every Spring?
ReplyDeleteMow your lawn and it grows back in a week or so. That was recognized over and over by our ancestors and so now we have the ultimate mythology of God-Self being reborn after death. Somehow mixed into a morality of our "consciences" being released from "sin". My point is I have not given up on a conscious universe. It may be we have not "tuned in" to the frequency-yet. Like a radio, religion seeks to tune our inner dial to the vibration of God. And allegedly God is "transmitting a message to us. In order to have one message (of purity and truth) there had to be other messages, even the exact opposite (evil doers=devil) to complete the array of vibrations.
So we seek It who also wishes us to Hear. It is enough to be here now and listen...
Steiner (and - probably based on Steiner) John Michael Greer have some interesting ideas about this. Steiner argued that we simply haven´t evolved the "mystical organs" which make perception of higher realities possible. Indeed, it might take tens of thousands of years (or more?) for humanity as a whole to fully develop them. We can´t perceive the gods as they really are, so religion is our present best way to relate to the divine sphere of existence. Of course, there are other supersensible spheres (nominally lower than the Divine) which are equally interesting. And both Steiner and JMG regard the material sphere - if seen in the correct light - as very interesting, too!
ReplyDeleteYes, there must be more than one "vibration" from "God". Both polytheism and monotheism are "true" in that sense. This is why I find Hinduism (on the purely symbolic level) more appealing than Christianity. Especially in its Protestant-evangelical form it seems to be a "one size fits all" proposition. If you´re not tuned into the One True Vibe, you´re demonic?! Nor is it obvious that the Christian soteriological goal is "higher" or "better" than that of other religions...
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