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In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth. Or the big bang was the beginning of both time and space, the world of relativity came from the absolute unconditioned by time and space. We have a dual nature of relativity and absolute. As we approach God we move towards the absolute, which is Truth. Maybe our earthly minds will grow to be able to express the Kingdom of God here on earth. There is real meaning to be found.
There is absolute Truth (singular). There are in religion often certain codified beliefs or religious prescription each of these can be closer or further away from Truth, they aren't simply all just relative. I think in pretty much all human thought or at least it's expression in language there is a fair dose of relativity, in Pre Modern thought the Earth was seen as the sub lunar realm a realm of mutability and change. Our consciousness is like various wattage light bulbs through which differing amounts of the divine current can flow through.
God is Being (Omnipresent), Consciousness (Omniscient) and Bliss (All Loving) and can be experienced but not fully expressed in earthly language. Our everyday mind is a partial mind, we can be rational but our everyday thoughts are not sufficient to climb the ladder of Truth. Truth like the physical world can be experienced and that experience can be expressed cogently (but not fully) in rational discourse. A Commonality across those who have near death experiences is the greater sense of reality and consciousness of the experiences, they directly experience a greater mindfulness than they had in their earthly experiences. These experiences remain crystal clear to them over spans of decades, when memories and dreams become dim.
I don't think there is a fundamental conflict between religion and science, Truth is one, too often the debate has been falsely framed as between reason and faith. Science is a method of enquiry, mainly into the external world, so far it has had little to nothing that it can say regarding the essential and fundamental invisibilities of human existence Consciousness and Love. All science rests on a base of Consciousness, how can there be scientific enquiry or any kind of inquiry without consciousness? if a scientific philosophy then tries to undermine that and argue consciousness is an illusion, as it sometimes does, it is cutting off its own base.
That there is such a thing as absolute truth is not the same thing as saying there is certainty.
There are two basic paradigms Material and Divine. I find the later more cogent in explaining experience, I've mentioned problems with consciousness, also Materialism is based on upwards causality yet our experience is that our actions are ruled by our consciousness (downward causality) and every sane person acts as though they are responsible for their decisions. So materialists in one sense believe in upward causality but they can’t live by it, the Divine view is consistent and doesn’t hold this contradiction.
Materialism posits that matter through a mindless process builds life, meaning is like some kind of accidental secretion, from such a world view where there is no objective basis for meaning, reason and truth. A society that holds such views will have meaning, reason and justice seep out of social discourse.
Materialism is overtly a philosophy of nihilism. If further it posits that human beings developed from the underlying principle of "survival of the fittest" then no matter what gloss you try to put on it you're saying fundamentally 'might is right”.
Life does seem to have evolved on earth, with simple life forms being followed by more complex forms, I see this as a mindful unfolding of consciousness over time.
We find in modern physics that the observer (consciousness) is intertwined with matter and effects the outcome of subatomic experiments.
If at the sub atomic level matter intersects with mind, then Consciousness exists in some level throughout matter. At the mineral level it's very latent, in plants and micro organisms it shows a greater expression and is capable of showing pain responses (and most likely pleasure). Then you move up the animal kingdom with greater levels of consciousness, human beings have the greatest level of consciousness in the animal kingdom. All of this Consciousness is sparks of the divine consciousness. I think consciousness is going to continue emerging in this world and that it extends beyond it, as has been experienced by people in Near Death and Mystical Experiences. I don't think Consciousness is static in any of us, there are times when we seem to see with a wider view and we experience a feeling of "all being well" in such states the things we do all seem to go right and we feel a great sense of identity with everything around us.
Keri, Thank you for encouraging me toward this series of texts which come together very nicely.
ReplyDeleteThe quintessential element is consciousness. It is not about religion, of which there is far to much in spirituality, which is a man made construct of how to interpret where consciousness is within human development it is about the revelation of singularity. Materialists argue there is no singularity but what is the context of the accident that is your argument and a good one.
Although it may not always appear so, consciousness is awakening and growing toward the revelation of singularity. As beings we have spent a millennia or two exploring place and technologies and that has challenged and distracted our ability to grow toward a singular vision. But the revelation of closeness is upon us and over the next millennium we will come back toward each other and in that process as we conquer our distinctions consciousness will grow, mind will dominate, not "getting along" matter. We live in a cynical world with much dysfunctionalism and therefore many find reinforcement or support in one of two opposites religion or bottom survival of the fittest materialism where the latter creates a climate of disenchantment collectively and singularly . What is missing from these latter two are personal responsibility for our spiritual life and love. With those in place we can grow consciousness toward the divine.
I re read my comments and wanted to clarify that the key to all this and your argument is that consciousness is a changing growing living organic element where the fragments grow and connect together. It is not about scientific enquiry and answers its about the mind "discovering the truth" though I believe both will end in the same place. That would sound sentimental and cloudy to a materialist but everyone has to find their own way back.
ReplyDeleteThanks Michelle,
ReplyDeleteYes consciousness is key and that is something that is our responsibility now, it is experienced personally. Religion has been a basis of shared understanding that has allowed us to accept certain important human qualities as fundamental collectively. Scientism instead cuts out those fundamental invisible qualities, which I think has broader dangers for us as a society and what we accept as fundamental "survival of the fittest" is not a good code to live by. I think we have moved into a post Christian time, I just hope that we find a living spirituality that can fill that place that Religion held and ensure that there is compassion in the way we organise ourselves collectively. Either that or we need to gain a new vantage on what Religion is and our relation to it, that allows a variety of Religions to live together harmoniously and encourages individual spiritual growth.
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The truths of consciousness won't be found by scientific enquiry, but by inner enquiry, but for all that they are part of a single Truth which holds scientific enquiry within it. Scientific philosophy harms itself and us collectively if it sets itself in opposition to spiritual vision. Actually that's not entirely true certain spiritual areas can be investigated by scientific method, but before that can be done effectively it has to lose its perception of scientific heresy.
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That's an intriguing line about "too much Religion in Spirituality", I find it fascinating but I'm not sure how to unravel it, do you mean that there is too much codification and formality rather than the living wisdom in our Spirituality? Or that spirituality hasn't gained independence of Religion yet?
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There is a lot of discussion that can fold out of these thoughts...(hopefully) an ever opening flower
Just on your one question which is it. It is the former I intended to convey that the codification that comes in part from state sponsorship in the Northern Hemisphere and the West. It is not coincidence that the most codified spiritual beliefs emanate out of the most codified societies it is unfortunate that spiritual grace is so affected and not the other way round.
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