On being relevant
If you can grow comfortable with the acceptance of death, at least to the degree you can contemplate the experience of dying without running for cover, than possibly one can legitimately speculate on transcendence as both a created human need and a reality beyond simple need.
There is little doubt that knowing intuitively that life goes on after your physical death is comforting when confronted with the existential reality of suffering and eventual nothingness. From the beginning, religion has been considered the panacea, the snake oil of meaning and comfort, to a world that often seems to have neither.
And that thought alone is enough to allow one to rationalize the belief in the existence of a God. And no religious or spiritual person who has spent any introspective time can deny that the thought of needing to believe in God has not occurred to them.
The question remains: does the psychological need for a God to exist for comfort and meaning conflict with the fact that the human need for transcendence goes beyond selfish need and is a legitimate reality that eventually defines authentic humanness? The two thoughts seem to be considered by many as mutually exclusive when they may very well coexist.
The two extremes that are always in conflict are atheism and religious fundamentalism. If you accept the notion that what is measurable and observable is the only reality, you are an atheist. If you accept that all religious folklore is literally true, you are a fundamentalist. Both positions are condemned to be extremist.
Than we have the extreme of religious fundamentalism. At some point, the need to literally believe absolutely, no matter how it defies the faculties of logic and reason, becomes necessary to deal with existential angst. The path is clear. You are accepted by your God, unconditionally, as long as you follow the dogma of the faith. From that point everything else falls into place.
The easiest position, and by far the safest, is to be an agnostic. The problem with being an agnostic is that you have none of the fervor and enthusiasm of the atheist or fundamentalist, but are still left with the existential angst of the non-believer. Certainly this is not a very good deal.
What then is left for the rest of us? We are the ones who through spiritual insight gained through our life experiences have concluded that there is a reality beyond observation and measurability. That intangible truth does exist the same way common sense exists.
We have based our belief in God on the wisdom of our experience and the ability to find a basis for the infinite. This position does allow us certain flexibility for tolerance, which seems to be contrary to most religious dogma.
As a result, for us the infinite becomes a sweet mystery of expectations that allows us to spiritually move beyond our physical reality. Sooner or later we have to make a choice based on faith. And where ever we land on this issue, they are all decisions based on faith. Does this answer all the questions? I certainly hope not.
Brother Giovanni
We also recommend: http://pizzaonian.com
opd 1015
Comments