IS GOD IN CONTROL?

Some of the great saints who have influenced me most were sustained by an unshakeable faith that, no matter how bad things might look, all is going “according to God’s Plan.”  It’s easy to see how comforting this belief is, especially in the face of the horrors that face us.

But for me, the horrors are inexcusable—if we assume that God is capable of making things better than they are.  An all-powerful, all-knowing AND good God should be able to do better than this!  I remember talking to a Jewish lady at a scientific conference and I asked her if she was a practicing Jew and she said “No I am not. The holocaust was a betrayal.”

 

The bitterness of her statement comes from the idea, the hope, that God will do better, especially for God’s own peope!  The fact that God does not intervene in the horrors of this world is the single most painful and reasonable reason to believe that God does not exist at all.  I reject this—the evidence for the Holy is too strong for me—but then why is it so bad? Even if you argue that much of the evil we experience is due to human evil (war, exploitation, genocide), which we bring on ourselves and thus presumably “deserve” (call it original sin), what about the horrors of simple existence in this particular world? Earthquakes, cancer, the terrible waste and suffering of life in nature.

Am I myself bitter? You bet.  Raised to believe in an all-powerful loving God, much of my belief system now has been impacted by watching the three most important women in my life—my mother and two wives—all die slow and horrible deaths: cancer, bipolar disorder/suicide, and dementia.  All blind, hideous, random, undeserved.  I cannot forgive God for this.

    

However! If God is good (and I still believe in a good God), then there are two logical possibilities: either God is unable to intervene in the course of nature, or if able, unwilling.  The latter case suggests maybe some deeper good exists in God’s plan?  See the Biblical book of Job!  I have wondered if there might be some sort of metaphysical reason God doesn’t or can’t intervene.  Maybe there is something to do with free will!  Maybe a universe in which free will is possible is a universe in which God cannot intervene? An interesting idea but not very meaningful.  It really doesn’t matter whether God cannot or will not  intervene, does it?  The result is the same, a cruel existence in which kindness, generosity, love gleam faintly in the darkness.

Kindness, generosity, love—these are the evidence that there is a God. Not a God for whom we must be obedient children, but a still, small voice that keeps us from being animals.  We must listen to that voice and be adults, and try not to be the cause of suffering beyond that which we must endure from nature.  We are on our own.  A terrible burden, to be sure.  It's hard to be optimistic about humanity's ability to make it better.  I believe it is up to us, though.  What's more I believe we are capable of doing much more than we have accomplished so far.  

LIFE AFTER DEATH

LIFE AFTER DEATH

I hate to say it (I really do) but we simply don’t know.  To say there is, or to say there isn’t, are both assertions for which there is very little evidence.  If you exclude religious mythology (the golden palaces of heaven and burning lake of hell of Christianity, for example), and don’t believe in ghosts, what remains to suggest that life goes on,  maybe in some spiritual form?  

For me, there is only one, rather faint, hint: I have known some individuals whose soul was so great, their personalities so indomitable, it seems hard to imagine that mere death could have put a stop to them!  Christians refer to a “cloud of witnesses,” the saints, who live on. Having known and mourned some saints it is attractive to imagine their spirit lives on.  Attractive, but certainly wishful thinking.  “Wishful” isn’t necessarily wrong! But a certain healthy skepticism here isn’t a bad idea either.

So: I hope to be pleasantly surprised if I “cross the river” and discover there is a happy land on the other side—or that somehow I get to stay conscious, at least. I would miss awareness!

However, there is a definite downside to a too-certain belief in a blissful eternity (and maybe a hell for those we disagree with?): it leads to a certain detachment and disengagement from this world, and at worst leads to a violent religious extremism that sees little value in this life and, abominably, the lives of others.

So--to sum up: allow for the possibility that there is something beyond death, but don’t count on it! Iive your life as if this is all you will get. And be a good steward of your time . 

The Project: Myths, Reality and Behavior

The project here is to look at some common beliefs or myths, (remembering that we do not necessarily mean “untrue” when we say “myth”) and try to determine what their connection with reality, if any, might be.  Why do this? Because if we believe something is real then we will behave accordingly.  If we believe monsters live under the bed we will miss a lot of sleep.  If we believe angels are hovering nearby and one has been assigned to look after us, we might be a little more careless. If you believe in ghosts and believe they can do you harm then you will likely avoid cemeteries. More seriously, If I imagine, for instance, that I will live beyond the grave, this belief has consequences, as I will discuss below.

If we have a belief that is false, or at least appears to have no basis, we may act mistakenly as a consequence. The reverse is also true!  If we disbelieve a truth we also may act mistakenly.

If a false belief (or disbelief!) is very widely held by humankind, then humankind as a whole may be acting mistakenly.  Are we, child-like, clinging to fantasies that, Iike Santa Claus, are beloved but unreal? Are we doing ourselves harm by doing so? Adult fantasies can go much deeper than Santa, to the very core of our fears and hopes.  To abandon them  would be infinitely more painful and grievous then learning there is no Santa. But is that what it will take for us to be adults?

So let's look at some widely held beliefs and disbeliefs. We will try to understand their origins.  We will ask ourselves if they are true or false--or something in between, or maybe we simply can’t know.  If we conclude that a belief or disbelief is false, or at least unproven we will ask ourselves: is this belief harmful? In particular, if widely held, does this belief get in the way of mankind taking responsibility for our future?

Myth, Imagination and Culture

We have myths and fantasies because we have imaginations.  Surely imagination is a thing that is central to being human, both good and evil.  We can imagine wonders and horrors.  We can imagine heaven and hell.  We can imagine Santa with his twinkling eyes and merry dimples.  We can imagine monsters. In fact isn’t it a little creepy that Santa knows who’s been bad and good? Children used to be told of the Bogeyman who would snatch away bad children.  We don’t think that’s such a good myth anymore.

A myth is a fantasy that has a tradition.  They are stories or legends that are a central part of any culture--they are culture.  We often say that a common belief or story is a “myth” in order to say it isn’t true.  But myths are slippery! They contain some of our most exalted--and also some of our most evil--imaginations and they have a powerful grip.  Many have the power to seize one’s imagination and live there.  Imagine a Creator God simply saying “Let there be light!”, and light itself first comes into being!  You don’t have to be an orthodox Christian to read the Biblical story of creation and find your imagination fired by the story.

And even when we are pretty sure a given myth is not real, the story or it’s image may still have something very important to say to us. Consider the image, often used in cartoons, of a small angel (golden halo, wings, white robe) standing on your shoulder and whispering in your ear. Meanwhile there is a small red demon (horns, hoof, tail)  standing on your other also whispering. The demon of course is tempting you to do something you shouldn’t, and the angel is trying to keep you from doing it--appealing to your conscience.  If the picture is done right, each of these spirits has your face!  

So, OK--maybe there are not little good and evil beings that perch on our shoulders, but isn’t it a wonderful illustration of the fact that we have, in all of us, a mixture of bad and good impulses?

So “myth” and “fantasy” can be much more than just stories or entertainments. Their power is not just for children. They instruct us and inspire us. They may tell us things that are really too deep for words, something like the effect music can have. Our lives are richer, deeper with myth and fantasy, because of our imaginations.   

So the issue with becoming an adult is not to disdain and avoid fantasy and myth, because that would be a very bleak and impoverished approach to life (and probably impossible to do anyway).  The issue is to be able to be realistic when needed--which is most of the time.  In an age when we are saturated with opportunities to fantasize and liable to be addicted to fantasy, to lead a productive and useful--and ultimately joyful-- life means to fantasize in moderation, and to (mostly) live and act grounded in reality.

Another thing about myths is they can become so central to a culture as to come to be regarded as necessarily true, i.e., belief in them becomes a requirement to belong in the culture.  This describes a good deal of religion. Is religion false because it’s “only” myths?  Certainly not! As said above, myths may contain some of the deepest truths.

Myths and Children

My son Matt, age 5, was distraught. An older boy had told him that there was no Santa Claus. I was furious. Sure it’s a fantasy--but It’s such a fun fantasy, we had carried on the tradition.  We told our three little boys about Santa, and on Christmas Eve we would hang the stockings and tell them to go to bed and sleep so “Santy” could come and bring the goodies.  Then we filled the stockings with candy and fruit and laid out presents for them to discover the next morning. Oh, they would be so excited! We loved it.

Of course Matt had to learn the sad truth sometime.  It would not be good if he grew up believing there really is a jolly old elf in a red outfit who flies over all the world in one night in a magical sleigh delivering toys to good little girls and boys.  A disappointment every Christmas!

Is the excitement and fun of the Santa fantasy worth the pain of later discovering it’s not real? We thought so.  But discarding it must come.  You can still love the story, but you have to know it’s not true.

And so it is with most of the children’s fantasy that cultures tell their children.  Both the fun parts (elves, fairies, magic) and the scary parts (monsters, ghosts, magic) are wonderful and entertaining and sometimes edifying, but the stories are for children, not adults.  Growing up means you must discern what is real, and no longer be afraid of monsters under the bed or expect a good fairy to appear and solve your problems, or discover a magic ring that will give you immense powers.  

What about fantasy for adults?  Of course we never stop fantasizing!  As an adult you can still suspend disbelief and enjoy even the scary parts of a novel, say or a movie. But it is not real.You must return to reality to function as an adult.  That’s not easy or fun.

Growing Up: A Metaphor for an Adult Relationship With God, Each Other, and Our World. Part 2

II. Introduction: Peering into The Abyss

       I have experienced God. Once, as a child lying in bed I had an intense sensation that Jesus was standing by my bed, just being present. Once, as an adult, at a particularly desolate time I asked myself desperately “Surely, there is more to reality than this?”, and a great wave of joyful certainty washed over me: yes there is. Once I had an immediate and positive, unambiguous and frightening answer to a very specific prayer. Proof enough to believe in God? Most of the time.

           
      As a practicing Christian (at least, one who tries to walk the walk) I have been in a family of faith and a committed member of some church all my adult life. The finest people I have known have all been fine because of their faith--Saints all. To worship, minister, commune, celebrate, and take communion with such Christians—or even the beginners--is as vital to me as air.
     And yet. I cannot seem to be able to leave off asking myself: What if it’s all a delusion? And when when this question pops up, it is like walking up to the edge of a vast, dark abyss, and stumbling on the edge, terrified, terrified of meaninglessness. Because if there is no God, no Good, if it’s all just physics then I am no more than a complex maggot.

But surely, no self-respecting human being—any human with a conscience—will accept this. Although science seems to say (and certainly there are scientists who say) that we are just an accident of nature, a smart animal with a deluded sense of grandeur, most people, I think, regardless of religious conviction believe we are subject to a higher moral sense: a sense of good and evil and subject to moral principles which can contradict and even overrule our Darwinian instincts for self-preservation. A soldier throws himself on a grenade and saves his comrades at the cost of his own life.  A priest at a death camp takes the place of a younger person condemned to death. In ordinary existence, isn’t every generous gift that is given sacrificially a challenge, a denial, of selfish competition? For Christians, of course, the iconic sacrifice is Jesus crucifixion, an atonement for all human sin.  Saint Paul says Jesus’ sacrifice appears foolish to non-believers, but don’t most people, even non-christians, recognize the nobility of Jesus act, the self-denial of it, even if they do not believe in the necessity of it?

The reason most humans recoil from the brink of the abyss of meaninglessness is, we cannot live without meaning. We want our existence, our lives, to count for something. I believe this almost universal desire is the best evidence we will ever have for the existence of God. This is what Christians call the Holy Spirit, and surely there are similar terms for this inspiration we have in all the great religions.

               So, I begin by affirming a belief in God: something besides physics and chemistry that is part of reality. My definition may be not too different from that of Paul Tillich: God as the “ground of our being” that--spirit, perhaps?--which is responsible for our conscience, our empathy. Is this God an independent person beyond ourselves, a distinct and separate holiness, or perhaps “just” some sort of universal spirit common to humans? I’m not sure how important this question is! For me the important thing is the existence of something that is supernatural, something that is the source of love, beauty, kindness, generosity, something that defies hate and and selfishness.              

               I am well aware that science, that powerful activity that is at the heart of modernity, makes the working assumption that all the gifts I assign to this supernatural thing are in fact illusions, that the Darwinian struggle and the survival value of cooperation explains all our pretensions of higher emotions and of conscience.  But the key point here is that is a working definition that is forced upon science by its methodological limitations!  Scientists define their work as the  exploration of natural law, by observation and measurement and the construction of predictions, coupled with a working philosophical assumption that that is all there is.  This assumption does not say there is no God, only that the supernatural is simply off limits because it is outside natural law.  Of course many scientists—and indeed many modern men and women—go beyond this working assumption to say that the assumption is really all there is!   This is as much a faith statement as any religious creed, with no more, and no less, justification.

               On the other hand, religions say a great deal more than this about who God is! In the next chapter I want to explore the theology of the dominant religions.

Growing Up: A Metaphor for an Adult Relationship With God, Each Other, and Our World. Part 1

I.  PREFACE

     I want to start a series of Essays under the above title. Using a blog may be an unfortunate choice of procedure, but at least it forces me to forge ahead after a good deal of dithering.

     
    I want to try to talk about the possibility that God (whatever that term means, part of the discussion), either cannot, or will not, control the future of mankind. I say this because it seems quite apparent (to me) that God is not "working out a plan."

    Disclosure: C.S. Lewis once said (somewhere) that a Christian is anyone who says he is one. By that very generous definition I am, still, a Christian. My culture and family and tradition are all Christian. This will become obvious in what follows.  But this series of essays is not meant to be written only to Christians. Though I cannot help using examples from Christian ideas to illustrate what I mean, since my analysis cannot but be based on my experience as a Christian.  The fundamental error (as I see it) which is explored here is pretty well universal among people of faith, at least those who follow the monotheistic faiths. Certainly this analysis may be offensive to committed, orthodox, Christians, Jews, and Muslims.

    My hope is that any reader of this, regardless of his or her religious tradition or conviction, or even if of no faith save materialism, might at least recognize that what is proposed here—a self-limiting God—offers one reasonable description of reality and a potential resolution of some ancient questions that remain crucial and indeed fundamental to our future.

    Now, self-limiting is much different from absent,,,