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Beginnings
They tell me that God is unscientific. They tell me that He is unreasonable. They tell me that we have become better and wiser, and that we no longer need superstition to help us. We need humanity, they say, and only humanity, to help us along our way.
And that does not make me angry, or make me want to fight anyone else, or to puff up my chest in the face of another view. It makes me sad, because it means that mankind now views itself only for itself, and not in the context of what is Universal.
I have always understood science, and any worldly knowledge at all, as a commitment to theory based upon evidence. It is not simply an assertion, but an assertion that has been rightly inferred. Now what can be any more scientific than the principle of causality? No effect exists without a cause. Logic itself demands that. No proximate effect can exist without an ultimate cause.
I have always understood what is reasonable, and any thinking at all, as a commitment to valid and sound arguments. It is not simply a claim, but a claim that has been proven. Now what can be more reasonable than recognizing that a degree only exists in reference to its absolute? "More" or "less" are real by reference to the maximum. If there is no absolute, there can be nothing relative.
I have always understood religion as an extension of reason, and never in opposition to reason. It is not simply a blind belief, but a trust based upon what is entirely reasonable. When I know of a man who has never done me wrong, there is good cause for me to rely on him again. I can hardly prove that he will do me right the next time, because that is beyond my power, but my faith is not unreasonable.
I will suggest that our concept of God is far too small and narrow. He is not a big fellow, or a big gal, up in the sky. He is not a boss. He is not your best buddy. He is not something you choose to hate. He is not the manager of your own cult or creed. He is Being, He is Existence, He is Beauty. He is Truth, He is Love.
God, however you wish to understand Him, is not just bigger than you or me. He is everything. What has been, what is, and what will be, are simply His presence. He is all that is, and beyond him, there is nothing. We are all extensions of that.
Does the gender bother you? Remove the gender. There is no sex in God, because God is beyond sex. Classical thinking only uses that as an analogy.
Does the idea of power bother you? There is indeed power in God, but a power without limit, and without any conflict, and without hatred. His power, with fullness of love, is not the power of your human abusers, with their fullness of selfishness.
Does the idea of perfection bother you? Stop assuming that God's perfection is the same as your own perfection. He is all that Is, while you are but a part of what Is. You exist only from Him.
And that last bit is what really rubs us all the wrong way. "It isn't all about ME?"
No. The biggest, and only real objection to an acceptance of what is Absolute, whatever you may wish to name it, is egoism.
Let's stop fighting about the labels and all of the divisions, and let's stop fighting about whether or not the Absolute is on our side. It only matters if we are on the side of the Absolute.
We have our wires crossed. When you confidently tell me that you do not believe in God, I can only shrug my shoulders. You have told me that you, quite literally, believe in nothing at all, because you have denied the totality of Being.
Middles
I was raised with a sense of right and wrong. Love your neighbor as yourself. Needless to say, I was a bit frightened when I got out into the big world, and they told me that there was no such thing as right and wrong. There was what was convenient, or what was useful, or what was pleasurable, but there certainly wasn't a right or wrong.
Your neighbor wasn't just anyone, but whoever you approved of, and whoever was a means to your own end.
I began to see that it was never about morality, but about politics. It was never about humanity, but about being a member of a certain class, creed, gender, or race. At one point in my life, I actually came across as somewhat bright, and I was a prospect to be recruited for this or that clan. I quickly convinced others that this was not for me, and I was quickly abandoned. At first this saddened me, and then I realized that it was the greatest of blessings.
Look at me, some folks told me, my way is the only way to be correct. There are certain formulae. I am a man, and you are a woman. I am better than you. Now reverse that very statement. Women are better than men. I have heard them both. Generalities, and all the tribalisms like that, are a symptom of malice.
I am of one race, and you are of another. I am richer, and you are poorer. I follow one set of traditions, and you follow something different. Let us battle until the end. Again, these are all symptoms of hatred, of division, of separation.
What we now call generic "Conservatism" and "Liberalism" are hardly any different. Change a few of the phrases, a "right" to this, or a "right" to that, and we still end up with much of the same. Go on a march, and hold a sign. Look how we have changed the world.
Yet all we have done is to piss off other people, the people we should try to come to terms with. In Constantinople, it was the Blues and Greens. Now there are different colors. Only the colors change.
After all, what is life worth without enemies to fight? There must, of course, always be fighting. Love is out of the question. Forgiveness is out of the question. Understanding is out of the question. Let's all mock and ridicule our opponents. Let's find their greatest weaknesses, and make the best of them for our gain. It is of no matter that we suffer from them ourselves.
Justice is what is advantageous to me, and to my crew. Friendship is a conditional relationship. Through it all, I will do my best to insult, degrade, and diminish anyone and everyone who is different than me. Me. Me. Me.
How tempting, but how deeply destructive. I knew that there was a deep darkness in the tribalism of our age. Every age has its own aspect of being a Dark Age.
But no man or woman, no individual at all, needs to live that way. There is something better. Look within yourself. What were you made to be? What should be the purpose of your activism? Be a human being first and foremost, and never dismiss another human being. Please don't tell me that I am hated, or should be destroyed. Engage me with reason, our common gift.
I know that seems quite foolish, but please recognize that you and I were made for the whole. You and I are a part of the whole. The person you hate the most is just as much a human as you, and no more disposable than you are.
You are no better or worse than he is. If you believe that his view is mistaken, convince him that it is so. If he will not allow himself to be convinced, show him tolerance and charity. Even the most despicable of folks you meet are still worthy of the same respect you demand for yourself.
If he pushes you further, and violently denies you your own rights, then, by all means defend yourself with actual force. But never become like the aggressor. Do not drop to the level of what you hate. Do not do evil, whenever you confront evil. If you must fight, then my all means, fight with all you have.
Surrender your worldly goods before you surrender you moral goods. If it comes to that, give him what he wants. Keep your character above all else, even as he surrenders his. Do not be mistaken. What you own outside of you matters nothing to how well you live inside of you.
Endings
Death is inevitable. I have actually known people who have managed to avoid taxes for their whole lives, so don't tell me that taxes are inevitable. To avoid taxes, you must be more clever than the IRS. That is quite difficult. To avoid death, you must be more clever than Nature. That is impossible.
Now look at how we deny death. We pretend it will never happen, we hope it will go away, and when it actually happens, we turn it into a glorification of our own lives. When we are sick and dying, we want nothing more than to survive, at any cost. We will pay the highest price, just to live, and just for the sake of living.
I have a sneaking sense that our future will involve those who have the means demanding to live much longer lives. Those of us without the means will lives much shorter lives. My heart, or my kidneys, or my liver may, after all, help someone much better than me. We all know, of course, that better people deserve longer lives than all of those worse people.
I suspect it will go even beyond all of that. Even now, there are huge advances in medical science. Genetics is the way to go. If I can afford it, I might be able to conquer aging or disease. If I can't afford it, I wasn't made to get it. It will take care of itself, because certain people will have the chance to reproduce, and the rest will whither away. It will be genetic selection at its best, human evolution at its most efficient.
Imagine if I can choose the physical, mental, and emotional characteristics of my future child. It doesn't matter if I have an actual wife, because I can grow this wonderful person in a beaker. It will be all about what I want, and there will be no worry about what is given to me. Marriage is already a product to be sold for conditional gratification. Now children will also be products for gain.
I was once taught by my family that the eugenics of the Third Reich was a great evil. Now watch while we do it again. It will sound quite proper, of course, just like it did back then. It's all good for society as whole, they tell me, and to make an omelet you need to break some eggs. The ends justify the means.
And all of it, absolutely all of it, flies in the face of true humanity. This is not because of some arbitrary social or religious rules, or because of stale tradition, or because of a reverence for the past. It is about what any and every human life means in and of itself.
Once I reduce a human being to how long he may live, or how strong his body may be, how beautiful he looks, or even how clever he is, I have mistaken the purpose of human life. The worth of any man or woman has nothing to do with the gifts they are given. It has everything to do with the choices they make about the gifts that they are given.
Change the gifts, and you will not change human nature. Make men taller, stronger, faster, or brighter. Extend their lives as long as you might like. You have not made them better. Human beings will still be defined by their free judgments and choices, whatever their dispositions may be. Their characters, and never their circumstances, will make them human.
By all means, make us live for hundreds of years. Futurists even speak of thousands, if we can transfer our minds to machines. It will make no difference.
Live for twenty years, or live for twenty thousand years. I am still a creature of reason and choice, and what makes me is never about how much I have. It is what I will do with what I have, for better or for worse. Because man is a rational animal, he isn't just a producer or a consumer. He is a moral animal. His sense of right and wrong defines him, however smart he is, however rich he is, and however long he lives.
Written in 8/1992
IMAGE: Paul Gauguin, Where Do We Come from? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897)
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