In the Great Mystery

In the Great Mystery

Albert Einstein when asked if he believed in God, had some hesitation when describing his spirituality. His answer emphasized the humility of one of the greatest minds we have known.

‘’I believe in Spinoza’s God”

Dutch Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza was born in 1632 and died in 1677. A great atheist of the Western tradition, he refers to “God” throughout his writings, hence Einstein’s reference to Spinoza’s God, and some religious people’s false impression that the great man was indeed spiritual. To understand this God. He said…

“The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free”

I guess freedom brings peace, and in Baruch’s words…

“Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, and justice.”

Baruch was excommunicated by the rabbis of Amsterdam but always showed a deep understanding of religious people and a tolerance for their cultures.

This is indeed seems the most beautiful of approaches and demonstrates great human insight. None of us are smart enough to know and understand the complete picture of our lives in the universe, and time and time again, with new emerging evidence man finds serious flaws in previously held firm convictions. It is natural, that many, unable to achieve a satisfactory understanding, turn to philosophy and religion without the application of scientific reason or any due thought process. Lacking in the spirit of true free enquiry, and torn between the natural love for their parents and any dissonance they have with the emerging philosophy, most simply adopt the religion or the ideas of their parents or teachers. For the multitudes, intellectually and from a relationship point of view this seems to be the easy way out. The revelatory religions do not promote personal investigation or the vetting of their teachings – they preach the absoluteness of their authority, morality and consequential salvation. (or consequential damnation for some). If you believe them you do so with blind faith and for many this is a way of reaching a conclusion to their lack of understanding of life and the universe, allowing them to proceed with their life’s purpose with some sense of certainty. This peaceful state often reflects in their confidence, sometimes seen as arrogance.

It seems a deep human tragedy that tolerance and respect for the religious beliefs of our fellow human beings leads to the continuing of all the harmful effects these irrational ideas have on the human race.

Another great Jewish atheist mind Isaac Asimov was a little less tolerant.

"Imagine the people who believe such things and who are not ashamed to ignore, totally, all the patient findings of thinking minds through all the centuries since the Bible was written. And it is these ignorant people, the most uneducated, the most unimaginative, the most unthinking among us, who would make themselves the guides and leaders of us all; who would force their feeble and childish beliefs on us; who would invade our schools and libraries and homes. I personally resent it bitterly.”

More humility demonstrated about his own convictions, but anger at the arrogant masses for being so self-assured and for explaining away the vast mysteries of life with such ordinary little fanciful stories.

I guess it is the dissolving into nothingness that gets most humans on the religious bandwagon. It is an easy escape from the reality of our mortality and eternal discontinuance, a disturbing and worrying thought for all life-loving human beings. And so it is with genuine human empathy (we all face a long time being dead) that we endeavour to show respect for religious people and their silly prayers and practices.

But one cannot escape despair of the current state of human rationality. After thousands of years of forbidding its flock to practice birth control the Roman Catholic Pope Francis suddenly and unexpectedly starts urging the faithful to be concerned about climate change making, it seems, no connection between overpopulation, centuries of obstruction to natural birth control, energy consumption, unsustainable global pollution levels, and extreme competition for resources. And so we march forward to the next world war.

Today we see the rise of religious fundamentalism and activism, with associated discrimination, persecution and displacement of minorities as well as terror and violence. None of this is or has ever been associated with secular, humanist, atheist or pantheist groups. In the same way that religion has intervened and delayed the progress of civilisation, in science, medicine, ethics and the arts, it now stands in the way of solutions to the world's most serious problems.

The remnants of some great thinking are to be found in what the North American Indian peoples, now decimated and practically destroyed by the European settlers with their guns and germs, believed and practiced. Looking at their version of the 10 commandments you can see a strong sense of human ethics and an absence of the guilt/punishment mentality of Judea/Christian beliefs.

Native American Ten Commandments

1. Treat the Earth and all that dwell therein with respect

2. Remain close to the Great Spirit

3. Show great respect for your fellow beings

4. Work together for the benefit of all Mankind

5. Give assistance and kindness wherever needed

6. Do what you know to be right

7. Look after the well-being of Mind and Body

8. Dedicate a share of your efforts to the greater Good

9. Be truthful and honest at all times

10. Take full responsibility for your actions

What is clear is their great love for nature, the Great Spirit that is the earth our home, our mother, the universe and all that they referred to as the Great Mystery. When compared to modern western culture they were ahead of their time. (certainly ahead of George Bush, Donald Trump and the GOP). While they seem to have an almost spiritual relationship with the earth, they were atheist in the sense that they did not indulge in ancestor worship, sainthood, idolatry practices, witchcraft, religious rituals, sacrifices or idiotic astrology.

The Great Spirit (in their language referred to et al as Wakan Tanka, Gitchi Manitou) is a non-theistic belief in personal relationship with the universe itself and all living things resulting in a deep respect and wonder for nature.

How admirable is this great humility that acknowledges the complexity and immensity of the Great Mystery?

And so we must deal with the question of people such as Richard Dawkins who like Asimov routinely attacks and maybe insults religious people. Well how many of us crusaders against human irrationality have been burnt at the stake, stoned to death, tortured, silenced, or just murdered like the bloggers of Bangladesh. How many children are right now being indoctrinated in a religion based on silly little tales mired in inherited superstition.

Unless we have a mind to tolerate female genital mutilation, the stoning of female adulterers, the subjugation of women to virtual slavery, the trade of young virgins in the marriage market of the family and friends’ circle of their fathers, we must remain a discerning and critical voice in a world going mad with political correctness and cultural over-sensitivity. Or all will be lost as irrationality kills us all.

Like Asimov I bitterly resent the massive invasion that is religious activism into my life. Did my teachers really not think that I had a mind of my own? It seems that our army of one (Dawkins) is bitterly resented by those who remain attached to the concept of sky pixies. Certainly plenty of personal attacks. But then, what did we expect?

And sorry, all you hopeful religious humans, we understand and are respectful of your desire for eternal life, but this is something that is currently unavailable. We were not made by God. It was Hydrogen and Gravity that got the whole thing started. Then all that was needed in our Universe was time and here we are. Children of the Great Mystery, pleased to just be less wrong.