By Daniel Richmond Stringer, D.E.S.S.
In accepting that God is not the origin of life, as Governor General Mme. Sylvie Payette has implied, are we as a society prepared to concede the dubious conclusion that God is not the Creator of the Universe? In like manor, should we admit the inevitable corollary that, de facto, there is no God? I hope not. New though this discussion is not, insignificant to each of us it also is not. One close-to-home example of the consequences of this discussion is Human Rights. Ask anybody who has lived in an atheistic, communist country. Materialist governments do not have a good track record in protecting individual freedoms. I am not suggesting we cling to a belief in a Creator God so as to have a champion of our personal liberties. My point is “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”. This is not some distant debate between astrophysicists and theologians. We all have skin in this game. Extra sensory perception (ESP), near death experiences and other paranormal phenomena give testimony to life after death and are an important piece to the puzzle. Each of us have an eternal soul that is like a spirit body, comparable to our physical body, with five spiritual senses of which most of us are unaware. The ON switch eludes us. If significant proof can be presented of life after death then believing in the Big Bang theory is a far greater stretch than believing in God. Why does science ignore the growing volume of evidence? Religion, for its part has been a disappointment far to often but still has a lot to offer and in the spirit of the Pascalian wager should yet be given a respected place at the table and may still come up with the winning hand. Ultimately, humanity needs science and religion, the external view and the internal, working in harmony, for the sake of The Good Life we all seek.
It saddened me to hear that the Governor General had degraded God and publicly mocked believers who do not agree with her. I wanted to respond sooner but life got in the way and it took a while to collect my thoughts.
Defending God can be intimidating. After all, Aquinas could come up with only five ‘ways’ to find God. Nevertheless, I couldn’t turn my back on the closest friend in my life. I am unqualified but resolute about explaining God in my life. God is real. I know this much is true.
This world of death is hunting us but if our activities are centered on the primacy of the spiritual, God, and goodness they will last. This is a central pillar of my relationship with God and Spirit.
Rome contains a smattering of imperial and Christian ruins. The mother house of the Sisters of Charity of Calcutta was actually an abandoned church. Mass was in a lean-to building constructed along its outside length. The altar, in the middle, meant everybody was close.
I got there unaccustomedly early, having arrived the morning before from Paris where I was studying, and sat on one of the simple benches at the back. When a tiny nun sat at the other end, her down-cast face covered in habit, I took no notice, until she reached out, quite effortlessly, to help someone bring in another bench and I saw it was Mother Teresa. After the service we were introduced and chatted freely for about ten minutes. I felt she could have become a good friend.
She seemed a study in simplicity but that was just the surface. At one point she reached out and took my hand, reminding me of Jesus’ words, “Whatever you do for these the least of my brethren, you do for Me”, and said “Every night before you go to sleep, think of the good you did for people that day and pointing to each finger on your hand say, ‘I-did-it-for-You’”. She asked me to go to their mission downtown and feed the poor of Rome, which I did. Few 10-minute encounters have so affected me. Serving the vulnerable is the good God is calling us to. Compassion, not reason is what touches the heart.
To refresh, Mme. Payette said “We are still debating and whether life was a divine intervention or whether it was coming out of a natural process, still questioning let alone, oh my goodness, a random process”, in what Canadian Press reported as an “incredulous voice.”
Commentator, Rex Murphy, pinpointed precisely the school of thought Mme. Payette was articulating, “To make science with a capital ‘S’ the singular aperture by which we may know all of life and the world is itself a secular heresy, which we know as Scientism.”
As Murphy clarifies, it is not science that the Governor General really believes in. Nobody believes in science. Science is a method of empirical examination of the physical world in a systematic way. It was never intended to be a belief system. Both religion and science, however, do access human knowledge but from different perspectives, one external, the other internal. 17th Century Scientism, however, has a long history of changing pure science into a narrow minded, anti-religious philosophy.
Even though both are valuable, science and religion play very different roles in society. When Minneapolis was burning, the political leaders did not call on scientists to urge people to obey the curfew. They called on religious leaders. They know that people of faith are most often good citizens and politicians, police or administrators cannot maintain a democracy without the support of law-abiding people. Believers make good citizens but science does not nurture a set of moral values.
Do scientists advise people to be humble and kind? It’s religion, not science, that is essentially concerned with the inner person. Developing gratitude, dealing positively with life’s challenges or volunteering to serve the community are inner qualities that constitute character.
Scientism, declares that science and technology alone can, and will, solve all the major problems of humanity and that science is the only source of true knowledge, with a clear contempt for all other forms of knowledge, particularly spiritual guidance.
Merriam-Webster concludes: “…an exaggerated trust in the efficacy of the methods of natural science applied to all areas of investigation (as in philosophy, the social sciences, and the humanities).”
Historically Scientism’s proponents have a track record of intellectual bullying and intolerance.
There is ample evidence of the existence of spirit and life after death that science chooses to ignore and Scientism ignorantly denigrates.
Psychic researchers say they ’see’ things, ‘hear’ stuff, sometimes ever feel and smell things that are not present to their physical senses. This is because their five spiritual senses function. To them, they are just doing research into the phenomena they and others have experienced. They are recording these phenomena and attempting to reconfirm them. They are simply Spiritual Scientists. Yet they continue to be treated as radio-active.
This history of opening to the spirit has left a library of testimony with recorded phenomena such as para-normal experiences, meditation-induced brain waves, angelic communication, E.S.P., near-death experiences, prophetic dreams, intuition and premonition, and Supra-Rational thinking have all received a bit of academic attention but relatively little, for which Universities are not well organized and governments are loth the finance.
Scientism fails to deal with the more internal issue such as ethics, which in fact is a central problem of the human race. Science itself is amoral. It’s a way of doing things; could be good things, could be bad. Take atomic energy; heat our city or blow it up! Science only acquires moral attributes when put into the hands of moral agents ie; human beings. In other words, science is neither the problem nor the solution but scientists might be both. How tragic it is that, almost a third of a millennium after the bright promise of Scientism arose, we are struggling to save the very existence of our planet from scientifically driven industrial pollution, not to mention the loss or near extinction of entire species of some plants and animals.
Although Science is often beneficial, it is far from benevolent. There will soon be more plastic in the ocean than fish and we struggle to safely dispose of nuclear waist that will be a deadly hazard for many centuries to come. The Chalk River, high-risk, low-cost experiment on the Ottawa River is a sad/bad/mad example of how not to do it. By the waters of Babylon!
Do you think that science is responsible for most of the toxins that are bad for our health? I do. Government hires an enormous number of bureaucrats to protect us from science. Sure, science provides enormous benefits. Particularly health sciences are appreciated. Still, there are limits to the usefulness. How really wants to live in a sciencocracy. When it comes to issues of faith and ethics, science is over its head.
Native Spirituality has long held the solution and is the real answer to our problem of amoral science. Indigenous people have a very different view of the physical world, one that is deeply imbued with spirituality, presenting perhaps, the only real hope for our survival. As I understand it, being od settler stock, Indigenous people see the unity of the creator and the created. Architect Douglas Cardinal’s sweat lodge testimonial is shocking for its profound insight into how humans should be humble in sharing this planet with other creatures.
Yes, you have five physical senses but you also have a brain that filters, interprets and makes choices about what the senses send it. For instance, an indigenous person can walk in nature and, through their five physical senses, as well as the power of their brain and intuition choose to see, hear and experience God everywhere.
I would certainly agree that the natural world is the starting point for understanding the human situation. However, I would take the Indigenous Spirituality view that the road of nature leads to the bosom of God. Indigenous spirituality wants to save us from the disaster of polluting Mother Earth and climate change that industrialized science has caused. Mother Earth abhors exploitation and sees all creatures, living and inanimate, spiritually united with our ancestors in the spirit world. This spiritual unity is what brings us all to humbly respect and protect Mother Earth. Yes, current science also wants to save us from climate change but that’s new science trying to save us from old science. Sadly, aimless, directionless, hit or miss science is without a goal or even a good plan.
Do I believe in God? Not really. I try to live with God and it’s a joy. The God I have come to know is the most caring being, who lifts me up, constantly asks me to trust and has far more faith in me than vice-versa. My life has been transformed and I have come to see things anew. I believe in public service, that giving precedes receiving, never strike first but, if needs be, strike back; better, however, is to first take the hit, then take the blessing, forgive your enemies and yourself, life for the sake of others, give and forget you have given and give again, family is the school of love, and God is the most potent vector force of History.
One day I had a total, shocking encounter with God, Who had perused me for so long but finally everything aligned and the electricity flowed.
It was 10 p.m. in late December, 1976 and Amiens, France had shut down for the day, kind of like the Ottawa I grew up in. I left the London/Paris train here so I could see Vimy Ridge the next day. I found a large, outside map, that many French cities have, and saw there was a cathedral in town, so I made my way to Notre Dame d’Amiens, not realizing it was one of their four great mediaeval cathedrals. It would have been dark but for the full, low-hanging moon glowing the night. Approaching the building from behind, I made my way along the side that opened onto a spacious square. The moon was a spot-light, full blast against the front of the stone embroidered façade of the ancient cathedral. There was nobody there; not a sound in the air. As I turned to my right to look up at the church, I was hit strongly by the impression that all the figures carved there made on me. I looked transfixed at them. “The majesty & magnificence of God”, I wrote later in my diary, “depicted by the face of that incredible cathedral shook me.” I was dumbfounded and I knew what it was. It had been with me all my life but pious as I tried to be, I had always resisted it.
But now I seemed captivated by it as if I were a drunken man who accidently stumbled into the court of God. I fell back, stumbling backwards even as I crossed in front, with all the people surrounding God on the throne of heaven. Perhaps they glimpsed a steppenwolf in me. All those people who had dedicated their lives to the God, to whom I had given lip service in my spare time. Silently they were saying “So, Daniel, what are you doing with your life.” I fell back more, stunned and week, I knew the answer. All those years in minor seminary and all the rest. The search; but I had my plans, my personal, little game plan. The saints and angels, just them and me. They were asking for an accounting, a reckoning but it wasn’t frightening or condemning.
It was thrilling in a stunning way. I finally saw it, for the first time it was real. I was called. This was real in a super-charged way. I felt one with these people. Not distant and the presence of God and Jesus surging throughout.
I was clearer than ever. I looked down at the granite steps on the far side of the square, where I now was, and thought how happy I would be if my life amounted, by comparison to these greats of God, if it were like the little piece of granite at the end of one of the steps.
I had heard no voice, saw no lights but the moon’s, no moving spirits but in my way, I had met God and I was so happy. I sang Oh Happy Man to the tune of Oh Happy Day. I walked away transformed.
At Notre Dame in Wilcox we were called Hounds, after Thompson’s poem. The relentless pursuit. Years after this I would visit my alma mater and found myself in the Tower of God, this amazing structure on the edge of a tiny Saskatchewan town, a monument to God and a crystalation of the faith of Pere Murray. I had spent some time there during my BA years but now my eye caught a small photograph propped beneath the Christian wall. A small black frame, dirty glass and a frayed black and white photo of a church I had seen there often but this time it grabbed me. It was a photo of Notre Dame d’Amiens, the only picture of a place of worship in the tower. I wonder if Pere was there at Amiens. Below is my diary entry of the first return to my place of calling, six years later with Blandine, my bride to be. Her family estate was nearby.
Oct. 20, 1982 – Amiens, up–state France
Back again after six destined years past the day I walked across the granite square, in the valley of the commanding Amiens cathedral. The shadow, or shall I say light, of that edifice will colour all my years.
Blandine and I have driven from Paris, where we are staying in her parents’ apartment until the Oct. 30th wedding, to her sister’s place at Amiens. This is the country that their family comes from – perhaps descendants of one of the stone masons or artisans.
This is a pilgrimage of sorts for me because I saw who I was before God, not much; (good that is) and what I must become. Now I return with my bride of Amiens to thank God for taking my life with such a clear and strong response. I can’t say that at Amiens God called me but rather God conspired to knock me over (off my high horse if you will). And I walked away from the experience and the building humbler, happier and free.
There never really was a time that I bought into the theories of Big Bang and Evolution. Even in High School I used to think if the magnetic power of the Moon can influence the tides, who knows what other unseen forces can be drawing evolution, over time, toward an Original Vision of the human race and our environment.
As well as genetic mutation, it is conceivable that the theory of Evolution can also include guidance by some, so far, undetected energy within the universe, such as a magnetic-like, electricity-like, microwave-radiation-like force. Nonetheless, when it comes to Big Bang, as July Andrews informs us, “Nothing comes from nothing. Nothing ever will.”
It is a fantasy to believe everything, the entire universe, came out of nothing, nowhere and beyond time. The irony is empiricists insisting we believe all this unseen stuff that contradicts what we daily perceive with our five physical senses.
What is clear to me is that inanimate matter is not constantly moving to higher levels of organization but rather to lower ones. Take, for example, Christmas day; the toys have often reached a lower level of functionality by day’s end than from their morning high. In fact, the second law of thermodynamics says much the same thing; the natural tendency of inanimate matter is to degenerate, which is why a new car loses so much value just by driving it off the lot. Then there’s Archeology! The dust takes over and buries whole civilizations.
If non-living mater naturally seeks lower forms of organization how can we account for the elaborate development of our Universe without including some unseen force moving through mater to lift it up. I respect the French philosopher Bergson who suggested this ‘degradation’ of inanimate matter is overcome by an inner, spiritual impulse that he called the elan vital, the vital urge, moving through physical matter, uplifting and energizing its development.
The all-from-one-event origin story of the Universe, known as the Big Bang proposition, is one of several “Once beyond a time” bed-time stories scientists tell themselves about how the Universe just popped out of nowhere. The Big Bang heroic tale postulates that the evidence points to some mythical explosion in our universe, more than 13 billion years ago, that originated from a single point, before time and space existed. At some pre-time, time, shot out from a pre-place, place of infinite gravity and density our Universe, as if from something invisible comparable to a child’s spring-loaded pop gun, prior to which, time and space didn’t exist. All of which means Big Bang happened at ‘no place, no time’.
The only way to give credibility to this creative proposition is to inject God into the narrative as the initiator of the ‘before time and space’ event requiring infinite gravity and density. Otherwise, this is just Marvel comic.
You can believe in this, if you don’t like saying your bed time prayers, or you can believe in God as its author. In fact, it takes far more faith to assign the immergence of this sophisticated universe to the random chance of the Big Bang improbability than to believe in the guiding influence of a loving intelligence whose presence is evident to us, were we willing
On planet earth, the emergence of life, the biosphere, introduced the process of genetic mutation-driven evolution. This process, microevolution, is clearly an evident process but could very easily be guided by a spiritual force, patiently bringing forth, through time, an Original Vision which was the purpose of the exercise all along.
Certainly, within the zygote stage of reproduction and genetic mutation there are ample portals for the injection of spiritual direction to evolution, leading to the eventual immergence of humans.
Macroevolution, the entirely undirected process in which random mutations and natural selection generate every single change that has occurred over time is probably what the Governor General was referencing.
Small-scale microevolution is clearly a real process but going from that to the larger level is a leap of faith more strenuous than the God belief. I find macroevolution worth a more skeptical eye. I do not think that every appearance of design that we see in nature was the product of a totally directionless mechanism.
Evolution is an idea in search of its proof, like a traveler searching for his or her passport. They know it’s there somewhere. Well, maybe it is and maybe it isn’t. The conviction of the searcher doesn’t make it so.
You get the answers to the questions you ask. If the question isn’t right the answer can’t be either. For the case in question, it’s the process that determines the answer. Science has had a good run but perhaps the question of the origin of life has brought it to the limits of the its utility. Perhaps it needs to move into ward-speed and only by admitting spiritual evidence can it be empowered to do that. Perhaps it’s time for astrophysics to make room for a new leader in spirituophysics to find the way forward.
Scientism holds that science and technology were supposed to make us more prosperous and financially better off, among other things. From a materialistic perspective the middle class now lives better than royalty used to. Still, oriental folk wisdom cautions riding the back of tigers, lest we get swallowed. Science is captive to industry and government’s big money! It’s become big business since the days individuals sought discovery through microscopes, bunsen burners and test tubes. Science happens within corporations, governments and universities. Sadly, individual responsibility is more elusive than ever.
The Big Buck Theory: A money driven culture of grants, data manipulation, unseemly pressure to publishing in high impact journals and now the replication crises of non-reproducible experiment results, calling into question the validity of one of science’s central pillars.
Technology, for its part, is wildly expensive, leading to enormous economic, global disparities. Science and technology tend to benefit those who can afford it, which defies the original promise of Scientism. But if the rich countries would only transfer their technology to the poorer, they would soon have more customers and tourists. Raising everyone’s standard of living favours everyone.
The Governor General may be unaware she uses the language of Scientism but, given her scientific background, one might think she should be. For myself, although I am critical of science practiced in a moral vacuum, I am shocked at the misplaced superiority attitude of Scientism.
Scientism is a materialistic view of life. It not only calls into question the existence of God but challenges who we are as individuals, how we live our lives and relate to each other. Our laws that enshrine human rights, for instance, have been profoundly influenced by religion, warts and all.
We know the abuses of materialist governments. Communism has left a gruesome trail of human rights abuses, from government inflicted famines to organ-harvesting of executed religious dissidents.
A society’s understanding of the source of human value is the essence of Human Rights. If we accept the parent/child relationship of God and humans then the Human Rights that follow in such a society are strong and resilient. However, a materialist view severs that connection, which is why Human Rights in such societies are a sham façade of their non-existence.
Moral ambiguity notwithstanding, human rights come from understanding our humanity – that is to say, the essence of being human. We are the unique being that spans both the physical and the spiritual worlds. We are solely positioned to be stewards of the cosmos. This is humanities sacred position from which flows our claim to Human Rights.
Further, it has spawned dangerous offspring. The most egregious spin-off of Scientism is the racist, worldview of Eugenics, a morally vacuous scheme to control the evolution of mankind especially through forced sterilization. Eugenics aims to reduce human suffering by “breeding out” disease, disabilities and so-called undesirable characteristics from the human population. Hitler was its most infamous fan. Eugenics has left a strong imprint on our society. In Canada and the US forced sterilization was common in the institutions run by many state and provincial governments. By the 1920’s 20,000 sterilizations occurred in California state mental institutions. Many sterilizations were forced and performed on minorities. Thirty-two states followed, sterilizing whomever lawmakers deemed unworthy until 1942.The mentality behind Eugenics remains the scourge of Blacks, Jews, Muslims and Indigenous peoples today.
None of this is to suggest that modern Scientismists, like Mme. Payette, are Eugenicists. Nonetheless, some qualities of Scientism should cause people pause before espousing it. Many present day Scientismists are either dismissive or contemptuous of moral and ethical arguments.
Scientism’s idyllic view of science and scientists is a mirage. What about the scientists that deny climate change? Are they bought-off immoral scientists or just stupid scientists? In the end, does it really matter? How do you square them with the ideal of scientism?
There are people who have found medical-science experts who say wearing masks during the Covid pandemic is bad for your health. Others quote scientists who say climate change is a hoax. Scientists are becoming increasingly like lawyers. If you look around you can find one who will do anything you want.
Sometimes science seems to be like a space ship without a pilot, roaring into the future, speeding humanity, invention after invention, ever faster forward, nobody knowing where it’s going, with no guidance system whatsoever, not a plan, a route nor a destination – totally bereft of vision, the very thing to which the Governor General objects. And because of that, amoral science can become a very nasty thing.
Denigrating believers is a slippery slope. Amoral science needs a moral environment in order to produce good. Believers play a key role in creating the ethical social environment in which positive science can flourish.
Religion, despite its bad actors, is constantly turning human attention to its central issue, as Athol Murray drilled into us at his college of Notre Dame, there in the midst of the meteorite-flattened Regina plains, – The Primacy of the Spiritual.
In the late 1960’s I spent three significant years at Athol Murray’s Notre Dame of Canada obtaining my B.A., from the University of Ottawa. (it’s complicated) I used to call it the one-building university on the Prairies, in Lane Hall, where, under the guise of studying Poli. Sci. and Philosophy, we were given a course in Life Values. Fr. Murray had ascended to the spiritual world by the time I had my encounter with God at Amiens.
Science does not encourage people to give their hard-earned money to the poor, with no expectation of benefit, to go out of their way to help a stranger in distress or to risk their health caring for the sick. Religion does. Think of how miserable life would be without the prompts of religion to offer simple kindness and sacrifices for others. This is in harmony with the constant uplifting spirit of God, throughout time, across the cosmos.
It breaks God’s heart to look at the state of this world. God is determined, nonetheless, to fulfill the Original Vision of a perfect world of peace and joy. The love of God is a unifying energy. Often Science is far too fractured in its hyper-specialization and puts little value on seeing the unity of reality, let alone its internal spiritual character.
Society would clearly benefit if science and religion were to harmonize. Let’s look at the current pandemic for instance. Why do so many people, many of whom are believers, not wear masks? Do they see proponents of Scientism as anti-religious and themselves as modern martyrs? In some regions of North America, I think they do. Perhaps they think science is trying to take their faith away. Remember the Scopes monkey trial. Misguidedly, some see themselves left to choose between God or science and the martyrs choose God. Is this helpful in eliminating the virus? No. Within the context of collective public health, this is an incredible tragedy for all of society. Trust is a two-way street.
The real challenge for us is to discover our internal spiritual side and thus connect to the infinite, vast domain of the everlasting. For this Star Trek fan, God is the final frontier!
The journey to get in touch with my own spirituality is not easy to express. The words seem awkward. It’s personal. You don’t see God with your eyes. You see God with your heart. In connecting to my spiritual side,
I experienced a higher perspective that gave me:
A serenity that shines a light on self-knowledge;
A joy that is not complacent;
A humility that contains self-worth;
A gratitude that alters perception;
A self-healing based on forgiveness;
A calm that loves the present;
A vision of an emerging tomorrow;
An appreciation of the innocence of nature;
A realization of the need to purify;
And an opportunity to see the sacredness of the moment and noble spirits at work uplifting everything.
Values change and life takes a new direction.
The cynic learns to sing.
Not all truths are provable by argumentation, dialectics and legal debate. The Scientism mind ignores the internal logic of the spiritual. “What is it that, as soon as you define it, it no longer exists?”, Verne Meredith used to say in our shack in Wilcox.
My buddy Richard keeps telling me that, despite what we see around us, everything in the universe is energy, which is why he wrote The Energy Connection. Black Energy is the name Einstein gave to the energy whose source he could neither explain nor understand. God’s loving energy is ubiquitous, it’s everywhere, and pre-dates everything. Pervasive Primordial Energy is eternal and even better than the much-dreamed-of perpetual motion machine, because the energy of love increases with use producing more energy than it consumes, making it eternal. God’s Pervasive Primordial Energy is everywhere, eternal and is the loving energy that is the ground, the matrix, from which the universe arose.
Joy is the goal of life and deep joy is what I have found in my relationship with Heavenly Parent, Father-Mother God, for me, symbolized by a contact lens, at once concave and convex. I pray to Heavenly Parent, because I feel the Creator intended for me to be in a parent-child relationship with God, searching for Whom is the most valuable treasure hunt ever.
God is the first Scientist who established all the rules that govern the physical universe. Can we see God in the Creator’s handy-work? Well, what I perceive throughout the natural world is two twinnings:
Whenever I look at nature, I see most beings express dual polarizations, having either female and male critters or, like flowers, stamen and pistil parts. Even down to the micro level, the atom has positive and negative charges. I see that pattern and another one that you might call Dual-levels
The Dual-levels of congruently expressive modalities of external physical shape and internal invisible character.
On that second part from the electron that revolves around the atomic nucleus in the Bohr model, to the flower, whose growth is stimulated by music, the salmon swimming up stream to spawn at their birthplace, to human conscience, I see these inner characteristics. Call it what you will. It doesn’t matter the name. It is an energy of love, caring, respect and compassion that is in us and the universe drawing us all together, the cosmic energy whose shape I see as an elongated Torus energy field containing all of the elements of the universe.
I awoke one morning with an image in my mind and the understanding that it was the Image of God. It is probably also the shape of the cosmos, that is to say the external form of God. God’s internal character is Heart.
When I described it to a friend a few days later he said the shape was known as a Torus energy field. What I remember from my torus was the energy moving upwards in the middle and downwards on the outside; clockwise in one direction and counter clockwise in the other, reversing at both ends. Unlike this picture, it was white light and not a ‘chub’. It was vertically elongated and thinner than this, such that both outer and inner energy walls were straight up and down. What to say! It’s eternal, internal and external and the changing rotation at the terminals might be thought of in terms of polar opposites, plus/minus or ying/yang.
Is the powerful rhythm, as the undulating and alternating centripetal and centrifugal energy ebbs and surges through its cycles, audible? The music of the spheres.
Further, I also take the Torus to be an image of the Cosmos. I appreciate that being neither a mystic nor an astrophysicist these statements must seem a little strange. I just simply offer them, pass them along, if you will, in the hope they may make some positive contribution in the public forum to reduce the gap between understanding and reality. I understand the Cosmos to be is the external form of God: God’s heart of love being the internal character.
What is the heart of God? Heavenly Parent, Father–Mother God, is our spiritual parent searching for our return. God does not want us to be orphans. God has been the most omni-present being in human history, across the globe; present from the time of our first ancestors as recorded in Genesis, with us all the way through, in every culture and civilization, reaching out to us in different ways, trying to minimize our suffering and bring us joy. To ‘those who have eyes to see and ears to hear’, God is personal, constant, hopeful, eternal, helpful, absolute, loving, unique, kind and persistent. The Hound of Heaven.
God’s Original Vision of a world of peace and joy has yet to be realized. The first man and woman, whose spiritual senses of their spiritual bodies or souls were functioning, had inappropriate relations with their spiritual guardian, the archangel, Lucifer. More precisely, Lucifer loured Eve into an intimate love affair which was a profound violation of God’s instructions to the first human couple and God’s Original Vision for a community of Joy.
Like Batman, God has an Arch-Enemy, who historically has been called by many names. The Anishinaabe people refer to the Trickster, the spirit who fools you – deceives you – sowing confusion, doubt and untruth. The Trickster is very much a part of the spiritual world, which is embroiled in a spiritual tug of war for the hearts and minds of humans – God’s children. Most people I know concede that they cannot always live up to their ideals no matter how important those ideals may be. Virtue is difficult, which says volumes about the human condition. But sin is easy as hell. The Fall means human beings got lost morally, trading their prestigious and pristine community with the perfect God, descending into a hedonist, self-centered life of conflict in Satan’s orbit, sullying the shining nature God gave us.
As for the current age, if people stop cooperating with evil, we set the stage for God’s Original Vision of a world of joy and beauty to develop on earth, similar to what Martin Luther King called The Beloved Community. Our mind isn’t wired for a world of peace and happiness, without war, poverty, bigotry and racism, but we can adapt.
Why do we need God? What is the benefit of this relationship to us? For me it is to put deeper purpose and meaning in our life, to find a serene sense of joy, a deeper realization of the value of our life, to discover the basic spiritual laws of the cosmos so that we can live a richer, internally more rewarding and happier life; to understand life after death and how to live now because of that understanding, to feel part of all goodness and to know the honour of even a remote comradery with those who went before us dedicating their lives to spiritual goodness; any one of these would be sufficient. And after you discover God, to humbly serve to help reclaim the Original Vision of creation from the degeneracy, pain and entrapment into which it has fallen, is an honour.
This last part is perhaps more than some people want to hear. I do not wish or intend to fall into the religious fanaticism that we see on all sides. That too is part of the problem. However, there is an urgent crisis and God is looking for people now to cease and desist in relating to evil, in living selfishly, in betraying the sanctity of marriage. Evil is empowered when we interact with it. Evil is nothing without humans. God is calling us to cut from evil and make a stronger commitment to doing good. The truth is that God needs our help. Heavenly Parent can’t do it alone. Satan won’t permit that. But united with God we can make this world a better place. We can break down the barriers that separate us all, even the barriers between science and religion.
What, then, is the benefit of living with God? Personally, it’s like putting on a special pair of glasses that let me see the world through the eyes of the sacred rather than the prophane, that help me see deeper and more clearly into the essence of things and appreciate them, to see what is truly important, and glimpse into the sanctity of our world.
I think God is pointing to what is important here on earth, in our lives. Family is important. A true, selfless and faithful love between husband and wife is the best gift they can give their children. I feel the fidelity of the married couple is the key-stone rock that solidifies the arch of the family.
Of course, it is not all a peak experience. Mistakes happen along the way. There are low, dark moments but they can hold an amazing calm in the realization that we are never alone or unloved.
Forgiveness is the key to being free. Forgive yourself. Forgive others. Ones you know, ones you don’t. Forgive those who appear advantaged but suffer in ways you can’t see. Forgive those who may never know you forgave them.
Why, because, we are all tied together, all one, in a vibrant flow of life, in the same rhythm and energy, as in a warm river carrying us all to a better place. We are all united, even those who don’t know it and cut us off on the highway. Forgive and get free of the burden. But first, forgive yourself. It’s liberating. You get unstuck and move forward.
In thinking about the Governor General, I have asked myself how could someone devoted to science find God. Scientists might find their answers more quickly by asking God directly. After all, as the Creator of the Cosmos, God is the First Scientist. The shamans of old took their issues, usually related to health, to God. I suspect that is the origin of naturopathic remedies. No, I am not suggesting a I of astrophysicist trying to channel Einstein, however, developing intuition might help in knowing in what direction to go with one’s research.
In looking for God or just getting in touch with your spiritual side, you might want to start with spiritual reading which I have found helpful, as is meditation. Intuition is important to cultivate, but nothing beats prayer from your heart, just talking to God, as well as connecting to a good spiritual community. Search. Indigenous wisdom points to the creation and their sweat lodges have a good reputation.
In that quiet time between wake and sleep some of my most profound inspirations come to me. Savants say it is easier to meet God in your difficulties than in your comfort zone. Nonetheless, a retreat with a reputable group or ashram might help you along your spiritual journey. Walking the Camino should bring you out of your comfort zone or you might prefer to find a meditative labyrinth to still the mind. The dark night of the soul has woken some up but is seldom planned. Fasting definitely requires a knowledgeable advisor. Trying to dominate the desires of the body should never risk its health. Purify yourself in preparation. Just what that means is up to you.
Intellect is valuable but heart is more precious. It is easy to be dazzled by sparkling intelligence but Spiritual Intelligence is a truer guide. The problem of humans defining themselves by their superior mental intelligence is that they might not have such a long shelf life. Humans are fast losing our monopoly on intelligence. Actually, it’s a rather external criteria any way. A deeper analysis would say Heart is the truer measure of the person. Search for God with your heart. A spiritual advisor is always wise. I have mine in Hak Ja Han Moon.
You can have a relationship with God because of good deeds! God consoles the sorrowful. God will come to you because you have a heart to care for others, in that you create a common foundation upon which God can relate to you.
CAUTION: don’t go overboard, don’t become a fanatic. All good things in moderation. Gibran said, “God moves in Passion and rests in Reason”. Charlatans abound. The only gift of the spirit to cultivate is Intuition.
So much for Kumbaya! There is another side to God’s Divine Spirit I reluctantly feel pressed to mention. God is a patient, loving parent who is not prepared to stand idly by and watch the children destroy themselves. More and more, the wrath of God is a topic that preachers say less and less about, in this feel-good culture. Yet, God’s tough love is serious business. After trying and trying again with the carrot, eventually God has no option but the stick. My God may chastise us from time to time to keep us from doing further damage to ourselves but my God, the perfect creator, will never leave anyone behind.
The real challenge of our time is for each of us to discover God in our own lives. God is the new frontier. Scientists who believe in God are speaking out more and more, in the long-standing tradition of Blaise Pascal.
“I believe that my discoveries will make life easier and more bearable to people, and direct them to spirituality and morality.”, said inventor, futurist, electrical and mechanical engineer, Nikola Tesla, one of the most influential scientists of the modern era. Check out the website Science and Non-duality which opens a modern discussion on science and spirit. Here are just a few of the multitude of scientists who came to a convergence with spirituality: Physicists, Erwin Schrodinger, Amit Goswami, David Bohm, Fritjof Capra, David Peat and Ravi Ravindra; Biologist, Barbara McClintock; and Physiologist, Neil Theise.
The single most important experience in life is to feel the love of the living God. It’s all about love. I have an inner feeling of love and that feeling is real, it helps to define me. I love therefore I am. Why have we permitted the secular world to deny the profundity of the spiritual experience and blind us to the many expressions of spirit around us, from intuition to Transcendental Meditation to the religious experiences of mystics.
You may have never experienced your inner mystical reality but, once you have, it is memorable, often exhilarating and a heartwarming experience that excites every part of your being. All God is looking for is a grateful heart. Yet always doubt, like fog, creeps in.
Does not the scientific method have a role for inspiration? Why do scientists choose to experiment in one direction or the other? From Duke University’s pioneering exploration of para-psychology, to the discovery of the Eve gene, to the scientists who believe that the universe has consciousness, science is moving closer in harmony with spirit. Are there portals for spirit to influence Science & Nature? Not a Trivial question!
For three centuries now Governor General Payette’s philosophy has not driven religion off the face of the earth. Religion and science have both made gains, despite their failings. Why not sue for peace!
Religion has the same problem as science; people. Weather it be the scientific fraud of Piltdown Man or the religious persecution of Galileo, willfulness abounds. Science needs religion and religion needs science. As noted, many scientists are themselves deeply religious and teleological. Religion, for its part, needs to update and accept the contribution of science and its value. Thank goodness for Pope Francis’ refreshing statement on Evolution. Indeed, two pioneers in evolutionary theory were Catholic priests. Who has the best view of truth, science or religion? A clearer perspective is definitely afforded with two eyes than one. Nobody likes a cyclops.
Pluralism, respect for the other’s views, is an important virtue. In the public square, we Canadians have rightly come to see truth through the perspective of vivre ensemble.
Absolutely God is a real being of great Heart, a loving force persevering through history and calling each one of us to enter a positive, joyful era. Tragically, we worship sports heroes and movie stars but most can’t find one hour a week to worship God. Mostly, I just know God and have been touched so deeply by the presence of God in my life that it is unnatural for me not to defend my friend under attack.
Finally, I hope that the Governor General would use her position to bring Canadians together on the basis of the good values that unite us and can never be taken for granted, especially in a world where the spirit of Eugenics is once again raising its ugly head.
It is heartening that some astrophysicists believe in a conscious Universe. In fact, I am always amused when Science updates its view on the age of the universe or medical science tells us that, what was dangerous for us yesterday, is not today or that the fish oil fad for heart health is all based on faulty research. Just as Einstein updated Newton, we know that science is constantly reviewing its theories.
However, little old me is responsible for my own eternal salvation. We are all independent moral agents and we are all accountable. Personally, I can’t afford to wait for science to catch up to what spirit has been saying since time immemorial.
Without a doubt, believers are challenged by reality. In many ways, faith is an instrument for believers to change reality. It could be reasonably argued that faith is the greatest, most effective, change agent that humans employ, seen over time. Some are even convinced that absolute faith creates absolute reality. This is probably a common belief of founders of religions. Toynbee noted that we are moving to a consolidation of religious cultural spheres and predicted the emergence of a single, super religious cultural sphere in the future. God’s unifying love is absolute. Nobody has more absolute faith than Creator.
As for the Rt. Hon. Mme. Payette, I do not mean to be critical if all she's got is a Radio, but hat's no reason for her to deny the existence of my Television?
Photo: James Coleman, Unsplash
