When I look at a modern day moderate Christian with their sleek modern blog pages it's always amusing to read the content of these blogs. It's essentially just quotes from a bronze age book written by illiterate desert dwellers in the Middle East. These barbarians knew nothing about this world compared to what we know now. The mental acrobatics a modern day Biblical fundamentalist takes to make these ancient texts relevant should be an Olympic sport. Scientific discovery and Biblical texts are in direct opposition on almost every page.
Jason Tanenbaum puts it better in his article "A Science Teacher Draws the Line at Creation" in Scientific American magazine. He wrote this after visiting the ever popular Creation Museum in Kentucky,
What disturbed me most about my time spent at the museum was the theme, repeated from one exhibit to the next, that the differences between biblical literalists and mainstream scientists are minor. They are not minor; they are poles apart. This is not to say that science and religion are incompatible; many scientists believe in some kind of higher power, and many religious people accept the idea of evolution. Still, a literal interpretation of Genesis cannot be reconciled with modern science.
It's amusing to say the very least to see these young evangelists preaching something so out of touch with our modern times. I used to want to be one of these modern day evangelists, roaming the streets with the homeless talking about Jesus. Interesting thing is the homeless are already talking about Jesus. There are no shortage of crackpot religious apocalyptic prophets spewing "REPENT! end of the world" scenerios on various street corners in major cities across the U.S. Bill Maher pretends to be one, preaching the tenants of Scientology in his movie "Religulous". People just are attracted to the strange. And religious zealots are strange in their unfounded confidence.
When I was younger I believed that I could be that moderate modern day Christian that would bring Christianity to the masses. I would be a cigarette smoking, cussing, beer drinking, tattooed "street evangelist". Even though I knew literally nothing about "the streets" growing up white middle class in a small Midwest town. I wanted to relate so bad to these people that were homeless or druggies. You know, with the love of Jesus. I had never been homeless. I was very lucky to have a loving family that took great care of both of their sons. I had never done drugs when I had these ideas. I tasted alcohol once and that is when I was much younger. That was the extent of my drug use. Oh, I also took prescription drugs when I had a kidney stone. Damn, that was a painful time. I don't want to go into what I have or have not done specifically drug-wise since those days but I would like to point out that this career path fell apart relatively quickly. Within a few years of Bible school I dropped out. I hated the college I attended and it made me despise organized religion. This was the beginning of the end for me and my belief in the ancient Jewish desert god, Yahweh.
Not too much longer after I realized I was not a theist at all. However during this time I couldn't let go of the concept of "God" .. even in some Deepak Chopra sense. Everything was god. The universe was conscious. I basically took the Gaia concept of Earth and applied it to the entire Cosmos. You know, the whole thing is one big organism. We are the parasites (of course). As you may expect, during this time I was experimenting with hallucinogens. I don't want to reveal too much or which psychedelic drug, but I will say I saw the Connection. I mean I LITERALLY saw the Connection that connects us all. I witnessed myriad webs connecting everything around me in nature. These webs connected me to everything surrounding me outdoors. There were fractals everywhere, and nature seemed to have the mathematics, the geometry visibly dawn into each connecting leaf, tree, or blade of grass.
I remember this all specifically during one trip outside with my friend when the drug started to kick in full force. I could see the normal trails that follow when you move your fingers. Then I noticed tubes or large clear worms (sort of like what came out of the chest of Donnie Darko in that film) going around the lawn chairs between my legs and then my friend's legs. It was dusk, the magic hour, and it was beautiful outside surrounded by trees (which have faces). We sat up on his roof staring at the Tree faces and tree fingers hanging down from above. The moon peering between the leaves. Trees always seemed like old wise oracles on psychedelics. If you have ever done hallucinogens you will know what I mean when I say your brain goes into pattern overload. Your brain creates an excessive amount of patterns. Faces here. Faces there. I used to think you were actually tapping into another dimension. Now I can quite firmly say with confidence that it's all in your head. Knowing this doesn't make it any less profound of an experience.
Hallucinogen drugs have been used by Shamans for religious experiences throughout human history. It's nothing new, but it certainly helps one "see" the Connection. I would go so far to argue that unless one has done a hallucinogen of some sort one can not really say they have experienced the full spectrum of a "spiritual" experience. I began reading all kinds of books on ancient aliens, UFOs, abductions, remote viewing, telepathy, out of body experiences, astral projection, and all sorts of mystical concepts, conspiracy, and new age books by David Icke and Jim Maars. I traded in my belief in Biblical doctrines, Jesus, and Christianity for UFO documentaries, Zecharia Sitchen, and everything New Age. Sagan said in his book "The Demon Haunted World" that aliens are the modern day demons or angels. What's the difference ultimately? Now I know this, but back then I thought I had stumbled across such great secrets. NASA coverups, etc. When in reality, I had just never really learned how to think skeptically about things. Things I either wished were true or feared most. I had preconceived biases and followed illogical arguments with insufficient evidence. Just as I did with religion.
Shortly after these times I was forced to really examine my beliefs. I considered myself an agnostic (I just don't know, you know), but then I found the term pantheist and that's what I became. I understood through hallucinogens that what we thought of as "god" was actually everything as a whole. The entirety of the universe is "god". Nature is god. God wasn't a being, God wasn't anthropomorphic. it wasn't a personal god or some old man with a white beard. It certainly didn't have a son and it didn't give a shit about who we slept with or which types of meat we ate or if we drank alcohol, etc. Richard Dawkins called pantheism "sexed-up atheism". Some people see pantheism as the polar opposite of atheism. I'm not really sure I see it that way, even now.
Pantheism was introduced by philosopher Baruch Spinoza in his book "Ethics" written in 1675. Albert Einstein once wrote in a letter where he denounced a belief in a personal god , We followers of Spinoza see our God in the wonderful order and lawfulness of all that exists and in its soul as it reveals itself in man and animal. I remember reading this quote and thinking OK if it's good enough for Einstein it has to be good enough for me. Catholics called it heresy (imagine that) because it failed to show the importance of salvation and man's original sin. So if it was NOT OK with the Catholic church then it was certainly OK for me. Original sin and salvation was such a dead and ignorant idea to me that I had already given it up. In a letter written in 1866 by Abraham Lincoln's law partner, William Herndon wrote:
Mr. Lincoln’s religion is too well known to me to allow of even a shadow of a doubt; he is or was a Theist & a Rationalist, denying all extraordinary – supernatural inspiration or revelation. At one time in his life, to say the least, he was an elevated Pantheist, doubting the immortality of the soul as the Christian world understands that term. He believed that the soul lost its identity and was immortal as a force. Subsequent to this he rose to the belief of a God, and this is all the change he ever underwent.
Again I thought, if pantheism is good enough for Lincoln it's certainly good enough for me. These influential people throughout human history saw something to this "everything is god/god is everything" mantra. However, I was a pantheist for only a few weeks. It only took me realizing that atheism is the simplest way of explaining my view on "god". I don't have much of a problem with pantheists these days. I understand that concept of everything connected. Cosmology tells us we are all made from star dust. There's a connection to the stars. Stars formed from the gas clouds that formed shortly after the Big Bang. There is our connection to the Big Bang. Evolutionary biology tells us that we are one species branch in a gigantic tree of life. We are related to every living thing that has ever lived on this planet. There's our connection to other animal species. Genetics tells us we are even related to the food we eat, the water we drink, the rocks beneath our feet. We share DNA with fish and yeast and tiny bacteria. We are all related. All of us living. All of us that have ever lived.
I guess when it boils down to it if this is what pantheism is. Then call me a pantheist. We are connected to everything in this vast and awesome cosmos. And that connection is real. We have evidence for it. This concept of "God" is much more beautiful, poetic, and spiritual than any of the desert gods from old dead ancient texts. It's much more powerful than vicarious redemption or scapegoats or sacrificial lambs. It's much more glorious than sorcery, or a jealous god's grace, or forgiveness of sins. I'll end with a quote from the book The Universe Within: Discovering the Common History of Rocks, Planets, and People by Neil Shubin. This is such a powerful book. I highly suggest reading it :
Being a fossil hunter, I dig in the ground to uncover relics. But every astronomer is a paleontologist of sorts. As Carl Sagan famously said, the light of the stars we see was formed in the chemical reactions from a long time ago. The vastness of space means that starlight hitting our eyes is no artifact; it is the real deal- a visitor from a time before the birth of our species, even in some cases our planet itself. With such time travelers coming down to us each night, the trick to reconstructing our past comes from learning to see the light and radiation of stars in new ways.
For thousands of years, mankind considered itself the pinnacle of life's creation on a planet sitting in the center of the universe. Science changed that perception. Leavitt, Hubble, and others helped us see that we live near the margin of a vast galaxy, in a universe of galaxies, with our planet one of many worlds. Darwin and the biologists had their say too. Our entire species is but one little twig on an enormous tree of life filled with all life on Earth. But each discovery that moves us from the center of creation to some obscure corner brings an entirely new relation between us, other species, and the entire universe. All the galaxies in the cosmos, like every creature on the planet, and every atom, molecule, and body on Earth are deeply connected. That connection begins at a single point 13.7 billion years ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment