Most arguments in this forum focus on “What evidence is there that God exists?” However, I want to give that question a rest and look at religion from a different perspective. I believe that the need for a rational religion is urgent, our future depends on it, and that atheists and theists will one day need to co-operate to hammer out a rational and religious worldview....
This is why:
The Existential Problem
We all have a problem as humans: we are finite beings, in perishable bodies, viewing the world from a single very limited point of view. We also seem to be disconnected from that world. According to Descarte we seem subjectively to be a res cogitans “in here”, with the objective world of res extensa existing “out there”.
This Cartesian schism has had huge effects on our attitude towards our world. We have ruthlessly exploited the earths resources : animal, vegetable and mineral, in the name of individual profit. Our waste we dump onto land, in the air, in rivers and in the sea. Global warming is just one effect. We need a new ethic that re-connects us to our world, and reinforces our oneness with Nature.
Religion is Reconnection
That is the function of religion. Literally re-ligion (Etymology: Latin; ligo, ligere) means to re-bind or re-connect. Despite the many stupidities of traditional religion, it is this need to reconnect; with other people, with Nature and with the Universe at large – to feel connected and part of the greater Whole, that is the urgent reason we need a rational religion. We need it to save the planet, if for no other reason.
One of the commonest ‘spiritual’ experiences, which many ordinary people have had is exactly that sense of being at “One” with the universe or “Cosmic consciousness”. It happens to all kinds of people in all cultures. This is not delusion: Science shows we ARE part of the universe around us, so that sense of unity and connection is entirely realistic. It is our normal state of feeling set apart from everything around us that is the delusion.
Primitive Religion
Belief in God or gods is a primitive attempt to engage in just such a relationship with Nature or with those things in the world around us. Many cultures worship the earth as a mother goddess, the people belong to the land, which feeds them. Therefore they treat the environment with great respect. James Lovelock’s “Gaia” is an attempt to do the same for us. These primitive beliefs probably have had great survival value.
I believe that “God” is the Occidental cultural personification of that same Whole, that is everything, to which we try to reconnect. The concept has been twisted out of shape into some individualistic royalty figure who (like us) stands set apart from everything, and who occasionally intervenes to punish sinners when the whim takes Him, before sending any opposition to Hell for ever, after they are dead. This is a travesty, and Dawkins, Dennett and others are quite right to demolish this image!
The Individual "I am" and the Whole of Being
So, if we reject that individualistic “God” what is the holistic alternative?
God says in the book of Exodus “I am that I am”. Whatever the “I am” within us is: this consciousness would seem to be some process arising from a brain. Now, a similar process of consciousness would seem to be going on in all complex brains. Creatures and persons with consciousness are everywhere, who (we can assume) also experience the world from a specific embodied point of view, just like us.
My conjecture is therefore that “I am” not just this body or this identity. These are only aspects of my specific biology and circumstance at this time and place. I could be transplanted to another body or given another identity or set of memories and yet still be an “I am”. My present experience is a localised manifestation of a universal process called “consciousness”, which sees the world from this specific point of view. “I” am also the name you give to the process of consciousness going on in your body, living your life, seeing the world from your point of view.
If I am right, then I am not just this one life, I am ALL conscious life.
Eternal Life
The Upanishads say the goal of spiritual life is: “To see all beings in yourself and yourself in all beings” When the Bible speaks of “Eternal Life”, I believe it is saying we are all consciousness in this way. We cannot die to experience oblivion, for that is an oxymoron. We are embodied consciousness, and so we do not cease to exist until the last consciousness is extinguished.
There are consequences flowing from this. How I treat you, or the cat next door, or even the animals I eat, is therefore how I treat myself, seen in a mirror. Viewed objectively, there is no difference to distinguish the “I” in me from the “I” in you. So, just as I give money in the present, for the future “I” that will be me when I’m old, so the money I may give to someone in Africa, is given to the “I” that is living in Africa, and who experiences being an embodied “I” from there just as much as the “I” that is here.
Conclusion - Heaven or Hell?
“God” then need not be some monstrous dictator, but the unity of all consciousness in the universe (and other universes). "I am that I am" - that is also you, me and everywhere. Seeing ourselves as isolated individuals is our common delusion, and the way to Hobbes vision of “Every man at war with every other”. Seeing ourselves as integral parts of a greater whole is salvation – the vision that we might co-operate. That is why we need religion to survive.
As we get more technologically powerful, the world we create for ourselves, depends on how we see ourselves and our mutual relationship with each other and with Nature. That is the urgent reason why we need to reconnect – and co-operate to redefine a rational religion that embraces everyone and everthing in diverse unity. That is the job of religion.
This is why:
The Existential Problem
We all have a problem as humans: we are finite beings, in perishable bodies, viewing the world from a single very limited point of view. We also seem to be disconnected from that world. According to Descarte we seem subjectively to be a res cogitans “in here”, with the objective world of res extensa existing “out there”.
This Cartesian schism has had huge effects on our attitude towards our world. We have ruthlessly exploited the earths resources : animal, vegetable and mineral, in the name of individual profit. Our waste we dump onto land, in the air, in rivers and in the sea. Global warming is just one effect. We need a new ethic that re-connects us to our world, and reinforces our oneness with Nature.
Religion is Reconnection
That is the function of religion. Literally re-ligion (Etymology: Latin; ligo, ligere) means to re-bind or re-connect. Despite the many stupidities of traditional religion, it is this need to reconnect; with other people, with Nature and with the Universe at large – to feel connected and part of the greater Whole, that is the urgent reason we need a rational religion. We need it to save the planet, if for no other reason.
One of the commonest ‘spiritual’ experiences, which many ordinary people have had is exactly that sense of being at “One” with the universe or “Cosmic consciousness”. It happens to all kinds of people in all cultures. This is not delusion: Science shows we ARE part of the universe around us, so that sense of unity and connection is entirely realistic. It is our normal state of feeling set apart from everything around us that is the delusion.
Primitive Religion
Belief in God or gods is a primitive attempt to engage in just such a relationship with Nature or with those things in the world around us. Many cultures worship the earth as a mother goddess, the people belong to the land, which feeds them. Therefore they treat the environment with great respect. James Lovelock’s “Gaia” is an attempt to do the same for us. These primitive beliefs probably have had great survival value.
I believe that “God” is the Occidental cultural personification of that same Whole, that is everything, to which we try to reconnect. The concept has been twisted out of shape into some individualistic royalty figure who (like us) stands set apart from everything, and who occasionally intervenes to punish sinners when the whim takes Him, before sending any opposition to Hell for ever, after they are dead. This is a travesty, and Dawkins, Dennett and others are quite right to demolish this image!
The Individual "I am" and the Whole of Being
So, if we reject that individualistic “God” what is the holistic alternative?
God says in the book of Exodus “I am that I am”. Whatever the “I am” within us is: this consciousness would seem to be some process arising from a brain. Now, a similar process of consciousness would seem to be going on in all complex brains. Creatures and persons with consciousness are everywhere, who (we can assume) also experience the world from a specific embodied point of view, just like us.
My conjecture is therefore that “I am” not just this body or this identity. These are only aspects of my specific biology and circumstance at this time and place. I could be transplanted to another body or given another identity or set of memories and yet still be an “I am”. My present experience is a localised manifestation of a universal process called “consciousness”, which sees the world from this specific point of view. “I” am also the name you give to the process of consciousness going on in your body, living your life, seeing the world from your point of view.
If I am right, then I am not just this one life, I am ALL conscious life.
Eternal Life
The Upanishads say the goal of spiritual life is: “To see all beings in yourself and yourself in all beings” When the Bible speaks of “Eternal Life”, I believe it is saying we are all consciousness in this way. We cannot die to experience oblivion, for that is an oxymoron. We are embodied consciousness, and so we do not cease to exist until the last consciousness is extinguished.
There are consequences flowing from this. How I treat you, or the cat next door, or even the animals I eat, is therefore how I treat myself, seen in a mirror. Viewed objectively, there is no difference to distinguish the “I” in me from the “I” in you. So, just as I give money in the present, for the future “I” that will be me when I’m old, so the money I may give to someone in Africa, is given to the “I” that is living in Africa, and who experiences being an embodied “I” from there just as much as the “I” that is here.
Conclusion - Heaven or Hell?
“God” then need not be some monstrous dictator, but the unity of all consciousness in the universe (and other universes). "I am that I am" - that is also you, me and everywhere. Seeing ourselves as isolated individuals is our common delusion, and the way to Hobbes vision of “Every man at war with every other”. Seeing ourselves as integral parts of a greater whole is salvation – the vision that we might co-operate. That is why we need religion to survive.
As we get more technologically powerful, the world we create for ourselves, depends on how we see ourselves and our mutual relationship with each other and with Nature. That is the urgent reason why we need to reconnect – and co-operate to redefine a rational religion that embraces everyone and everthing in diverse unity. That is the job of religion.
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