Just in case you thought you were seeing double, this is in fact a re-published version of my second post from last Monday, with some corrections. Here we look more closely at the statements I posted in my previous blog, and then pose some more.
Before the 'Beginning', what was there? It is only now that science has started to discover the unimaginable vastness, the abyss of time and the incomprehensible multi-dimensionality of the universe. We now believe that the beginning of our physical universe may not have been the 'Beginning' at all. No wonder scientists and those of a scientific nature, often reject the over simplistic idea of the God that they learned about in Sunday school. Last time, I proposed that Atheism was simply a negative belief system based upon the flawed belief system of others. It is true that the Christian, Islamic and Judaic beliefs of religious fundamentalists, may often seem peculiarly unattractive to the rational mind. However, in 'The Seventh Day', I contend that the metaphysical root of the World's major religions is very different from the rather unsatisfactory view that we hear put forward by many clerics. The problem is compounded when fundamentalists and fanatics commit acts of racist bigotry, child abuse, sex abuse, terrorism and violence in the name of God. Any civilised and humanist soul will rightly rebel against such things.
Scientists now maintain that what we have discovered about the universe, means that we no longer require a supernatural explanation, either for the Creation or for the natural world. This means that nowadays, many scientists are also often professed Atheists. Yet Atheism, for all its good intentions, often comes across as a rather stark and unsatisfactory view of the world, based as it often is on the rejection of traditional Anglo-Saxon Christian religious beliefs. Atheism, however rationally conceived, is often little more than a gut reaction to an outdated belief system, both sides of which are stepped in ignorance of the nature of spirituality. Atheism is of course certainly not a threat to world peace in the way that fundamentalism often is. However, simply holding a strong dislike of religion, and denying God, the soul or any manifestation of spirituality, is in truth probably no less unscientific and irrational as the radical beliefs of religious fanatics who use the scriptures as a carte-blanche to commit crimes and atrocities against humanity.
As I said last time, belief does not necessarily equate to reality; and that is true for both Atheism and religious belief. At the heart of all the World's major religions lies the knowledge of the Metaphysical. By this I do not mean a fuzzy, supernatural world that can neither be seen nor proven. The 'Metaphysical' in this context, refers to the vast experiential, inner world that we all inhabit, that is in fact every bit as natural as the external world that is known through physics and other scientific disciplines. The gateway to the metaphysical world is the five senses, and according to spiritual tradition, at the heart of our innermost being lies the singularity of existence itself.
Both Jewish and Hindu mystical traditions seem to agree, although couched in rather different terms, that beyond the five senses and the rational mind lie three other contiguous and subtler levels of awareness. These are: the emotional world, through which we access our dreams, then at a deeper level, we encounter the inspirational or abstract world (often termed somewhat misleadingly as 'mental'), from which we derive creative inspiration and vision. Finally, for those who learn to access it, lies the level of reality or 'Existence itself', which we call 'spiritual', and where we may encounter the awesome singularity of the 'Self'. It is probably no accident that the 'Ultimate', the 'Universal Unconscious' or God, is also known in Jewish Mysticism as 'Existence Itself' (Ehi'yeh). Although the level of pure existence may not be accessible to most of us with our rational mind, there is no reason why these inner worlds should not yield some of their secrets to science. However, to make any significant progress in this area, our approach may need to change quite significantly.
Many scientists see no need to postulate a spirit that exists within human beings - it has been said there is no 'ghost in the machine'. Perhaps though, this may simply be a confusion about a term that the British Philosopher, Gilbert Ryles used in his 1949 book ('The Concept of Mind'), in which the 'ghost' referred to 'mind' rather than 'spirit'. The human spirit is of course beyond mind and is not a ghost, and neither are human beings machines. On the other hand, science has never proven the absence of spirit, rather it has simply raised a whole lot of new questions about the issue of human consciousness. The idea that the physical universe originates from a singularity, has parallels with the metaphysical view of the Creation expounded by the Jewish mystical work of the Kabbalah. Here the meta-universe is also conceived in an existential and experiential singularity, from which the physical universe 'later' appears as a subset. As human beings, we still carry that image of the Creation (known as the 'Image of God'), and the singularity that gave us birth still exists within us as our deepest spiritual self. This idea has been around, perhaps for thousands of years. The concept that our awareness might simply be an aspect of a universal consciousness, in no way contradicts what we know from science. What we can say is that what we are now discovering through science seems to concur very well with what is already known from metaphysical descriptions. That is why the contention here is that the metaphysical and physical are simply two sides of the same coin of reality.
I was fortunate, living as I do in the UK, to have been able to watch last week's Horizon program on the BBC. This fascinating program covered the problem of good and evil and examined what scientific evidence might exist for a 'moral molecule'. It turns out that most people are programmed from childhood, to be caring and emotionally sensitive to others. They will typically make the best moral choice that they can in the circumstances, in order to help others. However, research has shown that in a few cases, the psychopathic personality be accompanied by an abnormal genetic and brain activity profile. Combined with right (or wrong) circumstances in their childhood, abuse for example, those examined, seemed to have had a much higher probability of becoming serial killers. They may be less sensitive to emotions and often cannot empathise with their victims, so they may not make the same moral choices that most of us would do.
It turns out that many business leaders also have a psychopathic profile, which they cover up with charm, force of personality, intelligence and an utter disregard for others. That surely should not excuse them though - or should it? In one murder trial, in the execution happy state of Texas, a psychopath escaped the death penalty because it was demonstrated that he had diminished responsibility due to his genetic and brain profile, and the fact he had been abused as a child. Interestingly, one of the scientific researchers featured in the program also turned out to have a psychopathic profile. However, the fact that he'd had a wonderful childhood fortunately meant that he did not become a serial killer.
The interesting question here though, is not whether choice and moral strength may be influenced by genetics, but whether our choices and behaviour may influence genetics, particularly at a collective level. Another question is: what is it in us that makes that choice. If we could understand that, we could have a powerful mechanism for physical, emotional and even spiritual evolution. In the Metaphysical worlds that are described by many of the world's scriptures, evolution appears not just in the physical world, but on many levels once we know how to decode the texts. 'The Seventh Day' book provides a guide for doing just that, for chapters one to three of Genesis. Far from the literal view, of a supernatural 'Designer' taking a week out to create a universe just over 6,000 years ago, the Genesis texts when decoded, using knowledge hidden in Jewish mystical tradition, reveal many hidden facets, some of which we have now only just begun to appreciate through scientific discovery. That is not to say that I believe that there is an intrinsic need to prove the Bible right for a predetermined religious reason, but there is definitely much more to it than we first thought.
Next time, we will talk around four more elucidations from 'The Seventh Day':
- The English word for God is misleading, however it is useful to see it as synonymous with the Unconscious, and also Reality.
- The impression of external, objective reality is an illusion which works most of the tim
By the way, I am pleased to report that you can now download the 'The Seventh Day' as an eBook on Kindle - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005LPEBBI
Keep following the Blog, (next one is now due on Monday), and thanks again for reading.
Keep following the Blog, (next one is now due on Monday), and thanks again for reading.
Ray
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