You Know What?

[Evolution_beyond]

I have spiritual yearnings sometimes. I do. I admit it. I sometimes like to think that there's some higher intelligence out there - or that the Universe itself is helping me to arrive at some kind of truth.

 

On some level I know that I'm just entertaining myself with such thoughts - and they proceed only from myself.

 

I sometimes like to comfort myself in times of hardship with the thought that Shiva (destroyer and creator - now that's a cool deity!) will protect me. Somehow it can make me feel stronger and more confident within myself - as if Shiva himself in his wisdom and power is giving me that strength.

 

On some level I know that Shiva is just a symbol that represents something profound, important and truthful for me - and that I'm just using that symbol to tap into the inner reservoirs of strength inside myself that somehow aren't readily available to my conscious mind.

 

But let's face it. None of us really know that there is no God. Nobody really knows whether there is a God or not. I know, I know - all scientific discovery seems to reveal that there is an awful lot of trial and error that went into the creation of the Universe and of biology - far too much trial and error for any kind of naive belief in a Creator. It seems far more likely that the Universe came about through a blind process of trial and error as gradually, bit by bit, what works is what remains (because what doesn't work ceases to be).

 

But it is still a fact that we don't really know. Some kind of divine, conscious presence could exist in the Universe. It could be that the Universe itself is conscious, and that it grows and learns as it creates itself - like a child slowly blossoming into an adult. There's no evidence against it and it's quite a beautiful idea in a way, because we would all be part of the learning process, sharing it with this Universe/God. Or there could even be some kind of God-being in another Universe, another dimension. There are so many gaps in our knowledge that we can't really say with certainty exactly what kinds of strangeness we might uncover as our knowledge increases.

 

I'm not saying it is so. I'm saying we don't know. And one thing is certain - if there was any kind of God as described above then he/she/it would not be as Christians describe. God would be concerned with things far bigger and wider - universe-wide things - and so I can't see him/her/it being so obsessed by earth affairs, or even Israel's affairs to act in the parochial way that God acts in the Bible. The whole Israel and Jesus thing really doesn't make any sense when you reflect on the billions of worlds out there, many of which may have its own intelligent life.

 

But we don't really know. And we don't really know if death is the end - or whether consciousness is capable of continuing in some form, or whether all consciousnesses are part of a mass-consciousness, or whether the same consciousness can be restarted when an identical organism happens to exist again (which given the vast amounts of time and space in this universe and in others, could possibly happen). Or whether time itself is illusionary and when you die you get to live your life again and make different choices (parallel universes?) - or whether identity is illusionary and after you die you get to experience being somebody else. The point is that we just don't know.

 

And who really knows if Jesus existed or not? There's a lot of evidence for a heavy amount of pagan myth going into the New Testament and the Gospels. Paul was certainly influenced by mystery religions, as were the Gospel writers. But it is just possible that there might be the merest shell of a man behind all the myths. But it might all be just a synthesis of mystery religion myth and jewish messianism. But there is no way of establishing which is the case. The evidence is very little - and it was all such a long time ago.

 

But you know what? None of it matters. It doesn't matter whether God exists or not. It doesn't matter whether there is an afterlife or not. It doesn't matter whether Jesus existed or not.

 

The Jesus one is easy. It is quite clear that there is a lot of ugly, messed up stuff in the Bible - and an awful lot of borrowing of pagan ideas in the Gospels. So who cares whether Jesus existed or not? It's clearly a crock of shit anyway.

 

But it also doesn't matter whether God exists or not - or whether there is an afterlife or not.

 

It's still important to be compassionate towards one another. It's still important to try and get your life in order enough to find some kind of contentment and happiness in life, to somehow keep your calm and your composure whatever life throws at you. If God were good then that's all he/she/it would care about. If God is not good then he/she/it is not worthy of our attention (and I would wonder where we would get our moral judgement from? There would have to be a more powerful God who is good, otherwise we would not be able to judge the lesser god as bad). If there is no God then these things are intrinsically important anyway.

 

The same goes for death and whether there is an afterlife. AFterlife or not, it's still important to be compassionate to others and to find some way to be content in life.

 

This is why I admire Buddhism. This is what the Buddha's philosophy in its simplest form said. Buddha made it quite clear that it is pointless to wonder about these metaphysical questions, because they don't really matter at the end of the day. What matters is learning to be content and not constantly in distress because of the shittiness of the world, and also learning to be more compassionate towards those around you.

 

As for the big questions. Well, science is the best method for establishing what is true about the universe. And the wisest and bravest thing to do when there are gaps in our knowledge is to admit that you don't know - and to wait to see what science discovers.

 

In the meantime, there is Buddhism for all the really important questions

[chefranden]

It could be that I'll still get those 20 groupies after the concert showing off my rock and roll stardom, but I don't see any point in imagining it anymore. Like Sting I would have had one name "Sarge".

[Guest eejay]

Thanks for sharing that E.B. You are absolutely right that there are things that none of us really know for certain. If there is another world or an afterlife, we'll only know if and when it happens.