I suspect that Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion would cringe at this title as probably would Phillip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials. At the same time, it is entirely possible that many religious folk would cringe as well. So why would I choose a title that might offend both the theists and the atheists? It is because I am tired of the polarity. Why do we in the United States have such an obsession with this question: “Do you believe in God?” For an obsession it is. As Rev. Charles Stephen pointed out in this pulpit a few weeks ago, only 49% of those surveyed in 1999 would vote for an atheist for president. So it is generally not O.K. to be an atheist in the United States. In the movie “Contact,” the character played by Jodie Foster is a scientist who is an atheist and she is interviewed for the honor of participating in the first attempt at contact with an extraterrestrial. She is rejected when she admits that she doesn’t believe in God. Her ex-priest friend explains that she could not possibly adequately represent humanity when most people do believe in God and she doesn’t. The latest survey I could find indicates that 92% of Americans believe in God while interestingly only 85% believe in heaven and 74% in hell.
So what is an atheist? You would think that this question would be easy to answer: “It is someone who doesn’t believe in God.” We assume that this is an easy question because we assume that the word God has a meaning that is consensually valid. I challenge this assumption.
One definition of God is a powerful being who created the universe and is independent of it. However the question of whether such a being actually has any meaningful interaction with humans either while alive or after death seems to be pretty important. If such a being simply created the universe and then left to pursue other interests elsewhere in God-type realms, then it would be difficult to see how whether one believes in such a being or not would make any difference in any way. So I think it is fair to say that when people talk about believing in God they are talking about a being who created the universe, is independent of the universe, and has some sort of special interest in human beings.
The most well developed concept of such a being is the one presented in the Bible and the Koran. This is the God of Abraham, apparently a male sort of being. We had a little introduction to him, or rather, an introduction of his absence, in the words of the psalmist (Psalm 88) and from Job (30:16-27) in the earlier readings. We learn that if we expect him to be there to help us, we very well might be disappointed. So if we can’t expect him to be there to help us, can we at least expect him to be fair?
To answer that question, we turn to the book of Job, Chapter 1: verses 1-6:
6 One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them.
7 The LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?"
Satan (accuser) answered the LORD, "From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it."
8 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."
9 "Does Job fear God for nothing?" Satan replied. 10 "Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face."
12 The LORD said to Satan, "Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger."
Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD. (New International Version)
What happens, of course, is that the accuser destroys all Job’s property and kills his family. All Job’s friends gather around and say that it happened because Job broke one of God’s commandments. Job adamantly denies it but he still praises God.
So we now turn to Chapter 2: 1-7:
1 On another day the angels [a] came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them to present himself before him. 2 And the LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?"
Satan answered the LORD, "From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it."
3 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason."
4 "Skin for skin!" Satan replied. "A man will give all he has for his own life. 5 But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face."
6 The LORD said to Satan, "Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life."
7 So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. (New International Version)
This time Job does get a bit upset and says in Job: 27: 5-6
5 I will never admit you are in the right;
till I die, I will not deny my integrity.
6 I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it;
my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.(New International Version)
So how does Yahweh answer him? Job: 38: 4-12
4 "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone-
7 while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels [a] shouted for joy?
8 "Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb,
9 when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness,
10 when I fixed limits for it
and set its doors and bars in place,
11 when I said, 'This far you may come and no farther;
here is where your proud waves halt'?
12 "Have you ever given orders to the morning,
or shown the dawn its place. . . (New International Version)
Well what could Job say? He gives in Job: 42:1-6:
1 Then Job replied to the LORD :
2 "I know that you can do all things;
no plan of yours can be thwarted.
3 You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?'
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
4 "You said, 'Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.'
5 My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
6 Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes."(New International Version)
But of course God did not answer Job’s actual argument. Job argued that God had promised to take care of those who obeyed his commandments. Job obeyed his commandments. God did not take car of him. Quite the contrary he made a bet with Satan and gave Satan permission to make him suffer dreadfully for no particular reason except to show Satan that he was a tough guy and Job was loyal to him. Who came out smelling like a rose here? Clearly Job did. All God could do was to say, “You have no say because I am bigger and stronger than you.”
So it doesn’t appear that we can expect this God to be fair or to keep his promises. So where does that put us? Perhaps we would do better to have no God at all.
I mentioned Phillip Pullman at the beginning of this sermon. He is the author of a trilogy of books called His Dark Materials. The first is called The Golden Compass. The second The Subtle Knife and then third The Amber Spyglass. The first of these books The Golden Compass was recently made into a movie. In the book, the main character is Lyra who is a pre-pubescent girl living in an alternate universe. In that universe, people are very much like we are except that the Church is pretty powerful and exerts a great deal of control over just about everything. One of the even more striking differences is that each person’s soul is separate from them and takes the form of an animal that stays near all the time. That animal is called a daemon. Prior to adolescence, the daemon can instantaneously change form. Once a child reaches adolescence, the daemon “settles” and remains in whatever animal form it chooses for the rest of the person’s life. Girls have male daemons and boys female daemons, very much like Carl Jung’s animus and anima.
Pullman is an atheist and his movie and books have been condemned by Bill Donohue, president of the so-called Catholic League. I have a friend who decided not to go to the movie because of Donohue’s boycott. What is fascinating to me is his depiction of “The Authority.” This is a being who is actually the first angel, but who pretended to be the creator. He is the one who posed as Yahweh and who insisted on everyone, angels and humans alike to obey his commandments. We saw him for his true colors in Job. In the last book The Amber Eyeglass there is a big battle. The Lord Asriel, Lyra’s father, basically forms a massive army of angels, witches and all other kinds of creatures and invades the kingdom of heaven in hopes of defeating the Authority, and regaining freedom for all.
The irony, of course, is that The Authority is so old and frail that he can do nothing except sit inside a crystal chariot. When his chariot is attacked, he is released and disintegrates into a flood of molecules. His last expression is one of immense relief. Lyra has pity on him. Beautifully executed. I certainly hope that this last book is made into a film if only to see that scene. I honestly do not understand why religious leaders cringe at that depiction. It is not God, after all, who dies, but an angle posing as God. But perhaps the problem is the posing of the question, “Where is the creator?” or “Is there a creator at all?” This of course takes us full circle. If the creator is not involved at all in human affairs, then he or she or it is irrelevant.
So who are Lord Asriel and his army fighting? The Authority’s general Metatron who has been the enforcer. But he is easily swayed by the seductions of Mrs. Coulter (Lyra’s mother) and is defeated by Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter working together where they are all cast into the abyss.
I guess my thesis to this point is that if the only God we can come up with is the God of Abraham, then it might be better if he were an imposter. We would do better with no God.
This of course is the atheist part of Spiritual Atheism. Why am I not content? I still have science. I still have evolution. I still have the beauty of this amazing world of matter in which we live. I still have the subtleties and interconnections of all the organs and systems of this body. I still have all the interconnections of the numerous organisms on this planet. I still have interactions and touching other human beings. I still have drama and excitement. I still have struggle and the experience of growing and learning. It ought to be enough. It should suffice.
But for me, it doesn’t suffice. What I believe in is consciousness.
Our scientists tell us that all the normal matter in the Milky Way galaxy, all the stars and intergalactic dust, account for just 10% of the actual matter. The remaining 90% is dark matter. It has no light in it. It can only be detected by its gravitational waves. In Pullman’s work, this dark matter is called Dust with a capital D. Dust is conscious. It was Dust that first coalesced into the first angel who posed as God. It is Dust that lives in us humans and makes us conscious.
In the book Imagining Einstein Barbara With has Albert Einstein talking from beyond the grave. He says that dark matter is “the matter of Afterlife and the energy of consciousness.” (p.1) In life, our consciousness manifests as a physical body made up of normal matter. After death, our consciousness manifests itself through dark matter. He makes no claim as to the origin of all this. Even from the other side, he has no more of a clue about the creator than we do. This is also true in Pullman’s world. One of the main characters in the second and third book is Will. He talks to angels and other beings. None of them know any more than we do about God. If he exists or not is as much of a mystery to them as it is to us, although what is interesting is that they are not particularly interested in the question. It is irrelevant.
I happen to believe that we continue to exist after death absence our bodies. I believe that there is actually a part of ourselves, you could call it a “higher self” that already exists on the other side of the veil. What you see here is a creation of that higher self. The “big I” created the story of Greg Nooney. The “little me” lives that story. I have become quite entranced by this story. I have stepped into it and made it my life here on this planet. I believe that the “big I” has created many other stories which one could call past lives. When I leave this body behind, the story of Greg Nooney will enhance the “big I,” and the “big I” will move on to some other project.
Perhaps this “big I” is the God I used to look and yearn for. Perhaps we each are God also.
At the moment, I am still entranced by the story of Greg Nooney. I will be turning 58 this year and it occurs to me that I may only have a few decades, perhaps less to continue as Greg Nooney. I am realizing that I may not have time to do all the things that I want to do.
Soren Sorenson has a website called spiritualatheist.com. In it he proposes that a spiritual atheist sees God as the physical and psychological personification of the universe. Three is a wholeness to the universe and that wholeness is God. We are parts of God, pieces of God but our separation from each other and from God is an illusion. There is only a oneness. Using this definition he includes the following under his category of spiritual atheist: Buddhism, Non-literal Christianity, Non-literal Islam, Non-literal Judaism, Hinduism, New Age, Paganism, Pantheism, Panentheism, Spiritual Humanism, Spiritual Naturalism, Taoism, and Wicca. I think we could safely add traditional Native American spirituality as well as all other Earth-based religions.
The only religions that are excluded from this list are those from the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) who take their doctrine literally. He does also provides another category for purist atheists and one for agnostics. If we were to adopt Sorensen’s categorical system most humans on this planet may be spiritual atheists. The recent Pew Research Center survey found that in the United States 4% of the population identify themselves as either atheists or agnostics. Another 12% described their religion as “nothing in particular.” I do think it would be interesting if one of these surveys were to include “Spiritual Atheist” as a choice with Sorenson’s definition of it as one who sees God as the physical and psychological personification of the universe. I wonder how many might check that box. I would.
Nevertheless, I do not think it is wise to spend too much more time and energy worrying about whether there is a God or not. However, I also refuse to throw the baby out with the bath water. I will not throw out the idea of consciousness, or life after death, or the possibility of communicating and interacting with other conscious beings who do not have bodies consisting of “normal matter.” Yes there are many mysteries on this planet and I could spend many lifetimes exploring scientific enquiries and never leave the solid physicality or experiences of my senses. However, perhaps I have already spent many lifetimes doing this. I will devote some of my time in this lifetime exploring arenas that lie outside the scope of today’s science. Perhaps science of the future will find a way to explore some of these realms. Until then, I will use my imagination and my intuition. I will rely on inner knowledge and I will continue to learn to expand my awareness, to expand my energies. This is the Spiritual part of Spiritual Atheism.
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