God Moments

Although I said last night's post would be the last of the religion week, in reading it over again I feel it was lacking something. It was a very deep, with long words and complicated sentence structure. Some readers may have enjoyed that style, but there are perhaps more effective ways to convey God's beauty and majesty.  Emotion and feeling can be just as powerful a means of knowing as can reason and logic. So rather than trying to use high brow language to dissect the meaning of the "mystic emotion", I'll instead try to convey that emotion.

I'd like you to look out your window right now. I know not what you see, but when I do it I see my front yard. Every day I pass by that front yard without giving it a second glance. I don't stop to notice the millions of leaves on the trees lining my road, or the billions of blades of grass in my yard and my neighbors yards. I don't notice the worms, flies, insects, bugs, squirrels, rabbits, or other animals which inhabit those lawns. Each of those leaves, grass, and organisms are broken down even further into parts, which are broken into cells, which are broken into atoms. There is a specific organization, an immaculate order, to everything. Even the non-living things are fascinatingly intricate. The pavement on my driveway consists of bits and pieces of thousands of rocks from all over the world. The clouds above have trillions of little water droplets, each with innumerable little hydrogen and oxygen atoms. There is more that exists in your field of vision each time you casually glance out the window than you could ever fully appreciate if you studied it for a million years. Turn your gaze inwards, and examine each and every object in your house, each specially crafted tool for any purpose. You'll find you have matter from all over the world, which wound up in your dwelling through an enormously complex sequence of events. And this is just in and around your house. Now think of all the places you've been in your life, and all the things you've ever seen, and multiply this quantity by that figure. And this is just sight! Think of every song you've ever heard, and know that each was produced by many specially and intricately crafted instruments, with many musicians with many hours of training. Every bird you've ever heard chirp, every tiny, unnoticed rumble of the refrigerator. Why stop at sound? Ponder every smell, or taste, sensation on your skin that you've ever sensed in the entirety of your life. Ponder, if you can, the summation of every component of anything you have ever perceived. This is an incalculable, infinite sum, yet this figure is infinitesimal when compared to all of existence! You are but one of over 6 billion people on earth right now, each with an equally immense perception (depending on their age). Speaking of age, this counts only those humans who are presently alive, to say nothing of every human that has ever lived. Time is infinite. And why stop with humans? Each animal, going back to the beginnings of the earth, has seen and heard and smelled and felt an equally long list of other things. The beginning of the earth was at least 4 and a half billion years ago. Each of those years had 365.2422 days, each day had 24 hours which had 60 minutes which had 60 seconds, and in each of these seconds there was an infinitely larger existence than you could ever possibly perceive in a lifetime. And why stop at Earth? The earth is only 1/9th of the planets in this one solar system, which is a millionth at most of all the solar systems in the galaxy, which is another millionth at most of all the galaxies in the universe, and scientists are beginning to suspect alternate universes. Space, like time, is infinite. Even these simple scientific rules that we humans claim to be able to understand, when placed in context, are utterly baffling in magnitude. It is futile to even attempt to wrap ones mind around all which has ever existed or will exist.

I began that lengthy paragraph trying to convey an emotion, or a feeling. When faced with the above realizations, what feelings do we have? Awe, certainly. Wonder. Amazement. Perhaps fear. But mostly, I feel humility. I feel humble because I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that I am an infinitely small and insignificant part of existence. I know that every other human who has lived or ever will live is too. I know there exists that which is greater than I, that which is beyond my wildest comprehension, that which is superior to human value and beyond human capabilities. I know there exists that which is superior to mere mortals. I know, in other words, that there is a God.

That emotion is what gives me my faith, and I am overpowered by this emotion when I hear a beautiful song, see a beautiful photo or landscape, or am by myself under under the stars late at night. I call these God Moments, and whenever I have them I'll try to post whatever prompted it on the blog.

My Thoughts on the Core Essence of Religion and Christianity

"The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible." - Albert Einstein

I've spent a lot of time this week staving off attacks on Christianity and religion in general; in other words, writing about what God is not. So to close out my Religion Week, I'd like to instead talk about what God is. Since the end of the world did not arrive yesterday, I suppose it's time for all those nut-jobs to reconsider their religious beliefs. And one question they, or anybody who is doing some religious soul searching and deep contemplation on religious issues, might ask is "What is God? Yeah yeah, I know, he's the creator of Earth and the universe, and he gave his only son to save us from our sin, I've heard all that Christian mumbo jumbo a thousand times. But what does that mean? What does he, or she, or it, consist of?

I too have wondered this. And as a devout Christian, I have never been more sure about any other question. I haven't the faintest idea.

It is with utter certainty that I confess my uncertainty. I have pondered God and religion for hours and hours and hours, and all of my thought on these subjects has led only to one simple conclusion: I do not possess the mental capacity to comprehend them. I cannot fathom a form of being which lacks matter, time, and location. The entirety of my brief window of consciousness has been spent in an existence which abides by these unchanging rules; it is impossible for any of my senses to perceive, for my mind to contemplate, that which exists beyond those constraints. No amount of logic or faith, scientific study or bible study, could grant me this ability. And while I have never entered the mind of another, I don't think any human could have possessed, can possess, or will be able to possess this power either. Even the words we think and write are an entirely human creation, each one describing human ideas, human emotions, human sensations. Communicable language can only describe concepts which are perceivable to those who are communicating. How, then, can we possibly use words to describe that which is beyond our perception?

“Intelligence makes clear to us the interrelationship of means and ends. But mere thinking cannot give us a sense of the ultimate and fundamental ends.” - Albert Einstein

Yet I am a Christian. If I cannot fathom God, one might ask, why do I worship him? Well, for precisely that reason. If I could truly and wholly comprehend the nature of existence itself, there would be nothing that existed beyond my comprehension. If I possessed infinite knowledge, nothing would be beyond my reach, because nothing is beyond infinity. I would have no shortcomings. But I do have shortcomings. I don't know everything. I get confused. Not only that, I am a sinner. I am mortal. I cannot describe God in words. But I can think of one word which I feel best describes the core essence of my faith. That word is humility. And recognizing the disparity between what I am and perfection is the most humbling revelation imaginable.

Humility, in the religious sense, has two connotations. The first is simply putting others before oneself. This is the most basic, fundamental, and universal moral precept of nearly all the worlds religions. The Golden Rule--treat others as you would like to be treated--is found not only in the Bible but also in the Torah, Quran, and most other major religious texts. Genuine selflessness is venerated by every culture on earth: this is a human value, not specific to any religion, and I find that heart-warming. It gives one hope for the future of humanity.

But that moral compass is shared even by many atheists. The most noteworthy aspect of humility in our quest for the core essence of religion is not found in our interactions with other people, but in our interactions with God. At the pulpit, preachers beseech us to seek forgiveness for our sins, and refer to humility as it relates to recognizing our moral shortcomings. This is wise, for we sin, but we must also have humility in recognizing our intellectual shortcomings. Humility is the opposite of vanity, and it would be vain, nay, brazenly arrogant, to assert that we possess the mental might to comprehend all of existence. We must recognize that we are not only morally bereft, but intellectually inadequate. We must concede the existence of that which our puny monkey brains cannot comprehend, that which is superior to us.

“The scientists’ religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection.” - Albert Einstein

“Every one who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe-a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.” - Albert Einstein

This recognition establishes a binary. On one side of this binary is imperfection, sin, ignorance, mortality. This side we associate with ourselves, with humanity. On the other side is perfection. Divinity. Undying, eternal, all-knowingness. That which this side is associated with, I call God. Due to my own mental inadequacies, I cannot pretend to understand God or God's nature. But my brain is powerful enough to recognize those shortcomings, and identify what lies beyond its own limits.

 “The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe. We are like a little child entering a huge library. The walls are covered to the ceilings with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written these books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. But the child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books—-a mysterious order which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects.” - Albert Einstein

What then, convinces me that no other human is capable of comprehending God? Merely that one of the smartest men of all time couldn't do it either. And because he was smarter than I am, he could explain this concept of religion much more succinctly and effectively than I can. It is for this reason that I've utilized some of his explanations above.

The reader may have wondered why I opened the post with another of his quotes. I waited until now to get back to that, because I hope the above will help the reader better understand the context of that line. If the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it's comprehensible, then the most comprehensible thing about the universe is that it's (at least partially) incomprehensible. Which makes those parts which are beyond our comprehension worthy of wonder. Einstein referred to these moment of awestruck admiration as "the mystic emotion"; I call them "God moments".

“My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.” - Albert Einstein

“What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility. This is a genuinely religious feeling” - Albert Einstein

Thus, Einstein explains, as best as it can be explained, the core essence of religion in general. But my title also spoke of Christianity, specifically,  andisn't there a lot more to Christianity than that? What of Christ? What of the Bible? Where does that come in? I am a Christian because I believe Christ was the fusion of the two sides of our binary, the window through which we can see God. Christ was perfect, yet born in humble circumstances. Immortal, yet he once died. Divine, yet human. He was the one and only exception to the rule, a perfect human, which makes him the ultimate role model. His divinity is unattainable for us, and yet we must strive for it even though we know we will fall short. We must accept that the world is not perfect even as we try to create a more perfect world.

What of creation? If God is perfect, and God created the world, then how is the world imperfect? Again, I cannot claim to know the "reasons" or "motivations" behind God's "actions", if such narrow human concepts can even apply to God's workings. But in a way, isn't our world actually made perfect by it's imperfection? A "perfect" world, as most would imagine it, free from all suffering or conflict or trouble, would actually be an awfully boring place to live. Pleasure would be devalued if pain did not exist, and if there exists no ugliness than beauty does not appear so radiant. Our binary resurfaces everywhere. No human could even imagine a world as perfect as the one we live in, complete with all the hardships it contains. It is perfectly imperfect, or imperfectly perfect, or...whatever (it is possible to overthink these things!).

What of an afterlife? Again, I don't pretend to know what, specifically, awaits me. But I do not expect a naked baby angel playing a harp on a cloud with a golden gate. I speculate that whatever existence awaits me (or my soul, or however you define my identity) after death is one equally incomprehensible to human minds as is the nature of God itself. And if there is some sort of afterlife admissions office, I reject the notion that I can now, with my limited human perspective and knowledge, identify who "gets in" and who doesn't.

I will close this post with one final quote from the genius it has centered around. I started off searching for the core essence of religion, but Einstein gave a better definition of it than I could ever articulate:

“The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion. Herein lies the germ of all art and all true science. Anyone to whom this feeling is alien, who is no longer capable of wonderment and lives in a state of fear is a dead man. To know that what is impenetrable for us really exists and manifests itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, whose gross forms alone are intelligible to our poor faculties - this knowledge, this feeling ... that is the core of the true religious sentiment. In this sense, and in this sense alone, I rank myself among profoundly religious men."