I want something like a religion, but, I think, probably without the religion part. Some of the religious people have a big significance and a wonderful thing in their lives. I remember that parable of the seeds, just to take one example. The Christian sowing is a wonderful thing, if it's just love they're sowing. (If, on the other hand, they're sowing Spanish Inquisitions, then it's not wonderful in the same way.)
What big significances or wonderful things could an unreligious person have, I wonder. Right now I wonder: what would one call it, if not a "religion". How about a "philosophy"? I am tired of that big word. It got worn out in my mind and it needs a chance to rest and rejuvenate. How about, say, … "belief system"? No, that is still too highfalutin, for now. Today I'll just say "thoughts", as in "these are my thoughts" or "I am thinking this way".
Today I heard a great speaker on the radio. Sorry, I didn't get his name. He was on KPFA FM 94.1 on the Flashpoints radio show between about 5:40 and 5:58pm today (California time) Mar. 13, 2013. He said that the anti-nuclear folks (of whom he is one, and presently so am I, particularly after listening to him) should give up sarcasm. He suggested that we tell people about "nuclear trash", because the more usual phrase "spent fuel" (hope I got that right) doesn't mean anything to the vast majority of people. Also he said that there's never been a cost-effective nuclear power plant. So, in the sense of saving the physical world, my message of the day is: nuclear trash is a horrible legacy we are leaving to our descendants, and so is the current climate change due mainly to the burning of fossil fuels; and (as the speaker said) the relatively easy conversion to renewable sources of energy solves (not totally, but generally) both problems. So if you have at least one ear (or eye) to take in the thought, and some thought cells, that's my contribution today to saving the physical world: I am raising awareness -- usually a good step toward a better future.
Meanwhile, as I was saying yesterday (in The Parable of the Seed entry in the blog), the Christian sharing is of a higher order than centuries, and now furthermore it is even a higher order than the survival of the planet and the human race. It is a different kind of spiritual path. I want something like that, too; and in my faith, one can follow the highest spiritual path or paths, without harming the lower-order paths such as saving the world.
So, for all such ends, high and highest, I construct my "thoughts" which are somewhat like a religion but without the religion part.
There are questions about "what is" and questions about "what is not". I guess the best of these questions really are philosophical. I have another kind of question though (which is also philosophical), which is neither about "what is" nor about "what is not". My question, to start off with, is: how can one begin to think about important things such as a spiritual path or about deciding or discovering whatever is The Most Important Thing or Things?
So I invoke the thought, which is the same thought I had when I was 22 or 23 in the little house in the alley in Wichita -- the thought that a good way to begin is whatever is the simplest way to begin.
The simplest way to begin (so I think now and thought then) is to imagine a Void in which nothing ever was, nothing is, and nothing ever will be, for all space, time, and dimensionality.
Having thunk that up, I proceed to ponder some quality. I borrow from the church and think of the quality continuum "good versus evil". I don't know why I thought of that, but I did, when I was 22 or 23. Maybe we were raised, unwittingly, to think of it as an Important matter. Or you could instead think of any other quality that you care about. I imagine how such a quality might relate to the Void. Is the Void more good than evil, or more evil than good? Could the void be neutral? I guess so.
But then I have a faith, and my faith tells me that the Void is not evil. Why? I cannot prove why. I imagine it like this: supposing there were a God that existed above and beyond the Void, and had control over it. This Void is the most empty thing imaginable. This Void is innocent of all things. How would a supreme God regard such a Void, or how would a supreme God shape such a void? My faith says that God would not make it evil and would not regard it as evil.
So, I conclude that line of thinking, as follows: The Void is either neutral or good, but not evil.
There is another, similar line of thinking that I also pursue: it is the same as above, but without invoking God. Instead of God, I just think of The Way Things Are, or I just think of the All, or I just think of the Universe. As with God, so with the Universe. My faith tells me that the All is not bad. That means, the Way Things Are, taken as a whole, has a net value that is either neutral or good, but not evil.
Some of you could be thinking, "What good is that?", or, "So what?" Hold on just a little bit longer. The above "Void is not bad" concept (or more particularly, the "the All is not bad" concept), paired with the option of dying (something we all encounter within a hundred years or so) -- and I mean _really_ dying, not just physically dying -- means that none of us has to face an eternity of evil.
The idea, or belief, or fact if you accept it as fact, that none of us has to face an eternity of evil is quite significant and useful, in my opinion.
I hope that does not come across as too sarcastic.
I believe that we _do_ have the option of _really_ dying. That's part of my faith too. Similarly I believe that a supreme God would not condemn a person to an eternal horror for committing a finite sin. (I say that, because I am remembering a part of my Protestant heritage -- the fire-and-brimstone, or eternal punishment by burning in Hell, concept. I disbelieve that teaching of a branch of the Christian religion.)
Given all that, I like to think that I'll live forever and always have some joy ahead of me, such that the life is good. This frail husk I'm in now, body or mind, is in rather poor shape to live forever, but my emotional self feels that it doesn't want to die, and wants to go on and on to better and better things. So there could be a soul life to fulfill that longing. My faith says: if you _really_ need a thing, then there's a way you can get it. So, either I'll live, or it will turn out that real death isn't so bad after all. I suppose real death is either neutral or good (which is only logical, if it is given that the Void is either neutral or good).
No comments:
Post a Comment