"They believe that something came out of nothing, that reason came from irrationality, that a complex universe and natural order came out of randomness and chaos, that consciousness came from non-consciousness and that life emerged from non-life. Atheists believe, Seddon writes, that “a multiverse (for which there is no experimental or observational evidence) containing an inconceivably large number of universes spontaneously created itself.”
Yet, Hitchens insists, “our belief is not a belief.” Nonsense. Atheism requires a belief in the unbelievable" ..Buchanan(Christmas in the an Anti-Christian Age.)
Throughout known human history, mankind has looked out on the world and observed two things; first an apparent order to Nature and second a sense or belief that there was some unseen Life Force behind this creation. Across the centuries, cultures around the world have given different names to this Unseen Presence; in the West we call it God. Belief in God, no matter what religion or spiritual tradition has had a profound impact on societies, effecting how they perceive Reality.
In the last two centuries, an ever increasing number of people have concluded that there is no God; their trust is placed in reason, logic and empirical science to explain the mysteries of nature and human existence. Belief in God is viewed as a mark of ignorance. But is that an oversimplification?
A physicist’s perception of Reality based on scientific experimentation and laws is that; Matter is mostly made of empty space, what we perceive from our senses as solid substances are in fact the electrical forces between particles of this Matter, what we “see” with our eyes as objects are the electrical impulses translated in the brain as Forms which appear as solid substances. This could be demonstrated by an X-Ray Crystallography image of some crystalline compound like Salt, Sodium Chloride (NaCl). The image would consist of very small dots regularly laid out in mostly empty space. How different is that from the Ancient Greek Pagan belief or the beliefs of the three monotheistic religions in the soul, explained in philosophical terms by reference to Form and Essence?
The current consensus among Astronomers is that the Universe began in a “Big Bang” billions of years ago, all the energy in the Universe was once crushed into a singularity, and then it exploded. The First Law Of Thermodynamics, states as axiomatic, Energy can never be created or destroyed, it follows that the energy now part of Nature was there in a different form billions of years ago at the Big Bang. How different is that from the Eastern mystical tradition belief in the Oneness of all life, such as is held in Hinduism? Astronomer, Paul Davis stated “Scientists themselves normally take for granted that we live in a rational, ordered cosmos subject to precise laws that can be uncovered by human reasoning. Yet, why this should be so remains a tantalizing mystery.” 1
There are crucial differences of perspectives between non-believers and believers concerning the fundamental questions of human existence; what the meaning, origin and purpose is of life, how Humans should order their lives and society. This search for Order or “The Good” is allegedly discovered by some believers in a non-rational spiritual quest, for others through a tradition of revelations by God to prophets and holy men, still others by using rational and dispassionate analysis, sometimes called Natural Law. For non-believers humankind can accomplish this with reason and science alone, and further as life in theory is based on a long evolutionary process subject to chance, in the grand scheme of evolution, there is no special significance to human life beyond what Humans invest in it. Put another way, the difference between believers and non-believers comes down to what is the meaning of life and where does the authority to impose morality and ethics come from? For most of history it has been expressed in a Need For God.
Pagan Religions
The concepts and role of the Unseen Presence, called God varies according to the circumstances of the believers at different times in History. Early tribal societies were territorial; each tribe had their own names for God, and their own myths. There were two common beliefs; if they imitated the actions of the Gods they would share their power (KA5), and everything on Earth was believed to be replica of something Divine (KA6). Gods represented the projected hopes and fears of the people, would the rains come to insure a good harvest?, would they be protected from enemies?. Ritual beliefs in sacrifice, such as offering first born children, first fruits of the harvest were made to keep these Gods satisfied.
The first written record we have is from the Sumerians, in Mesopotamia, circa 4000 BCE, there were similar beliefs and practices in many cultures through the centuries; the 16th Century Conquistadors were so shocked by the mass ritual killings of humans by Aztecs, they buried all their religious symbolism. Today in Mexico City, The Wall Of Skulls is a horrifying visual reminder of the price paid to satisfy the Gods of early pagan beliefs.
Over time through a process of emanation and myth the Gods multiplied into a pantheon. The Gods of Wind, War, Sun, Fertility, Love etc were poetic projections of human longings. For later critics, such as Baron of Holbach this construct created an incoherent idea of God “poets and theologians had done nothing over the centuries but make a gigantic, exaggerated man, whom they will render illusory by dint of heaping together incompatible qualities.” (KA344) Regardless, these pagan myths, beliefs and religious festivals were essential civic practices to ensure the continual smooth running of their societies. The Gods told about in myths were very real to ordinary people; Gods were “seen” present in charismatic or gifted individuals. An example of this is found in The Acts of the Apostles, Paul and Barnabas were mistaken for Zeus and Hermes by the people of Lystra in Turkey (KA15). The philosopher Aristotle regarded these myths as revealing a more serious truth than any produced by history “for poetry speaks of what is universal, history what is particular”. For the Greek philosophers God was a transcendent reality, man was a microcosm of the Universe part divine attributes part base flawed matter. The goal of man was to imitate the activity of God, which first and foremost required gaining Wisdom. God was pure thought, and activation, but he did not direct or effect lives. While the insights of philosophers were largely ignored by the ordinary people, subsequently their ideas would have an important impact on Jewish, Christian and Muslim beliefs.
Monotheists
Paganism, Karen Armstrong writes was an essentially tolerant faith. (KA49) That is not a description that could be applied to the religion written down and redacted around 600 BCE called Judaism, and the bases for two other monotheistic religions. The God of Israel, Yahweh, we are told is a jealous God, He is also to the modern reader a tribal, psychotic, genocidal God. His chosen people were warned if did not obey Yahweh “you will be torn from the land”.(KA53). Modern Biblical studies referred to as the Documentary Hypothesis identify 4 different traditions in the Torah or Old Testament. J, E, P, D. J represents the Yahwists, E the Elohists, D the Deuteronomists and P the Priestly writer2. The compilation of the various traditions is believed to have been completed during or just after the Babylonian exile. Importantly, it was compiled by Priests most likely from Judah. The harshness towards goyim, exclusivity, rituals and above all the insistence on Temple worship were in modern parlance their sales pitch to lure Israelites from Babylon and other places back to worship at the Temple being rebuilt in Jerusalem. It was a tough sell; the Israelites had been told the Promised Land was given to them by God. But it was a land they only briefly controlled, overrun by powerful neighbors like the Assyrians and Babylonians.
The Israelites according archeologist Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University initially were landless Canaanites who adopted a belief in one God3. In a pagan world where Deities were territorial and religious beliefs were civic duties, a group who refused to play by rules would be a source of resentment. The God of Israel was unlike the pagan Gods, He was passionately involved in human affairs. Through revelation to Prophets he issued Laws, and warnings insisted on compassion and caring for the less fortunate. But unlike the holistic view of pagans, there was a divide between Yahweh and Mankind. This divide was caused by disobedience in the Garden Of Eden, it was humankind’s fault that there was evil, suffering and other ills, Human nature though made in the image and likeness of God was flawed. The redactors of the Bible were offering the people of Israel a chance to reconnect with God by returning if they obeyed the laws, and the Priestly caste were the keepers of the law.
It was in this milieu of a legalistic rigid framework under yet another foreign occupation that Jesus of Nazareth began preaching. “My yoke is easy and my burden light” 4 a consistent theme of his preaching was that the Pharisees, the legal interpreters of the Law had hijacked it for their personal power and benefit. He called them hypocrites, in parables like the Good Samaritan it was the ritually impure Samaritan who helped the injured man, not the priest, he objected to their greed, by driving the moneylenders out of the Temple. Armstrong says these condemnations found in Matthew were inauthentic; regrettably this maybe an example of her bowing to political correctness, there are passages in all the Gospels that show Jesus’ preferences for the outcast and a criticism of authority. These and numerous other examples point to his main objection, the Israelites were to be “a light to the nations”, showing the world how to live a good life. Instead it had been turned into a tribal, exclusive, legalistic belief cut-off from the rest of mankind and other Jews. As Armstrong later points out “Philo seemed embarrassed by the historical books of the Bible”(KA69). It was these Greek speaking Diaspora Jews that Paul and his disciples sought. Jews like Philo who were not considered practicing Jews because they did not make the pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem.
Early Christianity was seen by its followers as the Judaism that was intended had not the Priestly caste hijacked the original spirit of the Law. In the centuries ahead as Christianity grew, it would fall back into to same errors made by Priests of the Old Testament. Unlike Judaism, Christianity aimed at a universal audience. To create a broader based theology they turned to the Ancient Greek philosophers, first Plato and his followers and later in 13th Century to Aristotle. When plagues hit cities the Christians stayed to care for the sick, they took in widows and cared for orphans, they practiced what the prophets like Amos, and Isaiah had preached “ Learn to do good, search for justice, help the oppressed, be just to the orphan and plead for the widow” (KA44). The theology of Christianity, the concept that Jesus’ sacrificial death had rejoined humankind to God, closed the divide between Man and God but led to problematic philosophical issues. The most contentious was the doctrine of the Trinity formulated at the Council of Nicaea in the fourth century. Armstrong’s account leading up to this is muddled; she says Paul had a dim view of Greek rationalism calling it foolishness (KA86). The quote from his letter is “the Jews look for signs, the Greeks looks wisdom we look for foolishness”. Further she states “Paul never called Jesus God” (KA83) but then quotes from Paul letter to the Philippians “who subsisting in the form of God did not cling to his equality with God” (KA88). Armstrong is a former nun and an apostate, in most of her writings a reflection of the bitterness felt by the loss of her faith is very evident.
The doctrine of the Trinity comes out of the beginning of John’s gospel “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” The formulation of the Trinity, as Augustine and other accepted came out of the Platonic concept of emanations. “God had a single essence which remained incomprehensible to us, but three expressions” (KA115). The Trinity is a mystical or spiritual experience. This doctrine scandalized the Jews, confused many and was in part responsible for the creation of the third monotheistic religion Islam.
The Arabs as traders could not fail to notice there were new concepts of God coming from India via Iran, from Jews living in the Orient and from the Christian Byzantine empires. In 600 CE they were still practicing the pagan beliefs long abandoned by other cultures; they had no tradition of prophets like the Jews and Christians or religious teachers like Buddha. In 610 that changed when a Bedouin merchant from Mecca, Muhammad had a visit from the Angel Gabriel. Thus began first in an oral tradition of spoken Arabic and then written down by Syriac Christians centuries later what became known as the Koran, the literal word of God, the word of Al-lah. The Koran returns to a Semitic idea of Unity, but with the Universal outlook of Christianity. Al-Lah like Yahweh is the uncaused cause of all being, divided from human kind from which he demands submission, like the Torah, the Koran set out laws of behavior and ritual that must be followed. But the Koran, does pay homage to its antecedents, the prophets of the Old Testament, Jesus, Mary his mother, above all it ties all three faiths to Abraham. The promise made to Abraham that his descendents would be more numerous than the sands of the shore had come to pass.
For all the violence and repression experienced through these different monotheistic faiths, they have in their different ways been the bases for progress throughout the world. The emphasis on compassion, caring for sick and the less fortunate has been a constant if not always followed belief. They have given hope in times of despair, they have inspired great music, writing and art.
Mystics
All major religious faiths have come at one point or another to the conclusion that God is beyond our capacity for reason. This insight does not eliminate God, instead it suggests a different path, one Armstrong spends the greater part of her book examining and endorsing. That path is mysticism, experiencing the Unseen Presence in an emotional, intuitive manner. Maybe she is right. The modern world with its conflicting religions all claiming the truth cannot accommodate all these different doctrinal disputes. The histories of the three great monotheistic religions are one of great progress, but also one of war, torture, oppression and violence. God plays such an important role in the lives of billions of people; any attempt to enforce doctrinal orthodoxy will be met by violent resistance. In the West the spiritual bankruptcy of materialism, the role of religion in wars, the progress of science to undermine the myths of the Bible has left people looking for an alternative. Many have turned to the Eastern religions of Hinduism and Buddhism.
Hinduism is a belief developed over the millenniums to cope with the wonders and terrors of existence. By the eighth century BCE the pagan gods of the early Vedas had been replaced by the religious teacher. They taught that there was an underlying unity to the world, all subsumed by a force they called Brahman. Brahman does not speak to mankind; instead it is an ultimate self inside everyone (KA30). The main problem identified by Hinduism is that we do not know who our true selves really are; we are caricatures in finite personalities. This results in the human experience being fragmented, isolated and alienated. The obstacle to reaching a higher realization of ultimate knowledge is called Maya. One can reach this true reality of pure consciousness by contemplation, self discipline and meditation. This in turn will lead to good actions creating good karma in a cyclic process of reincarnation until the individual is joined to Brahman and is no longer reborn. These religious beliefs were refined by Siddhartha Gautama, known as Buddha. His concern was with suffering and pain, dukkha, this could be relieved by compassion for all living being, speaking and behaving gently and refraining from anything that clouds the mind. (KA32).
In a world of constant change good things do not last creating anxiety, insecurity and uncertainty, adopting the meditation practices and attitudes allows one to reach Nirvana, a state of unchanging peace. There is no God who issues orders, what happens is part of the fabric of existence determined by previous lives. Both religions are open to the charge of fatalism, but the techniques for personal change and contentment are also techniques adopted by the monotheistic religions. These mystical approaches are experienced in the Jewish tradition by Kabbalah, in Islam by sects like the Sufis and in the Eastern Orthodox and Western tradition by monasticism. What they have in common is the belief that discovering God or the Ultimate reality is an emotional experience involving the imagination, that the answer to the questions of God may not be within our reach.
Summary
There is crisis in modernity; scientific advances have obliterated the myths that have sustained mankind from falling into despair or nihilism. The God of the monotheistic traditions and the Unseen Reality of the East have in their different ways allowed mankind to create civilizations, communities, to survive. Frederick Nietzsche the great German philosopher predicted the terrible task mankind faced by “the Death of God”. His proposal for a race of Supermen inspired Nazi doctrine, writers like Ayn Rand in whose books libertarian selfishness is praised, as well as science has added its stamp of approval thorough Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. We live in a time when the values of compassion, selflessness and kindness are under the threat of militaristic, materialistic secular barbarianism with the capacity for industrial scale killing. If ever there was a need for God, the need is now.
Bibliography
1 Davies, Paul. “The Mind of God”. Simon and Schuster 1993 p.21
2 Friedman, Richard. “Who Wrote The Bible” Harper 1987
3 Finkelstein, Israel. Silberman, Neil Asher. The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts. Free Press 2002
4 Matt 11:30
3 Finkelstein, Israel. Silberman, Neil Asher. The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts. Free Press 2002
4 Matt 11:30
