Posted by
Doc Stephens on Saturday, February 09, 2008 12:58:32 PM
As I reread my last post, I was struck by the total absence of any reference to God in my arguments. I happen to have a strong spiritual sense, one that I feel deeply--it is a faith in God that surpasses all understanding. I also happen to belong to St. Agnes Episcopal Church, where my wife and I celebrate our own individual and personal religious beliefs and traditions, devoutly, respectfully, regularly and always together. It would seem to most readers of that post, that a debate about pro-life and pro-choice should rely upon trust and faith in God to settle. I believe I did, but I didn't say so. It is precisely because of my moral framework that is my awareness of God, that I believe what I believe, but I don't explain it as "because God said so." My God is not a parent, and I'm no longer a child. Allow me to illustrate.
Recently, I received a political survey in the mail. Normally, I just throw these away. I threw this one away, but not until after I had scanned it and noticed one of the questions: "How many times a day do you pray? One? Two? Three? Four? Other?" and then there was a blank where you could write an answer or a comment. I didn't. As I said, I threw it away. I did think about that question and how I might answer it. I would have had to use the blank space because choosing a number would have been impossible. I don't believe the author of that survey and I have the same definition(s) for "pray." I don't believe I could explain in the alloted and very limited space in that box on that page what I believe adequately enough for the unknown person who reads the comment to understand my position. It would have been a waste of my time, and his or hers as well, and used for purposes I would not support.
What does this have to do with the debate between those who say they are pro-choice and those who say they are pro-life? Perhaps very little, but it has a lot to do with my relationship with God which affected how I wrote about that debate and about how I would answer a very simplistic and silly question about prayer.
I believe that God is always "listening" to me, and to you, and to everyone who is alive in this universe. I think praying is for us, not for God. It allows us a chance to "listen" to God. I pray once a day, it is a long prayer which lasts from the moment I awake in the morning until the moment I go to sleep at night--with a possible interruption during an afternoon nap. Even when sleeping, we can "listen," or sense God. If we choose to do that by pondering such things when we return to awakeness. So life is a long prayer, a communication with God. Some of us "listen" to God actively, others might pay no conscious attention, but I believe God is always aware of us, and the word "listen" doesn't explain it. It may be an extrasensory experience--something we call a spiritual awareness.
I believe God is always aware of all of us. I believe we are endowed by our creator with the equal potential to be aware of God, but life and its experiences complicate that awareness. I believe God gave us the potential to experience life, freely. I believe God gives us free-will to think, act, explore, discover, and all of the other human behaviors and attitudes that fill our lives. My God is not a puppet-master and I'm not a puppet. I'm not living God's plan, God and I are on a journey together, a journey that no one has ever taken before. We are discovering my life together. God is discovering and experiencing every life--I might argue that God is Life!
God, and Life, goes on in this universe and on this planet and in this country, state, community, and home whether I'm alive or not. I believe that God experiences God's universe through life and all living entities. When my lifetime ends, then God will cease to experience my life at least in the sense that my journey through life is over. It is difficult for me to imagine before or after my life, except through what I've been taught by the traditions of my Christian belief system. I used to think that death might be like before birth--absolute nothingness. As I grew older, and ever closer to the promised land, I've wondered if life after death might be an awareness of a life or of lives with God, which could not exist until life was or is lived. I have the advantage of never having studied theology, so I am free of the boundaries of thinking of many wise thinkers of the past and present. I'm unencumbered by any knowledge of what I'm discussing. I'm ignorant of these ideas, but, therefore, quite free to ponder.
I don't believe that science or humans will ever discover God or explain God. Science and the pursuits of scientists may help us to understand this natural and physical universe that we inhabit, but I don't believe science should or could dwell in the realm of God. Pursuing a greater understanding of our universe, natural and physical, is something God gave us the inclination and the ability to do. It is one way that we might show our love for God.
For those of you looking for answers to life's mysteries in the Bible, as we find in the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 2, verses 29 and 30: "The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength:" and of course, in the next verse, Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves. And then he teaches us that no other commandment is greater than these. Loving God with "all thy mind" is pertinent. Seeking to understand is a power of the mind, which we should use to the fullest. Science is an organized approach to understanding, to using our mind, and to loving our God.
In Matthew, Chapter 5, verses 14 to 16, Jesus tells us: "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." The "good works" of science should be seen by all, and such works bring glory to God.