Experiencing "God"

Before the modern age, when nights were still dark, people often spent the evening outside, watching the spectacle of the stars on high. They watched the perfect order of the zodiac, the lunar cycle and the seasons of the year. The skies indicated when seeds could be sown, when animals would be born and when the harvest could be gathered in. In prehistoric society, people were literally watching a calendar in the sky that ruled the rhythms of their lives. I find it touching to see prehistorical burial mounds laid out along celestial lines across the landscape, or monuments like Stonehenge and the megalithic temples on Malta built to capture the cycles of sun and moon.

 In Psalm 19:1-6, the author, taking the voice of the biblical shepherd-turned-king David, meditates on the sky above him. The sky is not God, but it shows the glory of God. “God” is not a name, like Zeus or Odin, it is a category. It is the unnamed force that shaped the universe. That is what David calls “God” (in Hebrew ‘El’ or ‘Elohim,’ and in Arabic ‘Allah’). In verses 7 to 9 he changes from ‘God’ to ‘YHWH.’ YHWH is not a name either but denotes the Hebrew verb form for “HE IS,” like the “I AM” in the story of Moses. It is not the God of creation, but the unnamed experience of God’s presence among the people of Israel. For David, the same power that regulated and supported life on earth, inspired the people of Israel to have laws and institutions that ordered society and protected its members. In the end of the psalm, it is an inner presence that he can speak with, that grounds him as his ‘rock’ and redeems him from the power of his sins over his life.

You can find something similar in Greek philosophy. Philosophers assumed that the intellect that rules the cosmosshould also rule the polis (the city-state) and the individual psyche. Stoic philosophers called this the logos, in the sense of the divine word or reason. Even though the Greeks had many myths about gods and goddesses, most philosophers would interpret these as story and metaphor. They would speak of ‘God’ (‘ho theos’), as the One, when they referred to the ultimate and nameless divine power.

David’s psalm is not a political or philosophical text. It is an intimate meditation, a communication with his inner rock, and a song of praise. David rejoices in this moment of harmony between the cosmos, the Thora and his own intentions.

In the Beginning

The word ‘God’ is associated in this Psalm with the works of God’s hands. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,’ says Genesis 1:1. Or, in the opening words of the Gospel of John: ‘In the beginning, there was the logos, and the logos was with God, and God was the logos.’

Think about it: there was a beginning. It all began. Out of absolute nothingness and within an indivisible moment, space and time were born and expanded at the speed of the light, perfectly obeying the unspoken laws of a universe that would not have existed without them. It is in accordance with these laws that stars and galaxies were formed, that planets found their perfect shapes and orbits around their sun. And for some time, now in fact, a planet circling a star in a remote corner of this ever-expanding universe, was covered by a atmosphere: a translucent sheet of air and moist, shielding and stabilizing a watery surface. And there, in the place we now call ‘Earth,’ we began. ‘Life.’

We don’t know who or what caused this ‘big bang,’ or how many causes there were that produced it. Some today prefer to call it ‘nothing.’ For them, there is nothing beyond this reality and no one created anything. In the past, of course, ‘nothing’ was called ‘God.’ It is just a matter of definition. In fact, some philosophers and theologians would go on to say that God caused time and space to be and is therefore beyond time and place. He caused everything that exists to be and therefore is himself not existent. In other words, he is indeed ‘no-thing.’

The truth is, we can call this ultimate cause anything we want, as it is beyond our knowledge and existence. On the other hand, language matters. The word we use influences us in what we lead ourselves to think. If we say that ‘nothing’ caused the big bang, then we are tempted to think that science can study everything. We are then the inmates of our universe, content to think that there is nothing beyond it. If we define ‘God’ as the ultimate cause of the universe, then we are tempted to think that religious ideas about ‘God’ can help us understand the origins of our universe. But they can’t. For all our ideas about ‘God’ are expressed in language and stories that reflect our existence here, in this universe. Science and religion each have their own respective fields of enquiry and expression.

Sometimes, in antiquity, people were called ‘atheists’ not so much because they disputed the existence of God or gods – that would have been ‘irrational’ in those days -, but mostly because they did not believe them to be interested in humans and thought it useless to worship them. The authorities believed that this could upset the divine forces and lead to disasters for the city. Christian converts, for example, could be prosecuted for atheism if they stopped worshipping the patron gods of the city. 

When do I speak of God? 

The bottom-line is this: the word ‘God’ needs to be shared. If we are to share our thoughts and experiences, it helps when we share our definitions and experiences, rather than ascribe to the other what we believe or denounce. Almost everyone stands in awe before the universe. Most people share the drive towards a just, compassionate and sustainable society. Many find a source of healing, comfort, and inspiration within them. The author of the Psalm experiences a unity between these three, - the laws of the cosmos, the foundations for a good society and his own spiritual health. Do I experience that too? If so, then the cause of creation, the essence of humanity, and the spirit within me, could conceivably be defined as one God. Or in Christian terms as ‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit.’

Does it make sense to have faith in ‘God,’ and if so, in what kind of expression of God? God cannot be tested, for he is by definition beyond our existence. But faith in God can be tested to see if it holds a blessing for me and helps me to be a blessing to other living beings. We already discussed how Abraham tested faith: with his feet. These meditations are without value if they don’t extend to my walk in the garden or my behaviour in the street. Do I enjoy the beauty of life, the singing of birds, the waving of the grass? Do I notice the acts of friendliness and care of the people around me? Do I take care not to harm nature? Do I acknowledge other people in the train or in the office? Do I wish them well, am I available to listen or act when called upon? Can I honestly love myself?

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©Archives Georges Lemaître - Université catholique de Louvain

In 1931, Georges Lemaître, a Belgian priest and scientist, proposed an initial point (a ‘cosmic egg’) for the birth of time and space. At first, most scientists disagreed. They assumed matter to be eternal and some believed that Lemaître’s theory too much resembled the Catholic concept of creatio ex nihilo. In fact, the image of a ‘cosmic egg’ was already proposed by second century philosophers, like the Gnostic Christian Basilides of Alexandria. Since then science has advanced and now there is a majority of scientist who think that something like a ‘big bang’ is the best explanation for our expanding universe.
Some scientists even call this universe ‘fine-tuned,’ as a number of constants in our universe are set in the only way that prevents it from collapsing. Although the chance that such a universe could come forth from nothing would be infinitely small, that does not have to point to an intelligent design if you assume an unmeasurable number of universes being born. You can then apply Darwin’s idea of natural selection to the universe as a ‘species’ and assume that of those many universes only some are fit to survive for a while.
Some say that the universe we live in is organized in a way that almost inevitably would lead to intelligent life (the ‘anthropic principle’), so much so that many believe life must have evolved on other planets as well. Again, the chance of that happening on a specific planet is very small, let alone that it would be able to survive, reproduce and evolve to intelligent life. But if there are many planets, it is bound to happen sometimes and in some places. It is a bit ironic: in order to avoid thinking of ‘God’ as being more than ‘nothing,’ scientists must assume that universes are born innumerable times and that over billions of years countless planets must have hosted at least the initial development of life.
Perhaps it is best to approach the universe with an open mind, seeing with joy and curiosity that the laws of our universe can be discovered today, by observation and logic, playing back the story of ‘us’ until its very beginning. And let’s accept that we cannot go back much further, for that is when our time and space came into existence.

Suggestions for dialogue

A moderator can explain the dialogue steps and invite people to contribute:

• Check in with yourself. Share with each other how you are in this moment. Then take a moment again to seek stillness, humility and openness. 
• First round: Share something from the text or image(s) that stood out to you and that you would like to explore with the group, briefly indicating the thoughts and feelings that it evoked within you. Listen to the others do the same: what resonates with you? Responses in this round should be limited to questions for clarification.
• Second round: Name one or two things that resonated with you from the things that others just shared. 
• Third round: Having heard the group, the moderator names the main topics for exploration. The moderator may also propose a common thread that emerged in several topics. The exploration normally starts with asking the person(s) who brought up the topic to expand on it.
• Leave room for silence and contemplation. 
• Check out by sharing what you take home from this dialogue.

These suggestions are an adaptation of the Estuary protocol. Look for more at https://www.estuaryhub.com