Spirituality,
Religion, Nature
Religion and
Spirituality
I start
these considerations about Spirituality,
Religion, and Nature, with some simple questions: “Do I believe in God?”
And my answer will be “yes,” although I am afraid that I would be
misinterpreted since most believers in the world have an understanding of
divinity that is completely unacceptable to me. Another question: “Is Nature
God?” And the answer will be: “Almost certainly it is” (you should be aware
what I mean by Nature, not just presuppose it; please read). And although there
is not certain proof to any of these questions, we might offer some
considerations that would help us to elucidate this taken-for-granted belief in
God.
The
interventionist and supernatural God of theism, who makes miracles as per the
art of magic, does not exist. The humanized God of
tradition, who thinks and acts as humans do, is not. A “commodity” God, a God
of convenience who is ready to help supplicants, and even to change the laws of
nature if they ask for it, is just a “God” of imagination without foundation.
The
Existence itself, a necessary To Be, the “Substance” itself, certainly is and
it is evident, since we see Nature, and nobody can doubt that Nature is. Beyond
that, there is no proof, or evidence, that something exists. This is for
certain: it is an axiom. But as Nature itself needs an explanation for its own
existence, in the following pages will explain what is, in my
opinion, the most reasonable interpretation of Nature. This is the
spirituality I am talking about in this web page.
Religion and spirituality. Religion
goes together with spirituality, sometimes an unreasonable connection.
Religious doctrines and practices have spiritual content and dimension, and
presume the belief in a spiritual being; but spirituality is not limited to
religion, and reaches many other areas that do not belong to religion. I’ll
explore these areas, too, in the future.
Current situation of
religion
Religion
as it has been practiced for centuries is losing its strength and
credibility; it is losing steadily, not just its membership, but, what is
worse, its ground. World population is moving in a direction far from religion,
toward materialism, and is abandoning God, because
the God presented by religions is not acceptable to science and their reasoning
minds, and does not fit the teachings of schools and universities.
There is an undeniable fact: that religion in the Western
hemisphere is in a serious crisis. People today are looking seriously for an
explanation of the world, and the answer provided by religions lacks a
scientific perspective and credibility.
Convenience of new direction. This scenario suggests
the convenience of finding a different kind of spirituality and of being “religious,”
without falling into the darkness of obsolete “truths;” into the ignorance of
fundamental teachings of science. Those who are tired of old dogmas and beliefs
and disenchanted with religious practices and traditions, may find hope in a God relevant to the XXI
century.
How the idea of God was created
Questions of primitive men and women
In the earliest times of the human race, probably several millions of years ago,
men and women needed an explanation for the world,
and they wondered “how this universe came to exist?” They were perplexed
in front of the portents of nature: the Sun, the Moon and the stars; the
storms, the lightnings and winds; the waves of the
sea; the animals and plants of the earth, and in particular themselves,
intelligent beings. But they didn’t have the minimal notion about the universe;
they were in total ignorance about the cosmos, and unable to have as much
understanding as we have today.
And yet,
today’s people ask the same questions, and they are not satisfied with the
answer given by religions.
The
idea of a supernatural God. In front of these wonders
and out of their ignorance, human beings
then didn’t have a better explanation than to conclude and create in their minds
the existence of a superior being that they call God, or gods. This God had
to be the Creator, supernatural, all-powerful, Governor of the world; he could
change natural laws because he is their Author; he was far beyond everything
they could think. If we would have been there at that
time most probably we would have assented to that interpretation; there were no
alternatives to choose from.
There was not then, and there is not now, any evidence that such a
supernatural power existed or was required for the existence of the world. It
was a belief, [1]
or presumption; an assumption from the appearance of the world, without
evidence. The credence in a supernatural God is an unproved postulate, a
thought, a belief, a mere possibility. This hypothetical God is the God of
theism.
God in the Bible and in the Christian era
Hundreds of centuries passed when the books of the Bible started
being written, about eight hundred years before the birth of Christ. Their
authors incorporated that belief in a supernatural God in their writings, and
laid down the idea of a God creator. Later on, the Councils of the Church
declared the writings of the Bible as the Word of God, and made it infallible.
God, the Protector. Men and women went
farther; they made God their “Protector;” a kind of being to whom they may look
for assistance; and, as an all-powerful being, he could do everything and help
them in their needs.
Religious power and civil institutions made those beliefs
mandatory, and the teachings of the Church were imposed through menace and
force. Similar processes might be drawn about the Koran and the writings of
other religions. It is thus understandable that the belief in a God creator was
almost uncontested and massively accepted by Western civilization, with very
few exceptions.
Main Wonders attributed to God in the Bible,
Old Testament
Creation of the universe, including plants, animals
and humans (Genesis 1-2)
The flood (Gen. 7, 8)
Confusion of languages (tongues) at Babel (Gen.
11:1-9)
Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:24)
Waters become blood (Ex. 14:14-21)
Red Sea divided; Israel passes through (See: Passage
of Red Sea) (Ex. 14:21-31)
Balaam's ass speaks (Num. 22:21-35)
The sun and moon stayed. (Josh. 10:12-14)
Drought at Elijah's prayers (1 Kings 17, 18)
Fire at Elijah's prayers (1 Kings 18:19-39)
Rain at Elijah's prayers (1 Kings 18:41-45)
Elijah fed by ravens (1 Kings 17, 18)
The widow's oil multiplied (2 Kings 4:2-7)
Main Wonders in the New Testament
Cure of two blind men (Matt 9:27-31)
The blind man of Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26)
The ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19)
Water made wine (John 2:1-11)
Lazarus raised from the dead (John 11:38-44)
Four thousand fed (Matt 15:32; Mark 8:1)
The transfiguration (Matt
17:1-8)
The resurrection (John 21:1-14)
The ascension (Luke 2:42-51)
Go to Content
RELIGION SPIRITUALLITY 03-01-11
[1]
Belief is a presumption
of truth without proof or evidence, and is not necessarily true. Belief is the
mental acceptance and trust in another’s saying, in particular a body of
religious tenets in which some confidence is placed and accepted by a group of
persons. Faith related to the supernatural, the sacred, or a divine
intervention in the universe is placed in such beliefs.