My Sunday Thought for 020418: Religion (pars tres) - Faith

“Civilization will not attain to its perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest.”

-- Émile Zola (1840-1902), journalist, novelist, agnostic

Note:  Welcome to part three of a three part series.  If you missed the first two parts, I have included the links so you can catch up.

Religion (pars una) - Control of the Faithful 

Religion (pars duorum) - After the Collapse

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Émile Zola was an acclaimed French novelist, a socialist and, though baptized catholic, an agnostic and critic of the Roman Catholic Church.  "Civilization will not attain to its perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest."  When I read his quote, I was struck by how much meaning was lost if one doesn't put it in context with another of his quotes, "When truth is buried underground it grows, it chokes, it gathers such an explosive force that on the day it bursts out, it blows up everything with it.  The truth is on the march, and nothing shall stop it.”

Like Zola, I was also baptized a Catholic, I have studied socialism, I have issues with organized religion and the church... any church, and I have been an agnostic and can probably still be defined as one by those with little understanding of faith.  According to the philosopher William L. Rowe, "agnosticism is the view that human reason is incapable of providing sufficient rational grounds to justify either the belief that God exists or the belief that God does not exist," and I agree with him.  Unlike atheists, who flat-out do not believe in any deity, agnostics simply question the existence, or non-existence, of God due to lack of evidence.  Where I part ways with the agnostic is in my faith in a particular definition of God.

“The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also.”

-- Mark Twain (1835-1910), author, humorist

Unlike Zola, I believe socialism only works until you run out of other people's money.  Zola addresses the correct assumption, though, that civilization cannot move forward until we address the control exerted over it by organized religion.  Religion demands a separation of church and state yet works behind the scenes to accomplish political agendas.  The historic hypocrisy of organized religion must end.  Mahatma Gandhi was right when he said, "God has no religion."  In place of misguided religion must rise the original intent of God; to recognize there is a creative force in the universe, and to love each other as we would want to be loved.  If organized religion is incapable of bringing us an understanding of this creative force, this misguided interpretation of "God" then, perhaps,  it is incumbent upon each of us to find our own peaceful interpretation of this force and develop our own spiritual belief, and our own personal relationship with it.   

“Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning...”

-- C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), novelist , religious writer

Of course, we don't have to.  Like the atheist, we can refuse to acknowledge an existence of a creative power at work in the universe.  We can simply believe everything is random and the is no rhyme or reason, no pan at work, for anything in creation; everything is here as the result of a cosmic crapshoot.  If we have no reason to believe in that for which there is no concrete evidence.  This is the philosophy of organized religion, the heresy which held back science and technology for centuries, in the name of "God."  Yet, the lack of desire by those no spiritual faith, to not search for answers to the God question, smacks of this same criminal ignorance.  Can we truly seek answers to everything and not include everything in our search?  The Council of Nicaea failed at this when they decided which scripture was worthy to be included in the Holy Bible.  Without all of the information we have to rely on the opinions of others for "truth" and, as we all know, opinions are like assholes - everybody has one. 

You can deny the existence of something for which there is no proof by the very denial of any proof to the contrary.  It is denying the existence of the forest by also denying the trees blocking it from view.  It is what it is, or it is what it isn't, but the problem with the argument is that we named it, and the minute we named it we gave it life.

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.

-- C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), novelist , religious writer

Religion does not move the individual forward.  Religion is the crutch used by an individual to deny any personal responsibility for one's "salvation," if you will.  Could Mother Teresa, Saint Teresa, have accomplished all she did with the poor without her religion?  Absolutely; she had unyielding faith in a power greater than herself.  Why was Joan of Arc burned at the stake?  Because she refused to deny her unyielding faith in a power greater than herself, to the very church which demanded it this unyielding faith!  Is it any wonder people feel religion stagnates civilization?  But, we do have great evidence that an unyielding faith can work wonders.  

The current Dalai Lama, a man for which I have utmost respect, defines his own religion thus, "My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness."  It is through this kindness we can find our way forward through this level existence and into the next, until we reach a point where we cannot grow further.  What we really need to do is to stop confusing the term faith with religion.  We need to understand that our personal faith may, nay, must adhere to many good philosophies in order to grow and move us forward.  Our science must be anchored to an unyielding sense of faith as much as our faith is anchored to the discoveries of science.  Albert Einstein, with all of his intelligence, tried to say this but didn't understand the importance of faith over religion, "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." 

In Romans 14:4 we are told, "Who are you to judge a Servant who is not yours? For if he stands, he stands to his Master, and if he falls, he falls to his Master, for it is appointed to his Master to be able to establish him."  For those of little faith this "master" could be defined as the individual himself, for it is the individual who holds the ultimate responsibility to succeed or fail.  Failure can be seen as relinquishing one's self to the judgment of others.  Those of great faith, however, can also define this "master" in the same way, as they see themselves as being the masters of their own destiny.  The question we must all answer is who gave us this power to be our own masters, to stand or fall and to establish ourselves?  Was it a crapshoot, or was it ordained by a greater power that we should rise?  Why are we, and why do we have dominion over our present and our future?  Why do we have this unyielding faith that there is something greater than ourselves which keeps us moving forward though the darkest of times?

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven..”

-- John Milton (1608-1674), poet, polemicist

Is it really important that we have religion?  Religion is defined, loosely, as a body of persons adhering to a generally agreed upon, particular fundamental set of beliefs and practices concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

Is it more important that we have practices or beliefs?  Isn't it more important that we simply have an unyielding personal belief, a personal faith concerning a good, righteous, and peaceful moral code?  Wouldn't it seem more constructive to have a personal faith concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, as being why we're here?  If we could all agree to disagree on our beliefs, how much more might we grow?  And if we agreed among each other to search for truth wouldn't require scientific method to allow the wiggle room to say that not everything is this or that, maybe there exists a middle ground that must be taken into account?  

Maybe we all need to understand there may be no such thing as a total vacuum, or a definitive statement like... there is a God.  Sometimes things need to be viewed as they are, and sometimes that view is fuzzy.  It is what it is.  Maybe the universe is okay with agnosticism.  Maybe the "creative force" in the universe is okay with us looking for the answers which, perhaps, a search for proof of the existence of this "creative force" might provide.  This proof would not solidify one's personal faith in as much as it would expand upon one's understanding of it.  If we could all just pay attention to the unyielding faith in this search, maybe the governing of human affairs would shake itself out in the process.  Give unto the universe that which the universe demands and give unto Caesar that which Caesar's demands; if we do it correctly, shouldn't the journey for both demands ultimately take is to the same destination, regardless of what each of us wants to name it?

“If I keep observing the uranium, which means a little more than keeping my eyes on the pot on my desk and involves something akin to surrounding it with a whole system of Geiger counters, I can freeze it in such a way that it stops emitting radiation. Although Turing first suggested the idea as a theoretical construct, it turns out that it is not just mathematical fiction. Experiments in the last decade have demonstrated the real possibility of using observation to inhibit the progress of a quantum system.”

-- Marcus du Sautoy, mathematician, author

If we are not destined to ever answer these questions then why were we given a mind to ask them?  If the answers don't wish to be found then our searching will simply alert the answers to hide or remain confusing.  The results we observe might really depend on what "that which is being observed" wants us to see; the same results may always be observed differently depending on the observer.  Regardless, the human condition will have no other choice than to continue the search, it is what we do and what we have always done.

I'm have faith that all of this gives God much to chuckle about.

Editor's Note

(Re: disclaimer cum "get out of jail free" card)

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion. It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other. An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so. This is also why, occasionally, I will present an "opinion" just to stir an emotional pot. Where it may sound like I agree with the statements made, I'm more interested in getting others to consider another viewpoint. 

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and while engaging in peaceful, constructive, discussion in an arena of mutual respect concerning the opinions put forth. After over twenty years with military intelligence, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human. God's test for us is what we learn from the experience, and what we do afterward.

Pastor Tony spent 23 years with United States Air Force Intelligence as a planner, analyst, briefer, instructor, and senior manager. He spent 17 years, following his service career, working with an Institutional Review Board helping to protect the rights of human subjects in pharmaceutical research. Ordained 1n 2013 as an "interfaith" minister, he founded the Congregation for Religious Tolerance in response to intolerance shown by Christians toward peaceful Islam. As the weapon for his war on intolerance he chose the pen, to wage his "battle" in the guise of the Congregation's official online blog, The Path, of which he is both author and editor. "The Path" offers a vehicle for commentary and guidance concerning one's own personal, spiritual, path toward peace and the final destination for us all. He currently resides in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where he volunteers as Chaplain Program Liaison, at a regional medical center.