The title of a book by philosopher Josef Siefert encompasses the theological angst that many religious believers experienced in the aftermath of WW2. The horrors of war - in particular the Holocaust, the industrialised mass-murder of an entire people - sowed doubt in the minds of millions of believers. "How could a compassionate God allow for such evil to happen?"
I see God as compassionate (Why are we here at all? Why is there something rather than nothing? Why are we conscious of ourselves and our place in the Cosmos?). But I don't see God as omnipotent and omniscient - only as omnipresent, within the fields of waves/particles permeating the Universe. God is unfolding together with the Universe, not perfect, but tending towards perfection. God - a direction towards an end-point, God as a purpose, God as connection. Certainly not an anthropomorphic God, in the form of a bearded man.
But if God is everywhere - is God there, where evil is?
We may consider our minds to be the most complex - indeed the most glorious - things known to us in all the known Universe, but in reality our understanding of ultimate reality is on a par with a cat's understanding of electricity. A smart cat can associate the touch of a human's finger on that white square on the wall with darkness turning into light or vice versa. But how electrons pass through a copper wire all the way from a power station via transformers to power a light-emitting diode is utterly incomprehensible to the feline mind. And so is the Divine Cosmic Mystery to us - we can but intuit that it exists - but how, and why God functions - is a matter of conjecture, the most profound question for us.
I shall be delving deeper into cosmological models and the place for a divinity within them during this Lenten series of blog posts. Science and cosmology do give me succour at this troubled time - looking up at a starry night or listening to a podcast about subatomic physics gives me a certainty that there's more to life than the unremitting human tragedy just across the border right now. Doubt creeps up; it is not physical fear but metaphysical fear that an impending Auschwitz can destroy our faith in goodness, and in an ultimately compassionate God.
My subjective peace of mind has all but evaporated, and with it the nagging anxiety that objectively things will get much, much worse before they get better - and for the first time in many years; it is the doubt that maybe the power of prayer cannot overcome evil. Innocent people killed - loss of human potential, lives cut short - not due to misfortunate accidents or illness, but because of evil. What happens to their souls - their non-material consciousness? I'd like to believe they will reincarnate... a wish, or a prayer?
This time last year:
Near-death experiences - what do they tell us?
This time two years ago:
Build your own religion - choosing your rites and rituals
This time four years ago:
From the origins of conscious life to us and beyond
This time seven years ago:
Underground connection, Świętokrzyska
This time ten years ago:
Nikkor 45mm f2.8 pancake lens tested
This time 11 years ago:
Old Town, another prospect
This time 12 years ago:
W-wa Śródmieście - commuters' staging post
This time 13 years ago:
Filthy ul. Poloneza
This time 14 years ago:
A sight that heralds the coming of spring
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