Timothy Wulff – A favorite quote of mine is from Kierkegaard: “In an infinite and incomprehensible universe, it is not a question of whether faith, but rather, faith in what.” This brief sentence has had an enormous impact on me over the years and produced a startling effect on my views.
Religion is not Spirit
If the universe is infinite and incomprehensible – a seemingly simple and acceptable postulate – then any complete or absolute definition or understanding of it is not possible from a limited human perspective. As such, any religion which claims to define or otherwise explain the unknowable contains within it a logical fallacy. It cannot be otherwise.
Simply put, one cannot know the unknowable nor completely perceive the infinite with finite minds. So any religion which claims to perfectly contain the unknowable expresses an inherent falsehood. In fact, they all do. I know of no religion which contains within it a caveat that its teachings are a ‘best guess’ or warns that its current truths could be utterly invalidated by new information that might be forthcoming at any moment.
This is the logically fallacious aspect of all religious dogma, and I find it highly suspicious that no effort (of which I am aware) has been made by any religion to place the tiniest philosophical caveat on its representations to the world. To the contrary what we have is the representation that each unique religion holds the complete answer and correct view of the universe and man’s existence in it. This alone should arouse suspicion concerning the true nature and intent of religion.
Spirit Simply Cannot Be Contained Within Religion
It is a laughable presumption that limited minds, eyes, and methods of thought are capable of knowing and perceiving everything. Take, for example, vision. Humans see within a very narrow wavelength of light, narrower than cats who can see within the infrared wavelength. I remember striking a match in front of my cat. He shrank back in alarm, focusing his eyes high above the match, gazing up about 6 feet into the air. What my cat saw was an inverted pyramid of violently roiling hot air. A violent and, to him, alarming visual event invisible to me because it was occurring within the infrared spectrum.
Extrapolate this general observation to the human condition and one begins to understand the utter arrogance and ignorance we embrace when we claim to possess the capacity to understand in an absolute and inviolable sense anything at all about our existence.
While this is bad news to those firmly attached to their desire and need to know an absolute answer to the nature of our existence, it is in reality wonderful, exciting and liberating news. It points the way to a more correct path, a path imbued with a sense of discovery and open-mindedness. It is a path of continual wonderment unimpeded by the constraints of religious dogma.
In fact, unlike the Christian philosopher in whose book I found the Kierkegaard quote, I did not find Kierkegaard’s assessment supportive of a faith-based belief in Christ. Instead, this quote led me to see that the most valid approach to living is one of discovery, exploration, experimentation and open-mindedness. Open-mindedness in particular is the only attitude justified by our ignorance and our embedded limitations.
Maturity Requires Growth Beyond Dependency
Our humanness is biologically rooted in survival from infancy. As such our humanness has a deep tendency to attach. We learned as infants that attachment facilitates survival, and as we develop, healthy attachments become vehicles of love, nurturance and every sort of security, pleasure and gratification in life.
And yet it is also clear as we mature that the process of maturity requires us to move beyond this biologically and relationally-rooted attachment. We experience life as a constant flow of continual change, each instant unique, a one-of-a-kind moment in a kaleidoscope of unrecoverable moments that form a tapestry of experience. We learn to release attachment in each moment, and, in so doing we create a greater capacity within ourselves to experience each moment more fully – from a place of enhanced appreciation and awareness.
This liminal space between knowing and not knowing permeates us all. It is Spirit alive in and through us, awaiting discovery.
With love
Timothy