Spring is a time of wonder and delight! Seemingly dead branches bud and blossom. Green shoots spring from the ground and flower in many colors. Animals breed and give birth more so in spring than in winter.
We humans find ourselves in the posture of humble awe and wonder. I think this posture itself is the defining core of religion.
Religion is not about beliefs, not about intellectual consent, according to religious historian Karen Armstrong. She writes: “Indeed, it is only since the Enlightenment that faith has been defined as intellectual submission to a creed.” (Every Eye Beholds, 1998) Religion is a posture of awe and wonder, a posture of humility before something awesome transcending oneself.
The egotist who truly behaves as if there is nothing greater than him/herself is rare.
When believers declare they know God, defining Him as a father, a king and judge, I can understand why others call themselves “atheists.” It is embarrassing that the awe- some reality we observe in microorganism and in galaxy is characterized with dated human metaphors. Those among us who call themselves “atheist,” dissociate themselves from that God “imagined” in our own image. We reject idolatry, the error of mistaking the pointing finger for the moon.
The reality that amazes us moment by moment, is beyond human words or imagination. It is what is. All the atheists I have ever met have a great sense of awe and wonder. They are far from being self-absorbed egotists. They may reject the term `God,’ but they do recognize the existence of reality greater than themselves. That is, in my opinion, a theistic perspective.
Carl Sagan responds: “Well, if we say that the definition of God is reality, or the definition of God is love, I have no quarrel with the existence of reality or the existence of love. In fact, I’m in favor of both of them…. So my proposal is that we call reality `reality,’ that we call love `love,’ and not either of them God, which has, while an enormous number of other meanings, not exactly those meanings.” (The Varieties of Scientific Experience, 2006)
Call this amazing and unfathomable something that we experience moment by moment “reality” or call it God, both naturalistic theist and atheist find ourselves in the religious posture of humility and wonder. In speaking with those who believe in loving-and-damning-God metaphors, we could do better than simply saying what we don’t believe. Do we communicate our sense of awe and wonder before an amazing, unfathomable reality? We don’t deserve the caricature of being called self-worshiping egotists!
Blessings!
Rod Debs, Pastor
Rev. Rod Debs