CONTENTS Chapter 1: Yearning for eternity 13 yy The unique human ability to create meaning in life
13
yy A Christian panentheistic view of God
21
yy Summary 34 Chapter 2: The path of silence
35
yy Apophatic epistemology 36 yy An ascetic way of living
50
yy Summary 62 Chapter 3: Free will 63 The relationship between brain and consciousness
64
Consciousness and free will
71
Summary 83 Chapter 4: A highest good 85 yy A materialistic view of the highest good
85
yy A Christian view of the highest good
94
yy Summary 109 Chapter 5: Existential illness 111 yy Existential illness as the splitting of human existential unity
112
yy Existential health as the realization of human existential unity
123
yy Summary 127 Chapter 6: A viable way of living
129
yy Some clarifications
130
yy The scientific quest
134
yy The spiritual quest 137 yy Summary 140 Chapter 7: Where are we going?
141
NOTES 144 LITERATURE 158
CHAPTER 7
WHERE ARE WE GOING? Building the best of possible worlds
Blind is the thought that we form. Countless things happen, against our expectations. Pindar
Every man ... naturally feels the need of forming a life view, a conception of life’s significance and of its purpose. Kierkegaard
As a priest working in a so-called secularized country, I am constantly confronted by materialists’ and humanists’ antipathy towards religious experience in general, and Christian experience in particular. I find it strange that many people are willing to assert that it is entirely legitimate to yearn and strive for wellbeing (eudaimonia), while denying the credibility of the religious or Christian longing and striving for bliss (makarios) – to be inspired by reality’s transcendent, eternal dimension. In this book, I point out some fundamental features of a viable Christian way of thinking and living. My point of departure is a general assumption about human existence. yy Human consciousness with the capacity to freely generate and regulate inner, mental images, e.g. meaning in life, is a fundamental part of human existence.
141
I believe that it is possible for human consciousness to establish a trusting personal relationship with reality’s transcendent, eternal dimension (God). I regard the positing of human consciousness with the capacity to freely create meaning in life as being compatible with scientific descriptions of human existence. I also believe that this assumption is a fundamental dividing line between human consciousness and other animal consciousness. Even though there is continuity in biological evolution – scientists talk about animal cognition, proto-language and proto-morality – it is quite evident that human consciousness is able to create cultural phenomena that no other animals can. Many researchers within different disciplines affirm this assumption. At the beginning of this book, I mentioned researchers such as Peter Gärdenfors, Terrence Deacon and Paul Davies. Wentzel van Huyssteen writes in Alone in the World? that cultural accomplishments rely on “psychological processes that originally evolved in specialized cognitive domains and emerged only when these processes could actually work together.”1 Furthermore: “What is eminently clear ... is that the potential arose in the human mind to undertake science, create art and discover the need and ability of religious belief ...”2 Van Huyssteen refers to the philosopher Holmes Rolston who asserts that “the products of culture are myriad – language, rituals, tools, clothing, houses, computers and rockets – and are directly tied to ideas, and the home of ideas is the human mind.”3 Also: “the human mind is the only mind that permits the building of complex transmissible cultures.”4 Van Huyssteen also refers to Ian Tattersall who asserts that the ability to create meaning in life is man’s unique ability. He writes: “Tattersall correctly argues that this is the very foundation of imagination and creativity, of the unique ability of human to create a world in the mind and then re-create it in the real world outside themselves.”5 Human consciousness is both constructing and meaning-making. The constructing of inner, mental images of outer, objective states of affairs is man’s awareness of his surroundings and himself.
142
Consciousness is also able to ascribe meaning to the external world and itself. It is also quite possible for human consciousness to establish a trusting personal relationship with reality’s transcendent, eternal dimension. Subsequent to the so-called cultural revolution that took place about fifty thousand years ago, human consciousness has generated incredible cultural phenomena. There is a plethora of cultural manifestations, from the paintings of Cro-Magnon people via agricultural societies’ and industrial societies’ various manifestations – philosophy, religion, art and politics – to the technological tools of today’s information societies. How will present and future humans interact with each other and nature? What social structures enrich life rather than reduce life? Global injustice shows how human life can be reduced to its lowest level. About half of the world’s population, more than three and a half billion people, live on less than three dollars per day. More than two and a half billion people lack access to adequate sanitary facilities. Approximately one billion people lack access to clean water. I believe that man’s strongest longing and striving, human desiderium, is to realize his full potential, to become a whole person. A possible expression for human desiderium is the creating of the best of possible worlds. For this to happen, new sages of human subjectivity must come forward. Present and future people need to pay greater attention to the capacity of subjectivity, the ability of consciousness to create detached images, e.g. meaning in life. During the so-called Axial Age, some of the most famous sages of human subjectivity, e.g. Moses, Confucius, Buddha and Socrates, disclosed their subjectivity. During the Enlightenment, sages such as Kant, Fichte and Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834), disclosed their subjectivity. They asserted the unfathomable mystery of human consciousness; they opened the doors to unknown worlds and the possibility to build sustainable civilizations. I believe that we can build a civilization rooted in love and not a civilization grounded in hatred.
143