that was then..

One night close to a decade later, I had a thought process which married cosmology and transcendence into a statement which was so simplistic that it may have some element of truth:

Either (via the big bang) the universe came into existence out of nothing, with matter and energy being created out of emptiness and for no reason.

or

A power we cannot yet comprehend set the big bang and the universe into motion by divine intervention and for a purpose we are not yet privy to.

Although the later is impossible to humanly comprehend, the former is simply impossible!

So as scientists can never explain what happened before the big bang, it seems rational to think that something irrational is out there and I guess all the different religions are trying to fill in that hole.

If the above were to be accepted as profound however, it would need to be opened up to academics and philosophers alike. I sent this to the most authoritative source I know - John Shelby Spong, and received this reply:

Dear Mark:
Thanks for your letter. Your argument is as good as any. It is not new. It responds to the question why is there something and not nothing.
In the last analysis whether there is God or not doesn't really matter. The real question is: does this God relate to me?
My best,
John S. Spong

The latter part of this reply alludes to what Bonhoeffer recognised, as so many religious people fail to do, that anything we say about God is subjective. We cannot capture and fully embrace God. Our words point to and our images interact with God, but our words and our images are products of our world, our cultural realities. They are not objective and they will not endure forever. So therefore we must ask ourselves ‘who is God for us today?’ and ‘how does this God relate to me personally’. The former part of his reply however adds a certain amount of validity to my statement and subsequently gives further strength to my conviction.

So even though I believe all religion to be ultimately man-made, I treat God as axiom and Jesus as simply one of the many doorways to that God—like a candle inside a multicoloured lantern, everyone looks through a particular colour, but the candle is always there. Ultimately, we must learn that in respect to the different religions out there, it is not the road we individually travel, but the destination we seek, that is crucial. To suggest otherwise is to continue to play outdated religious games.

Maybe the human mind is not capable of understanding universal truths? - Anon