Really? How interesting. Ideas come to man; he passes them on and receives the thoughts of his fellow man. One outcome is that a body of ideas on spirituality coalesces to form... a religion? A human-centred religion. Is that not a curious annexation of a well-defined term? A dictionary definition confirms that a religion is ‘‘a system of belief in, and worship of, a supernatural power or god’’.
It seems the Network began on a false premise. Whatever else it was promoting, it certainly wasn’t a religion.
In practice the Network is travelling along carrying a bag of ideas, unfortunately unaware that the bag has a hole in it. As it travels, valuable essence is being lost on the journey.
One powerful essence that is leaking away is the concept of ‘‘God’’. Yes, we know it is a human creation. It has to be, because it is an idea in the mind of man, and as we work with it and manipulate it, the outcome is a creation of man. But...
This concept of ‘‘God’’ that man has brought into being contains within it the notion that there is a Consciousness that exists not only within man, but also external to man.
Whatever power, ingenuity and creativeness man may have, there is, external to him, a vast conscious reservoir of these energies and qualities, so immeasurably greater than man’s store as to be considered infinite in quality and power.
At that point man is in a similar position to that of a scientist with a theory. To have credence he must go further and look for proof. So, believing that he sometimes catches a glimpse of this tremendous support system, man has tried to tap the resource; align himself with it; open himself to the spiritual forces which he believes radiate from it. In so doing he has at times considerably increased his own stature - gone far beyond what he had believed was his limited capacity. ‘‘God’’, he has affirmed, has made his-undreamed of growth possible. He prays to this font of limitless wisdom and creativeness and he asserts he receives answers, inspiration and direction. He achieves a faith that ‘‘with ‘God’ all things are possible’.
We may step back and explain that this concept is of man’s own making. Our reasoning faculties may have such a sharp cutting edge that we eventually cut completely free from this notion of a limitless power and wisdom existing external to man. We may sec it for what we think it is - just a creation of man’s mind and imagination. This, of course, does not make us unique.
We have merely achieved by thought and mental effort the state that unthinking, unimaginative, uninspired millions have acepted over generations.
There is an enormous price to be paid for the luxury of rejecting the concept of an external ‘‘God’’. It destroys our Deity of Last Resort. When the going gets so tough that man thinks no human help can handle his circumstances, there is no higher entity to which he can appeal.
Neither, of course, can he pray in the manner of his forebears over thousands of years. He can sound words in his head, but finally - being a member of those select brothers and sisters of the Sea of Faith, the Five Hundred - he now knows that he is just talking to himself.
When the chips are down, he knows that there is only man to appeal to. There is no superhuman Power to come to his aid, Curiously, it does not seem that he has struck a good bargain. It may be that when he believed in ‘‘God’’ the very belief liberated dormant powers that had been within him all the time. But now he has no tool available to put them at his disposal. He has cast free of the myth but his freedom has left him less able to deal with life. He has lost his ‘‘God’’ and a great slice of his creativity is no longer available to him.
Maybe in time he will discover a way to reconnect with valuable aspects of himself, but there is a bleakness about the absence of his Ever-present Help in times of Need.
Maybe in time he will discover some of the stranger aspects of Mind - the fact that in certain circumstances the thoughts in his head are able to communicate themselves at a distance - the fact that when conditions are right a mysterious power of healing can suffuse his body and give him the power to cure other malfunctioning bodies - the fact that at times he can receive ideas and inspirations that appear to flow into his mind from another Domain. ‘If man does manage to hoist himself up by his shoelaces, he will have remade himself in his own image. The notion is somehow not very reassuring...’ In the past he could attribute all these things to the inflow from some ‘‘spiritual’’ realm. Now he .will have to struggle to learn techniques to achieve similar results; polish up his meditative capabilities; learn how to change his brain rhythms. He no longer has the option to call upon ‘‘God’’, Having destroyed a myth, he now has need to create something better than what he has discarded. Not an easy task.
If he does eventually manage to hoist himself up by his own shoelaces, he will probably have remade himself in his own image. He will have become his own God. The notion is somehow not very reassuring for the future evolution of man. Didn’t a certain Mr Hitler experiment along those lines? Intriguing though the Sea of Faith undoubtedly is, perhaps it is best for the future of man that the Brotherhood remains only five hundred strong.
A L Rogers is a retired engineer, a ‘lapsed Methodist’, and a member of a discussion group on psychology and philosophy in Walsall, Staffordshire.