Christmas: much more than Christopher Hitchens part truths

After a busy day, I sat down for a relaxed scan through u-tube looking for my usual singing artists, comedians, and perhaps some interesting articles. While the so-called algorithms are supposed to lead me easily to topics of my interest, I was surprised that Christopher Hitchens appeared on my screen, in fact, several articles of his various famous talks plus a few related Ted talks. The stories unfolded as talk after talk cleverly attacked Christianity and the Pope. Understandably his most pointed Christianity rebuke was his argument being how could anybody believe in a God who created a world with children with cancer of the blood, or children that suffered bugs in their eyes that were eating the eye away as one so often finds in Africa. Yes, his argument hit the soft spot. The argument of suffering particularly for the most vulnerable is always a winner. It’s the question all people struggle with, Christian or atheist alike.

Having articulately his argument and convinced his listeners how right he was, he has set the scene for justifying his own atheistic position and the great truth of the scientific world. Certainly, a reasonable place to be for even many people of faith. However, with his reliance on science to answer the great questions of life, he is now left with the quandary of how to deal with suffering, such as mentioned above, From the story of evolution with its narrative of natural selection and the survival of the fittest, he does not seem to be in a better position for the story of evolution is equally as brutal. He extends his criticism to those faithful who believe in God the creator with the comment that if God created the universe, so who created God? He does not seem to know that this is the question that one hears at Sunday school as a young child with an active mind naturally asking this puzzling question. My understanding is that the world of science is still in search of how the big bang came about. Both faith and science have their limits of understanding and usually at this point pursue possibilities through speculative mythologies.

At this point, I should make it clear that my stance is that science and theology need not be tangled in the conflict Hitchens finds himself in. His perspective is a dualistic one. It is the common and simplistic state of perception in which we spend most of our life consciously living. It is natural to see the divisions of life that separate one entity from another for function in its simplest form requires it. If one seeks to answer the truths of life from this perspective you will only ever find part-truths or at best half-truths. That may be adequate in much of life. If one decides to choose a donut for one feels like it although one knows it is not healthy will it really matter? If you are dealing with the bigger challenges you will need to open your mind to the non-dual perspective. The mental rational mind is characterized by its dualistic capacity to divide and analyse. Its wonder is its ability to have built the world we live in. Integral theorists have moved the mind to perceive the wholistic integrated nature of reality. It is a realm of mind able to see the unity of reality rather than the separate divisions of our differentiated world. Hutchins was a clever and articulate mind still very typical of the mental rational dualistic era.

When the field of theology and science come together to address the bigger questions of life then the path of truth will appear with greater meaning from the non-dual perspective. It is here that we discover an awareness of the a-perspective. Christopher Hitchens resorts to the dualistic when the deepest quandaries emerge. In my own journey of life, I have been supported by the work of Raimon Panikkar, a priest who holds doctorates in philosophy, science, and theology, or Frank Bedogne, long time student of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, priest and paleontologist. These are people who have cleverly articulated a world of unity that opens one’s mind to comprehensive truths enchanted by mystery.

In its brevity St. John, the evangelist is another unique individual who has plummeted to the depths of life’s mysteries of God, creation, life, and the human venture. Take time and let your mind sit with the concepts of St John.

ST JOHN’S STORY

Creator

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God. 1:1

· Word /Logos… in Greek, the divine principle of reason that gives order to the universe and links the human mind to the mind of God.

· Bedogne speaks of consciousness that begins and drives the creation

· Panikkar speaks of Being.

Creation

He was in the beginning with God. 1:2 All things came into being through him and without him no one thing came into being. 1:3

· Panikkar speaks of Being in Becoming

· Some Asian traditions, emphasize involution. God becomes by manifesting self as all that is.

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Life

What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.1:4

· Science speaks of the Big Bang as originating with four primary dynamics. Strong and weak nuclear forces, gravity, and electromagnetic force. A connection of these with ‘life’ which is able to produce the biosphere or noosphere is not clearly described.

· John presents such animating life being the nature of Logos/word. Logos/Word is thus the innate reason/mind that is manifest as life in all its complexity. It has become the creative face of God

Knowledge

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it. 1:5

· Light is more than physical, it is clarity, understanding, etc. It indicates an intelligent guiding principle at the heart of life and the indication of a creation that can know itself.

· Light is the evidence of Word animating all life in creation

· It ensures creation is characterized by meaning and purpose. As the essence of Logos/Word and hence creation it cannot be extinguished.

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Witness

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.1:6 He came as a witness to testify to the light so that all might believe through him. 1:7 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 1:8 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 1:10

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. 1:10 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 1:11 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of god, 1:12 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 1:13

· John has presented creation as the manifestation of Logos/Reason/Word in creative form (probably including the process of the Big Bang) animated with life and shaped by intelligence, most apparent in the evolving emergence of various stages of the noosphere.

· Thus, human life is the evolving emergence of intelligent creation.

· All is God, Logos/Word. Hence, Jesus dared to quote psalm 82, ‘You are Gods.’

· Humanity is the manifestation of God who intended to create people able to eventually share in the community of Godness.

· The human mission is to bare witness to the light, that is Logos/Reason

· Humans have been doing it in the way of John the Baptist from the beginning of mindful humans. He is the Christian example.

· Across all nations and faith traditions humans have endeavoured to witness to the divine nature in their customary and traditional way, always some leading the way, saints, sages, prophets, etc.

The fulness of Glory

And the Word became Flesh and lived among us. And we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.1:14

· John claimed the fulness of divinity, the Logos/Word was while fully human, transparently integrated with the divine being, for there is nothing outside the divine creation.

· As such many people have witnessed the fullness of his grace and truth.

· Jesus has revealed/mirrored what we all are, the manifestation of the Logos/Word.

· For this is the call of the human to claim the fulness of ourselves as the manifestation of Logos/Word, for we are the divine manifestation of the Creator.

· We are part of the process of Being in Becoming.

· We now speak of the Cosmic Christ, for we can understand that creation is animated and shaped by the evolving life of the Logos/Word.