Last week, I had a wonderful experience at my local coffee shop. I sat near some friends who were involved in an animated conversation about morality and values. I realized that each of them was sharing insights that I had discussed with them earlier. I left elated. Our actions, like a pebble dropped in a pond, do produce ripples that affect others. This experience was important because I am a product of my age. I want proof that my life makes a difference in a world where powers beyond our control dominate everything.
Even as a youth I remember asking questions and being told by adults, “You need to have faith.” I understood them as saying, “You just have to believe that life works this way.” I couldn't do this. I trusted my experiences in the physical world because they made sense. But I wasn't sure about issues of values and morality. Some were easy to embrace, like “Don't Steal” and Don't Kill.” Others were less clear. How was I to relate to friends who disagreed with one another? How should I behave when I couldn't accept the dominant attitudes and teachings of my community? How would I make decisions about my future? The proclamations of my religious tradition and those of the elders of my community were not helpful in dealing with many of these issues.
In this way I identify with today's “nones” who define themselves as spiritual but not religious.iAs one raised in a Christian tradition, I am still greatly moved by the life and teachings of Jesus. But traditional Christian theology leaves me cold. It's images are drawn from an outmoded cosmology that makes no sense to my twenty-first century mind. I am constantly having to translate.
I am not particularly interested in arguments about different religious and doctrinal proclamations. I am drawn more to people who walk their talk as they work for compassion and justice in a world that lacks both. I continue to pray and meditate as a means of engaging the energy that sustains and focusses me, even though I have difficulty defining this motivating force. I participate in my faith community because it sustains and inspires me.
This leaves me in a terrible quandary. I remember when my sister died. The service was alive with affirmations that her suffering was over and that she was now in heaven with loved ones who had passed on. I yearned to be one with those for whom this was still a vital and empowering reality.
I, like many who are steeped in the age of rationalism and individualism, am cut loose from moral certainties and the supportive communities of the past. We seek meaning in our jobs, families, friendship groups, athletics, politics and social networks. Some of us even participate in religious organizations.iiOur values, however, are often relative and conditioned by cultural norms.
Unlike earlier times, we now have technological capabilities unimaginable in the history of humankind. It is clear that we need new or reformed institutions to provide moral/spiritual grounding in our global culture. Without this, I fear for our shared humanity. We are tempted to succumb to the primitive drives of violence and domination. Meanwhile, the destructive capacities of our technologies outstrip our moral ability to control them.
We, who are confronted by these fears and uncertainties, have two choices. We can live in the present, providing, as best we can, for ourselves, our families and our friends; or we can engage our inner yearnings for something more. We can live for the future even though this future seems bleak. This requires trust. We have no cosmology that guarantees the outcome, yet we can live as if our lives do make a difference, as if the “yes” of the evolving cosmos is stronger than its “no.”
In a strange twist of our evolutionary history, we are now discovering that the science which formed the bedrock of our search for certainty is also uncertain at its core. At the beginning of the twentieth century, scientists believed that classical physics, with Newton's equations, completely described the cosmos. Our world was solid and well determined.
Then entered Einstein, Bohr, Planck, Heisenberg, Schroedinger and others. The discovery of relativity and quantum mechanics completely altered our understanding of the cosmos. Trees, cars, animals and humans were no longer solid entities. They were made up of atoms and molecules, which consisted of protons, electrons and neutrons. These, in turn, were made up of quarks and leptons.iii Particles were no longer just particles. They were simultaneously particles and waves.iv
According to present theories, time and space are no longer fixed and independent. They comprise a single entity called space-time that is stretched and warped by gravity.v At unbelievably small dimensions, space-time is no longer continuous. It is a boiling mass of virtual particles and antiparticles that constantly blink in and out of existence like the bubbles in the foam on a glass of root beer.vi There is a basic uncertainty even in the world of physics.
In spite of this uncertainty, I am awed by the cosmos and the wondrous complexity of my humanity. I am drawn by something that an anonymous 14thcentury mystic termed “The Cloud of Unknowing.” His book vii was aspiritual guide for contemplative prayer. The underlying message of his work suggests that there is a mystical way to know God. This way is to abandon consideration of God's particular activities and attributes. He urged practitioners to have the courage to surrender their minds and egos to the realm of "unknowing,” at which point they may begin to glimpse the nature of God.
I believe that Albert Einstein, one of the greatest scientific minds of the twentieth century, was a mystic in this sense. Even on his death bed, he continued to scribble equations trying to find a unified field theory that explained both gravity and quantum mechanics. Walter Isaacson described Einstein in this way:viii
“On one level it is fair to say that his (Einstein's) search was futile, that all his grit and determination amounted to naught. And if it turns out a century from now that there is indeed no unified theory to be found, the quest will also look misconceived. But Einstein never regretted his dedication to it. When a colleague asked him one day why he was spending -- perhaps squandering -- his time in this lonely endeavor, he replied that even if the chance of finding a unified theory was small, the attempt was worthy.”
Einstein's quest was driven by his belief that mathematical simplicity was a feature of nature's handiwork. Every now and then, when a particularly elegant formulation cropped up, he would exult to Straus, "This is so simple God could not have passed it up." And so he continued his quest. Even if he failed to find a unified theory, he felt that the effort would be meaningful. "It is open to every man to choose the direction of his striving," he explained, "and every man may take comfort from the fine saying that the search for truth is more precious than its possession."
He (Einstein) had long been plagued by an aneurism in his abdominal aorta, and it had started to rupture. He was taken to the Princeton hospital, where one of his final requests was for some notepaper and pencils so he could continue to work on his elusive unified field theory. He died shortly after one a.m. on April 18, 1955. By his bed were twelve pages of tightly written equations, littered with cross-outs and corrections. To the very end, he struggled to read the mind of the creator of the cosmos. And the final thing he wrote, before he went to sleep for the last time, was one more line of symbols and numbers that he hoped might get him, and the rest of us, just a little step closer to the spirit manifest in the laws of the universe.
Today, we humans are lost in a cloud of unknowing. Unlike the situation in the 14thcentury, our cloud of unknowing comes with no instructions for engagement. As a result, many are slipping back into the regressive patterns of domination and destruction. This is not the total picture. There are those of us who, like Einstein, are gripped by a powerful drive toward authenticity. We are committing our lives to the betterment of humankind.
An increasing number of “nones” are living in this alien land. We don't need to be converted back to old theologies and traditions. We, like Einstein, are exploring new worlds. The description of the crew of the Starship Enterprise puts it well, “We are going where no man (sic) has gone before.”
The advice from the writer of “The Cloud of Unknowing,” updated for twenty-first century “nones” could be restated as follows: “Abandon consideration of the theologies based on a first century worldview and be courageous enough to surrender your minds and egos to the realm of "unknowing," at which point you may begin to glimpse the deeper nature of the cosmos and humankind.”
Those who continue to be moved and motivated by traditional faith proclamations and practices have a vital role in this age of transition. Your role may be more difficult than that of the “nones.” As in the dark ages, you are the “keepers of the faith.” The advice from the writer of “The Cloud of Unknowing,” updated for twenty-first century “religious folk” could be restated as follows: “Abandon considerations of the particular activities and attributes of your religious traditions. Have the courage to surrender your minds and egos to the realm of “unknowing,” at which point you may begin to glimpse the evolving nature of the transcendent.”
If we all could follow the advice of this writer in our twenty-first century situations, we might be able to come together in a vital co-creative dynamic that would benefit ourselves and all of humankind. This coming together would entail a radical inclusiveness through which we listen carefully to one another without labels, realizing that we are doing this for the sake of something deeper and more real than our narrow understandings of the cosmos.
This brings me back to the beginning of this reflection. I continue to be inspired by meaningful coincidences like the one at the coffee shop. They provide glimpses into the nature of the cosmos and our humanity. I am beginning to realize that I know longer stand apart from the cosmos. I am part of this wondrous evolving process. I am intimately connected to all that lives and is, both in suffering and in joy.
In particular, this realization has deepened my appreciation of my immediate family. I have long been aware that our children, Rebecca and Timothy (when he was alive) shared our concern for justice. Their sensitivity to others is informed by my wife, Jean's, empathetic engagement with people. Their rationality and their ability to repair and build things is due in part to my abilities. Beyond these personal ways we have influenced their lives, I am now conscious of a profound union with them that is palpable.
This is even more true with Jean. We have been married fifty-four years. During that time, we have affected one another; sometimes for good and sometimes for ill. One morning last week I “slept in.” As I snuggled in the blankets, I had the strangest sense that I was holding Jean in my arms. It was a joining that was more than physical. In a real sense, I experienced the fact that “We two had become one.”
I may be a “none” in that my spirituality is not traditional. In a real sense, I identify with mystics throughout the ages. I am engaging something beyond my comprehension and imagination. I am at one with the cosmos and all humanity. I don't know where this engagement is leading me. I feel a deep authenticity and trust in the journey.
In closing, I leave you with the following insights:
- Our attitudes and actions affect others like ripples in a pond, sometimes for good and sometimes for ill.
- We are part and parcel of the mystery of the cosmos as it creates and evolves.
- We can choose to engage this mystery, or we can put in our time without really living.
My wish for you is that you will join me in this journey into the unknown.
iDuring the period from 2012 to 2017 the percentage of Americans who consider themselves spiritual but notreligious has risen from 19% to 27%. Meanwhile, the percentage of Americans who consider themselves spiritual andreligious has dropped from 59% to 48%.
ii17% of “nones” attend religious services at least weekly and 32% attend monthly/yearly. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/09/06/more-americans-now-say-theyre-spiritual-but-not-religious/
iiihttps://www.ducksters.com/science/physics/elementary_particles_quarks.php
ivGo to You Tube and search for a 4 min 44 sec video “ What is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle? - Chad Orzel
vGo to You Tube and search for a 3 min sec video “affect of gravity on the space-time continuum with Brian Greene”
viGo to You Tube and search for a 1 min 34 sec video “What is Quantum Foam with Brian Greene”
viihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cloud_of_Unknowing
viiihttps://www.catholiceducation.org/en/faith-and-character/faith-and-character/einstein-s-final-quest.html
