Saturday, July 20, 2013

Opening Our Minds to God




Last year in college, my son was taking classes that allowed him to study the relationship between                                                                                                          
 religion and some aspects of reality. One of them was Theology and Science. Being an incurable optimist, I was hoping that it would open his mind to something different than “empirical evidence.”

“How do you like your class?” I asked him.

“I just love it,” he answered. ”I’ve learned a lot. This class has reinforced my belief that most religious people are unable to go logically from point A to point B in a discussion. They insist in making claims about the universe based on nothing.”

“I’ve read your text book, and you’re right, there are no claims to be made. Nevertheless, there are open doors, possibilities to consider. For example, our universe started with the Big Bang. Did a Creator will for this to happen? It’s possible. Did He arrange the perfect constants of the Fine Tuning? It’s also possible.”

“The Fine Tuning is simply the result of an observation. It does nothing for both the religious and the non religious sides of the debate. There is no reason to assume that it was caused by a Creator.”

‘We people of faith like to make assumptions. We don’t like to stop at the evidence. That’s the difference between you and me.”

“You are like a child, mom. You like fairy tales.”

“I call these tales God’s consciousness.”

“Which means that you are willing to explain reality with airy notions.”                                                                                                                                          

“Reality is more than you see, sweetheart. It needs room. It’s beyond our perception.”                                                                                                                                      

“I’m not denying that. What I’m saying is that there is no way for us to know the beyond.”                                                                                                                                     

“I’m not denying what you’re saying either, if you mean that to know implies to pin down the Unknown. But you refuse to open your mind, preventing yourself from having an intuition of what it could be.”

“I don’t believe that you are opening your mind, mom. You are not really interested in discovering the “truth”. I won’t build my life upon an intuition. It would mean wasting it.”

“You are wrong. You would gain so much.”  



I have gained a lot. I wish I had found Christ earlier in my life. Looking back, I see how much pain I brought upon myself because of my self-centeredness, how many wrong choices I made out of egotism. I believed that I was brave, for I refused to compromise. I had the courage to follow my instincts, to translate my impulses into reality. I was certain that this was the right way to live.



3 comments:

Manny said...

Urrgh, how disheartening. You did remind me of the great quote by Shakespeare when he has Hamlet say to the philosophical Horatio, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than your philosophy ever dreamed of."

Antonella said...

Right! But this was some time ago...I hope he's changing. Slowly, very slowly!

Manny said...

We should call you Monica, after St Augistine's mother. :)