“...ONE, INFINITE, OMNIPRESENT,
UNPERCEIVED, AND INCONCEIVABLE...”
In William Shawn’s poignant memoir titled, “TWIN,” he wrote, “Life is infinitely wondrous, infinitely cruel, and incomprehensible. What is there to believe, or not believe?” To write that, one must be both wise and strong.
Elaborate belief systems like theologies interpose something between individuals and a wondrous, cruel, and incomprehensible reality. Were someone to prove that the burning bush seen by Moses was an illusion caused by the setting sun seen through branches and leaves, the deeper mystery of an imagination that can create metaphors and meanings remains. Theologies are necessary insulators allowing one to stop worrying and attend the essential tasks of daily living. Some, however, cage you in or punish questioners and dissenters.
Because I can’t conceive of a Universe that came into being from nothing, the idea of a Creator follows. But I cannot accept the idea that only humans have souls, reducing all but ourselves to soullessness. It seems like regression to an era when our proto-human ancestors, slow, unarmed, in desperate daily battle to survive, discovered tools—stone axe, machine gun, atom bomb—which did set them apart, and at the top of the food chain. But I can’t go from possession of tools to the notion that the Creator deems us separate from other life. Although overlords of Earth, many still cling to behaviors of our terrified neo-ape ancestors, denying themselves the deep joy of feeling embedded within the magnificent array of life, each individual a minute yet magnificent atom of the Creator who spoke to Moses from the burning bush, as described in the opening words of Arnold Schoenberg’s “Moses Und Aron:”
“...one, infinite, omnipresent, unperceived, and inconceivable...”
UNPERCEIVED, AND INCONCEIVABLE...”
In William Shawn’s poignant memoir titled, “TWIN,” he wrote, “Life is infinitely wondrous, infinitely cruel, and incomprehensible. What is there to believe, or not believe?” To write that, one must be both wise and strong.
Elaborate belief systems like theologies interpose something between individuals and a wondrous, cruel, and incomprehensible reality. Were someone to prove that the burning bush seen by Moses was an illusion caused by the setting sun seen through branches and leaves, the deeper mystery of an imagination that can create metaphors and meanings remains. Theologies are necessary insulators allowing one to stop worrying and attend the essential tasks of daily living. Some, however, cage you in or punish questioners and dissenters.
Because I can’t conceive of a Universe that came into being from nothing, the idea of a Creator follows. But I cannot accept the idea that only humans have souls, reducing all but ourselves to soullessness. It seems like regression to an era when our proto-human ancestors, slow, unarmed, in desperate daily battle to survive, discovered tools—stone axe, machine gun, atom bomb—which did set them apart, and at the top of the food chain. But I can’t go from possession of tools to the notion that the Creator deems us separate from other life. Although overlords of Earth, many still cling to behaviors of our terrified neo-ape ancestors, denying themselves the deep joy of feeling embedded within the magnificent array of life, each individual a minute yet magnificent atom of the Creator who spoke to Moses from the burning bush, as described in the opening words of Arnold Schoenberg’s “Moses Und Aron:”
“...one, infinite, omnipresent, unperceived, and inconceivable...”
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