DELUSIONS — Pragmatic Realism
Page 20
We must be careful. Perhaps evolution leaves behind those who are anchored too much in the past. Or in a material reality at the expense of all others.
Science, to repeat, examines only that which is, or more accurately, that which was. Poets and artists live in a different world that opens its doors to realities scientists have never dreamt of. Sadly, most of them never will.
I, for one, try to refrain from offering explanations of stories in the Bible, other than those few in my Dictionary of Biblical Symbolism, which I included for the sole purpose of illustrating how the Dictionary might be used. I am sure there are other sources. I am also of the opinion that each one of us reaches a certain stage in the evolution of our consciousness at which time he or she begins knocking at the door of knowledge sequestered within the depth of our unconscious. When that time comes, providing we learn how the key works, we all find our own explanations. At that time we also find the key to our, individual, immortality.
After all, to repeat once again the wisdom gained by Carl G. Jung, individual is the only reality.
I agree with Dawkins’s comments regarding the consequences of Zeitgeist.
[Wikipedia offers this definition of the word: Zeitgeist is the general, cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambiance, morals, socio-cultural direction, and mood associated with an era].
There appears to be a small group of people, which is head and shoulders above the masses. I call this elite “the chosen few”. To make sure that I am not misinterpreted, let me assure everyone that we and we alone do the ‘choosing’. Usually it is the consequence of sublimating one’s ego and erasing that invisible barrier between ‘us’ and ‘them’.
The state of consciousness of those few, however, or their state of advancement, has little to do with whether they were, or are, religious or not. If religion’s job is to reconnect us with our own potential, than, having done so, religion has already done its job. Regrettably, few people seem aware of this.
I find it amusing to note, however, that while my illustrious author confesses to being an “amateur (in) psychology and sociology” which inadequacy is stopping him from explaining why “moral Zeitgeist moves in its concentrated way,” the same lack of expertise has no restraining influence on his oozing venom on the Bible. And this although he claims that he does not, “by nature, strive on confrontation.” Nevertheless, he goes a long way to prove that he has no idea what the Bible’s inner or esoteric meaning is. He also gives an impression that he has absolutely no idea what most people mean by the word ‘god’—which is hardly surprising considering I never met two men, or women, who shared the same meaning. On the other hand, had I limited myself to writing books exclusively on architecture, I wouldn’t have written 30 books on a variety of subjects.
One can only wonder, as apparently he does, how he “acquired a reputation for pugnacity towards religion”. I respectfully suggest, that if he really wants to know, he should read a little book he wrote about Delusion.
I also beg to differ with people who place most wars squarely on the shoulders of religion. Although at first sight it may seem so, the common atheists’ contention that wars are initiated in the name of religions or religious dogmas, is false. There are many leaders, presidents, prime ministers or Führers, if you will, who use religious beliefs to mobilize simple minds (I am sorry to say that is the overwhelming majority) to wage wars, almost invariably for economic reasons. They use people under whatever pretext is available to advance their own end. Religions are the means, not the reason.
This in no way detracts from Dawkins’s frightening and to my mind accurate description of the power that ‘religious faith’ has on the young minds of the aspiring Islamic martyrs. It is the same power, which had enabled Christians to reaffirm their faith while facing lions in the Coliseum in Rome. Wouldn’t it be nice if we learned to ignite the same fire for, perhaps, more pacifistic ends? For ends in which not only the ‘martyr’ is the sole ‘beneficiary’ (speedy arrival in Paradise) of their sacrifice? Perhaps, only when we forsake our concern for our physical bodies, and reject the fear of death, that we shall be able to rise to those incredible heights and sink to such abysmal depths. Regrettably, natural selection cannot help us with that.
And then there is his impassioned attack on faith itself.
His are passions, quite understandably, fuelled by terrorist attacks, motivated by misinterpretation of religious writing. But let’s face it, any man whose concept of ‘heaven’, let alone immortality, is defined by 72 virgins, cannot be in full command of his senses. Even basic logic would tell one that 72 virgins wouldn’t last that long, and one, alas, is supposed to remain in Paradise for ever and ever. Are the virgins renewable? It is not faith we should combat, but insanity, ignorance and mental retardation.
It is plainly evident that no self-immolator ever read the scriptures he claims to have followed. Furthermore, let us not forget that the Qur'an, or Koran, teaches that Islam is the continued faithful religion in the same line as the Prophets who came before Muhammad: The same religion has He established for you as that which He enjoined on Noah ... and that which We enjoined on Abraham, Moses, and Jesus (42:13 AYA).
In the Old and New Testaments we are told not to kill, and even to love our enemy. Where does the murder and lack of tolerance originate? I suggest, again, it has its roots not with any of the scriptures but, as and since the days of the crusades, it originates with the rabbis and priests and imams. Perhaps all that is needed is sequestering any and all teachers or interpreters of any religious scriptures who advocate any violence whatsoever.
That still leaves us with purely secular misfits who go under very different names. But whatever the evil of 9/11 or the London Underground or Madrid bombings, or any of the religiously inspired murders, none can aspire to equal the purely secular, dare I say ‘dispassionately atheistic’, wholesale murder of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or even the estimated 22,000 victims Katyń, for that matter. Let the black pans leave the kettles alone.
The Doctor quotes in his book, the case of Kurt Wise, a man who obtained higher degrees in geology and paleontology only to reject his learning in preference of fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible, is doubly sad. Not only because Kurt Wise devolved intellectually in favour of emotional satisfaction (and perhaps fear), but because others, who should know better, did not make the slightest effort to show him that there is absolutely no contradiction between the Biblical and ‘scientific’ teaching.
And, by the way, the theologians’ symbolical or allegorical interpretations of the Bible have little to do with what I am advocating. I did not study the Bible to prove anything. I merely wanted to find out, what it’s about. If it is such nonsense as atheists insists, then how come it survived, in one form or another, in spite of many divergent translations, for some 2000 years? Well, now I know and he, Kurt Wise, still doesn’t.
What a pity…
To do it ‘my way’, one must start with an open mind. If one was a ‘believer’, one has to go through a period of apostasy. To be able to pour “new wine into old bottles”, one must clean them really well. Otherwise, like Kurt Wise, one will suffer from dichotomy. One can be attached to an idea with love or with hatred—with equal force. As I have mentioned above a number of times, belief and Gnosticism or knowledge deal with completely different subjects. They are stimulated by different motivations. Alas, the fundamentalist scientists are as stubborn in their ways, as religious are in theirs. To both of them the Bible remains a delusion.
Regrettably, trying to explain spiritual knowledge (reality, evolution, immortality, etc.) to a confirmed scientific fundamentalist is like trying to discuss the intricacies of Beethoven’s Fifth with a man born deaf. He’ll never believe that Beethoven’s ears were filled with music even after he suffered from tinnitus.
As for atheists, here’s a final word to all who misinterpret the Bible. The expression: “Ye are gods”, i
n Hebrew, means: “You are objects of worship”. The same Hebrew word is used to describe the ‘objects’ that created the world in Genesis 1:1. Think about it. Until I saw the same word used in Psalm 82:6, I suspected that the ancients may have been referring to non-biological creatures of some sort, and thus referred to them as “objects of worship”. Or… they still could have been hoping that, one day, we might become as clever and as powerful as those original “objects of worship” which (who?) ‘created’ the world, and set the evolution going. Of course, according to Ray Kurzweil, we would be represented by robots worthy of worship.
And what of Pragmatic Reality?
I’d rather be a Buddhist. At least, like Moses and Yeshûa (see Chapter 14), at the risk of uttering blasphemy, I could be a god, if I wanted to be one. I understand that people are no longer crucified for having such beliefs, although I am told that in some parts of the world one could still lose one’s head. Remind me not to travel too far.
I will let you go with just two more quotes from my favourite scientist, Albert Einstein. The first is a comment on Pragmatic Realism; the second, on my personal philosophy of life.
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
“A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.”
EPILOGUE
“If you suspect you are more than flesh and bones, read Stan I.S. Law. If you want to be sure, read Stanislaw Kapuscinski.”
(Anonymous email received by the author)
My brother came to see me, today. We discussed this and that, and later, since he has a Ph.D. in physics from Leeds, UK, our conversation turned to physics. Particle physics, or as I like call it, non-pragmatic reality.
I told him about the empty space business. About our reality not being there. Or here, so to speak. I was hoping he’d cheer me up.
He didn’t.
He said that the latest coming directly from the hot tub is nothing. I mean that atoms occupy, well, zero space. That, according to the particle physicists, they are points. Non-dimensional points. They are called point-particles. That atoms are there but not really, as far as mass is concerned.
No mass?
Not in particle physics. It’s useful, he said. They don’t take up any space. It’s how physicists see the particles when mass is, well, mass and size or shape, or… structure is irrelevant in a given context…
So they are not really there?
Oh, they are there. Sort of.
What about the Earth, I asked? Is Earth a point, too?
Sure, he replied.
And the universe?
He just looked at me.
So much for Pragmatic Reality of particle physics.
Then I tried again. What about the Big Bang, then? It must have had an enormous black hole to initiate the expansion of the whole universe. The mass of our own black hole, at the center of Milky Way, is said to be about four million times that of our Sun. And our little solar system is only some 27,000 light-years away from the centre of the Milky Way—from the mother of all the black holes in our galaxy. I wondered how long it would or how long it will take to swallow us whole.
A point, he replied. A point.
You’re kidding, right?
No. Particle physicists never kid. Science is too vital. The whole reality would collapse if we did. Wouldn’t it? I must have looked dubious. You see, he added, before the Big Bang there was no time or space. Hence…
A point, I finished for him.
I must have continued to look a bit lost.
You see, he began again, for example, from far enough away an object of any shape will look and behave as a point-like object.
This time it was I who just stared at him. He continued talking. In the theory of gravity, we often discuss a point mass, meaning a point particle with a nonzero mass and…
I stopped paying attention.
My wife looked up from the settee. I’d rather be a fish, she said. When we both looked at her, she added, but not salmon.
Yesterday we saw a movie on TV about salmon. They, seemingly hundreds of them, have reached the end of their journey. Three brown bears were gorging themselves in shallow water. The salmon made only half-hearted attempt at escape. What would have been the point? They came here to die.
It’s all a delusion, I thought. Like God?
I thought that Dr. Dawkins would be pleased. On the other hand, the non-physical universe of spiritual, mental and emotional whimsy suddenly became even more real. At least for me. How about you?
***
Smashwords wrote in their Annual Review:
If you write a book that touches your readers’ soul, or inspires them with passion or knowledge, your readers will market your book for you.
I’ve done my part. The rest is up to you. SK
BIBLIOGAPHY
Arnold, Sir Edwin, M.A., K.C.I.E., C.S.I., The Song Celestial or Bhagavad Gita, (Self-Realization Fellowship, LA.).
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Blavatsky, H.P., (And Abridgement of) The Secret Doctrine, (The Theosophical Publishing House).
Green, Brian, The Elegant Universe, (Vintage Books, Random House, Inc. New York).
Campbell, Joseph, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, (Bollingen Series XVII, Princeton University Press).
Dawkins, Richard, Climbing Mount Improbable, (W.W. Norton & Co., New York, London)
Dawkins, Richard, The God Delusion, (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Fouts, Roger and Tukel Mills, Stephen, Next of Kin: My conversations with Chimpanzees, (William Morrow Paperbacks)
Hacker, Randi, Close Call 1: Survival of the Fittist, ebook, (Smashwords Edition).
Imperial Reference Bible, King James Version, (Thomas Nelson Inc.).
Kapuscinski, Stanislaw, Beyond Religion I, Essay #52, ebook, Inhousepress, (Amazon/Kindle and Smashwords).
Kapuscinski, Stanislaw, Beyond Religion II, Fundamentalism, Spirit, ebook, Inhousepress, (Amazon/Kindle and Smashwords).
Kapuscinski, Stanislaw, Beyond Religion III, The Green Eyed Monster, Church, ebook, Inhousepress, (Amazon/Kindle and Smashwords).
Kapuscinski, Stanislaw, Key to Immortality; Commentary on the Gospel of Thomas, ebook, Inhousepress, (Amazon/Kindle and Smashwords).
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Acknowledgments
I would be remiss were I not to thank my many friends for their comments, advise, and proofreading, none more so than Ronald Piecuch who’s editing raised this book to acceptable literary standards. As always my gratitude to my wife, Bozena Happach, who put up with being a grass widow for weeks on end, and then offered me her inspired insights.
Sincerely,
Stanislaw K
apuscinski
A Word about the Author
Stanislaw Kapuscinski, (aka Stan I.S. Law), architect, sculptor and prolific writer was educated in Poland and England. Since 1965 he has resided in Canada. His special interests cover a broad spectrum of arts, sciences and philosophy. His fiction and non-fiction attest to his particular passion for the scope and the development of human potential. He authored more than twenty-five books, fifteen of them novels.
Under his real name he published seven non-fiction books sharing his vision of reality. He also composed two collections of poems in his original native tongue in which he satirizes his view of the world while paying homage to Bozena Happach’s sculptures.
By Stan I.S. Law (aka Stanislaw Kapuscinski)
Novels
WALL—Love, Sex and Immortality
MARVIN CLARK—In Search of Freedom
GIFT OF GAMMAN
ENIGMA OF THE SECOND COMING
ONE JUST MAN [Winston Trilogy Book I]
ELOHIM—Masters & Minions [Winston Trilogy Book II]
WINSTON’S KINGDOM [Winston Trilogy Book III]
THE AVATAR SYNDROME [prequel to Headless World]
HEADLESS WORLD [Sequel to The Avatar Syndrome]
THE PRINCESS [Alexander Trilogy Book I]
ALEXANDER [Alexander Trilogy Book II]
SACHA—The Way Back [Alexander Trilogy Book III]
YESHUA—Personal Memoir of the Missing Years of Jesus
THE GATE—Things my Mother told Me
NOW—Being and Becoming
Short stories
THE JEWEL
CATS and DOGS Series
SCI-FI 1
SCI-FI 2
Poetry in Polish
KILKA SLOW I TROCHE GLINY
WIECEJ SLOW I WIECEJ GLINY