Alright I’ll say it – GOD – but you fill in the blanks
I went to a study group the other night on Rudolf Steiner’s Education as a Force for Social Change and for those who don’t know Steiner called his philosophy spiritual science. This may come as an oxymoron for some, but it doesn’t for me. I often describe myself as a secular Jew, but only a few people really get what I mean.
I was listening to a Bill Moyers podcast on my bike ride out to Lake Ponchartrain where he was interviewing author Robert Wright, about his book The Evolution of God.
First, can I just say I am in love with Bill Moyers – I just want to be him when I grow up into my true journalistic self.
The book sounds fascinating, but right now my books-to-read stack is outweighing me, so sadly like I used to read the New York Review of Books instead of reading some books, now I’m listening to podcast about some books in lieu of reading them – (see my Live a Weary Life post). Interestingly enough, Wright says that one of his epiphanies came while at a Buddhist meditation retreat, he felt a one with the universe feeling we (or some of us) are aiming for in our spiritual lives.
Here is an excerpt from the podcast:
BILL MOYERS: Are human beings likely to grow out of their need for God?
ROBERT WRIGHT: I think it’s going to be a long time before a whole lot of them do, if they do. So religion will be the medium by which people express their values for a long time to come so it’s important to understand what brings out the best and the worst in it. And I think, you know, the answer to that question depends partly on how abstractly you define religion. You know, there is this William James quote about religion is the idea that there is an unseen order and our supreme interests lie in harmoniously adjusting ourselves to that order. And it’s a good definition because it encompasses the great variety of the things we’ve called religion, I think. And not many definitions do. If you define religion that way I think it’ll probably be with us forever, because if you define religion that way, I’m religious. And that’s defining it pretty broadly if I qualify.
At the study group, we began by going around the table and describing why we had come and what our spiritual background is – an interesting way to start a meeting no doubt. We discussed everything from Christianity and social justice to hallucinogenics that was another path to empathy and spirituality.
I think James’ quote sums it up pretty succinctly – there is an unseen order and our supreme interests lie in harmoniously adjusting ourselves to that order – whether that be through meditation or hallucinogens.