Dear People                       Whom God Loves,

January 27. 2008

Dear People Whom God Loves,

Believers/Non-Believers IV

The last moral stage we looked at is a high stage of morality. As far as I can tell, it is as far as we can go if we are limited to reason alone.

The Enlightenment brought to us the value of reason which had great benefits. For example, it allowed us to break away from oppression from the state and religion. It showed us the importance of human rights and the realization that these rights could not morally be trampled on by state or religion.

The Enlightenment also freed scientific conclusions from being nullified by theology. The tragic treatment of Galileo took place before the Enlightenment.

A negative consequence of the Enlightenment was the belief that science could give ultimate meaning to us and that there was no knowledge beyond rational thought.

There is knowledge that is post-rational. Meditation is the entry-way into this knowledge. For believers in God, this is the deep realization that divinity is in everyone and everything, that this divine presence is Love, and that the brightness of divinity is present in even the darkest and tragic periods of life. That is the basis of hope.

For Christians, this divinity that is in us is also other than us. God and we are totally other and at the same time totally one. Reason can't see this because it is post-rational knowledge.

Other believers, I am sure, have similar experiences. They and Christians may express it differently because the experience and the way it is talked about are influenced by the culture in which we are immersed.

For us Christians, this God who is experienced is personal, though we must remember that the way that God is personal is far beyond our comprehension of personal.

Is this possible for non-believers? I believe that through meditation, one who does not believe in God can experience universal love, beauty, good, and oneness. How does this compare to Christian and other believers experience? I don't know. I could only begin to understand the experience of non-believers by talking with them.

Smile, God Loves You,

Father Clay

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