Theological Noncognitivism

 God Language

casual, familiar, ordinary, desecrating, and profane

Theological noncognitivism is the position that religious language – specifically, words such as "God" – are not cognitively meaningful. It is sometimes considered synonymous with ignosticism.

Theological noncognitivism (aka ignosticism or igtheism) is the claim that theists do not believe in a god, but only believe that they believe in a god and behave as though they do, but that they don't because they have not defined any god to believe in since it is not possible to define god. God, by definition, cannot be defined since once they define any god, that god ceases to be god since god cannot be defined because god is beyond definition.

The term "God" is not defined by any primary attributes, so we have no means of understanding what it means. For example, we can understand the phrase "a brown chair," because the secondary attribute (brownness) is being attributed to a chair. Chairness, in this example, is a primary attribute. However, we cannot understand the phrase "a brown echo," because an echo is not the sort of thing you can attribute brownness to. The primary attribute of being an echo precludes certain secondary attributes. With God, we have no primary attribute(s), so we cannot understand how to apply other attributes to God. The result, according to this argument, is that we cannot understand the term "God" at all.

There are three attributes of existants which concern us particularly, these being:

A. Primary Attributes

B. Secondary Attributes

C. Relational Attributes.

B as well as C are dependent upon and must be related to an existant’s A in order to be considered meaningful.

The term “God” lacks a positively identified A.

Because of this, the term “God” holds no justified A, B, or C.

However, an attribute-less term (a term lacking A, B, and C) is meaningless.

Therefore, the term “God” is meaningless.

Therefore, the god-concept is invalid

Since the only attributes of god that humans are able to experience are silence and invisibility, then, since neither of these can be ascertained by human senses, these are not positive or primary attributes that can be verified. They are not primary attributes because they are descriptors of a noun or a primary attribute which does not exist. Since silence and invisibility are the only verifiable attributes that can be ascribed to god they become null and void without a primary attribute, just as an adjective demands a noun to describe in order to be an adjective. 

Any existant without a primary attribute to which secondary attributes and relational attributes cannot be assigned is incoherent.

Image of God

Since there is no physical, visible image of god for humans to see, touch, hear, we cannot verify that reality. In the same way, words were never meant to be any sort of reality in themselves. Just like thoughts, they are only signs and symbols that we use to point to something real. The word "cloud" is nothing like the actual cloud floating by. But in order to use language, we must create an image with thought in our mind and then use words to describe our image of the cloud that we saw. 

Well, god is a step further away from reality toward abstraction. Unlike a cloud, we cannot see or verify this imaginary character in the sky. So in order to use communication and language, thoughts and words to apprehend and try to comprehend this abstraction, we must use words to label and name that which is unnamable, invisible, and silent.

So what are we left with? Our own mental graven image of god that we cling to even though we know that worshipping images of god is against the second of the ten commandments. (past participle - graven: fix (something) indelibly in the mind).

“If nothing that can be seen can either be God or represent Him to us as He is, then to find God we must pass beyond everything that can be seen and enter into darkness. Since nothing that can be heard is God, to find Him we must enter into silence.” (Thomas Merton in Seeds of Contemplation, p. 131)

All of this is within the context of human cognitive understanding. We create human constructs to describe that which we cannot know because that's all we have; theology, religions, creeds, dogma, doctrine, holy books, rituals, beliefs; we call it all faith. 

Recently I have come to realize it is all images 

from our imaginations doing the best we can 

to grasp that which cannot be grasped, 

to understand that which is not understandable, 

to describe that which cannot be described, 

to contain that which cannot be contained, 

to define that which cannot be defined, 

to name that which cannot be named, 

to label that which is beyond all labels, 

words, thoughts, images, and imaginations.

We do this based on our craving and lust for certainty and security.

Instead of the nonexistent god-shaped hole in our soul,

we create an imaginary hole-shaped god that we then worship.

St. Augustine (354 - 430 AD) has this to say:
“What then, brethren, shall we say of God?
For if thou hast been able to understand what thou wouldest say, it is not God.
If thou hast been able to comprehend it, thou hast comprehended something else instead of God.
If thou hast been able to comprehend him as thou thinkest, by so thinking thou hast deceived thyself.
This then is not God, if thou hast comprehended it; but if this be God, thou has not comprehended it.”

Judaism: Names of God

Do not erase

Rabbinic Judaism considers seven names of God in Judaism so holy that, once written, they should not be erased:   YHWH, El ("God"), Eloah ("God"), Elohim ("God"), Shaddai (“Almighty"), Ehyeh ("I Am"), and Tzevaot ("[of] Hosts").^[1] Other names are considered mere epithets or titles reflecting different aspects of God,^[2] but Khumra sometimes dictates special care such as the writing of "G-d" instead of "God" in English

The seven names of God that, once written, cannot be erased because of their holiness^[5] are the Tetragrammaton, El, Elohim, Eloah, Elohai, El Shaddai, and Tzevaot.^[6] In addition, the name Jah—because it forms part of the Tetragrammaton—is similarly protected.^[6] Rabbi Jose considered "Tzevaot" a common name^[7] and Rabbi Ishmael that "Elohim" was.^[8] All other names, such as "Merciful", "Gracious" and "Faithful", merely represent attributes that are also common to human beings.^[9]

Do not pronounce

The most common name of God in the Hebrew Bible is the Tetragrammaton, יהוה, that is usually transcribed as YHWH. Hebrew script is an abjad, so that the letters in the name are normally consonants, usually expanded as Yahweh in English.

Modern Jewish culture judges it forbidden to pronounce this name. In prayers it is replaced by the word Adonai ("The Lord"), and in discussion by HaShem ("The Name").

Rabbinical Judaism teaches that the name is forbidden to all except the High Priest, who should only speak it in the Holy of Holies of the Temple in Jerusalem on Yom Kippur. He then pronounces the name "just as it is written".^{[citation needed][25]} As each blessing was made, the people in the courtyard were to prostrate themselves completely as they heard it spoken aloud. As the Temple has not been rebuilt since its destruction in 70 AD, most modern Jews never pronounce YHWH but instead read Adonai ("My Lord") during prayer and while reading the Torah and as HaShem ("The Name") at other times.

Christianity

Being raised as an evangelical, fundamentalist Christian, I've always wondered how Christians can so flippantly throw around the name of God and use religious language. It is illogical and incoherent to me because in the context of nonChristians, Christianese is meaningless and in the context of Christians, it is redundant which also renders it meaningless. The more open my mind became and the more I understood about language, words, signs, symbols, etc, at first I realized how desecrating our use of religious language had become. I've heard that "familiarity" leads to treating things and people as "ordinary" or taking them for granted. As I understood more deeply, I began to see that our idea of the sacred and the profane has become so familiar that either way, life is rendered ordinary. Then I realized that maybe that is the key to understand our casual use of language, images, and human constructs. One of the first steps of my deconstruction and deconversion is to deepen my understanding of and appreciation for life; both the sacred and the profane. 

Could it be that

The Sacred is anytime we treat the ordinary as Sacred.

The Profane is anytime we do not treat the ordinary as Sacred. 

Anything that is Sacred, if it is truly Sacred, 

would be appreciated, honored, and respected.

It seems that it would be an act of profanity or a form of desecration 

when we do not appreciate, honor, and respect all things.

For me, this definitely applies to language and the way we limit reality with names and labels through familiarity with that which is sacred, beyond understanding, and far too big to fit in my head or in a book. We treat the sacred as ordinary, common, everyday.

As a nontheist, this led me to THEOLOGICAL COGNITIVISM so that I can recapture the essence of the sacred in my life; which I see as all of life, especially the ordinary. I see there is a great sacredness at the center or core of each person and that sacredness extends to our relationships and the connection we have with all people. And ultimately this extends to that which is greater than me and nameless along with the infinite in both the manifest universe and the unmanifest universe. I constantly hear the profanity of the language that many Christians speak, repeatedly referencing spiritual concepts that are beyond understanding, description, and unverifyable with casual language and magical thinking; treating sacred language as vernacular which drags it through the mud of being vulgar. It is sort of like Jesus' metaphor of throwing pearls to the swine. In this way, religious or sacred language, Christianese, is often used in contexts where it becomes meaningless. In a context of unbelievers, Christianese is reduced to incoherent babbling. In a Christian context, it is used where it is not necessary, especially when it is used in its most common manner, to promote the Christian agenda.

For more on The Sacred and The Profane, click here:   https://livingwithopenhands2.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-sacred-and-profane.html 

"He who thinks he knows, doesn't know. He who knows that he doesn't know, knows. For in this context, to know is not to know. And not to know is to know." (Quoted in both Sanskrit and in the Tao-te Ching)

"The wise man is the one who knows what he does not know." (Lao Tzu)

"The more a man knows, the less he talks." (Voltaire)

Familiarity

Familiarity is our blind spot. We can’t “See” the things we are familiar with; like the way we treat people, the beauty of nature, or the expressiveness of the human face. Unless we “silence the familiar and welcome the strange”, we will not begin to “See” (Sam Keen). Our blind spot will remain blind to us. Remember, there is a difference between “seeing” and “Seeing”, just like there is a difference between just hearing and really listening.

Because familiarity is our blind spot, then things like culture and environment, friendships and relationships often become unnoticeable. We take these things for granted, rather than appreciating them. It is sort of like asking the fish, “How’s the water?” And the fish responding, “What water?”

“Behind the façade of our normal lives eternal destiny is shaping our days and our ways. The awakening of the human spirit is a homecoming. Yet, ironically, our sense of familiarity often militates against our homecoming. When we are familiar with something, we lose the energy, edge and excitement of it. Behind the façade of the familiar, strange things await us. This is true of our homes, the place where we live and, indeed, of those whom we live. Friendships and relationships suffer immense numbing through the mechanism of familiarisation. We reduce the wildness and mystery of person and landscape to the external, familiar image. Yet the familiar is merely a façade. Familiarity enables us to tame, control and ultimately forget the mystery. We make our peace with the surface as image and we stay away from the otherness and fecund turbulence of the unknown which it masks. Familiarity is one of the most subtle and pervasive forms of human alienation.” — John O’Donohue: Anam Cara. Spiritual Wisdom from the Celtic World, p121

In other words, routine tends to tame mystery and silence wonder.

Therefore, could it be that when we reduce the Sacred to that with is ordinary, too familiar, it loses its power. Is this not the true meaning of the Profane? Do we not do this routinely every day and lose that which is sacred in every moment, every person... everything?

For me, theological noncognitivism is a way for me to mind my language expression, especially when we forget that none of us is right and that we are all wrong in many ways. I choose to steer away from arguing about what god is when I believe that is something that is impossible to know or to describe with any words. I've had enough of theological debate due to the meaninglessness of it for me.

When I started blogging in 2006, ronirvine.wordpress.com, it didn't take long for me to realize that I must limit my use of "god" in my writings if I was to take an inclusive rather than exclusive, peaceful rather than violent approach to communication in Living with Open Hands. Anytime we define, we limit, and that in itself is an example of living with clenched fists. I found that when I got past religious language to a deeper place of common ground with purely human language, then people were drawn from all walks of life to read my blog. My stats showed that I've been visited by 88,000 people from over 150 countries. This was when I was still a very strong Christian! I inherently knew that using religious language is always divisive among humans when it is open and inclusive people that I'm interested in reaching out to. The data confirmed my suspicions. Religious language and especially the word god tends toward divisiveness because no two people use the word god to create the same image in their minds. This is the problem of concrete words representing abstract concepts. It forces us to create our own mental graven image of god and then worship it.

The Sacred and the Profane

(This is my 2019 version after a decade of reflection and discernment; going deeper and wider while continuing to spiral downward to my source, my ground of being.)

Can the sacred be contained within the time and space of our limited, dualistic perceptions of reality?

Is the sacred something that is out there somewhere? Something I need to seek and hope to find;  somehow, somewhere, someday?

Or does it permeate all things as foundational to our existence similar to light, gravity, and consciousness?

Could it be that the sacred is within, available and accessible at any time and any place?

Is it transformational as we choose to access it's power?

https://www.instagram.com/p/DUFxFTWjVNA/?igsh=bzR3emZwYW82d2pm   

“There are no unsacred places; 

there are only sacred places and desecrated places.”

   ― Wendell Berry, Given

Rainer Maria Rilke said, "I am too alone, yet not alone enough to make every moment holy". 

(Holy = set aside for a specific sacred purpose)

Berry refers to the sacred within space.
Rilke refers to the sacred within time.

But is this too confining, too defining, too limited and bounded by that which is limitless and boundless, beyond time and space??? Or maybe the holy and sacred include all of these with time and space enfolded within it.

"Umbrella, light, landscape, sky— There is no language of the holy. The sacred lies in the ordinary." 

-Deng Ming-Dao (Everyday Tao)

“Space is not empty. It’s full. It is the ground for the existence of everything, including ourselves”

– David Bohm

 
I have been thinking, wondering, and contemplating these words, sacred and profane, for about 10 years, maybe longer. I’ve been struck with the sense that our understanding of these concepts falls so far short of the richness, wisdom, and daily guidance they could bring. We use them flippantly and mindlessly in a very narrow religious sense. For instance, using sacred to refer to certain places that look religious, or certain times and rituals initiated by a religious hierarchy. And we use the word profanity as something that refers to words, especially the use of “God” or "Jesus" to express our anger as a curse, that are self defined family by family, church by church, culture by culture.

The deeper I go, the bigger these words get. The depth and breadth of these two words seem to go as deep and wide as my mind can go. Actually, more and more, they have guided me in life; daily, moment by moment to the point that I think we as a society unconsciously and unintentionally live lives full of profanity interwoven throughout every day.

Within each moment lies life and death, sacred and profane, the holy and the desecrated.

We choose how to live each moment.

“There is the beauty of love, beauty of compassion. And also there is the beauty of a clean street, of good architectural form of a building; there is beauty of a tree, a lovely leaf, the great big branches. To see all that is beauty; not merely to go to museums and talk everlastingly about beauty. The silence of a quiet mind is the essence of that beauty. Because it is silent and because it is not the plaything of thought, then in that silence there comes that which is indestructible, which is sacred. In the coming of that which is sacred then life becomes sacred, your life becomes sacred, our relationship becomes sacred, everything becomes sacred because you have touched that thing that is sacred.” (Krishnamurti)

In 2011, I wrote a blog post about these words (https://ronirvine.wordpress.com/2011/07/03/the-sacred-and-the-profane/) as they took root in the silence of a Quaker Worship Meeting where we sit for an hour in silence. In those Meetings there was what they called “vocal ministry” when a person in the meeting might stand and speak a word of inspiration that was deeply stirring them. It was one of the few times I spoke during the Meeting. I remember vocalizing that I had a sense of this space being sacred. There was a deep sacredness that is not there all the time. But at certain points over time, the group gets a sense of what is called “gathered worship" where we all feel a sacredness within and between us enveloping us with Light, warmth, peace, and connection. I wondered out loud, in my vocal ministry, what that was. Was it something that comes and goes within me or is it something anchored in (and beyond) the time and place of the Meeting for Worship? Simultaneously, I began wondering about profanity and what that might really mean in a deeper sense. I think that apart from the silence, none of this would have occurred to me. Much of my thinking was still caught up in dogma, my past conditioning and what I've been told. Those voices kept speaking to me about the sacred and profane being anchored in space and time. But I could tell there was something new emerging that, as so often happens, I could not have understood earlier in my formation because I did not yet have the discernment and experience to grasp such things.

For the last 13 years, I’ve been blogging my journey, sorting through the trash and treasures, the conditioning that was cluttering my mind. But during that time, I had a very religious, Christian approach to my understanding, my thinking, and my writing. I guess that is because I strongly identified as a Christian and had done so for almost 50 years. In the last couple of years, I have felt impelled to let go of all of the dogmatic thinking that came with my cultural Christianity and  conditioning. As part of this concerted effort of sorting things out and going deeper, I started a new blog, this one (https://livingwithopenhands2.blogspot.com/), where I can speak more freely without offending my religious blog followers, Christian friends, and family with my honesty.

Now as I look back, what I wrote 10 years ago was both profound and thin, deep and shallow. I have grown way past that thinking. And something I noticed was that the words in that post were in some ways profane. My use of “god” is something that I have gradually lessened since then because the word god has been made meaningless in this day and age, in the context within which I exist. Religious language and dogma blocks quality conversations, deeper thinking, and greater understanding. People use it flippantly and mindlessly, or as a weapon for violence, or they use it to beat others into submission or into thinking like me. Through the process of sorting out the sacred and the profane in my life, my eyes have opened to how Christians throw around religious language (Christianese).

Words have been weaponized by Christians to convert the lost, to manipulate, to create guilt, and to brag about their own righteousness or say a righteous public prayer. Some of the flippant use of Christianese is what I see as permeating almost every conversation with words and phrases like “praise god”, I’m praying for you, bless you, Jesus this or Jesus that. God this or God that. The sun is out, "praise God," it is cloudy, "pray for the sun to come out," someone is sick, "I'll pray for healing," someone dies, "he is in a better place," "God's got a plan," and on and on. I could take a notepad to most gatherings of Christians and get a slew and slurry of religious language. But why would a Christian need to use all of these religious words and phrases with those that are already "saved" or converted? And why would a Christian use religious language that is often offensive or at least meaningless to those that are not converted Christians. And why convert anyone since it requires that we dominate others that are better, think better, believe better, than them? Christianese is frivolous use of language that is supposed to be used carefully and thoughtfully in meaningful contexts. Anytime faith and religion is used to dominate and control rather than uplift and inspire others, it has become weaponized and violent, profane and desecrated.

For me, profanity means using something sacred for mundane or meaningless uses, usually we overuse it without even realizing it. Unconscious usage of Christianese I think is also included under profane as well as any dogmatic (I'm right... you're wrong or I know... and you don't or repent and act like me) language that looks down on others; discriminating, judging, labeling in ways that elevate myself or my perfect religion. Anytime we dominate others in this way, it is a form of violence and violence is a form of profanity. For me, this is the mindless use of language that is profane. It assumes a superior stance and that others need to hear your dogma because of your superiority. And if the attempt at conversion is done with one’s language then one’s hands can be washed of any guilt of that person being lost and going to hell. "They should have listened to me and my righteousness."

I long for simple human conversations without trauma-trigger words giving testimony to the righteousness of self or the unrighteousness of the other. Even well-intentioned, damage is done whenever another person is oppressed through power and domination, even if it is an illusion or unintentional. Oppression occurs even when a person feels oppressed or preached at.

For me, whenever I use the word god in my writing, I feel a sense of profanity. I assume that the person that might read what I write will automatically know what I mean. We throw that word around like we think we know what it means and like we think we know how others understand it, and that they understand it just like me. And yet words can never contain that which is sacred and boundless, infinite and limitless. Yet we think we can flippantly label this??? Presumptuous to say the least. Profane to say it more clearly.

These two things keep coming to mind for those that do believe in God and think that God can be contained in words:

St. Augustine (354 - 430 AD) has this to say:
“What then, brethren, shall we say of God?
For if thou hast been able to understand what thou wouldest say, it is not God.
If thou hast been able to comprehend it, thou hast comprehended something else instead of God.
If thou hast been able to comprehend him as thou thinkest, by so thinking thou hast deceived thyself.
This then is not God, if thou hast comprehended it; but if this be God, thou has not comprehended it.”

And Thomas Merton (1915 - 1968) has this to say:
“If nothing that can be seen can either be God or represent Him to us as He is,
then to find God we must pass beyond everything that can be seen and enter into darkness.
Since nothing that can be heard is God, to find Him we must enter into silence.”
(Seeds of Contemplation, p. 131)

Note: I find it very interesting that the two main traits of God are his silence and his invisibility, which does not lend itself to any kind of personal relationship.

I used to seek to have religious conversations for many years. But I'm finding that as I deepen my understanding, I find that religious dogma and talk get in the way of quality conversations; connecting with others on a deeper, human, heart to heart level. I learned this more and more as I became friends with people from an interfaith group (Buddhist, Pagan, Wiccan, Hindu, Quaker). I've always thought I sought out diversity in so many ways (racial, ethnic, economic, disability, etc), but I started to see that there is more than just visible differences. I needed to expand my diversity to people that think and believe differently, invisible diversity. That's a form of diversity that I needed. It has been enriching to get to know many atheists, nontheists, ignostics, agnostics,  theological non-cognitivists, and skeptics. Too often dogma needs to be cleared away in order to have conversations that matter about things of the heart with all people... because all people matter.

The link below is a post where I tried to describe further what I am referring to here. Too often we create god in our image or we label things that are real but beyond our understanding with the word “god”. God has become a default or knee-jerk label. And yet again, this is a perfect example of profanity; using our words to talk about that which we think we know but cannot know. I think the bible refers to it as idolatry for Christians.   https://livingwithopenhands2.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-image-of-god.html

If we dive in further, the words sacred and profane broaden and deepen, giving more and more guidance for daily living. I suggest this understanding.

A Sacred Life = making the ordinary (in all of life’s moments) sacred. (mindfulness, awareness, appreciation, wonder, awe)

A Profane Life = making the sacred (in all of life’s moments) ordinary. (thoughtlessness, apathy, familiarity, mundane, taken for granted, desecrated)

I think that the sacred and the profane lie dormant in each situation and opportunity.

The sacred and the profane go far beyond just time and space though.

I think this includes all of our relationships in life:
with people, with ourselves, with the earth, and with all that is greater than us.

I think we are in the process or habit of desecrating these relationships, all of which are meant to be sacred.

A good example is our interactions within our family unit. Are we fully engaged during every interaction with our spouse or our children? Or are we tuned out, preoccupied, apathetic; creating profanity in our wake.

All we have is this present moment, nothing else. The past is gone. The future is coming. But the only thing we have any control over is here and now. And yet, our thoughts are mostly occupied with the past (regret, guilt, shame) and the future (worry, desire, expectation). Our heads are full of stories and voices, illusions and fictions. Whenever we do that, we miss the present moment. And when we miss it, it is gone forever. THIS is in many ways, the ultimate profanity. We throw away or let slip away all that which is sacred; casting pearls to the swine.

In my post from 2011, I continued to ask these questions that I am still seeking an answer:

Is the sacred something out there… or something within? Maybe the sacred is the fire that gives light and meaning to the ordinary. Maybe the sacred is something that I bring to life; to every encounter, to every moment, to every word, to every action, to every reaction. Maybe the sacred calls to me and demands of me to create meaning in each day, each hour, each minute, each breath. Maybe the sacred is a deep calling on my life to live out the purpose that is innate, using the gifts I came here with… making a difference.

Not missing everything...

Not missing anything…

Being fully present

Identifying purpose

in each moment,

each situation,

each encounter;

… infusing each with the fire of the sacred.

In every encounter we have in life with people or situations, we walk away changed. We continue on as a different person, for the better or not.

If the sacred is a way of identifying how I live my life, what I do with the ordinary things of life; then what is the profane?

Could it be that any time I disrespect or disregard the sacred, then I am demonstrating profanity; living out a desecration of life?

Is it possible that profanity (like violence) is much deeper than the religious sense of a swear word, using God’s name in vain, or talking bad about the church or the bible.

What about any time we violate the identity or integrity of another person? This is a definition of violence. This is simultaneously another iteration of profanity.

Could profanity be contained in a reaction? A look? An attitude? A thoughtless act? A turning away… from anything or anyone that I am called to pay attention to. A looking down on anyone that I deem lesser than me and my righteousness.

With new eyes, I now read these definitions:

Definition of SACRED

1: dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity

2: devoted exclusively to one service or use (as of a person or purpose)

3. worthy of awe and respect

Definition of PROFANE

1. to treat (something sacred) with abuse, irreverence, or contempt: desecrate

2. to debase by a wrong, unworthy, or vulgar use

3. an act of violence: to violate the identity or integrity of self or others

Related to PROFANE

Synonyms: abase, bastardize, canker, cheapen, corrupt, debauch, degrade, demean, demoralize, deprave, deteriorate, lessen, pervert, poison, debase, prostitute, subvert, vitiate, warp

Antonyms: elevate, ennoble, uplift

The words that jumped out at me as synonyms of profane are not the extreme words but the subtle words: CHEAPEN and LESSEN.

I must weigh in my heart, each moment of each day, whether I am entering into that moment with sacredness or with profanity. Do I honor and value life and my purpose here or do I cheapen and lessen it???

Each moment of each day, I must choose the sacred or the profane, life or death, peace or violence.

In my life, is the sacred the fire, the passion, the light that gives life and purpose to EVERYTHING; EVERYWHERE, EVERYDAY? Or not?

“Oh love that fires the sun, keep me burning.” (Bruce Cockburn lyrics)

What if?

Over the past couple of years, I have become more and more nontheist. The word god and the concept of god has had less and less meaning for me in my life. It is nothing more than a label projecting human characteristics onto that which I do not and cannot understand. It is just not at all useful. The reason is that I believe that we use the label "god" to describe that which we cannot understand because we can't "not know". We use it so that we can speak and act like we do understand (which is a lie). I know that there is that which is greater that me. I know that there is an energy and force that not only is the creative force of the universe but also that holds the universe together. I know there are great mysteries and many things beyond my understanding but I believe that most people out of ignorance and often sheer laziness just plaster labels on those things that we cannot understand or that are different than us. We used to believe in the god of the river and the god of the storm, or Mother Earth, Zeus, Apollo, Ares, Mars, Venus, Pluto, because we were afraid of the power that we saw and felt better when we could label it, obey it, and worship it, just like we label people that are different; that have disabilities or are of different faiths, or ethnicities, or races. Labeling works to assuage our confusion or fears of the unknown, and has a very practical use at times, especially in the grocery store or even more so in the toilet paper aisle.

So... What if?

I think we label things we don't understand and I believe this is another form of profanity. We use labels meaninglessly because we refuse to take the time to go within and understand that which is available to us to understand; what I call "innerwork". What if there is a sacredness within each of us AND between us all AND throughout all of the universe??? What if god is the connection and we are just labeling something so great and beyond our understanding just so that we can feel better about our ignorance? What if we are creating god in our image and giving god all of the best of human characteristics (anthropomorphism) so that we do not fear god or so that we can always have that listening invisible friend that we have always longed for? What if the sacred is parallel to light and consciousness? These all exist outside of space and time, material objects and energy according to physics. What if it is out of this sacredness, this Light, this cosmic consciousness that all things come. What if this is the quantum field from which everything that is enfolded, unfolds? What if this is the Source? Our Ground of Being??? The Implicate Order (beyond and below all) within which is enfolded all that may unfold into the Explicate Order of time and space within which we live and move and have our being, here and now.

What if the Sacred means fulfilling the identity and purpose that we as human creatures individually and uniquely create; and living it out, here and now, in each action, in each reaction, in each interaction, in each relationship???