Nov 2, 2021 · (walt-6223.medium.com)
An excursion into the language of absolute reality
When a person utters the word “God,” an idea or image forms in the mind of the listener. That idea or image may not be what the speaking person intended, but the listener envisions something all the same. More often than not, the listener immediately accepts or rejects the concept of God before the speaker has a chance to elaborate, explaining what he or she means by that word. After all, no one uses that word without referring directly or indirectly to the absolute reality of the world in which we live.
The word “God” carries tremendous weight. In any language, it is one of the most powerful words a person can speak.
Symbolization and Humanity
Words are symbols. They are the means by which we human beings communicate ideas to each other — the more abstract the idea, the more powerful the word. Words are, to a great extent, what make us human. As the philosopher Suzanne K. Langer wrote in her book, Philosophy in a New Key:
In the fundamental notion of symbolization — mystical, practical, or mathematical, it makes no difference — we have the keynote of all humanistic problems.
The words we use shape every aspect of our humanity. Langer goes on to say:
The development of language is the history of the gradual accumulation and elaboration of verbal symbols.
These verbal symbols, these words, enable us to think about things that would otherwise be unthinkable. These verbal symbols make philosophers and theologians out of us.
The early 20th century anthropologist Paul Radin saw little difference between complex societies and simpler ones regarding the use of symbols or speculation about the absolute reality of the world. In Primitive Man as Philosopher he declared:
The language basically required for the expression of philosophical ideas is present in aboriginal civilizations.
I suspect that the same could be said about the people who lived tens of thousands of years ago — those who painted images and symbols on rocks and cave walls. Wherever there are symbols, there is humanity. And wherever there is humanity, there are abstract thoughts.
What exactly is a symbol? It is a representation of some aspect of reality. The word “God” is a symbol for absolute reality. It is one of the words for it, anyhow. I could simply utter the word “Absolute” and mean the same thing. Each word is nuanced, certainly, having about it various meanings. These meanings are not always apparent. Sometimes they are very subtle. But the context in which words are used makes it clear what is being said.
The Great Mystery
The Jewish theologian Martin Buber believed that all life is encounter, that all our experiences and relationships in this world can be distilled down to the two basic word pairs: I-It and I-You. The latter is what really counts. God, according to Buber, is the eternal You. In his landmark work, I and Thou, he said:
Men have addressed their eternal Thou with many names.
What an incredible understatement that is! One could argue that there are as many names for God as there are people who do the naming.
We all have our ideas about the absolute reality of the world in which we live, about self and other, about where we stand in relation to all other things. Most of us envision a god of one sort or another — a god or gods, or some even more abstract concept of absolute reality such as Tao, Dharma or Logos. Marduk, Ahura Mazda, Yahweh, Allah, Brahman, Wakan Tanka, etc. — the names we have invented for Supreme Being go on and on. What is the meaning of all this God-talk? What is it exactly that we are trying to say?
In The Idea of the Holy, Rudolf Otto cut right to the heart of the matter. He wrote:
Let us consider the deepest and most fundamental element of all strong and sincerely felt religious emotion… If we do so we shall find we are dealing with something for which there is only one appropriate expression, mysterium tremendum.
That translates loosely to the great mystery, to a feeling of awe that one experiences in the face of absolute reality, similar to what the Romantics called the sublime.
While immersed in the natural world and contemplating the source of it all, we are astounded. The particulars of nature we can grasp easily enough. The landscape, the plants and animals in it, the flowing water, the clouds, the stars and other celestial bodies — all this we can understand. But the whole of it is beyond us, along with the urge that led to the unfolding of this universe. While contemplating that we experience mysterium tremendum. That is when we utter the word “God” or something like it. That is when we stand in direct relation to the eternal You and try as hard as we can to grasp it.
Infinite Reality
God isn’t an easy concept to explain. In the 13th century, the Muslim philosopher and mystic Ibn Al’Arabi did as good a job as anyone can to articulate what is meant by the word “God.” In The Bezels of Wisdom he said:
The Reality gave existence to the whole Cosmos as an undifferentiated thing without anything of the spirit in it, so that it was like an unpolished mirror.
And what exactly is that mirror reflecting? The Reality, of course — the absolute reality of the universe prior to all the particulars arising from it.
In the sacred Hindu scripture The Upanishads, we find another attempt to define God:
Greater than all is Brahman, the Supreme, the Infinite. He dwells in the mystery of all beings according to their forms in nature.
Here we run dangerously close to reaching the limits of language, for the word “infinite,” like the word “eternal,” ranges beyond human understanding. But the deeper we go into the idea of God, the harder it is to avoid either one of these two words. The absolute reality of the world in which we live, of the universe at large, is not bounded by space or time.
In physics we stay close to home, comfortably ensconced in the phenomena that we all experience in our day-to-day lives. But at some point in every discussion of absolute reality we venture beyond that into metaphysics.
The Rationalist philosopher Benedict de Spinoza went deep into metaphysics as he tried to make sense of absolute reality. In The Ethics he wrote:
By God, I mean a being absolutely infinite — that is, a substance consisting in infinite attributes, of which each expresses eternal and infinite essentiality.
Infinite attributes, wow! If that’s true then the word “God” can mean anything and everything. Has humankind reached a point in its philosophical speculation about the nature of things where the word “God” has become meaningless? Some people would say yes, we have. Others fall back upon a personal God, an anthropomorphic one who thinks and acts much the same way that human beings do. Those are, after all, the two easiest ways to escape the cognitive and verbal limitations of metaphysical talk.
Thinking about God
Over six hundred years ago, the anonymous Christian mystic who authored The Cloud of Unknowing made this confession:
You will ask me, ‘How am I to think of God himself, and what is he?’ and I cannot answer you except to say ‘I do not know!’
Ah, if only all philosophers and theologians were that honest. Then there would be a lot less quibbling about whether such-and-such a God exists or not. That mystic went on to say:
Of God himself can no man think.
And that simple statement sends a shudder down my spine. I shudder because I know deep down inside me that it’s true.
With the word “God” we reach the limit of our ability to symbolize. God is not absolute reality; it is the word we use to suggest that reality. God is a metaphor for everything in nature that we cannot comprehend. To be more specific, God is a metaphor for the nature of nature, for Nature itself — it’s fundamental laws, every semblance of order that we perceive in the universe, and the driving force behind it all.
There are those who reject all God-talk, claiming that the so-called natural order of things is the result of an endless series of random events. But a shooting star, an amoeba, a frog’s croak and a tree leaf indicate otherwise. Evolution is proof that order exists in nature. Some organizing force is at work in the universe despite the regular occurrence of random events. Call it whatever you will.