"There is one
race of men, one race of gods; both have breath
of life from a single mother. But sundered power
holds us divided, so that the one is nothing, while for the other
the brazen sky is established
their sure citadel forever. Yet we have some likeness in great
intelligence, or strength, to the immortals,
though we know not what the day will bring, what course
after nightfall
destiny has written that we must run to the end".
Pindar
Over the past few weeks it has felt as though all the beliefs that I cherished, those "superstitions" I tended with such love and care, have crumpled away and not for one moment has there been a feeling of grief because of it. It is merely the ebb and flow of a tide that has carried me to a new intellectual island. I am free from the cage of doctrines and dogmas I unknowingly built for myself, the arbitrary dictat of an angry and judgmental God of so much "revelatory" religion. I have lifted myself from the hot coals of hell or the doldrums of a heavenly court. I have taken the words of the Apostle Paul to heart, but perhaps not in the way he would have hoped, , "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things" (1 Corinthians 13:11).
For what could be more childish than to imagine a deity capable of the impossible. By definition such a being is a logical fallacy, since if it is possible for the divine to do the impossible then God can no-longer do the impossible. To speak of a mode of existence outside nature is also nonsense, since nature must encompass all that there is, even if it appears miraculous to us. One would think such thoughts have brought me to the hallowed isle of respectable, moderate atheism but oddly it has bolstered by sense of sanctity within the range of my experience. For if our scientific model of the world is essentially correct, than the credibility of the God hypothesis depends upon its ability to concur but also enrich our understanding of the available facts. It seems to be that if God exists, s/he resides, not outside the universe, but rather is that metaphysical principle that makes existence possible.
Whatever this constant is, rightly or wrongly I call it deity and by deduction this divine constant must necessarily exist within the universe permeating there is and all there will be. I have no certain proof, but a belief in a universal soul of sorts is more palatable than the tinkering God of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Is this constant a being then? I am tempted towards the answer no. Evolutionary process, it appears needs no intelligence; it is itself the source of intelligence. Unless of course it is the case that the universe is a creature, that has evolved intelligence, a quality that we can recognize as order. As far as this question is concerned, I find that I cannot come down smoothly on either side of the fence. On the question of “gods” in a polytheistic sense, I am willing to believe in them.
The Greek deities for instance do not exist outside nature; they are produced by natural forces, although they are eternal from the point of inception. They do not fall into the paradoxes of the God who disappears in a puff if logic because he creates a stone he can’t lift, (although they are far from powerless). Ultimately however, they are limited beings and must accept the way the universe is organized, for even the gods are tied by necessity (Fate) and the possible (the laws of nature). Equally, Traditional Greek religion, unlike monotheism doesn’t encounter the persistent problem of how to interpret a world of imperfection and disaster if there is indeed deity. This is because the Greek gods are not always good and moral beings. The gods are as unpredictable and capricious as the sea. They lie outside our moral frameworks and there help may be gained for a price. Even though they have the capacity to love, their care for humans is flippant and fleeting. They are gods we cannot expect certainties from, nor do they give favors lightly. Such religion to me seems infinitely more believable than the god of the Bible. It is infinitely more honest by not setting the gods above necessity and limitation.
