Our Subconscious and God

James closely associates the sublimal and the supreme. He contends that the spontaneous source of religion conversion is the subconscious.

James does not say that the source of conversions is purely natural, that the subconscious is God. He admits that the "reference of a phenomenon to a sublimal self does not exclude the notion of the Deity altogether," for "it is logically conceivable that if there be higher agencies that can directly touch us, the psychological condition of their doing so might be our possession of a subconscious region which alone should yield access to them."

But it is precisely this close association of the Transcendent with Man's subconscious that raises anew the question of the reality basis for religious transcendence...

One cannot help but wonder whether or not the subconscious is all that is meant by the Transcendent.

- William James, discussed by Norman Geisler in Philosophy of Religion p60-61

That is exactly what I am afraid might be the case. What if what seems so plausible to believers, that God is speaking to us, turns out to be our subconscious voice after all? It has always been said, "The willing believes." Incidentally, it is usually the willing - also known as the gullible - who is susceptible to conmen.

To have knowledge of the One

One wishing to contemplate what transcends the Intellectual attains contemplation of it by putting away all that is of the intellect. For "knowledge of the One comes to us neither by science bor by pure thought... but by a presence which is superior to science..." To know the Supreme, one must merge with the Supreme and become one with it, centre coinciding with with centre. Just as one must become godlike and beautiful if he cares to see God and Beauty, so one must become one with the One if he is to know the One.

- Plotinus, discussed by Norman Geisler in Philosophy of Religion

Talking about "the One", and "being one" with the One, makes it sound very mystical.

But it just refers to alignment. This is probably quite similar to Christian teaching that we must be like Jesus. Also, to know God one must be without sin, that is why we must confess our sins before God will listen to prayer.

Did You Ever Talk to God Above?

A nice song I heard during the worship service led by Children's Ministry band during Family Worship.

No one comes to the father but through me

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the father but through me." (Jn 14:6)

What does John 14:6 mean? Does it contradict Romans 2:12-16?

For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus. (Rom 2:12-16)


Maybe God will look at everyone (believers or non-believers) by what they do, because what they do reveal what they believe. In the end, it is still Jesus Christ who judges (no one comes to the Father but through Me). It might not mean to be saved we must become Christian, but it certainly is one of the surest way.

What is in the mind, is it real?

"Tell me one last thing," said Harry. "Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?"

Dumbledore beamed at him, and his voice sounded loud and strong in Harry's ears even though the bright mist was descending again, obscuring his figure.

"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"

- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (p.579)

What we seem to know

"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn't exist."

- Verbal Kint, in The Usual Suspects

Prayer, Faith, Belief

God has set up prayer in such a way that, if you want to explain it away, you can. That's the human mind. God set it up like that for a reason, which is this: God ordained that people should be governed in the end by what they want.

- Dallas Willard, in The Case for Faith, Lee Strobel

Counter-Question:
Did God say that? Does the bible say that?

Faith vs Knowledge

[Faith] is a choice we must make without having all the complete information we'd like to have... otherwise, what we would have is knowledge, not faith.

- Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith (p.331)

Counter-Question:
Then why can't we have knowledge? Why must God do it this way? Is it more fun?

Find God if you want to

"The Bible says that if you seek God with all your heart, then you will surely find him. Surely find him. It's the person who wants to know God that God reveals himself to. And if a person doesn't want to know God - well, God has created the world and the human mind in such a way that he doesn't have to...

...In nearly every case imaginable, answered prayer can be explained away if you want to. And that's what people normally do. They say, 'Well, I'm very smart; I can't be fooled by all these things.'"

Dallas Willard, in The Case For Faith (p.352-353)

In response, Lee Strobel recounted an incident:

"My newborn daughter was rushed into intensive care because of a mysterious illness that was threatening her life. The doctors weren't able to diagnose it. Even though I was an atheist, I was so desperate that I actually prayed and implored God - if he existed - to heal her. A short time later, she astounded everyone by suddenly getting completely better. The doctors were left scratching their heads.

"My response was to explain it away. I said, 'What a coincidence! She must have had some bacteria or virus that spontaneously disappeared.' I wouldn't even consider the possibility that Go had acted. Instead, I stayed in my atheism."

I find that I also tend to do that. After the desperation of the moment, after the period of weakness has passed, and I found that I survived, I question. I wonder if I had survived the trial because I have created a mental state that enhanced the chances of psychologically surviving. And I created that mental state through forming a posture of prayer and trust. So as long as I put my mind in a state of calm, I would find the ability to survive any crisis. Can that be true?

Counter-Question:
What if we believe what we want to believe? In such a scenario, would we find God believable because we already wanted to believe in the first place? It would have been like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Where did the idea of a perfect God come from?

If the universe is so bad… how on earth did human beings ever come to attribute it to the activity of a wise and good Creator?

- CS Lewis, quoted in The Case For Faith, Lee Strobel

Counter-Question:
If human beings are not really organic batteries for giant super-intelligent computers, and are actually living a dream that has been designed to keep them inert (aka The Matrix), then where on earth did such an idea come from?

Why faith is called faith; or why faith is difficult

Only in a world where faith is difficult can faith exist. I don't have faith in two plus two equals four or in the noonday sun. Those are beyond question. But Scripture describes God as a hidden God. You have to make an effort of faith to find him. There are clues you can follow.

And if that weren't so, if there were something more or less than clues, it's difficult for me to understand how we could really be free to make a choice about him. If we had absolute proof instead of clues, then you could no more deny God than you could deny the sun. If we had no evidence at all, you could never get there. God gives us just enough evidence so that those who want him can have him. Those who want to follow the clues will.

The Bible says, "Seek and you shall find." It doesn't say everybody will find him; it doesn't say nobody will find him. Some will find. Who? Those who seek. Those whose hearts are set on finding him and who follow the clues.

- Peter John Kreeft in The Case For Faith, Lee Strobel

Counter-Question:
Why must God be found this way? Is it for his fun?

Atheists in foxholes

"There are no atheists in foxholes and no ideologues in financial crises," Dr Bernanke told officials during the weeks they were scrambling to put together some measures save the market from collapsing.

The Source of Strength

A journalist in Malaysia was detained for making some comments, and she wrote about her experience after that in an article:

'My 18 hours under the ISA

What intrigued me was her mention of what sustained her through her ordeal. She wrote:

"Calls, messages, well wishes, and visits from readers and friends. To all of them, I have to express my deepest gratitude. During that 18 hours which was filled with a lot of uncertainties, I felt that there is some unknown strength that has supported me throughout, I knew it must be from you all, those whom I knew or have not met!"

What she acknowledges as the source of strength that sustained her is the source of strength that she recognizes. If she says it is the thought of her friends, or some kind of psychological link that poured mental energy from her friends to her, then that must be it. What matters is what she believes is making her strong, 'cos it's her mind that is making her strong. Or is it?

It is widely said that only 10% of our brain is used. That leaves 90% of untapped power. Perhaps that 90% is powerful beyond imagination, able to tap into energies hitherto unknown. Perhaps that's where our strength comes from, but some of us have to tap it through certain formulae, called prayer by some, and meditation by others.

If God is omnipresent, and sustains everything, so that "apart from Me you can do nothing" (Jn 15:5), then what sustains her must be God, whatever she thinks it is. Or is that how it works?

If I pray to a deity for deliverance, and I am delivered, who do I thank? The deity, who might not exist? Or God, who does all things?

What we believe in

Believers know what they believe in; non-believers do not know what they do not believe in.

Can the presence of physical elements prove a higher entity?

We cannot see language, we cannot hear language, yet we do not doubt that language exists. Don't get mixed up between language and the elements of language. We can hear individual sounds and words, but that is not language. They are only sounds and words. Language is the system that people tap on, through the use of sounds and words, to convey meaning.

A simple way to look at this puzzling situation is to look at the relation between trees, rocks, waterfalls and a National Park. We can see trees, waterfalls and rocks up close, but we can see a National Park only when we are able to rise above the ground and see everything in its entirety.

So, while we can only see and hear the individual sounds and words of a language, we're able to perceive that these discrete parts are related to one another in a system. It is the relationship between these linguistic elements that create a meaningful system, a meaningful entity that we call language.

Similarly, do the different things in the world relate to one another? Does anything connect them together?

This does not prove God exists as the entity that connects all things together, but at the very least, it leaves the issue undecided. Because we can perceive the existence of language just by recognising how the connection between sounds and words creates a meaning greater than the simple sum of individual sounds and words, we cannot rule out the possibility that God exists, because we can recognise that the different elements of the natural world connect together to form a real world, a reality that we live in.

What God is

Some people try to reason out what God is, as if by logic we can define God. I am one of those, and I am on a new bout of figuring out. I don't want to spend mental effort figuring out why I try to figure out what God is, instead of just accepting what the bible says. But it probably has something to do with pride.

If God is an impersonal Force that simply pervades the entire universe, then it has no character, it is not alive, and it has no volition. We should not attribute person-hood to this entity, and call it our Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit. Doing that would be submitting to a delusion. And I do not want to be one of the people in the world who are logically inferior, and cannot mentally figure out the truth for themselves.

They would think that the Christian approach to God would amount to a kind of mental (delusionary) formula, a framework by which the mind can tap onto the "power" of God, and use it for their own purposes. That is what Christians do with prayer, isn't it? They tap onto the power of God and "ask" God to do things for them. They might as well try to develop the more efficient way of mentally tapping onto this Force and manipulate it through their superior mental powers. It's more direct this way.

But I digress. Sometimes I think like this. But what if it isn't true? What if God is not a Force that is there to be tapped?

The truth is, God is beyond understanding. We will never know whether God is live or inanimate. We can only try to define Him in the ways that He reveals Himself to us, as well as how we react to what we perceive of Him. or It. Anxiety is real. If I think like an agnostic and try to figure out the "more intelligent" way to understand God, and it gives me a sense of anxiety, then to me, it isn't a good way to understand God. If seeing God as a Person is the only way I can experience any sense of peace, then perhaps it is my destiny to perceive God in that way.

This might be what Christians describe "God's call". I exist in such manner that I have to perceive God as a living Being, intelligent, volitional; my mind exists such that it is wired to think in this way. And perhaps I have to accept it this way. I cannot think against what my brain is built to think. Some other people might be able to perceive God as a Force. Good for them. Their minds are tuned in that way. Mine might not be, and it could be counter-productive to try to think in that way.

Medical miracle?

Just as I was raving on about how God cannot be proven. This is a rather agnostic observation, it seems, and agnosticism is something that Michelle has been talking about recently, everytime we talk about belief and faith. But perhaps it's true, I am agnostic. But that's another story for another day.

For now there is another story. An Australian girl has adopted the immune system of her liver donor. How did that happen?

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/324634/1/.html

Is this a medical miracle? What caused it? Just a chance development? Or is it God showing that something that wasn't even in the imagination of man is actually possible?