it's often been said by some folks... god is really just a state of
mind. and, we all know what this means.
but, is this state of mindhood or emotionalhood related to the way of
natural/physical stuff?
consider the parallels between matter and emotions. maybe emotions
function just like matter. indeed, emotions are what? they be energy,
and energy is flipside of matter as einstein done showed.
anyway, what is matter like? consider the atomic structure. there is
the nucleus made up of proton and neutron. it's surrounded by
electrons. so, nature wants a core, a center, and abhors the absence of
such. electrons, neutrons, and protons don't just wanna be on their
own. they wanna come together and create a core around which electrons
done buzz around the nucleus.
this is true of matter in general. look at stuff in the universe.
they tend to come together over a long time. and when matterish stuff
come together, they exert gravitational force. this force pulls other
stuff. and over time, there is a big core and alot of stuff that
revolves around it. so, matter seeks a core or to create a core. and,
there is a force that connects matter. matter wanna come together. and
matter wanna be stuck to or revolve around a core.
look at a planet. it has a core that holds the planet together(thru
gravity produced by togetherness of matter).
look at the solar system with sun as center.
look at the galaxy with shiny star clusters as core.
indeed, even the whole universe started from a core pinpoint. even as
stuff is expanding in all directions, it all started from the core.
without a core, it makes no sense to expand. i mean what do you expand
from if there is no core?
imagine star stuff in the universe. they seem to drift and drift. they
all seem independent. but, they slowly come together. and as they come
together, the create a gravitational core force--corce--which attracts
more and more stuff. the point is there is something inherent in all
matter that seeks to attract other matter and form a core.
same is true of life. look at a cell. each cell seems independent when
you look at it under a microscope. but, thru evolution, there was
something in cells that wanted to join with other cells and create a
bigger life forms. and, these lifeforms always had a center.
take the human. each body has 600 trillion cells. but, we are not 600
independent cells. all those cells join together to create ONE unified
consciousness. your finger may feel something but you don't think 'the
cells on my finger feel something'. you think,
'i felt something'. when you *****, you don't think 'cells along my
***** are feeling the passing of doogie'. you think 'i'm shitting'. all
those cells work together to create a sense of a unified single 'i' or
'me'. and, on a social level, we wanted to create a community with its
core centers of power, whether it be government, church, academia, etc.
while we all want our freedom, we also want to belong to something.
and this something always need a core. it could be a core institution
or a core idea, like the religion of the jews.
a kids feels that 'i' am the center of everything. the kid bitches and
whines for everything. he wants this and that and yaps and yaps and
never shuts up. but, as the kid grows up, he becomes aware that his 'i'
is just one 'i' among many other 'i's. he no longers sees hisself as
the center or core of the universe. he sees hisself as simply one 'i'
among many other 'i's. this is not satisfactory; he doesn't wanna be
just an 'i', like stardust don't wanna just be starstuff--it wants to
join with other stuff to form stars and planets.
he needs to believe in some core, even if that core is not he. even
if he isn't the core, he wants to revolve around some great core.
think of our understanding of planetary motions. at one time, people
thought earth was the center of the universe. then they found out that
the sun is the center of the solar system. then they discovered that
the solar system is in the edge of the milky way galaxy.
so, we know that earth is not the center of the universe. but, we are
still glad that our planet revolves around a sun and that our solar
system revolves around the core of some galaxy. though we are not the
center, we long to belong to some center. even if we are at the edge of
the center, we long for the center.
even the most iconoclastic rebel types need idols to worship. to alot
of biker dudes, marlon brando was their god. to alot of rock n rebels,
elvis was their god. and to counterculturites, dylan was their
spokesman of the generation. now, brando, presley, and dylan were
weary of this worship, but what it shows is that people gravitate to
some kind of core, some kind of center. nobody wants to be totally
free or independent. it be too lonely. people who go off on their own
to some wilderness soon go nuts. they feel a need to belong. this is
why anarchism is bogus cuz it rejects the need for people to belong to
some community with a core. communism is bogus cuz it makes everyone
equal and forbids an necessarily hierarchical core; but because of the
need for a psychological core, commies erected marx, lenin, stalin,
mao, etc as gods. also, communism was oppressive and totalistic.
people want the core but also some space and freedom to drift as he
pleases around the core, like what we have in pluralistic capitalism.
we wanna be like electrons. we wanna revolve around the core but not be
stuck it to like slaves. we wanna believe in god but not live in
theocracy. we wanna live under a government but not one that's
totalistic and requires total loyalty.
anyway, as people seek the ulitmate core--the mother of all cores--,
they come upon the concept of god. at least in emotional terms.
in scientific/rationalistic terms, the search for the core leads to
find some unified theory of physics, which still eludes us.
in political/social terms, the search for the core leads us to devise
the best society possible that unites all of us under a common law that
promotes morality, decency, healthy, stability, and such.
but, in emotional/spiritual terms, our search for the core leads to god
or godliness. we ask what is the ultimate core of our emotions? some
people think their own feelings are the core of their lives. but, this
is egocentrism and narcissim and trite and stupid--like among those
crazy rappin' negroes. so, people gradually formulate a bigger sense of
emotional core based on family and friends. instead of simply thinking
of himself, he thinks himself as a part of a bigger community. but,
some people need more than immediate community. he comes up with a
sense of humanity to which all people belong. according to fascism,
the real political core is the nation. everyone belongs to the nation.
nation is the sun around which its members revolve.
according to communism, the core is the ideology of equality for
everyone. individuals must revolve around the ideology that demands
that all people be materially equal.
but, people's emotions wanna go beyond the social, physical, and
materialistic.
buddhists include all lifeforms. and, some people wanna feel beyond
life stuff and wanna connect with the whole universe--to the cosmic
life beyond the organic or biological life.
it's not so much that they wanna know how the universe works, which is
beyond most people's intellects; they wanna FEEL as one with the
universe.
now, this is pretty tough as the universe--as we rationally know it--is
made of star stuff, black holes, stars, planets, and dark matter; who
wants to feel one with dark matter or some black hole? so, we need
'god' to FEEL one with the universe. the idea of god doesn't help us
understand the universe but it helps us feel the universe. god is the
center/core of the universe, at least emotionally. god is the
mysterious essence that requires that there is a core or center to
everything--matter, energy, emotion, etc.
so, god existed even before it was conceptualized cuz mankind always
sought some grand emotional core in the universe. and, god exists even
after mankind rejected it or disproved it in the strict religious
sense. we know there's no zeus or jehovah. yet, we still have this
longing for the core(even atheists have their gods: karl marx, rock
stars, michael moore, bob dylan, muhammad ali, etc.
this longing for the core exists both rationally and emotionally.
rationally, it leads to the string theory and emotionally, it leads to
god. ultimately, people are not satisfying as gods cuz all people turn
out to be mortal and fallible. is ali the greatest still?
for most people, it's not enough to feel that he or she is the emotinal
core of the world. or that his or her family/friends are the core. or
that his or her nation is the core. or even all of humanity. people
seek the core beyond the core. and, emotionally, this leads to search
for god. in this sense, god is a state of mind. it is the innate desire
to find or belong to some core.
even when we look at evolution, we learn we are not really independent
individuals but part of a long dna drama. each of us is directly linked
to the very first dna.
each of our consciousness is only the dot above the i's in a long
handwritten series of i's.
imagine
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
in handwritten form. they would all be connected along the bottom,
wave-like. each of us is linked thus to all other life. yet, we think
we are indepedent cuz our consciousness--the dot above the 'i'--makes
us aware of the physical distances between us and others.
but, we are all linked to previous folks cuz all of us are the products
of poon/***** encounter. no person was made independently. he grew out
of other people who themselves grew out of other people. once we are
born, we become a separate entity. but, we can only go on living by
eating other animals. also, there is some energy in us that pulls us
toward community, toward other folks, toward fuc*ing so that our dicks
and poons will meet and create others like us. we are like fungi.
so, 'god' is what we call the gravitational dyamic present in all
emotions. emotions seek attachment, linkage, and such. when we are
kids, we think we is the center. we want the whole world to attach to
our emotions. but, as we grow older, we realize we are not the
all-knowing, all-feeling emotions. we feel we must gravitate toward
bigger and larger emotions. this is why people die in wars for the
great cause. the ideal becomes greater than one's emotional sense of
self-survival. the individual believes he lives as long as the idea
lives. this is why christians could sacrifice themselves to lions and
such. their sense of self was bigger than theyselves.
in a way, we think of religion as reaching outward, toward the heavens.
but, what we are really really seeking is the source, the core. we are
only trying to come back home, to the true ultimate emotional home of
the universe. it's like buddha went very very very far during his
meditation. but, to fly into outerspace? no, to enter into the core of
his consciousness from which his soul was born.
it's ironic that in christianity, the physical core of earth is seen as
hell while the loose expansive heavens are seen as god's world. but,
christianity sees heavens as the spritual core which is different than
physical core. after all, the physical center of man is either the
***** or stomach, but his emotional core is hard to define physically.
it's something he feels that seems to both outside his body and inside
his deepest core.
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think of the show 'american idol'. it shows how people need to create
a centrifugal figure to revolve around. american viewers/voters work
together to prop up ONE american as THE CORE STAR among us. we may
want equality in terms of civil liberties but we want to revolve around
the better or the best.
in these sense, movie and pop stars should really be called 'suns'. we
don't just wanna gaze up at them. we want to revolve around them. we
want to feel their glow. we want to luxuriate in their divine
warmth--at least while the stars or suns are hot. and, when they're
hot, kids act as though this love will never ever die. look at
beatlemanian circa 1963 and 64. kids screamed and went mad, as though
they'd give their lives for paul and ringo.
also, our embrace of equality isn't about wanting to be equal with MOST
people. it's about wanting to be as good or near the very best. when
we say we believe in equality, we wanna be equal with the gods of
hollywood, not equal with people next door.
it's like what pasolini said of 'little fascists' of consumerist
capitalism; the post war italians didn't want to be nobly poor and
equal with all other humble folk; they wanted equality in terms of
keeping up with the jonini's--having their own cars and color tv's; it
wasn't humblistic 'virtuous' equality but ambitious aspirational
equality.
communists called for equality of drabby working men all accepting
their noble humble lot in society. capitalism makes us want to be
equal with donald trump and paris hilton. our sense of equality is
having the choice to or entertaining the dream of rising as high as
possible and being equal with the great stars. look at myspace.
everyone wants to be a big famous celebrity. wants to be prettier,
sexier, cooler, colorfuller, etc, etc. they wanna be equal with the
superior folks, not with the humdrum folks.
so, it's part of human nature to seek the ultimate core and to be
associated with it. the human mind is naturally hierarchical. it is
not satisfied with a level field of equality. it want to aspire to
rise higher. either one wants to be richer or to emulate someone who's
richer.
but, even materialism goes so far. money ultimately does't satisfy the
deep emotional need. emotionally, we seek the highest, deepest,
greatest core-peak. and that would be our concept of god. even without
the concept, the feeling of god-seekness exists.
i'm an athiest by the way. i don't believe there is god but i also feel
a pull toward the great core source, the corce. may it be with you.
did you ever hear 'yoda' by weird al yankowicz?
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