So what if we need a Christianity less certain, more mysterious, less concrete and more enfleshed? What if that amounts to a paradigm whose core is paradox?
We live at the intersection of another solid stable certain paradigm that is going all squishy. The quantum world is displacing our modern measureable-certain-cause and effect experience, and saying what you see is definitely not what you get….or more appropriately what you have “got.” Because what we have “got” is not something we can actually see of course, but more than that, what we see is not an accurate indicator of what is actually there.
The atomic world a’la Newton, only accessible to the microscope holder, was a world of tiny billard balls spinning and orbiting in predictable, elliptical and symmetrical paths. The pictures and plastic models in high school chemistry were “the way we were” to quote one of Barbara’s big hits. That WAS the paradigm AND reality.
Atoms were separate from other atoms. Electrons separate from protons and neutrons. Molecules here, totally separate and independent from molecules over there. The implications of all that orderly separate predictability was we lived in a world where what appeared to be space between atoms and molecules could easily be compared to the obvious space between you and me. Space, distance and time were not just realities they were concepts that helped us understand the world.
A paradox has entered the paradigm and threatens to re-form it. First de-form it, then re-form it. The paradox? There was something further down, something invisible to the microscope. The way we experience space is actually an illusion. That isn’t a Buddhist statement about maya. It is a quantum reality experienced as a paradox threatening the current paradigm. And the spiritual implications are enormous. In the quantum world connectedness not separateness is the more present reality. Your spontaneous sense of connection to someone miles apart, or your “gut” you should call someone you suddenly think might be in danger isn’t some bizarre sixth sense. It is actually our connectedness registering at the visceral level.
Our connectedness needs to be explored — with each other and with creation, how we experience that connectedness, what that means to intuition, gut, sensing and perceived boundaries needs exploration. What connectedness means to the how we sense reality arising around us, God’s holding it all together by the word of His power, and what that means to even how we DEFINE God all need a new examination within the emerging and displacing paradigm of quantum. This sort of examination will lead to a new paradigm in which paradox has free airspace. Some will resist, others will embrace. But the wise in our midst will transcend the old but includes it’s learnings and insights in that which is unfolding. Transcend and include, that is the way of quantum and integral.
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Hi Ron. Man you are dealing with great stuff here! We get a sence of letting go and reaching out for something more. Most of it is mysterious and difficult, if not impossible, to fully comprehend. There is an undeniable sence that what we are reaching for is where reality and the Devine come together. We get lost in the vastness of the minute, as well the incomprhensible immensity of infinity. In short, it is overwhelming – but glorious! I am at the moment also caught up in contemplating the difference between the concepts of a Vacuum as opposed to a Void. It appears that a Vacuum contains no matter, but forces such as gravity and light can still pass through, whereas a Void is composed of just sterile nothing! Any ideas, any one? Carel
Guys, could I ammend my previous post? Apart from the spelling, it may seem to imply that Reality and Divinity are seperate entities, whereas Devinity IS in fact ultimate reality! I should have phrased it as “where Conceived Reality and Ultimate Reality come together”. Sorry! Carel