The Gauntlet of All Other Truths

Spiritualistic faith in all of its forms deals with a world of promise, while materialism’s sun sets in a sea of disappointment. Remember what I said of the Absolute: it grants us moral holidays. Any religious view does this. It not only incites our more strenuous moments, but it also takes our joyous, careless, trustful moments and justifies them. It paints the ground of justification vaguely enough to be sure. The exact features of the saving future facts that our belief in God insures, will have to be ciphered out by the interminable methods of science: we can study our God only by studying his creations. But we can enjoy our God, if we have one, in advance of all that labor. I myself believe that the evidence of God lies primarily in inner personal experiences.

The truth of God has to run the gauntlet of all our other truths. It is on trial by them and they on trial by it. Our final opinion about God can be settled only after all the truths have straightened themselves out together.

William James in his 1906 essay, Some Metaphysical Problems Pragmatically Considered has a lot to say about truths and the nature of beliefs. God certainly is at the root of most beliefs systems; we continually search for guidance as well as comfort from this human inspired entity that we create to worship and to judge. Worshipping and judging as James points out are human traits that we pass on and attach to this God that floats somewhere above our reality.

For centuries religious rituals have been a solid fixture in every social culture and even though cultures have progressed and expanded their belief systems, religious rituals are still the focal point of connecting to God. James has a different belief about God; he believes the consciousness called God exists within him as well as in every other form of consciousness. He confirms that fact by studying his creations as well as the creations of every aspect of consciousness that express life in physical form. Each form of consciousness is self-aware although they are not self-aware in the same way as humans.

The inexhaustible creativity within the cells themselves reaches deeper into the stream of consciousness than our biological and spiritual beliefs allow. That’s why the materialism’s sun sets in a sea of disappointment.

The inner dynamics of the psyche understand the essence of the self and the units of consciousness within that essence far surpass any 21st century computer. The molecules and atoms within the cells carry a memory of all forms of consciousness, which means the physical and non-physical forms they have been part of, so they are always working with probabilities as well as comparing probable actions fuel by genetic information.

Conscious intent activates an inner mechanism which changes the behavior of the cells and that intent impacts the collective intent so the goals of the species do not exist apart from individual goals. Life is the awareness of the future development of the species, and that development is rooted in what James describes as the inner personal experiences manifested physically or what some call Zen. It is where the truth of God has run the gauntlet of all of our other truths and exists without the limitations of religion.