Eyre Lines

There was a story going around a little while ago, along these lines:- A father says to his daughter “Could I have a newspaper, please?”. The daughter says “Oh, dad, you’re so 20th century – here, have my iPad”.

Result: Dead fly, broken iPad, crying daughter.

Going through week four of Peter Rollins’ “Atheism for Lent” course, which has a set of “masters of suspicion”, including Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzsche and Freud (plus Joe Hill and Emma Goldman), I’m struck by that story. Clearly, to us, the iPad is not designed to swat flies, but to the father in the story, who knows what he wants the newspaper for, it will definitely serve the purpose.

I’ve also noted this recent article. The thesis of it is essentially the same as that of F.C. Happold in his book “Mysticism, a Study and Anthology”, namely that religions tend to start with mystics around whom a group grows who find the statements of the mystic interesting and stimulating; some of them go on to commentating, putting forward theories about what the mystic really meant by what he said, and before long you have a religion (or at least a cult) with a fixed theology, an hierarchy and rules as to who is in and who is out. I have myself written in the past “The whole history of Christian theology is of non-mystics misinterpreting the words of mystics”, and while that is an extreme statement not indended to be taken entirely seriously, there is a considerable amount of truth in it. I fancy there is some truth in it if you remove the word “Christian” as well. In point of fact, some of the mystics start doing the job themselves; Paul was clearly a Christ-mystic following the greatest mystic of the age, Jesus, but was also the first Christian theologian. Many of the Church Fathers in the East had a strong mystical streak in them as well; it is unfortunate that they then felt compelled to try to rationalise their visions beyond the point which the visions could legitimately support. However, in general, I think it clear that the mysticism comes first.

That is, of course, a very different story from that told by Feuerbach, who wrote “Man first unconsciously and involuntarily creates God in his own image, and after this God (Religion) consciously and voluntarily creates man in his own image.” In that he is reversing the tongue in cheek wording of Voltaire, who wrote “In the beginning God created man in His own image, and man, being a gentleman, has been trying to repay the favor ever since.” Feuerbach is an adherent of the “God of the gaps” idea, that God is, in effect, an hypothesis as to the cause of all the things we cannot readily explain by finding a naturalistic explanation for them.

Of course, Feuerbach is right in that God (and supernatural entities in general) have been used as explanations for the otherwise unexplainable since very early times. He and Voltaire are both right that man has been constructing anthropomorphic concepts of God from the beginning (or at least, almost so), and in the case of Feuerbach that those God-concepts then go on to shape the thinking of mankind. In effect, Marx just follows on from Feuerbach’s criticism, but expands his thinking to providing societal hope. He might also have noted that religion has historically formed one of the “glues” which societies (at the most fundamental level tribes) need to remain cohesive.

Freud looks at religions as vehicles to assuage anxieties, also accepting Feuerbach’s conclusion as being common knowledge, and in another of the week’s readings (in this case actually a song) by Joe Hill, one of the religious claims which most commonly assuages anxieties, namely reliance on an afterlife to correct unfairnesses in life, is viciously skewered (and quite rightly so, in my opinion).

So, we can quite reasonably say that God has in fact been used as a kind of description of mankind, as a tool of social control or social cohesion, as a therapeutic invention, as a correction for the incredibly conterfactual instinct in humanity that life should be fair, and as an explanation of last resort for otherwise unexplained events. We could also say that God has been used as an ultimate source of meaning in life or a guarantor of a system of morality.

But are these things what God-concepts are “designed to do”, or is God, in effect, being used as a fly swatter?

The mystic in me is inclined to respond that, so far as we can see historically, some concept of God is first a response to a particular species of human experience which appears in all ages and cultures, albeit historically in a small minority of individuals. For the mystic, some God-concept is necessary. Granted, it probably does not look much like the God concepts which are produced by non-mystic theologians, and that is a possible flaw. However, what mysticism tends to do in practice is to produce non-violent, compassionate, generous people invested in the care of creation (and I could cite examples like Richard Rohr or the Dalai Lama), and inasmuch as some God-concept is necessary to their formation, that is not any of the things criticised by the “masters of suspicion”. Indeed, most mystics would tend to criticise the use of God-concepts in those spheres, just as I would criticise the use of an iPad as a fly swatter.

Dear Sigmund – sometimes a God is just a God…

There is a problem in this line of thinking, however, and that is that mystics using God-concepts to aid their non-violence, compassion, generosity and creation-care have historically been a fairly small minority, and one could readily argue that in fact the less beneficial uses of God-concepts have historically been far more prominent. Several of the “New Atheists” have done just that, notably Christopher Hitchens in “God is not Good”. I cannot say with confidence that the balance has historically been favourable, nor can I say with confidence that even if something is designed for good, the fact that it is usually used for bad may justify its general disuse.

What can I therefore say in conclusion? Mystics are going to continue to exist (in fact, I’ve been very encouraged by some polls indicating that nearly half of the people interviewed have had some kind of mystical experience, a massive increase from, say, 50 years ago when the percentage was more like ten) and they will most definitely have God-concepts, even if those are couched in such abstruse philosophical terms that they don’t look much like God-concepts any more. Buddhists, I’m looking at you here… and possibly also Pete Rollins “Pyrotheology”.

The thing is, things which are operationally God-concepts (and operate in the less beneficial ways outlined) are also going to continue to exist. Money. The State. The people. The proletariat. The Church. “Our team”. The list could go on for a long time. All of those are, for some of us, as Paul Tillich puts it “matters of ultimate concern”.

We will have Gods. We should strive to become conscious of the nature of those Gods, and if they are not worthy of our devotion, we should find others. Then, perhaps, we can ask not (as all the writers this week are doing) “What can your God do for you?” but “What can you do for your God?”.