May 2008
REsources FOR LIVING
BY LYNN UNGAR, MINISTER FOR LIFESPAN LEARNING, CHURCH OF THE LARGER FELLOWSHIP
Usually this page is designed to be read by—or with—children. But religious education, of course, is for people of all ages. And since this issue of Quest includes a spirituality and nature theme, I can’t resist sharing just a bit of the wonderful conversation that ensued from our online course “The Sacred Depths of Nature: Science and Spirituality” that the Rev. Amanda Aikman taught on our Online Learning Center, based on a book of the same title by Ursula Goodenough.
In this particular session of the class, Amanda posed the question: “Do you believe that your own self is ‘inherently sacred’? That you are in charge of your own emergence?” Here are a few of the responses:
Sacred. It’s what attracted me to this class in the first place, the idea of exploring the sacred. Yes, I contain the sacred, as do rocks and my children and fizzy water and... I struggle to put the sacred in landfills, guns, CO2. And the sacred is only part of us. Do I still contain the sacred, the fourth time Alex refuses to pick up the carrots he spit on the floor, and I grab him instead of using my own words? Does my neighbor warming up the Hummer on a lovely fall day, somehow, in some tiny almost-forgotten part, still contain the sacred?
Let me always be able to find it somewhere. Despair lies in that other route.
Is there freewill? I have really come around on this issue. I used to believe “Everything happens for a reason.” I needed there to be meaning behind everything—but I had also been lucky and privileged for a lot of my life. So the meaning was usually for the good. When that started to change, my philosophy had to change. And now I can believe that sometimes, accidents just happen. We can meaning-make after the fact, but what made them happen in the first place was sometimes chance, free of intent.
—Mandy Neff, Massachusetts
Mandy, your comment reminds me of Thich Nhat Hanh's famous point about the “mindfulness of washing dishes” in The Miracle of Mindfulness, the point being that the quotidian is the very ground of the “sacred.” Methinks we err when we separate the “sacred” from the “non-sacred.” What I mean is an openness to see and appreciate the “What Is” in life without constricting doctrines or dogmas ... ah, back to the Seven Principles.
—Michael Roehm, Washington, DC
My spiritual path teaches that Nature is sacred and therefore everything that comes from Nature is sacred. And since everything, even the things Mandy mentioned (landfills, guns, CO2), is made from the building blocks given to us from Nature, it follows that everything, in some way, contains the sacred. We may not think that some of the things we DO with Nature’s gifts are sacred (enter the landfills, etc. again), but that does not deny the inherent sacredness that was there in the beginning. Ultimately, what I’m stating here is that I do absolutely see myself as sacred.
Intelligent Design versus Natural Selection and the Meaning of Life: I distinctly remember once walking out of a biochemistry class thinking, “Well, that’s it. There is no mystery of life. We are all just big, complex bags of chemical reactions. And if there is no mystery, then there likely is no meaning to life either.” I was filled with that existential angst so common in college students. The answer I have to that dilemma is now this: if I want my life to have meaning, then it is up to me to give it meaning. Meaning doesn’t come or have to come from God. However, I do admit I would prefer it if there was some evidence of a Grand Scheme out there. That’s why I tend to pull for the Intelligent Design theories. Unfortunately, the scientist in me hasn’t found any solid basis to support it.
—Jennifer Mode, Wisconsin
Jennifer, like you, I have often hoped to have some unified theory of everything—like Intelligent Design—that would tie together all the weird elements that make up modern science. Neutrinos, for instance, freak me right out. They’re the subatomic particles that are emitted by the sun and are so tiny that they pass right through us, the chair we’re sitting on, the earth beneath us, and continue their journey out the other side. Actually detecting them— “proving” their existence—has been one of the big triumphs of modern physics, especially now that string theory is gathering more and more critics who think it is mathematically elegant and “correct” but perhaps wrong as can be in actuality.
I would welcome some proof of Intelligent Design, even some indication that it might be so. But for now, at least, it seems to be wishful thinking with little or no scientific validity.
But yes indeed, I do think of myself as sacred, just as I think of every living creature as sacred, every rock and every Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup as sacred, every star and every galaxy as sacred.
I think of every day as a holy day (holiday), and I think that everything in the vast multiverse has “that of G-d” about it. This notion merely means that G-d is within and without, and that we are all part of this continuously unfolding, evolving creative act called life.
—David Dawson, Tennessee
To enter into the conversation of a CLF online class for yourself, (including the Rev. Amanda Aikman’s upcoming class using the poetry of Mary Oliver) go to Online Courses.
|
Email this article to a friend
(Remember to add your friend's email in the "To:" line) |
< BACK TO QUEST
Last updated May 12, 2008
|