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GOD’S RELATION TO THE INDIVIDUAL THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF GOD |
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CEDOMIL VUGRINCIC, M.D.,
Ph.D. |
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In the previous Interim-Papers we have
reviewed the meanings of the TRUE WORSHIP of the Paradise Universal Father,
the PRAYER SUPPLICATIONS to the realms of the Paradise Eternal Son and His
Spirit of Truth, and qualified PRAYER REALIZATIONS by the spirit agencies of
the Holy Spirit, the Mind of the Paradise Conjoint Actor. The following Interim-Paper is
devoted to further enlightenment about the true nature of God.
*** Morality has its
origin in the reason of self-consciousness; it is superanimal
but wholly evolutionary. Human evolution embraces in its unfolding all
endowments antecedent to the bestowal of the Adjusters and to the pouring out
of the Spirit of Truth. But the attainment of levels of morality does not
deliver man from the real struggles of mortal living. Man's physical
environment entails the battle for existence; the social surroundings
necessitate ethical adjustments; the moral situations require the making of
choices in the highest realms of reason; the spiritual experience (having
realized God) demands that man find him and sincerely strive to be like him. Religion is not
grounded in the facts of science, the obligations of society, the assumptions
of philosophy, or the implied duties of morality. Religion is an independent
realm of human response to life situations and is unfailingly exhibited at
all stages of human development which are postmoral.
Religion may permeate all four levels of the realization of values and the
enjoyment of universe fellowship: the physical or material level of
self-preservation; the social or emotional level of fellowship; the moral or
duty level of reason; the spiritual level of the consciousness of universe
fellowship through divine worship. The fact-seeking
scientist conceives of God as the First Cause, a God of force. The emotional artist
sees God as the ideal of beauty, a God of aesthetics. The reasoning
philosopher is sometimes inclined to posit a God of universal unity, even a
pantheistic Deity. The religionist of faith believes in a God who fosters
survival, the Father in heaven, the God of love. Moral conduct is
always an antecedent of evolved religion and a part of even revealed
religion, but never the whole of religious experience. Social service is the
result of moral thinking and religious living. Morality does not biologically
lead to the higher spiritual levels of religious experience. The adoration of
the abstract beautiful is not the worship of God; neither is exaltation of
nature nor the reverence of unity the worship of God. Evolutionary
religion is the mother of the science, art, and philosophy which elevated man
to the level of receptivity to revealed religion, including the bestowal of
Adjusters and the coming of the Spirit of Truth. The evolutionary picture of
human existence begins and ends with religion, albeit very different
qualities of religion, one evolutional and biological, the other revelational and periodical. And so, while religion is
normal and natural to man, it is also optional. Man does not have to be
religious against his will. Religious
experience, being essentially spiritual, can never be fully understood by the
material mind; hence the function of theology, the psychology of religion.
The essential doctrine of the human realization of God creates a paradox in
finite comprehension. It is well-nigh impossible for human logic and finite
reason to harmonize the concept of divine immanence, God within and a part of
every individual, with the idea of God's transcendence, the divine domination
of the universe of universes. These two essential concepts of Deity must be
unified in the faith-grasp of the concept of the transcendence of a personal
God and in the realization of the indwelling presence of a fragment of that
God in order to justify intelligent worship and validate the hope of
personality survival. The difficulties and paradoxes of religion are inherent
in the fact that the realities of religion are utterly beyond the mortal
capacity for intellectual comprehension. Mortal man
secures three great satisfactions from religious experience, even in the days
of his temporal sojourn on earth: 1. Intellectually
he acquires the satisfactions of a more unified human consciousness. 2. Philosophically
he enjoys the substantiation of his ideals of moral values. 3. Spiritually
he thrives in the experience of divine companionship, in the spiritual
satisfactions of true worship. God-consciousness,
as it is experienced by an evolving mortal of the realms, must consist of
three varying factors, three differential levels of reality realization.
There is first the mind consciousness -- the comprehension of the idea
of God. Then follows the soul consciousness -- the realization of the ideal
of God. Last, dawns the spirit consciousness -- the realization of the spirit
reality of God. By the unification of these factors of the divine
realization, no matter how incomplete, the mortal personality at all times
overspreads all conscious levels with a realization of the personality
of God. In those mortals who have attained the Corps of the Finality all this
will in time lead to the realization of the supremacy of God and may
subsequently eventuate in the realization of the ultimacy
of God, some phase of the absonite superconsciousness of the Paradise Father. The experience
of God-consciousness remains the same from generation to generation, but with
each advancing epoch in human knowledge the philosophic concept and the theologic definitions of God must change.
God-knowingness, religious consciousness, is a universe reality, but no matter
how valid (real) religious experience is, it must be willing to subject
itself to intelligent criticism and reasonable philosophic interpretation; it
must not seek to be a thing apart in the totality of human experience. Eternal survival
of personality is wholly dependent on the choosing of the mortal mind, whose
decisions determine the survival potential of the immortal soul. When the
mind believes God and the soul knows God, and when, with the fostering
Adjuster, they all desire God, then is survival assured. Limitations
of intellect, curtailment of education, deprivation of culture,
impoverishment of social status, even inferiority of the human standards of
morality resulting from the unfortunate lack of educational, cultural, and
social advantages, cannot invalidate the presence of the divine spirit in
such unfortunate and humanly handicapped but believing individuals. The
indwelling of the Mystery Monitor constitutes the inception and insures the
possibility of the potential of growth and survival of the immortal soul. The ability of
mortal parents to procreate is not predicated on their educational, cultural,
social, or economic status. The union of the parental factors under natural
conditions is quite sufficient to initiate offspring. A human mind discerning
right and wrong and possessing the capacity to worship God, in union with a
divine Adjuster, is all that is required in that mortal to initiate and
foster the production of his immortal soul of survival qualities if such a
spirit-endowed individual seeks God and sincerely desires to become like him,
honestly elects to do the will of the Father in heaven. Reference: The Urantia Book, Paper 5, Section 5 |
