Friday, July 29, 2005
Hello, I am quite new at this but am going to start with a journal entry I wrote concerning religion, and more specifically, it's influence in my life.
Here goes...
True Religion.
Ask Yourself. Does it make you a better person?
Christianity does this for me. It makes me the best human being I think I can be. The reason I am a humanist: We contain a divine element that cannot be measured. Can our religious feelings be expressed in the square footage of our cathedrals? Can it be further expressed in the length, mass, charge and time of the wood, the steel, that supports our church walls, and in the compressive strength of the concrete that supports us as worshippers? Can our spirituality be measured by the height of our steeples, the size of our temple parking lots, the width of our church doors? Who has measured the hydrostatic power of our baptistries, the static equilibrium of our choir risers, the atmospheric pressure of sacred air against sacred walls?
The architect may design our holy buildings, but not to this degree, surely. And no engineer goes back to a house of worship he has designed and measures these quantities 'as they were built' as opposed to 'as they were designed'. For necessity requires it's presence in the undertaking of any human enterprise and adds her own secret dimensions to the best laid plans. And the creativity of a carpenter to make a cornice piece 'just so' adds unforseen qualitiies to a rigourously calculated architecture. The 'true' angularity of our sacred geometry simply cannot be calculated in 'real' degrees. The departure from straightness and curvature will not be discovered with our inaccurate tools.
Just as a church is designed and built, I believe that we live and breathe much the same. The Creator 'knew' us in his mind, stitched us in our womb, formed us from earth, air, fire and water, which means that nature by necessity added her own secret dimensions to our selves.
Due to this 'surprise' nature, I believe we surprise our Creator with the manifestation of our departure from His 'true' angularity and curvature which He implanted in our beings. Who among us has not laughed when we should cry? Or cried when we should hurt? Or hurt when we should rejoice? God is surprised, as we are, at our sudden, deep pleasure when our face is caressed by a light rainfall in a cool summer breeze. Sometimes we turn left when we should have turned right, and the unexpected inertia takes hold in the Creator as it takes hold in us. Imagine how thrilling it is for God when our first kiss produces a reaction in us that even the angels have never felt? For the active ingredient in ourselves is the divine breath that God imparted to us in the watery womb. He breathed enough in us to give us our soul, which is amazingly like His.
Enough for now
Here goes...
True Religion.
Ask Yourself. Does it make you a better person?
Christianity does this for me. It makes me the best human being I think I can be. The reason I am a humanist: We contain a divine element that cannot be measured. Can our religious feelings be expressed in the square footage of our cathedrals? Can it be further expressed in the length, mass, charge and time of the wood, the steel, that supports our church walls, and in the compressive strength of the concrete that supports us as worshippers? Can our spirituality be measured by the height of our steeples, the size of our temple parking lots, the width of our church doors? Who has measured the hydrostatic power of our baptistries, the static equilibrium of our choir risers, the atmospheric pressure of sacred air against sacred walls?
The architect may design our holy buildings, but not to this degree, surely. And no engineer goes back to a house of worship he has designed and measures these quantities 'as they were built' as opposed to 'as they were designed'. For necessity requires it's presence in the undertaking of any human enterprise and adds her own secret dimensions to the best laid plans. And the creativity of a carpenter to make a cornice piece 'just so' adds unforseen qualitiies to a rigourously calculated architecture. The 'true' angularity of our sacred geometry simply cannot be calculated in 'real' degrees. The departure from straightness and curvature will not be discovered with our inaccurate tools.
Just as a church is designed and built, I believe that we live and breathe much the same. The Creator 'knew' us in his mind, stitched us in our womb, formed us from earth, air, fire and water, which means that nature by necessity added her own secret dimensions to our selves.
Due to this 'surprise' nature, I believe we surprise our Creator with the manifestation of our departure from His 'true' angularity and curvature which He implanted in our beings. Who among us has not laughed when we should cry? Or cried when we should hurt? Or hurt when we should rejoice? God is surprised, as we are, at our sudden, deep pleasure when our face is caressed by a light rainfall in a cool summer breeze. Sometimes we turn left when we should have turned right, and the unexpected inertia takes hold in the Creator as it takes hold in us. Imagine how thrilling it is for God when our first kiss produces a reaction in us that even the angels have never felt? For the active ingredient in ourselves is the divine breath that God imparted to us in the watery womb. He breathed enough in us to give us our soul, which is amazingly like His.
Enough for now
