In the God Question we explored the difficulty of settling the debate about God which has been raging through all recorded history?  Why can’t we discover the Truth by sharing our different subjective perceptions like the Five Blind men in The Belief Elephant?  Is it intellectual or physiological differences that underpin this debate?

While intellectual differences can be overcome through debates and exchange of ideas, observations rooted in different physiological abilities might be more difficult to overcome due to entirely different and irreconcilable observations and experiences.

We know that we all have different sensory, mental and psychological capacities. An Einstein can peer in the unknown to discover the Theory of Relativity, owls can see in the dark and dogs can hear a much higher frequency of sound inaudible to humans. Is it possible that there are some physiological barriers which prevent some humans from any perception of God?

To explore the point let us consider the case of 3 people where one has normal eyesight, the second has partial colour blindness and the third is totally colour blind.

It would be useful to note that colour blindness is a physical disability which decreases a person’s ability to see colour or differences in colour.  This colour blindness will result in the following image being seen differently by each observer.

These three observers can never come to an agreed consensus because each is seeing a different image.  So, if I see an apple and you an orange what are the chances of us ever coming to a consensus irrespective of how much we share or debate our perception?  Could there be a biological factor, like colour blindness, which dictates our perception of God?  And if there is, can we overcome it?

Unlike colour blindness which is mostly untreatable, belief blindness can be cured by diligent exercise of the muscles of mindfulness, love, truth, humility and all other virtues.  These tools are essential for strengthening our spiritual muscles in the same way as the Large Collider at CERN energises the particles required for discovering the Higgs Boson.

It would be deemed utterly foolish for a priest to dismiss the existence of Higgs Boson without learning the physics behind its hypothesis and the scientific tools required for its discovery. So why isn’t it equally foolish for a sceptic to dismiss the existence of God without diligent study and mastery of the spiritual tools required for experiencing God?

Logic while an important tool can never be used in isolation as it is greatly limited by a wide range of known and unknown factors.  Duality and shape shifting of photons is a good example of the limitation of reason due to its manifestation as a particle and wave which defies reason.

Mozart as a child prodigy could effortlessly pluck out great symphonies from thin air much to the chagrin of his contemporaries who had to work hard strenuously to achieve anything like his level of achievement.  Is it possible that a person claiming direct experience of God is similarly gifted in his or her natural abilities to perceive God?  Could Moses, Jesus and Mohammed have been such people?  Were they the Einsteins of the spiritual realm with an almost direct access to the One source of knowledge?

Light has its opposite in darkness which is nothing but the absence of light.  In the same way belief has its opposite in doubt which is nothing but the absence of belief.  How do we know this?  We know this because we can have beliefs without any doubt but cannot have any doubt without some belief to doubt.

In our world of duality both light and darkness are essential for vision and focus.  Cinema is a perfect example of this principle where you need darkness to bring the movie in focus.  Any imbalance in the proportion of light and darkness in a cinema affects the sharpness of the movies focus.  Similarly, we must ensure a balance in the measure of doubt and belief in our life in the absence of which we risk ending up either arrogant, ignorant or blind.  Is doubt the equivalent of darkness essential for bringing the illumination of God in focus?

From my personal experience I can vouch for this to be true as my own journey started with extreme doubt and rejection of God. This served as the foundation for my lifelong search for the truth to validate my scepticism. To my surprise I ended up with fleeting glimpses of divinity and a joyous belief in God.

In hindsight I can now see that my scepticism was the result of a youthful arrogance combined with an education which held human knowledge and reason supreme.  During my formative years the very idea of anything faintly considered to be beyond  human reason was branded blasphemous and dismissed as blind faith.  This view is increasingly being repudiated with the advances in science which today finds itself at the precipice of the unknown and perhaps unknowable!

If belief in God was not tempered with scepticism, belief in Him would always be at risk of turning blind and irrational.  All true religious leaders have encouraged questioning and scepticism.  The fact that Abraham was anointed the patriarch of the Judaic nation over Noah supports this conclusion because Abraham continuously questioned God unlike the unquestioning acquiescence of Noah.

It is conceivable that people who assert their belief in God might be as much in the right as those who reject His existence.  It might not  be an intellectual difference, but more an inherent difference in our physiology at the source of this Belief Blindness.

In the final analysis belief and doubt in God might both be essential for bringing Him into focus like light and darkness are for vision!

Muse

1. Does anyone know enough to categorically call people on either side of the argument ignorant or irrational?
2. If belief in God is a delusion, why can’t that also be the case for disbelievers?
3. Is it possible, and perhaps essential to accept the differences in human perception and the inevitability of differences of opinion?
4. Can a debate on an immaterial phenomenon ever be settled by reason?
5. Can disbelief in God be exploited as was belief in God?
6. Have the supporters of God Delusion turned their belief system into a religious orthodoxy with reason as their God?
7. Can reason be all knowing?

Coming Next Week: Social Media in the Dock!