A RELIGIOUS VIEW OF NATURE AND THE UNIVERSE
David Wagstaff
The empires that have lasted have always been empires of the mind; the religions, the philosophers, the artists, the architects, all divinely inspired. In this country our culture for the last 1400 hundred years has been a Christian Culture; and whether we like it or not, unless we want our country to degenerate into a purposeless rabble, which believes in nothing and stands for nothing, we have to make the best of our inheritance. With the atomic bomb staring us all in the face, it is perfectly obvious that the empires of the future will be the empires of the mind. The price of conquest now is prohibitive.
Jesus Christ in many ways was a man of his time. He dressed like a Bedouin, was steeped in the literature of his nation, and knew little outside it, and was wedded to the apocalyptic vision of the end of the world, which was prevalent at that time. And yet in some mysterious way he set our spirits free from the superstition and spiritual darkness of the past. He had something to tell us about the Almighty, the Creator, both in his teaching, and even more in his life and death, that no-one else could tell us. It is time we tried to distil his unique message from his repetition of the contemporary wisdom of the culture in which he grew up. However splendid the rhetoric of the Sermon on the Mount, I understand it was largely current thought in the Middle East at that time.
My aim is to re-create a vision of a Universe created by God, and of a world in which we all have our part to play. Europe had this vision in the Middle Ages, but it was destroyed by science, which showed that too much of the detail of the vision was false, in particular its cosmology. This time, the vision must incorporate the truth of science, if the British Empire of the mind is to be an example of a Christian civilization. The alternatives are unattractive. Making money the measure of all things patently does not work. Science by itself creates two problems for every one it solves. But a religion that embraces blind faith, though a step in the right direction, if it ignores the truth of science and the practical demands of everyday life, leads precisely nowhere. Meanwhile if order in society is replaced by chaos, we have the recipe for a new dark age, which we so narrowly escaped in the Second World War, and which we did not escape with the break-up of the Roman Empire.
PREFACE
We are faced with the prospect of a new Dark Age. Christianity is supine, and in its present state can do nothing to help avert it. Islam is actively bringing it closer; and a militant secularism is rapidly reducing our country to chaos. Who, or what, can save us from this impending catastrophe?
CHAPTER 1, IS IT TERMINAL DECLINE FOR THE C. of E.?
We have lost the precious idea of a world created by God, in which we all have a part to play. And the Church is so intellectually inward-looking and limited, that for hundreds of years it has failed to do anything effective to re-create this vision on a realistic basis. Is it possible now to re-create this vision of a world created by God?
CHAPTER 2, IF IT IS, WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?
I make an attempt to assess the German wars of 1914 and 1939 at a true valuation. In winning them, we avoided slavery, and kept the torch of freedom burning for others; but the two wars destroyed almost everything else we held dear. The Axis powers in the 1939-45 war have utterly changed the way we think, and not for the better.
CHAPTER 3, AND CAN IT BE REVERSED?
Now that the old certainties have passed away, we find that science, on its own admission, can only provide a philosophy that is emotionally hopelessly unsatisfying. The whole of science depends on the process of induction; and the legitimacy of induction depends on common-sense, which science itself condemns as inadequate. We are back with primitive man, his primitive idolatries, and his worship of the one true God, before science existed. So is it possible to re-create this vision, or is it too late?
CHAPTER 4, RELIGION AND THE STATE
Well the first difficulty is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was an other-worldly religion. The result is that when his so-called followers interfere in public life, the result is disaster. When they try to influence the safety of the State, catastrophic – as in the appeasement of the 1930s. We have to begin again.
CHAPTER 5, WAYS OF LOOKING AT THE COSMOS
Science sees the Cosmos as a whole, just as the Medieval churchmen did. This is science’s greatest gift to us. It is a very different vision, of course; but the versatility of Evolution has an exact parallel with the way God treats men and women. The whole of the creation of the modern mind occurred in the Christian world; whereas Islam ceased to develop its political thought in the 13th century. So it looks as if we must seek a Christian view of the Cosmos.
CHAPTER 6, AN ENVELOPE FOR MODERN THOUGHT
Science provides the only view of Nature that is acceptable nowadays; and any religion which refuses to accept this relegates itself to being just a parochial sect, and obviously so. Even worse, any religion which brands those outside its membership as inferior, makes itself hated by the rest of the world; and probably signs its own death-warrant. So the only possibility of re-creating a Christian world-view is by incorporating the entire language of science into the Christian vocabulary.
CHAPTER 7, JESUS A DAILY COMPANION
Even with an enthusiasm for life, it is necessary to maintain a balance between the human individual world and the individual’s relationship with public institutions and ultimately the world of man’s future destiny. Christians often use the myth of Jesus being their daily companion to do this. But you can achieve it equally well through two facets of an indwelling with another person. Either device is better than clinging to the totems or shibboleths of primitive religions or fashion. Clausewitz says the same about War.
CHAPTER 8, INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY
But more is needed; there must be a desire to dominate life. And this entangles us all, either with the question, “Why are we here?” and what was the purpose of creation, or with the passionate declaration that “Love is stronger than death”. Either way, one is driven to speculate about a life after death, and knowing the difference between right and wrong. The tragedy is that in the flood of publication following Newton’s Principia, nobody seems to have grasped that the vision might still be true, regardless of what the mechanism of Nature was. In the event, science destroyed the medieval vision of a god-created world.
CHAPTER 9, CAMBRIDGE HAS TWO ANSWERS
Dr. Broad says a complicated body always has properties which you could never anticipate from studying its simpler components. Complexity changes the Rules. Professor Whitehead says we all live in a mortal and immortal world at the same time; indeed the mortal world and the immortal world are simply abstractions of life as a whole. I explore how selfish and self-effacing people cope with these problems.
CHAPTER 10, CONDUCT
The Second World War faces us with the challenge to transcend the atrocity of War. We are back to first principles, and whether God can dwell in the human heart, and whether another human being can dwell in the heart alongside God? To the latter question I have no answer.
CHAPTER 11, THE PROBLEM
The Church of England is so bogged down in the fanciful magic of rituals, that one despairs.
CHAPTER 12, ANY SOLUTION POSSIBLE?
Yes it is possible, but only by marrying the sacred to the secular. The clergy say this is not possible. But when one studies the human mind, one finds that an ‘other worldly Gospel’ is not capable even of running a church, let alone a decent just society. Nor can Islam.
CHAPTER 13, THE CHURCH MUST EVOLVE
The sacrifices of two World Wars show that the Church is out of its depth. But science is no better; it cannot bridge the gap with religion. There is no alternative but to create an attitude of mind that transcends all individual disciplines. But we must remember, what science seems incapable of understanding, that Complexity changes the Rules!
CHAPTER 14, WHAT IS INFINITY?
If you want infinity - look within. But if you want trust, study inter-penetrating minds; and you will find that no-one was ever persuaded to behave better, except by the example of someone who did behave better.
CHAPTER 15, A MARRIAGE OF MINDS
One precept creeds lead to fanaticism in one form or another. The only way forward is to study the interpenetration of human character, both mentally and emotionally. This links up religion with the average human family; a concept that is absent from the Gospels.
CHAPTER 16, LIMITATIONS OF IMAGINATION AND EXPERIENCE
What you achieve may be limited by what is physically possible, though even here morale may play a decisive part. But what you attempt is entirely limited by what you imagine is possible; and your imagination is enormously increased by a sense of communion with another person. The whole of life in society confirms that Complexity changes the Rules.
CHAPTER 17, THE OPIUM OF THE PEOPLE?
The simplest “explanation” of evolution is that the mind of God is seeking communication with the slowly awakening consciousness of the mind of man.
CHAPTER 18, PUTTING ON THE MIND OF JESUS
The simplest way to give significance to Jesus’ life is to see him as immortal, and not wanting to be anything else, even if he was mortal too. Mortality and immortality are both abstractions of the life we all have to live.
CHAPTER 19, MORE MAY BE AT STAKE THAN WE THINK
Most of us fear the unknown; and the only remedy for fear is valour.
CHAPTER 20, BOLDNESS
Clausewitz speaks of two types of boldness; both are necessary in war. In the civilian world either you need courage, or you must be content to lead a very sheltered existence.
CHAPTER 21, DIFFERENT TYPES OF MORAL COURAGE
If religion is to help this country to recover its self-confidence and its willingness to tackle the dangers that threaten it, the clergy must stop sheltering behind their creeds, and display a courage that is an example to others.
CHAPTER 22, WHAT WOULD JESUS HAVE DONE?
Jesus would defy all vested interests, just as he did in his own day, though it cost him his life. His clergy should recognise that religion must not be inimical to the welfare of the State.
CHAPTER 23, WHAT SHOULD WE DO?
The vision of a Universe created by God makes sense of life, gives meaning to science and evolution, and provides an esprit-de-corps to make a success of our community. Would that we had a national church which encouraged these desirable aspirations.