Author: aforcier

Can you be “spiritual” without a God?

sunrise-1634197_1920

_______________________________________________________________________________________


We, humans, feel that our “self”, our life, our existence is “more”, more than rocks, or vegetation, or  animals. We have a “spirit”; they do not.

“Spirituality” originates in the belief that a “God” exists, and that the God is a “Spirit”… and by extension, we, humans, are endowed with a droplet of “divinity”, or, at minimum, a connection to the divine spirit. The “God/ Spirit” is separate from us. And our “spirit” is separate from our body. By being human and by following the words of God we activate in us a “spiritual” effect. The effect: A feeling of oneness with God, a sense of “validated” purpose and meaning of existence… and at a ticket, at  end of this existence, to rejoin God in is celestial abode. The “spiritual” effect satisfies our need to be “more”. The problem: There is no God.  The exercise is, in the end, imaginary. 

Science leaves our sense of being “more” wanting. Science is uncertain as to the nature of the Mind/Force behind creation. Behind the Big-Bang. Behind evolution. Is it a God? Is it a Force. Is there anything there? We are scrutinizing the cosmos further and further backward into time hoping to see behind the veil. While we wait to form a philosophy of existence based on the real nature of who we are, we claim to be as moral, as ethical, as good, as… than the believers! In the end, the “Force/Mind”, which is unknown, is separate from us. Who are we? Are we more than rocks? 

There is also an allusion to a steady-state universe. A “matter” world. Un-created. Even.  Without Mind. Only a body. This does not do much for our sense of being “more”.

Science abandons spirituality for dry facts and figures. Mind is a physical/matter “construct” that fires synapses. The dryness leaves the “soul” empty. Empty of meaning, empty of purpose. We go get drunk, accumulate trophies, accolades, bank accounts, doctorates, buy more stuff. All of this dispense pleasure, but on a flat line. 

Are we out of luck? Are we condemn to wait? Can we fill our emptiness vase: 

What do we know for certain?
The Now exists. 

And, in the Now, is there the “more” we seek? 

The Now has no root-cause, no source-cause. The “Now” is of this instant. The Now is a singular instant. An instant without beginning, therefore eternal… yet, it is always beginning. (And this confuses us, we think that there is a past) An instant without end… yet, it is always ending. (And this confuses us, we think that there is a future.)  An instant infinite… everywhere is its center. (And this confuses us, we think that there are distances, edges, heights, tops, bottoms, firsts and lasts.) There are no lesser human, no lesser tree, no lesser grain of sand. (And this truly confuses us.)  

Is the Now mind and body? As the Now is a singular instant, it cannot have sequentiality. Essence/mind cannot precede substance/body. Essence has to present itself as substancemind as matter, thought as body. No separation. 

Where religion and science (as we know them) seek to connect/ re-connect “Spirit/Mind” to “body/form” (a connection that gives “more”), the Now makes no such separation. Therefore no reconnection is necessary. But a game is being played, a game of eternity and temporality, of infinity and finality. (This too, we can understand.) For our consciousness has an intensity knob which we can turn up. That is what makes us “more”. The knob is there, but we have to turn it.

Can we feel the cosmic singular/duality propositions of the Now? Can we feel the unfolding and folding of light into darkness, of mind into form. Consciousness like all of creation’s ways is infinite in its depth, in its height, in its reach. It is present everywhere. Can we enter the consciousness of the forms as they manifest consciousness? Knowing and understanding is included in our “matrix”, in our design. The “ways” of our composing Matrix are knowable.

We are not only connected to the ways of the cosmos, we are the ways of existence, of the present. All of that which the Now is is all of what we are. The whole is one. Our intelligence is our (attached to us) cosmic searchlight revealing to our mind/body the universe we are and the universe we are in.

The more we feel the “oneness” in all that exists, the greater our experience of being, of purpose, of meaning.

The “blueprint” is the form.

The “more” is infinite. For our consciousness has a “cosmic” intensity knob which we can turn up. How much we receive is up to us, to you.

*

To read more… see other posts above.

To leave a comment, see below.

To view / purchase… A Natural Philosophy… go to Amazon

What is sin ? Or – in nature, there is – no such thing – as sin or sinners.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sin, the idea that we can sin, that we sin, is the single most destructive force implanted and implemented into the human psyche.

We are taught that, long ago, a “God” created a man and a women, and, after placing them in a “paradise” gave them instructions to follow. Tempted by another character named “Satan”, the two perfect souls disobeyed a command of the “God”. This act caused a split (a fault line) in human nature. They had sinned. And, on that day, their sin became our sin.

Like these first parents, our mind, our life, became a battlefield for a never ending war between “God” and “Satan”. “God” represents good, “Satan” evil. This set the human stage for what is right and what is wrong. Satan stands at the ready to tricks us in wanting forbidden “fruits”… forbidden knowledge… forbidden thoughts… forbidden acts… forbidden sensations… forbidden desires.

Always fearful of displeasing the “God”, we struggle. Even though we try our best to be like God our natural nature overruns our good intentions. We sin. Fall. Feel guilty. Repent. Fall again. The game never ends. Sin twists our mind. Sin makes us hate our own “self” as well as the world around us.

We are caught in a nightmare.
The “divided” self nightmare.

And the nightmare consumes our existence. Believers and non-believers alike. For the non-believer think him(her)self as moral, as good, as righteous as the believers. 

Like all other forms, we human beings, cannot transgress, change, alter, modify, deny, reroute the laws of the cosmos. It is not possible. Our natural nature cannot be undone. Nature demands that we walk existence by its rules. Then, intelligence demands that we learn, know, and understand what the rules are, how they apply, and the why behind the what and the how.

It is possible to know.

*

To read more… see other posts above.

To leave a comment, see below.

To view / purchase… A Natural Philosophy… go to Amazon


Editor’s Comments

Before I decided to publish this book, I asked my editor, David Yanor, to give me some feedback as to the viability of the project. And could the book be of value to others? Here are excerpts of what he had to say:

“Albert… with this manuscript, you have tackled some of the most daunting subjects conceivable.

–  The meaning of life.
–  The existence of God.
–  The place of religion.
–  The trajectory of life and death.
–  And many other timeless abstract considerations.

 

“Albert… If I did not believe that your book was professional enough or original enough, I would tell you. But there are enough flashes of real creativity and seminal intelligence to prick even the most jaded reader.

There is an audience out there, one of global proportions. Some critics might question your credibility. “What makes this guy an authority on these weighty subjects? No PhD? No previous publications that appeared in the New York Times List?”  But those criticisms seem without merit. The proof is in the pudding and your writing is the only proof of your credibility and it passes the test.

I was especially impressed with the overwhelming positive and empowering message that resonated throughout the book. I found it most uplifting and motivational. Much of what you say is profound and deeply fascinating for those individuals ready to make a sincere effort to get a handle on the abstract realities in their lives. Some readers will lose themselves in the folds of your phrases, so unusual and exotic are the thoughts. You will wake some up to their existence and they will be eternally grateful.

Like Whitman wrote to Emerson, acknowledging his influence, “I was simmering, simmering, you brought me to a boil.” I sense that your words will bring many readers to a boil.”

*

Albert Forcier’s “A Natural Philosophy” is an intimate heart-to-heart that is likely to be as profound an experience as any in your lifetime.”



Buy A Natural Philosophy book on Amazon

A God Or Nature?

Religion. Science. Nature. The Now. Who is (was) God? What can we know for certain? Life. Death. Purpose. Meaning. Becoming conscious of this intelligent universe. – There are answers.


A REFLECTION ON THE NATURE OF “EXISTENCE”:

Who/What is the Source of all that exists? 

It is not enough not to believe, we must know why there is no God… and… know and understand who/what we are at Source.

Who are we? What are we? Where do we come from? What are we doing here? What is Creation? Purpose? Life? Death? Eternity? Meaning? – At present, about these questions, religion and science enounce most of the answers. Is there another answer?

Creation’s beginning:
A day in the past?
The Now? 

A day in the past: At a precise moment, eons ago, where there was nothing, a Cause: a “God”, claimed by religion or an unknown “Force”, intimated by science, produced an effect… a ‘Day One’ of Creation”… to come into being. Then, following this first effect/moment, within Creation, effects/thoughs upon effects/forms – all containing the will of the ‘God’ or the ‘Force’ moved forward in an uncut – continuum – all the way to this present moment. At one point on the continuum’s trajectory, by divine procurement or by evolution, a being human became a part of Creation

The problem with a ‘First Day’:

All effects (material, animal, vegetal, human) contain, enact and move forward the design, will, and purpose of the originating Cause (God or Force). Within an attached and unbreakable cause to effect continuum, freedom is but an illusion. We are robots.

Then, we are divided beings. ‘God’ is ‘Spirit’, the ‘Force’ is Mind. But who/what are we? Spirit? Matter? 50/50? We are not God. We are not the unknown Force. And both are hidden from us. The consequence of this Spirit/Mind “dislocation” from form/body: A disjuncted world, nature, and “Self”.

The Now. This instant. – What if what governs us and the universe is not an external, pre-time, pre-space ‘Spirit’ or ‘Force’ but ‘the Now’? The Now being a ‘Formula’. A Formula/ Source/ Mind enacting into matter/form/body a single present instant. No past. No future.

At origin (always):

Instinct.
Freedom.

The Now – having no past or future – is not caused. The Now is still. The Now’s primary essence is stillness. But motion/movement exists. Mind exists.Forms exist. What is the formula behind a world that moves without moving? 

Answers about the nature of the ‘God’ are many and everywhere. Science sees creation beginning, eons ago, in a (Big Bang) explosion. The  creative impetus (Force) behind the Big Bang is still unknown.   

A PERSONAL JOURNEY:

This is where I found myself many long seasons ago. I was everywhere surrounded by answers representing a God who did not make much sense and a science which swam backward into time and space hoping to find a point of origin…  and behind it the Originating Force which gave birth to Creation.

*

When pressed, religion and science lift their hands up in the air and claim and admonish that “no one can know for certain”. This certitude closes the door to desire, to doubt, to knowledge. 

*

Walking in nature:

What do I know for certain?
I exist.
Nature exists.
People are born, people die.
Tree leaves turn red in the fall.
I speak.
I think.
I feel.

How does this vast nature which – we know for certain – is there – operates? And why is it functioning the way it does?

What if we had the originating Source wrong? What if no Creator/ Force, Cause/effect, First Instant, continuum… ever existed? What if what exists never emerged from nothing? … because “substance” has always been? Creation would then respond to a very different “formula”  from the one presented by religion and science. What would this formula be? How would it work? And what would giving it light and understanding mean for our everyday existence?

I began to ask, read, think, reflect. I also understood that leaving the recognized, accepted, normalized landscapes would not be easy. The landscape would be different. (As most people recognize when they leave their home town.) Along the way, I noted new roads,  findings, reflections, and “what did it all mean?” in a book entitled A Natural Philosophy.

A Natural Philosophy is available on Amazon.

AN OVERVIEW:

The first bump on the road.
Or a completely different road.

WHO IS/WAS “GOD”? How have we come to believe in the existence of a God?

THE GREAT LINE:

The “God” who visited earth in the days of old was not a “Spirit” but a being of flesh and blood. And He we was not alone to have come to earth from the heavens.

And He and they were real. 

It is recounted in the Roman and Greek legends, the Egyptian texts, the Bible, the Enuma Elish, the Mahabharata, the Popol Vuh that in the days of old “gods” came down from the heavens and established residence on earth. Once here, they constructed homes/temples, walls, pyramids, out of massive megaliths. Some of the massive stone blocks weighted up to hundreds of tons. Some megaliths at BaalBeck, Libanon, tipped the scale at more than 1000 to 1500 tons. That’s 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 pounds. They were extracted from the quarry, transported to the site, then lifted and stacked on top of one another.

And it is said that these gods/ beings/ individuals engineered a “being” human… in their resemblance. 

The Bible mentions that there are more than one God: “You shall have no other gods before me”. Exodus 20:3

Many legends say that God (and the gods) had His/their very own children.  Their progeny becoming demi-gods. “… the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives….” Gen 6:2

What/who did “God” and the gods looked like? “The heavens opened… a whirlwind (spacecraft) came from the north… a great cloud… fire… I heard the noise of their wings… a seat…  upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man….” Ezekiel, chapter one.

For a time, the gods lived among mankind, helping, directing and governing this or that group. Then they returned to the heavens whence they came. 

With the passage of time, all over the earth, “priesthoods” assembled stories, memories, words spoken, exhortations into sacred books, dances, and rituals relating the “feats” of the magnificent ones. History dissolved into religion. Gods ruled from the heavens over their human flock below. 

Then one day, the god Yahweh dislodged all the other gods and became GOD.

God Almighty.  

Some or much of what has been written in the days of old about the gods (and of God) was/is real and true… but it has nothing at all to do with the mechanism/ laws/ principles which construct, maintain and deconstruct the cosmos, nature, human beings… dreams, thoughts, actions, senses, emotions, feelings… values, purpose and meaning. We, ideologically, philosophically, paddle furiously in a boat without a rudder or a bottom… or even a boat. 

*

(Facing the second less travelled road.)

MOVING THE DATE OF CREATION TO ITS NATURAL SPACE:
FROM PAST TO PRESENT, TO THE NOW:

It is now.

It is now. It is now. It is now.
It is always now.

There never was a beginning to Creation.
There never was a “day one”.

Who/What created the Now?
No one. Nothing.

It has always been “now”.

*

The Now is not hidden from us.
The Now is who we are.
The Now is what a grain of sand is.

 

The Now’s operating formula is discoverable.

*

To read more… see… the Now… and other posts above.

To leave a comment, see below.

To view / purchase… A Natural Philosophy… go to Amazon