MeisterEckhart wrote on Apr 7^th, 2024 at 8:37am:


Fortunately,  human destiny is not

Constricted by mediocre minds 

To seek to know what the universe is in itself is likely futile.

If the universe is the set of all that is, including itself - indivisible, then the 'I' that is you cannot be separated from it such that it can be known.

There was a young man who said, 'Though,
It seems that I know that I know.
What I would like to see is the I that knows me,
When I know that I know that I know'.

You have no idea what the universe is. Nobody does. Simply saying "it is everything" because that's how the dictionary defined it is worthy of a year 5 paper on the solar system.

Nobody knows.

We are only guessing.

To think anything else is hubris.

Religion

GOFF, however, prefers to think that “perhaps we can in some small way contribute” to this cosmic purpose “by trying to make the world as best as we can”.

And it’s here that we get into the territory of religion. If the notion of a universe with purpose makes Goff want to be a good person, isn’t this close to what we mean by “faith”?

Cosmopsychism could change how we think about spirituality, Goff feels.

Our lives can still have meaning without a creator god or a conscious universe or any belief at all, he thinks, “but if there is cosmic purpose then there’s potential for a more meaningful form of existence”.

It’s obvious how the idea of a conscious universe – the universe as “god” – could easily fit with modern environmentalism.

If we think about the universe as having a consciousness, Goff says, then perhaps we might start treating the things in the universe with a little more respect. “It adds a whole extra moral dimension,” he adds.

Goff knows that his theories come at a time when the Western world is experiencing a “meaning crisis”. In a post-god, secular world, what really gives purpose to our lives?

As Goff began to embrace Cosmopsychism, he found it added meaning to his own life. And what was that meaning? “To live in hope that the good you do contributes to some greater purpose.”

Indeed, some Christian thinkers are concerned that people are now beginning to ponder the notion of the universe as “god”. It presents a clear challenge to organised religion.

Might there come a time when people actually “worship” the universe? “When we hear the word ‘worship’,” says Goff, “many think of getting on your knees in supplication to some anthropomorphic deity.

However, in progressive religions, such as Quakers, “worship” is used to mean practices to invoke contemplation and connection.

“Perhaps new worship practices will emerge as society takes both the fine-tuning that rules out atheism, and suffering that rules out God, seriously.”

Goff likes to think of Cosmopsychism as “the Liberal Democrats” – offering a third way between the austerity of atheism and the fantasy of religion. Within academia, he notes, the idea is now “taken much more seriously”. Evidently, however, many dismiss it as mumbo-jumbo pseudoscience.

Rest assured that Goff isn’t pitching himself as a prophet for a new religion. “I’m certainly not going to be starting a cult,” he says.

As the conversation ends, however, one thought remains: if the universe is conscious, and if that consciousness did indeed set the conditions for life, then who – or what – created the universe?