Clarified Consciousness 5/03/09

We should free ourselves of the prejudice that rational insight is "mysterious."

Tim Crane
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Welcome aboard.
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A mystery is a phenomenon for which we have no explanation. Fortunately for the human race there are people, scientists and philosophers, who will not settle for the "unexplainable." Things happen according to law: natural law and (yes) divine law. And laws are identifiable, measurable and explainable.

One of the most graphic examples of natural law is happening right now in our northern hemisphere. We call it Spring. The farmer doesn't make his crops grow. Natural law does that, but the farmer needs to know and respect the natural law to bring his crops to harvest. I often tell people when asked that the art of acting must conform to natural law. In that case the farmer's field is the actor's mind, but the law is the same. The end result in both cases may seem miraculous, but it is not mysterious.

Great marvels performed by spiritual leaders of the past certainly seemed mysterious but when explanations were asked for by rational thinkers, they were forthcoming. That we can't understand some of those explanations doesn't make them mysterious. It simply means we haven't yet graduated from elementary school.

The ancient prophets knew about divine law and some of them wrote about it. They were not irrational thinkers. How did Moses bring bread down from the sky to feed his followers? What was Elisha doing while he was sitting on a rock making a tempest brew up out of a clear sky? How did Jesus change the water into wine? "I can of my own self do nothing" he said. And "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets." That is, divine law.

There may be many phenomena in this universe that we will never know about, but that doesn't mean that we couldn't understand them if we did know. Some ancient peoples used to worship the rising of the sun, the phases of the moon and other phenomena as gods or acts of god that needed to be feared and praised. Some peoples still do. But that useless, primitive theology was dispelled by rational thinkers uncovering what those phenomena are about and the laws which govern them. Some people still bow down to hurricanes and earthquakes. Why is it that many people don't want to accept the discoveries of the scientific mind as anything but mysterious? To say that it is God's will that the hurricane destroyed one house while it left standing the one next to it is nonsense.

Some pseudo prophets have come forward with their own interpretation of various scriptures but none of them seem to agree with each other. Theories abound in the scientific, philosophical and religious communities, but to accept any of them as facts until they have been rationally proved and their laws discovered is wasteful foolishness.

How far along the trail have we come from the babbling tower? Some have come further than others, but it's all relative, since we are all still in mental and spiritual infancy. But I don't think the human race will progress very quickly toward enlightenment until we stop accepting things as mere "mysteries" and let it go at that.

If this entry offends or insults your religious beliefs I can understand that, believe me I can, but just know that the words here do not come from shallow thinking.

DB _ Vagabond Journeys
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May you see new blossoms today.
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