This is not a quote from a book or a lecture, just part of a conversation Frank Paul Green had with a friend on facebook yesterday. He said, "Personally, I want something much bigger than nature. We have adversely affected nature in ways we do not seem to have the will to address. So, nature, where as it could swallow us up in a earthquake, seems to be also swallowed up by the irresponsible behavior of man and woman. Just so, I want something bigger than this universe or all the universes put together. It seems that all things have this terminal dimension to their existence. Nothing is big enough. What I want is the validation of a reality that has the last word over all of that. If that last word does not exist, then the non theistic evolutionist is correct. All we are is DNA strands struggling for domination and survival in a universe where ultimately nothing survives. As I see it, the psychological impact of all of that is so emotionally dramatic that we are driven to go through life in denial and divergent preoccupation. Thus, we do indeed become religion and we create our versions of god. But, even our various versions of god are marred by our identity crisis. Thus, Jesus doesn't get to Jesus and we lose him like we do everything else we form after our image. But, to the degree I have been able to let the real Jesus come forth and speak for himself I have been able to get a small grasp on that "something bigger."
P.S.: Since Frank commented about the necessary context, I'll add the actual post and the responses to it - "F" will be Frank's words in italics and I'll just use initials for those who responded (don't get confused by more than one Frank in the conversation!):
F.: " "People are so completely identified with the voice (s) in our head ... the incessant stream of involuntary and compulsive thinking and the emotions that accompany it ... that we may describe ourselves as being possessed by our mind. As long as we are completely unaware of this, we take the voice (s) to be who we are." (Tolle) Not good, since most of those voices condemn us. Any thoughts? "
T.C.: "Why do the voices condemn us? I'm not arguing that they don't because in my experience they certainly do, but why is that? Why aren't the voices uplifting?"
T.I.: "maybe it is easier for us to hear the bad about ourselves rather than the good"
F.: "Here is the short answer Terry, as I understand it: Because condemnation is in the fabric of everything we experience. All of our relationships are "performance based acceptance." Because of that being rewards for doing well has a implicit ...warning driving it. Thus, we live in fear. And, because we need to some sense of well-being we do so at the expense of others around us. So, we marginalize certain behaviors, certain identity markers (such as skin color and race), and ways of thinking ... they simply do not come up to standards for acceptability. This adds to the fear, since we are afraid that if anyone really gets to know us they will reject us. So, since we are enculturated in all that stuff from birth (our parents do not love unconditionally ... neither do the parents of our children) we internalize those voices. We then, in order to survive emotionally do everything we can to drown out those voices and we push them back into our subconscious where they do indeed form and shape every relationship and circumstances we find ourselves."
D.G.: "I think it's funny that you asked if we have any thoughts. Ironic. :-) "
F.F.: "My voices ring and thrash and scream with anxiety. I would like to connect myself with something so much bigger than myself, but I doubt it could be Jesus."
K.T.R.: "This is important stuff, Frank. Glad you brought it up."
T.I. (in response to F.F.): "Frank, I doubt it could be anything other than Jesus..."
F.: "Yep! Just being a Christian doesn't fix the problem. Most Christians I know really don't believe in the unconditional acceptance and validation of God's love. Somehow the Gospel has been captured by culture and this strongly effects how we... do theology. So we say we believe one thing, but everything we do operates in a conflicting way. It is the issue of Contract based relationships (performance, conditioned based acceptance, ownership, fear drive relationship ) vs. Covenant Love (sheer acceptance, validation, Grace, love, enabling, non fearful, freely open intimate relationship) On the other hand, I do not personally know of any other place to find an adequate antidote that in the person and teachings of Jesus. But, at best there is a conflict of cultures that go on in our head struggling for the power to define us.
F.F.: "Nature? The transcendental awe of Nature?"
And this was the question Frank answered in the quote from the post. Hope this clears things up!
