Spiritualism - Lesson #10

Spiritualism - Lesson #10
I've enjoyed this lesson even if the views of Hume and others doesn't take us far in our understanding of life or the search for meaning in life. I suspect the average person doesn't think too deeply about life which is taken just as it comes. Why might this be? Possibly because people know very little about themselves i.e. what makes us "tick!" Psychologists tells us that the mind has several layers of consciousness most of which are beyond our capacity to fathom. But it is from these deeper recesses of the mind that many of the drives come which motive us - despite our being unaware of them. For example we repeat the words our parents said (even if they are long dead) without knowing we are doing it. Similarly, we hold beliefs, fears, phobias and prejudices etc. instilled in us by others, again, without any conscious knowledge we do this.
Because of this we never really know ourselves in any meaningful way; so how could we possibly get to know anyone else (or anything)? The answer is; we can't! How often have we heard someone protesting (maybe a wife to her husband) "I thought I knew you." And yet no matter how long people are together that deep, personal knowledge will always elude us.
Hume's philosophy defined knowledge as (a) "sensations" and (b) "ideas" – the former preceding the latter. For example I can only know a lemon is bitter after tasting it. It follows that I can have no idea (or perception) of bitterness until I've tasted a lemon after which I lay down a template of "bitterness" in my mind for future (if weaker) reference. As far as a chair is concerned- all I really need to know is that the chair will support my weight. If I sit on that chair and it gives way the pain will be real enough when I hit the floor!
I've long had a problem with that word "singularity" as outlined by Prof. Stephen Hawkins. Apparently, at the Big Bang there was this tiny "object" of unimaginable mass. Suddenly it exploded, began to accelerate and expanded into the universe we live in today. But hold on; where was that "singularity" situated one second before the Big Bang? Was it sitting on a table somewhere waiting? If so where did the table come from? Maybe it was hovering in space. If it was that means there was something there (space) before the singularity exploded! And who lit the fuse? Apparently, we can't ask that question because that takes us to the other side of the singularity to the unknown. All very unsatisfactory. Others have tried to answer this with a "multiverse" theory i.e. when one ends there's another waiting to take its place. All highly unsatisfactory. The real problem seems to me that some scientists would rather stick to a cringe-worthy theory rather than admit to God being the first cause. Hume makes us think of course. But, and I've said this before, we only have our senses through which to experience the world and we can't do much about that. I'm just glad that where human knowledge fails God's knowledge is complete and all-encompassing.
When I encounter scientifically minded people I share my faith with them in an honest and authentic way. We need to be true to ourselves for if we are sure of what we believe, and share it in an "imaginative" way, it challenges people – this is what people tell me whether atheists, enquirers, sick, bereaved or searching.

Rog

28th Feb. 2016