Certain Mystery

Our drive for order, meaning, adequacy and control creates a theology that is neatly organized, everything in its place, packaged with a nice bow on top. Yet, when the suffering, unpredictability and mystery of life rips our package apart we may find the box was empty all the time. What we thought were nicely organized facts about life and God were built upon an illusion of certainty. So, we are left with an empty box, the bow and wrapping paper on the floor, and nothing certain.

Science over reaches its usefulness when it implies that one can know God by knowing facts, laws and principles. Religion oversteps its usefulness when it claims certainty about that which cannot be known for certain. Both disciplines are using symbols of language to describe mystery. In the end, both have confused the finger pointing at the moon for the moon itself. God will not be kept in a box of certainty.

"Nicholas (of Cusa) noted that, rooted in holy uncertainty, we are left with approximations. He says that our language for God is like a polygon made of many tiny straight lines passing for a true circle. If we look closely at our reasonings, we find that for all their brilliance, in the end, they come up short. We may be fooled by the illusion of knowledge, but we remain ignorant, and this failure of understanding allows us to be religious. The holy person is the one who has broken through the self-deception and knows how much she doesn’t know. The point in thinking is to reach the far edge of understanding and to stand there in wonder.”

“Since we are only approximately correct when we speak about spiritual matters, the part that remains unknown and unspoken gives our words and ideas the emptiness they require. If there is no respect for that edge of illusion, then we are left with literalism and fundamentalism, scourges of the spiritual life. This is one of those basic ideas on which religion stands or falls: Do we pretend to know more than we can know? Or do we admit to our ignorance and build an intelligent edifice on that lack of knowledge?”

-Thomas Moore “The Soul’s Religion”

So, where does that leave us if we realize what we thought were facts about life and God were really rooted in deeper mysteries, and perhaps fantasies? Hopefully, a place where we can reexamine our worldview. But more fully, right where you always were: On a ball spinning around the sun on the edge of a galaxy with no net under the tightrope. Nothing certain and nothing guaranteed. Humble and in awe of the chance to be conscious and aware for this brief glimpse of life we get to experience; All of us doing the best we can to make sense of our life, our world and our universe; Tangled up in a beautiful, creative mystery.