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I don’t believe in the supernatural, but I have been greatly influenced by the ideas expressed by Jesus in the gospels. I’m a pantheist. For me God is a mythological or poetic way of referring to the creative principle of the universe which is intrinsic to all things, rather than extrinsic, i.e. supernatural - above nature. So I thought I would see if I can meet the challenge of interpreting a key aspect of Christian dogma - the Holy Trinity - in purely non-supernatural terms.
The Trinity consists of :
1. God the Father
2. God the Son
3. God the Holy Spirit (or Ghost)
God the Father
I’ve said that, for me, the term “God” is a poetic way of referring to the creative principle of the universe. Matter is structured energy and some forms of matter have a highly complex form of structure which allows them to grow and reproduce. And some of these highly complex forms have the capacity to use reason to aid their self management. Science is always advancing our knowledge of how this creative process of increasing organisation and complexity takes place. What is undeniable is that it does take place and thus there is a creative principle of some kind at work. This principle is one through which more complex wholes are formed from smaller and simpler wholes, e.g. our body is made up of cells, the cells are made up of molecules, the molecules are made up of atoms.
So all matter and all life comes about because of the agency of this creative principle. “God” created all things.
But what of we humans as individuals? Does the creative principle operate through us? A principle need not operate always by exactly the same means. What brings atoms together to form a molecule is not necessarily the same thing which brings a group of single-celled organisms together to form a community which may later become a single multi-cellular organism. The principle is a tendency for more complex organisations to develop where circumstances allow. The means by which that tendency is realised will change at each level of complexity reached. We humans can make a reasoned decision to come together as a cooperative group, whereas atoms don’t have the capacity of using reason as either a motivation or a means to an end in their formation of a molecule.
So how does the creative principle operate within us? Emotionally it is our capacity to feel love which motivates us to bond and cooperate with others and thus to become a part of a larger social whole. This is a biological process involving the production of the chemical messenger oxytocin. But our intellectual capacity for reason is also a manifestation of the creative principle. It is through this function that we are able to gain understanding of the world around us and bring into being new arrangements of matter which never existed before. Art and technology are expressions of the creative principle.
It has to be remembered that this principle is blind. It is improvisational not goal-directed. It creates an ecosystem the relative stability of which arises from balance. But it can give rise to something which upsets that balance and threatens the system. One of the perennial questions for religious people is : If God is all-powerful why does he allow evil? I think that this conception of the creative principle as God gives an explanation for this mystery. What do we mean by “all-powerful”? Do we mean “able to do anything which is possible” or do we expect this to also mean “able to do the impossible”? Someone who believes in a supernatural God will expect them to be able to do anything which can be imagined, but it may be possible to imagine many things which are impossible. If we don’t believe in the supernatural then “all-powerful” means able to do anything which is possible. If the universe is a deterministic system in which everything which happens is part of an interconnecting web of cause and effect and the creative principle is the process by which all of this happens then that process is “all-powerful”. And because this principle is blind it cannot predict or prevent the rise of destructive tendencies through its own agency. In fact destruction is an intrinsic part of its operation. Death for instance destroys one living being and thereby provides food to other living beings. As long as it occurs in a balanced way the system as a whole is maintained. What we identify as evil is usually destruction which does not seem to confer a benefit on the local system or the larger system. Generally we are thinking of human behaviour when you use the term. We don’t call a tsunami that kills hundreds of people “evil”. So how did human evil arise from the creative principle?
The creative principle gave rise to human intelligence and with this development a powerful new force came into play which had the power to unbalance the systems within which it arose. I’ve said that the creative principle is improvisatory rather than being orientated towards a more distant goal. Improvisation is characterised by spontaneous responsiveness to changes in the environment and therefore a system made up of improvisors is a system likely to maintain its sense of balance. On the other hand, if an individual sets their sights on some goal which is not directly based upon their current environment, then they are liable to act in a way which upsets the balance of the system. We can see this clearly in our time when our power is such that we can destroy whole ecosystems in order to achieve some economic purpose.
One factor in our becoming out of balance must have been the arrival of idealism. The idea that we should strive to pursue good behaviour and avoid bad behaviour and put pressure on others to do likewise is an example of well-intentioned goal-orientated behaviour, but it brings with it the problem that demanding high standards of behaviour from ourselves or others has a tendency to undermine self-acceptance, which is required for us to have the psychological security to sustain loving cooperative behaviour.
This is not to say that goal-orientated thinking and behaviour is to be avoided. Rather it needs to be grounded in an holistic awareness of what is needed to maintain the stability of the system within which we hope to attain that goal.
I’ve said that the creative principle of the universe is blind, but that is only true up until the arrival of human reason. To the extent that we are conscious agents of this creative principle it is not blind - it sees with our eyes and reasons with our mind. To carry creation forward in a sustainable way, however, we need to be released from our propensity for evil behaviour.
Why do we say “God the Father”? Is this simply a reflection of the patriarchal nature of the societies in which mono-theism arose? It seems to me that it does also have a degree of appropriateness as a poetic expression when we consider that it is the male agency which provides the vital ingredient for the life within a woman to be realised. There had been goddesses before this which represented nature itself, but the creative principle is not synonymous with nature. Rather it is a key that unlocks nature’s potential. Of course, in reality it is neither male nor female, these distinctions having been one of its later products. The other thing we have to acknowledge is that, in the Jewish religion God was personified as a stern disciplinarian. So, while an acknowledgement of the creative principle of the universe lies at the heart of the God concept, many people have projected onto this figure various forms of neurotic feelings arising in their childhood.
God the Son
Jesus is viewed both as “the Son of God” and as God himself. If God is the creative principle of the universe then clearly Jesus was a product of this process. In this way he was the Son of God in the same way that we are all sons and daughters of God. But, if love and reason are the manifestations within the human species of the creative principle (i.e. God), then, to the degree that someone loves and is a truthful reasoner, they are the creative principle (i.e. God) in human form.
We may not think of Jesus as a rational man because he spoke poetically, but what he expressed in this way was an insightful description of human psychology and interpersonal relations. He was a untrained but highly skilled psychologist, which explains his reputation as a healer. It seems unlikely that he literally cured the blind, but that he “cast out demons” (i.e. healed people of mental distress) seems perfectly credible.
For the intelligent individual the biggest impediment to effective thinking is dishonesty. Only if we can be completely honest can we think effectively about ourselves, others and the world generally. In Jesus we find an honest thinker, and thus a person in whom the power of reason was strong.
We also have a loving individual, someone who showed unconditional acceptance of people, if not of their dishonesty. He talked honestly to people about their sinfulness (i.e. selfishness), but not in a condemning way. He told them that God forgave their sins because he realised that it was guilt about those sins which made them selfish. His aim was to return them to their capacity to love each other. He spoke harshly of the Scribes and Pharisees because he realised that they were too entrenched in their lies to liberate directly. The best he could do was to break the spell of authority they cast over those who could be helped.
Not only did Jesus speak poetically, but the stories which were handed down about him were mythologised before they reached the written page. Take the story of Lazarus. There may have been a man who was so depressed that he lay there doing nothing and his family said that it was as if he were dead. Jesus finds a way to release him from this state so that he becomes a happy productive member of society once more. The story travels down the grape vine and eventually you have Jesus literally raising a man from the dead.
What about his resurrection? Jesus would have been a very powerful presence, someone who changed those around him in a very profound way. At first the shock of his horrific death would have left his friends inoperable. But he still existed inside them. Who hasn’t experienced a sense that a dead friend or relative is still with them? With Jesus this effect must have been much more powerful. Maybe it was even so powerful that some experienced hallucinations of his physical appearance. What Jesus had given to them was still alive in them. It had a new life, one which made their own lives so meaningful that they did not fear death. What mattered to them was the creative principle. It had become their true self and it is eternal. Thus, for them, they had found the secret to eternal life.
God the Holy Spirit (or Ghost)
The word “holy” means “whole” or “of the whole” and the spirit of something is its essence. What is the essence of the whole? Truth. When we assemble facts coherently into an understandable whole we are perceiving the truth. The truth is the essence of that whole. And in the social sphere, truth holds the potential for cohesion. If we each believe something different we will be divided, but if we can all perceive the truth then it will provide us with a solid foundation for a loving cooperative society. Truth has the capacity to set us free. Science is our main tool for exposing the truth - it is the quest to lay bare the holy spirit. Sometimes the term “Holy Ghost” is used. Like a ghost, truth has an existence separate from the material phenomena it describes, but that existence is of a non-material nature.
The Three are One
How can three things be distinct and yet be one? That is the mystery of the Holy Trinity.
Jesus was an expression of the creative principle. Think of an animal. Take a dog. If I point at the dog and say “That is life” I am telling the truth. The dog is an example of life. Life and the dog are the same, but the word “dog” and the word “life” are not synonymous. Life refers to something more extensive than the dog, but it still does refer to the dog as well.
If Jesus was an expression of the creative principle of the universe who spoke truthfully, then when he spoke he spoke for the creative principle of the universe. He was an accurate mouthpiece for the principle. He spoke for God. When he spoke it was God speaking.
Only if he spoke the truth was his voice the voice of God. Truth is the holy spirit. If truth is the defining factor in the voice of a man being the voice of God, then God is Truth. Once again, in the factor of human speech God and Truth are the same thing, but they are not synonymous, because God describes something broader than truth. Truth is God in the same way that a dog is life.
God (the creative principle) is Jesus and Truth (but not just Jesus and Truth).
Jesus is God and Truth (in action) (but not just God or Truth, because he is also a human being).
Truth is God (in one form) and is a defining quality of Jesus (but not just God and Jesus).
The unity of the trinity is a key symbol because it forces us to acknowledge the interconnectedness of all things.
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