Divine Will

There are patterns in the ways our lives are lived. I have devoted much of my life to observing and trying to learn from them. The patterns are repeated in everything from the organization of the universe to the makeup of our bodies and the subatomic particles which make up all things.
Yet the patterns do not stop simply with the physical organization of things. There are patterns of belief among the often-warring religions of the world. There are patterns in the ways our lives are lived and in the history of people. And there are patterns in the ways our lives flow and interact, one with another.
I concluded long ago that I do not believe in coincidences. For too many "random chance" happenings seem to populate my life, much more than I could account for as being simply "random". At one point I believed, as so many do, that a human-like God was orchestrating the many melodies of my life in strange and sometimes surprising ways.
And then, the world stopped making sense.
When I decided that the faith I had been raised in made little sense in the modern world, I lost the simple explanation for the "Divine plan" which guided my life. My spiritual journey took me through an understanding of many faiths. And I eventually concluded that all this, and perhaps more, is the Divine Being; that is, God is not separate from the universe: God is the living universe.
This revelation brought with it baggage all its own. For the question of Divine Will again became an issue once again. I had concluded that the Divine was not conscious in a way that we can easily understand. I had concluded that it is interested in our well-being as we each are interested in the health of our various body parts. But the "Divine Plan" idea died terribly.
Yet there are still these patterns, as currents in the river of time. Perhaps they are just as sentient as that river. And perhaps there is more.

A Pantheist Song...

We were treated to this at the Unitarian Universalist Church this past Sunday morning. Every so often I find a song which is directly on target for my beliefs. Here it is!

Alchemy Revisited

The ancient alchemists believed that the world was composed of only a few elements: earth, air, fire, and water. Modern chemistry tells us that there are literally hundreds of different elements making up our world. Yet physics breaks these down into a few particles which, when rearranged, can become anything. Further, this elemental physics only defines matter. But energy is also seen as a component of things.
I would argue that the ancient alchemists were right, but concerning physics rather than chemistry. For our universe seems to have two major components: substance -- of which everything is made -- and fabric -- the fabric of space: a canvas on which substance is painted. I would further argue that substance can exist as solid, gas, energy, or liquid (earth, air, fire, or water), and that it can change back and forth between them. Substance is anything we can measure and affect directly.
Many people also consider spirit to be a major component of things. In many religious traditions spirit is that which binds all things together. It can also be one of the most elementary components of all substance. Seen this way, it can be argued that everything which exists has a spiritual nature.