Father Schall has written an interesting article, but Zuckerberg and Hawking are in a fruitless search it
seems to me, just as traveling into OUTER space to find God or
discoveries which add to our understanding of God are without
satisfaction. When we were conceived within our mother’s wombs, we had
no previous experience to store as “knowledge”. We did receive some
sensory experiences prenatally and we perhaps stored some of those
experiences in the pre-consciousness which in fact may indeed translate
into some life experiences which we possess through our extra-uterine
lives. From birth onward, our experiences are transferable into what we
term our “knowledge”.
No matter how wise we become, we fail to have direct experiential knowledge of God. Others may teach us about God, or give us their concepts in words and writing of what they conceive God to be, but no direct experiential knowledge. We might believe what these others say, because we judge them worthy of our trust but for us to believe in God requires something
more.
As we grow, we encounter the historical Jesus as told in the Gospels. Perhaps we read all he is reported to have done and said. We may search all of the Gospels but we are not asked by Jesus to “understand” God, because humans cannot conceive of God Who at the beginning created all time and space, matter and energy from “n o thing”. We cannot conceive of no thing and consequently we cannot conceive of God (If there be such). So what does this Jesus say about God?
The earliest written of the four Gospels, Mark, has as Jesus’ first words, his “keynote address” to his disciples the following: “Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the ‘good news’ from God and saying: ‘The present moment is the right time. Change the way you think, for the Kingdom of God is WITHIN you. Believe this ‘good news’”. (Mk.1:15)
Most of us spend our days learning by experiencing the world “outside” of us. That includes our search into outer space. Many of us also spend some time talking to God as if God were somewhere outside of us also. Wrong! If anything Jesus said is rather hard to believe, it is that God the Father is somehow within us. Especially in hard times, we pray to God who seems
very distant, unaware and even perhaps disinterested in our plight. This can be seen in Jesus’ own words while dying on the cross: “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabbacthani?” (My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”)
But Jesus also teaches us how to pray to God when he said: “And when you pray, enter into your private room, and having shut the door, pray to your Father in secret, and your Father seeing in secret will hear you.” (Mt. 6:6)
So let us seek to believe because Jesus is trustworthy and “experience” as only one can, the presence of God within, us, and within everyone else as well. This is called the doctrine of Divine Indwelling. Jesus asks us not to understand, comprehend or conceive of this; but only to believe it. If we do, we have access to the direction in which we go at death, within. God thus is
closer to us than we are to the outer world and outer space, and even closer to us than we are to ourselves. Ask for such belief and it will be given to you.
So while we eagerly seek knowledge in outer space, let us never forget to find the peace to be found in inner space.
No matter how wise we become, we fail to have direct experiential knowledge of God. Others may teach us about God, or give us their concepts in words and writing of what they conceive God to be, but no direct experiential knowledge. We might believe what these others say, because we judge them worthy of our trust but for us to believe in God requires something
more.
As we grow, we encounter the historical Jesus as told in the Gospels. Perhaps we read all he is reported to have done and said. We may search all of the Gospels but we are not asked by Jesus to “understand” God, because humans cannot conceive of God Who at the beginning created all time and space, matter and energy from “n o thing”. We cannot conceive of no thing and consequently we cannot conceive of God (If there be such). So what does this Jesus say about God?
The earliest written of the four Gospels, Mark, has as Jesus’ first words, his “keynote address” to his disciples the following: “Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the ‘good news’ from God and saying: ‘The present moment is the right time. Change the way you think, for the Kingdom of God is WITHIN you. Believe this ‘good news’”. (Mk.1:15)
Most of us spend our days learning by experiencing the world “outside” of us. That includes our search into outer space. Many of us also spend some time talking to God as if God were somewhere outside of us also. Wrong! If anything Jesus said is rather hard to believe, it is that God the Father is somehow within us. Especially in hard times, we pray to God who seems
very distant, unaware and even perhaps disinterested in our plight. This can be seen in Jesus’ own words while dying on the cross: “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabbacthani?” (My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”)
But Jesus also teaches us how to pray to God when he said: “And when you pray, enter into your private room, and having shut the door, pray to your Father in secret, and your Father seeing in secret will hear you.” (Mt. 6:6)
So let us seek to believe because Jesus is trustworthy and “experience” as only one can, the presence of God within, us, and within everyone else as well. This is called the doctrine of Divine Indwelling. Jesus asks us not to understand, comprehend or conceive of this; but only to believe it. If we do, we have access to the direction in which we go at death, within. God thus is
closer to us than we are to the outer world and outer space, and even closer to us than we are to ourselves. Ask for such belief and it will be given to you.
So while we eagerly seek knowledge in outer space, let us never forget to find the peace to be found in inner space.
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