Was
there a God before there were human beings?
Was
there a God Who decided, for this small planet in the vast universe, “It’s time
to for me to make some dry land there”? And
later, “It’s time for an Ice Age. I’ll make some glaciers.”
For
a long time, I have thought that there were only two fundamental differences
between human beings and other mammals – other animals. First, humans have a qualitatively greater
cognitive capacity, including the capacity to imagine, and even to design and
create, things that do not exist.
Second, human beings have the capacity to perceive that some things are good,
or right, and some things are evil, or wrong.*
Today
I have come to believe that there is a third difference between humans and our
fellow creatures on this planet – a difference which seems more important than
the other two. That difference is the
presence of a Spirit within, and accessible to, each human being. It is a Spirit which I call the Holy Spirit,
and also God, because it beckons each person to a state of holiness; to peace
of mind and pacific action despite personal, social and global travails and
conflicts, including those caused by violent, oppressive, or improvident use of
the other two distinguishing human capacities.
The Holy Spirit beckons us, individually and collectively, to connection
and peace between people and, if we allow it to do so, guides us there.
I
believe that the Holy Spirit is Love. I
believe that Jesus saw that Spirit – saw love and holiness - in every person
and devoted his life to teaching people how to find that Spirit, that holiness –
to find God – in themselves, and in each other, including today.**
*
In light of experiments such as the “capuchin monkey fairness experiment;” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meiU6TxysCg
;
I
have ceased to believe that only humans perceive differences between right and
wrong.
