Steven Kubacki

From Re-Thinking God and Existence

 

A Partial List of Principles

 

1.  Totality of Existence: Everything known, imaginable, and unimaginable exists at this and all possible moments in time. This is called the Totality of Existence, which for believers is called God, and for atheists consists of secular incomprehensibilities. Our universe is not the center of existence but one among an infinite number. Existence is not human-centric and neither is God.

 

2.  Secular Incomprehensibles or Forms of God: Because everything mathematically must exist, Incomprehensibles must also exist, which atheists interpret in a secular manner and believers interpret as God or spirituality. For believers, God has two basic forms: (1) God as the Totality of Existence termed the Godhead; and (2) God(s) and spirits as inconceivably powerful Beings, termed God(s) of Agency, who are limited in comparison to the Godhead or Totality of Existence (thereby functioning as subsets or aspects of the Godhead or the Totality of Existence). Atheists view the Godhead as the Totality of Existence and Gods of Agency/powerful Beings as processes or life forms to be someday scientifically explained. Atheists and the religious are both correct in their experiences or interpretations of incomprehensibles, since neither can be disproven.

 

3. Boundary Conditions: Each reality, every thing, person, and universe, that is, any X, in the Totality of Existence, is separated from every other reality, thing, person, and universe or any X by its limitations and boundary conditions. In order for anything or anybody to exist, boundaries and limitations are necessary. For believers, people are part of God but separate from God. For atheists, people are part of larger systems but separate from those systems. The whole is not the part, though the part belongs to the whole.

 

15. Imagination and Co-Imagination: The boundless realities of existence are accessed through imagination and co-imagination. Boundary conditions limit the actualization of these realities as well as our imaginations. Technology is imagination made substantive. As the Totality of Existence, God is imagination run amok. With every discovery the boundless possibilities of existence become more accessible and thereby real.

 

17.  Co-engineering Abstrations and Imaginations:  We are always, in part, engineering and co-engineering our reality through our abstractions and imaginations. Realizing what we engineer and what engineers us is a wisdom that constantly changes over time.

 

19. Invulnerability is an Illusion: Completeness and certainty are sought because they generate feelings of invulnerability and invincibility, which are likewise illusionary. To know God is to know and praise vulnerability. To practice the conditionality of truth in science is to acknowledge humility.

 

24.  Certainty is the Cognitive Root of Evil:  The illusions and delusions of completeness and certainty are the cognitive root source of all that is immoral and evil. The spiritually evil and politically self-righteous are tormented by an infinite existence they cannot reject or subdue.

 

25.  Co-certainty as Reality-Resistant Illusion:  When individuals band together to prevent change, the co-certainty and co-completeness of the couple, group, institution, or nation constitutes more entrenched and reality-resistant illusions. Such illusions politically and religiously lead to mass destruction and even genocide. A vengeful and punishing God fabricated by the deluded functions as a primordial force of destruction.

 

33. What Happens in the Spiritual World Often Stays in the Spiritual World: Spiritual experiences or experiences of the incomprehensible may be better viewed as excursions into other universes or dimensions that have limited connections or portals to everyday reality, for which science has little or no explanations. If so, the experience of most spiritual or incomprehensible realms is limited to actions within those non-ordinary/spiritual realms and, in general, the power and energy of spiritual experiences cannot be taken out of those realms and then transferred and used in everyday reality. Spiritual power and energy are thus normally contained within spiritual realms and cannot be used in everyday reality to do miracles, which is why miracles are unusual or rare. In short, what happens in Vegas often stays in Vegas.

 

35. Democratizing Spirituality: Like any practice or training (e.g., science, dance, music), the development of spiritual methods and skills is not an esoteric task but accessible to all (contrary to myth). Spiritual methods are imaginatively based and can be learned by nonbelievers without having to accept a spiritual universe.