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hartfireThat is a pretty voluminous collection of words.
Tell me, what do you call yourself, theist or atheist or whatever.
I am theist, what about you?
Anyway, suppose you tell me what is the difference between you and me.
From my part, the difference between you and me is that I know God exists as before anything else, He is the permanent self-existent creator and operator of everything that is not Himself.
And from your voluminous collection of words, I know you to be different in that you are full of volume of words that end up without saying anything about what you know about yourself.
hartfire
Can't do it concisely, because it's not a matter of soundbites, slogans or mêmes.
I considered the God-is-All idea for quite a few years.
If matter and energy were discovered to have some form of consciousness, then yes, one could say that matter and consciousness are all one.
Vedantists (the inner esoteric core of Hinduism) assert this idea and consider consciousness to be God.
Historically, that idea has existed since at least the earliest of the Vedas, around 3,000 years, earlier if we count verbal transmission of memorised chants. The name they give it is Atman. The English translation, "God", doesn't correspond precisely to the Sanskrit meaning. There is no exact equivalent.
Vedantists believe matter arose out of consciousness due to it's wish to experience itself.
In physics, we now know that all is either potential or kinetic energy existing in time and space.
We also know that what we call matter (or potential energy) occupies only infinitesimal space, most of space being empty.
The scales of atoms and subatomic particles are so exponentially small we can only perceive them via instruments created to be far more powerful than our senses, and able to measure the evidence.
So far, no one has been able to measure or quantify consciousness.
The nearest equivalent is measuring the electrical signals and activity in the brain. The electrical wavelengths correspond accurately with:
alpha - profound focus/ 'the zone' - meditation, concentration, discovery, creativity;
beta - normal waking awareness;
gamma - sleep;
or theta - coma
Within each of these states is a variable spectrum.
Observing this, it can be tempting to define consciousness as the subjective result of multiple sequences of miniscule bio-electrical and bio-chemical flows down synapses.
If this view of consciousness turned out to be accurate, then all consciousness, including that of animals, would be the result of the physical processes of evolution.
In other words, the reverse of what Hindus and Vedantists believe.
I am more inclined to accept this physical view of things,
but I freely acknowledge that it may be a very long time before we can prove it.
However, if it did turn out that consciousness was the origin of the physical world, I would not wish to call it God.
The word God denotes intentional power and knowledge. I see no evidence for this.
The universe on its cosmic scale does not care
about the tiny blip of life that evolves and dies on this remote planet
on an outer arm of a vast galaxy,
a galaxy which is only one of countless billions,
existing for a time that will be over in what is,
in universal time,
less than a hiccup.
We are so utterly absorbed in our human existences that we forget how insignificant we are in the larger picture of the cosmos.
