Gaj: The End of ReligionDo our metaphors for "God" serve us, or do we serve the metaphors? What are the consequences of our monotheistic idea that "God" is separate from creation rather than a subatomically and consciously unified life force? Gaj: The End of Religion offers a concise survey of our ideas about “God” from 600 BC to the present in the service of a single compelling argument: “God” is not an individual but the very substance of the universe. The implications of this idea for our personal and global worldviews are explored in the context of religion, philosophy, quantum physics, self-knowledge and selfhood, notions of good and evil, and the current intertwining of church and state in both North America and the Middle East. “A great little book to help us think and imagine beyond the spiritual boxes of our time.” ~ Rev. Dr. Robert L. Jackson, United Church of Canada Purchase at http://www.amazon.ca/Gaj-The- |
Common terms and phrases
achieve Allâh Arab aspect atomic belief Big Bang billion Christian church Coleridge comprising conduct context cosmology creation degree deny Descartes divine Eastern effect embrace evil evolution exist existential experience fact faith Gaj consciousness Gaj's Gajhood global harmony Hinduism holistic Holy Spirit human consciousness Ibid idea of Gaj image of Gaj imagination individual indivisible infinite interactions Islam Islamic Higher Education Israel Israel/Palestine Jesus Jewish Jews Judaism Jung Kafatos knowledge Lao Tzu lives matter means metaphors for Gaj monotheistic Muhammad Muhammad Muhsin Khan multiverse Muslims Nadeau nation natural world Newtonian physics Nietzsche Non-Local Universe Noosphere Nuu-chah-nulth observer one’s Palestinian pantheistic pantheistic Gaj particles prayer quantum Qur'an recognize regarded religious revealed Romantic Sartre sciousness seeks separation of Gaj Spinoza string theory subatomic Tao te Ching Taoism Teilhard theology thought timeless tion truth Tsawalk Übermensch Umeek undifferentiated unified unity universe's view of Gaj Western mind Western religions whole
Popular passages
Page 30 - I consider as an echo of the former, co-existing with the / conscious will, yet still as identical with the primary in\ the kind of its agency, and differing only in degree, and in the mode of its operation. It dissolves, diffuses, dissipates, in order to recreate; or where this process is rendered impossible, yet still at all events it struggles to idealize and to unify.
Page 33 - All meek and silent, save that through a rift — Not distant from the shore whereon we stood, A fixed, abysmal, gloomy breathing-place — Mounted the roar of waters, torrents, streams Innumerable, roaring with one voice ! Heard over earth and sea, and, in that hour, For so it seemed, felt by the starry heavens.
Page 13 - And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
Page 13 - But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
Page 31 - And what if all of animated nature Be but organic harps diversely framed, That tremble into thought, as o'er them sweeps Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze, At once the Soul of each, and God of all?
Page 105 - Universe"; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest— a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Page 12 - Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.
Page 114 - I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands: one Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all...
Page 36 - Once blasphemy against God was the greatest blasphemy; but God died, and therewith also those blasphemers. To blaspheme the earth is now the dreadfulest sin, and to rate the heart of the unknowable higher than the meaning of the earth!
Page 33 - A deep and gloomy breathing-place through which Mounted the roar of waters, torrents, streams Innumerable, roaring with one voice. The universal spectacle throughout Was shaped for admiration and delight, Grand in itself alone, but in that breach Through which the homeless voice of waters rose, That dark deep thoroughfare had Nature lodg'd The Soul, the Imagination of the whole.