Are we Spiritual Humans, having a Human Experience?
The Void is essentially the ‘non-existence’ of a ‘Beyond Human’, ‘Higher Context‘ for Human Life. Ie Living a Human Life, with no context of ‘How us humans fit in to the bigger scheme of The Planet and the Universe‘? Essentially this a Spiritual Void, but in pointing to ‘Spiritual‘ this is beyond a narrow religious connotation.
The Void, now well developed and is rapidly ballooning in size, extending across communities and societies, and even Nations. The result is the rapid erosion of the ‘Greater Scheme‘, moral / ethical context for living. One that is linked to our ‘Beyond Human’ context, and collective, Higher Humanity Purpose. The result of this cancer is the a deep, breakdown in Belonging, and a dysfunction both within and between human communities, as evidence today.
At an individual level, if one has no ‘Beyond Human‘ context for living, one essentially believes humans are the highest / ultimate form of Power. Essentially, that there IS NO ‘Greater than Human‘ context to Life. ie Humans set all the moral and ethical framework for life, based at best, only on ‘Human to Human’ needs / desires as THE Priority. At worst, it translates to a selfish, Self only, or immediate family / community unit, focused context. Just human!
In this belief system, there is no God, Higher Power, or Higher Being, context for where these ‘local rules of life come from. and a ‘freedom of path’ is essentially totally unconditional, and unbounded by Higher constraint. ie One’s ‘rules of life’, are truly human created, with no ‘Beyond Human‘ consequences, whether that be liberating and / or constraining.
With this lack of this ‘Beyond Human’ context there is no context, nor accountability to anything other than one’s self or other humans.
The ‘Two Levels’ of Moral / Ethical Context for Human Life
Almost all religions, in their doctrines have a ‘two level’ context for living’:
The first, and ‘lower’ level, is the one that gives the ‘rules’ for living in a ‘human to human’, and a ‘within one human‘, context.
The Christian Ten Commandments being a good example, but the Quran, and other religions’ ‘tablets’ lay out their ‘Rules’ for being a Good Human’, too….
The second, and ‘higher level‘ part of their doctrines, provides ‘The context for living’ in a Beyond Human, form. Eg, The decorum that define ones relationship to one’s God, Higher Being, or Higher Power and to that Higher Contect world which usually extends to the universe and all living and other components of that world. It thus provides a living context that is much greater than ‘mere human one’, typically a ‘Cosmic Belonging’ context. One for all humanity, as a collective, too. This is The Spiritual context for human life.
It is in ‘moving up’ from the first level, into this second, ‘Beyond Human’, Spiritual layer which defines the boundary line of The Void.
As is shown below, this is not about ‘religion’, and needing to be ‘religious‘. This is about a Fundamental Human Need, to Understand our Greater Context, whether we be religious, atheist, agnostic, deist or whatever, in orientation.
Is This Void about Religion or What?????
The Void is about our Human Spiritual Needs, which in their fundamental Human Defining context, sit above the specifics of Religious ‘Solutions’, to these Needs.
While religions CAN provide the satisfaction of these Spiritual Needs, these needs can also be wholly satisfied outside traditional ‘Religious’ Doctrines and Beliefs.
The key ‘test’ is whether ‘A Solution‘ does truly satisfy our Spiritual Needs: Essentially ‘providing answers ‘we accept with conviction‘, to the Five Questions of Truth, laid out lower down.
At the other end of the possible solution continuum, sit Yoga, Meditation, Mindfulness, and what is called Modern Spirituality. Almost without exception, they do not provide the ‘Beyond Human’, moral / ethical context for Living. They are ‘only’ about a ‘within a Human‘, or ‘Human to Human‘ level, context.
Almost all religions, and many cults have well defined rules for ‘inner Human‘, and ‘Human to Human’ engagement. Many of these religions’ rules, in this context, are very similar: All providing, Fundamentally Good, ‘Human to Human’, ways to interact with others, and for one to best care for oneself.
It is in their Spiritual, ‘Beyond Human’, ‘Higher Level’ context, that that the big differences between religions, are found: Their ‘Transcendental’ or ‘Cosmic’, Belonging Beliefs.
Buddhism for Context
In seeking to help reader understanding of The Void as defined by One Point Zero, Buddhism, is void of a Beyond Human context as outlined above. Buddhism is essentially a philosophy of life, that is about the first dimension above. There is no Cosmic, Beyond Human dimension. This is not a criticism of Buddhism, but merely used as an example that maybe familiar to many readers, to help clarify the understanding of what defines The Void.
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD) for Context
This from Christian Smith, a sociologist at Notre Dame, who has been studying the religious and spiritual lives of millennials:
“Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (M.T.D) is a pseudoreligion that jettisons the doctrines of historical biblical Christianity and replaces them with feel-good, vaguely spiritual nostrums. In M.T.D., the highest goal of the religious life is being Happy and Feeling Good about Oneself. It’s the perfect religion for a self-centered, consumerist culture.” Full article here.
Interesting, but M.T.D doesn’t pass The Void‘Test’ and that is not because of its conflict with traditional Christianity, it is because it focuses only at the ‘Human level, and falls short on pursuing ‘Answers with conviction’, to the Five Questions below!
A’Spiritual Human’ vs A ‘Spiritually Void Human’?
Essentially, in One Point Zero definitions, a fully developed ‘Spiritual Human‘ one existing outside of The Void’, is one who ‘has their answers’, ‘Their Truths’, to these Five Questions below:
(The answers with strong conviction!)
1. Is there a God, a Higher Power, or a Higher Being?
2. Is there Life, or some form of ‘Other Existence’ After Death?
3. What is the Purpose of Life? (The Generic Human Purpose.
4. What is the relationship between Humans & all other living things on this planet?
5. How and by Whom was ‘This All’ created?
Finding ‘The Answers’ and ‘Being Human’
All religions provide a Truth’s, ‘recipe book‘ with their ‘prescription answers’ to the above Five Questions.
So if one sets out and truly explores those answers, and all ‘The Truths‘ and ‘story’ behind them then one is following a ‘Spiritual Quest’.
If one uses one’s full Spiritual Capability (as distinct from our, Rational, Emotional, Physical, or Relationship Capabilities) on that Quest, and gets where one’s answers feel ‘virtually absolute’, so one can move to ‘Conviction’, then one has arrived at One’s Truths.
Essentially, one then has one’s ‘Beyond Human’ (and ‘human to human’) context for living: The Higher compass for Higher Purpose and Meaning. In terms of The Void, as defined by One Point Zero, one is then deemed a fully, Spiritual Human, and existing outside of The Void.
The process of the ‘Quest to Conviction‘ is the key, not just ‘instant answers’ that lack conviction. This ‘Quest’ could involve exploring many ‘alternate Truths, offered by different religions or other true Spiritual ‘schemes’, along the way.
It is more than possible to be an atheist (Don’t believe in a God) but still have coherent, strong, answers with conviction to the Five Questions, and thus also be outside of The Void. The atheist in answering question 1, may believe in a Higher Power, for example as Nature:
A Deep Ecologist, who is an atheist, free of any formal religious connections, could believe that Nature is their Higher Power, and with that they have ‘their constructed’ Laws of Nature that they use as their ‘Higher Life’ compass. In essence they know there will sometimes be personal consequence for going against The Higher Power’s ‘Rules’. ‘Rules’ that are inviolate and required for Nature to ‘manage its Higher Context, Ecosystem an dits Universe.
The problem associated with the ballooning spiritual Void, is that more and more people are becoming ‘anti-religion’, and declaring themselves “Atheists”. In that blanket declaration, they are seeing fit to renounce any need for further Spiritual exploration: Walking away from ‘The Spiritual quest of getting to any Truths’. (The answers to these Five, Higher Life Meaning related, questions in being Human.
In the process of turning their backs on that quest, they enter The Void and contribute to its unhealthy ballooning. More disturbing is that this often encourages other religious antagonists to quickly follow their short cut path to a Spiritually Void atheism that is contributing to societies rapid moral / ethical destruction and a disconnect with our spiritual place on This Planet. (MTD an example)
Why is The Void ‘A Cancer’, in our Chronic Human Condition today?
The Void is ‘Unhealthy’, because people inside it have no ‘Beyond Human’ context for living, and so define their own ‘human team’ context. Often that goes further to no ‘Beyond Self’ context for living. In today’s world, with more and more people pursuing Freedom as the goal, with Money the key to that goal, and with more and more ‘Thin Air Money’ all around us, we end up with what we are seeing as pervasive in society today:
Selfishness, Narcissism, Greed, and the soulless, guilt free, destruction and exploitation of all the Natural Resources on this planet as if they are merely of utilitarian value. There is no cosmic (meta) context of Belonging, and how these resources fit with human existence. If each sets their own life rules, and is only accountable to themselves or a few other chosen humans, we end up having anarchy and the loss of moral / ethical framework that is happening today.
While long back, before our Chronic Health problem became evident, and there weren’t so many of us around, ‘we’ humans may have been able to ‘get away’ with the Void of Spirituality we have only ‘fairly recently’ over the ‘past century’, created for ourselves. However it would seem that ‘The Higher Powers that Be‘, are forcing us to explore our once vibrant, but increasingly, lost Spiritual Capability again: Showing us it is clearly linked to path to ‘New Belonging‘, our health, longer term flourishing, and ultimately our ability to exist on The Planet.
The main enemy and contributors to The Void, are three fold:
Enemy One: The ‘Absolute Truth, ‘My Truth or No Truth’, Religious fanatics.
We have all met these people: So friendly up front, but as one shows disinterest in Their Truths, or conflict in Truth, they move to dooming one to hell or some other like misery. There is never acceptance of one as ‘A Spiritual Brother’ or ‘Sister’ in that ‘we’ both share a deep spiritual orientation, and the fruits of the Wonderful experience of a Deep Spiritual journey. One that has produced conviction of Truth, for Both of Us, and helping us both deal embrace the wonder Mystery of Life. In many ways the Quest Journey is the important part.
Rather than trying to convince the other Their Truths are ‘wrong’ the exploring should go around our potential Spiritual Overlap: What common ‘Mantra could we share? Can we both live under the mantra of, Without Nature We are Nothing?
Enemy Two: The Rationalists / Humanists who are so Rationally wired, that they have unknowingly, suppressed their Spiritual Need.
These humans, can’t see how anything can be arrived at as being A Truth, other than through Scientific or pure Rational evidence. Their focus on ‘absolutism’ misses the whole point of The Spiritual Human, and how one has to be ‘further developed’, to access the concept of Spiritual Truths without Abolutism, and to experience the power of ‘Those Truths‘, when dealing with our ‘Greater Life Context‘.
Stephen Hawking, known for his work into the basic laws which govern the universe, has made his disbelief in God very clear, and famously said: ‘Science can explain the universe, we don’t need God to explain why there is something rather than nothing.’ Read more , and from other Intelligent, and ‘Spiritually Void‘, Atheists here
The Rational Scientist, avoiding any connection or acknowledgement of the fundamental human Spiritual dimension above, will continue to focus only on Rational Reason, and and Science and human designed technology to solve our unfolding ‘Chronic Condition’ crisis. This merely leads to the Blood Transfusion Solution, which falls short as a solution to our Chronic Condition.
This without seeing the Spiritual context for why, how, we got ourselves into this Chronic situation, and why a Spiritually centred approach, focusing on Our Existential Belonging is the only way our health can be returned to ‘Normal’.
Yes, we will need Science and Technology to help, but most importantly, this should be only in the ‘umbrella context’ of what is right for our Spiritual Belonging. Exploring at the same time, The Chasm, both its extent and cause is key to this ‘holistic understanding‘.
Enemy Three: Those pronouncing themselves as being part of a specific Religion, but having No Conviction on that Religion’s answers to The Five Questions.
This is an ever growing ‘crowd’ that essentially have walked away from the Religion’s Spiritual Belonging, but continue to be part of its Human to Human belonging. In the defines of The Void, these people are ‘Spiritually Lost‘, as their continued, and convenient, connection to Truths they don’t believe in, is preventing them continueing their Spiritual Quest, in earnest.
Most of ‘these humans’ would not consider themselves part of a Spiritual Void, and yet they acknowledge that they do not have ‘Their Answers’ for the Five Questions, above. The typical answers is: “I did believe in the Religion’s answers, but I seem to have lost faith in them, but I am still religious.”
They are typically wallowing in the comfort of a flawed belonging, and not seeing how they have essentially joined The Void, and contributing to its ballooning.
With orthodox Religions increasingly under existential attack, from the cynics, and Rationalists above, and its numbers of true Spiritual Believers rapidly dwindling, these Religions are not helping themselves by allowing Non-Believers of the Religion’s Truths, to be treated as ‘Full members’ of their Religious Communities. These religions are too fearful of losing these members to other Spiritual communities, and in this dropping of their Standards of Belonging, they are actually helping ‘balloon’ The Void
And Finally: Back to Scientific Absolutism versus Spirituality
The ‘singularly’, Rational Human, who does not believe Humans have a Spiritual Capability, would rely on Science and rational proof for their ‘Life Compass’. But in this example, Science is a human interpretation of how the world around us works. As one digs deeper science can never explain the ‘final why’, and it’s connection to a Greater Context. The scientist in finding their answer, then concludes that humans have proven that they will eventually ‘know everything’.
For example science discovered Gravity, and came up with the Laws of Gravity, and even equations to enable us to calculate what the gravity associated with certain mass objects will be? What its effects on other objects of mass are? But Science has never explained what causes gravity and how it came about and exists? All that has been achieved is the explanation of a the physical dynamics of how this Mystical phenomena works, not anymore.