(I wrote what follows yesterday, in two separate sittings. When I started, I didn’t know how long or deep it would go. I just had the prompt. By the time I was running out of gas, I obviously realized that this would take more than one essay. As I’m posting this, I’m largely through Part II, written today, thinking there will be a Part III. But, for now, on to the beginning.)

What is God’s Plan? How’s that for a simple question?

During my quiet time this morning, the idea kind of just popped into my mind. I guess that’s not much of a surprise because some variation of that occupies regular space there.

In order to address the question, I’m led to break it into two parts: (1) Is there such a thing as a God plan? And (2) If there is, how do we consider it in terms of the big picture while also examining it in terms of our own individual lives?

So, for starters, let’s look at the first piece. In order to do so, of course we have to arrive at a point where there’s the possibility of a supernatural, all powerful being who can, and does, exercise some version of both rationality and intention. To be careful, we shouldn’t leap past these things or take them as simple conclusions.

As I’ve written about many times before, there are many people who practice a form of religion which recognizes something we have to categorize as “supernatural” power. Without going into too much detail, I think we can largely agree that that means a force or power that is difficult to quantify and organize using normal practices of observation of the natural world … the world apprehended by our five senses and analyzed by all sorts of scientific methods. This is the biological, chemical and physical world of which we’ve always been familiar. Anyway, the vast majority of people on earth have always believed and continue to believe that “what we see is not always what we get.” In other words, there is something or Some Thing “out there/around us/in us” that has an energy or power that “transcends” our natural condition.

People have significant differences of opinion on the nature or character of this energy/power. Some believe it exists but is the opposite of reason (see Zen Buddhism). Some believe it exists somewhere in a realm that includes both the very abstract and the manifested concrete (see Hinduism). Some believe it is a kind of shapeless/amorphous thing that does not include a thing or thing called deities which are basically supernatural beings (see Star Wars or contemporary spiritualism). And, of course, some believe it is concentrated in the essence of one or more actual supernatural beings, the most dominant of which is the belief that there is one singular being a thing we call God (the mono theism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam). There are, of course, variations of all of these, including the animism of indigenous cultures and splinter sects carving out unique particulars (see Wicca, Magic, etc…). Finally, we have people who deny any kind of force outside of observable nature and reject the concept of supernatural reality (see Atheists and Naturists). Interestingly, to varying degrees, all of these groups (which really encompass virtually everyone) believe in some kind of “Plan.”

That may come across as a curious thing to say, especially to an atheist or naturist. But, in fact, even those who don’t subscribe to the belief that there is or are such things as supernatural beings, most of them believe in the scientific dogma of evolution. (I need to be clear that the word “dogma” should not be received as a pejorative. It merely is used to describe a firm set of beliefs and principles that stand up well over time.) And, of course, evolution is a natural plan, the nature of which is contained in the myriad forces affecting organisms in the realm of biology, chemistry and physics.

Almost all other peoples who believe in a supernatural reality, conceive of things in terms of good and bad. They believe there are good ways of thinking and behaving and bad ways of thinking and behaving. And, in some ways, these thoughts and behavior are tied to an overarching reality that governs both the natural and supernatural worlds. Even the most “non-theistic”(to coin a word) world views such as Zen Buddhism, recognize the realm of order that is contrary to the many ordered things that normally occupy our earthly realities. Most “spiritual” non-theistic people also believe in a version of supernatural good. Many of them like to send or project good or positive energy to friends and loved ones facing challenges. Some of these people “pray” to a “Universe” for actual help and assistance or to seek guidance. There was an immensely popular book ten or so years ago, entitled The Secret, which purported to explain that the key to a prosperous life was to recognize that each of us, through an act of will, could make the supernatural power that exists everywhere, do our bidding. In other words, if we truly believed good things would triumph over bad things, all we had to do was just truly believe it.

I’m really not trying to be judgmental here but to state some objective truths about the things and ways people actually believe in things (I have some knowledge and/or personal experience with a lot of this). But, of course, I’m biased and I do make personal judgments, about which there is nothing wrong. We all have biases that reflect our individual sets of knowledge and experience that create the lenses through which we look at reality and act accordingly.

So, my point which should be pretty obvious now is that nearly all people who think about these things (of course there are many people who don’t think about these things but if push were to come to shove would probably line up somewhere in one of these camps or at least close by), buy into at least some kind of plan and that that plan carries an essence of good. (For example, in evolutionary biology, the “good” is that natural selection operates to strengthen positive characteristics that help the organism while weakening negative characteristics that are not so useful to the organism.) I’d be open to a debate on this set of suppositions but I don’t believe I’m going too far out on a limb by saying that, generally, most human beings accept that life unfolds in some measure as part of a plan. (The retort would refer to true anarchists who are basically just saying that freedom is an unalienable right … from where? … and people who see the defining nature of reality as chaotic … something I don’t think I’d have that much difficulty in disavowing.)

Ok then. I’ve hopefully at least raised or confirmed the belief that a fundamental part of reality for most people is that there is a “plan.” So, what?

Well, a plan assumes some form of rationality. It’s a sequential operation. It involves motion and steps that can be understood and articulated in some form. Even raising the specter that the nature of all of reality is in opposition to rationality (looking back at you, Zen and the practice of zazen), involves a form of rationality. The human mind is expected to process that this or that way or activity, for instance, is better than another way or activity and that by choosing (notice the word “choose”), the person can participate in the development or unfolding of a specific plan. There can be no plan without “purpose” or direction, both of which involve rational processes. A plan is a means of going from here to there, either theoretically or physically. The resulting pathway gives form and function to the plan and the ultimate results. Everyone, and I mean everyone, plans. And we plan with a purpose (or, of course, with many many purposes that may or may not be organized under one overall purpose … more on that later). This is intensely rational and raises the question of what that means and implies.

Hinduism and its offspring, Buddhism (together of which can claim billions of people), believe in the reality of a cosmic force that reverberates through all things. They believe that this force is actually largely obscured by the physical world, a world holding us captive so we can’t see the ultimate true nature of all of reality. This force has been described by the name or sound of OM, a kind of background feature that, should we be able to escape the hold this world has on us, will allow us to permanently transcend into a state of permanent bliss or euphoria. It’s also described as a vast Emptiness of all things where differentiation ends and we all merge into the great Nothingness of reality, which is supposed to be the terminal objective, as if, while on a rowboat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, you took an eyedropper and dripped one drop of water into the vast ocean, its unique characteristics no longer contained and differentiated but now fully belonging to something far greater and deeper. However you cut it, though in these traditions, we are asked to take rational steps to overcome rationality. (I’ve always found one feature of Hinduism curious although I haven’t sat down extensively with an expert on it … but maybe will someday … and that is source of the extremely rational principle of cause and effect … Karma … that is definitive of all of human reality. Who or what set those rules? But, I digress.)

This actually brings me to a fundamental point and that is, what is behind or the cause of any kind of supernatural plan? If someone believes that life carries any real meaning, there has to be a plan, otherwise meaning can’t exist, it would just be an illusion, a fact of which almost no one actually lives by. And there has to be a source. Again, there has to be a source. Even accidents happen for a reason. No scientist has ever come up with how life came from non life or why the conditions for non life were such that life is possible. (There is a whole line of thinking around the Fine Tuning of the Universe. Look it up if you’re interested. It fascinates me.)

It’s one of the strongest arguments in our modern, increasingly secular and religiously scientific culture today that ancient people created supernatural forces (deities and gods) to explain things they couldn’t comprehend. Modernity extrapolates this to mean that all belief in such things is a form of myth making and are irrational. Just as mankind came to understand that the sun was not a form of a god or that the earth was not at the center of the cosmos, through science all supernatural explanations will be exposed, given time and scientific progress, as illusory (irrational). Despite this, there are some extremely bright people in scientific fields of biology, chemistry and physics that remain completely convinced that there is a rational force behind all of this. They are scholars beyond repute whose judgments cannot be dismissed. I’m not talking about purported “scientists” who I consider to be on the fringe (for instance Young Earth Creationists who adhere to a belief that the earth was created only a few thousand years ago, that the dinosaurs either didn’t exist or existed with humans and that carbon dating is not practical).

I have to admit that I fought through all of this for many, many years. Decades of thinking and scrutiny. And here’s my bottom line. I can’t effectively arrive at the fact of rationality independent of a source for rationality. At the risk of putting too fine a point on it, actually I CAN arrive at that conclusion but only if I conclude that there is no “meaning” to the rationality. And there is the rub. We can assume rational processes as the result of non rational forces (what I can loosely describe as the conclusion of strict naturists whose belief is fundamentally in “particles and progress”). In other words “reason” is a uniquely human characteristic but there is no overriding and objective meaning we can draw from subsequent reasoning. If I am merely a biochemical organism alive in a physical space, determined by purely biological, chemical and physical laws, then “reasoning” does not allow us to arrive at the conclusion that, for instance, love is good, other than to say it’s a fiction to help us propagate our species.

While I accept that there will be a number (even from those reading this) who cannot make the leap I’m making, I’ll argue that there is no more likely conclusion than the one I’ve arrived at, given the facts. That’s a conclusion I can make on purely rational (not experiential) bases. And, that is that there is a rational being behind all of this. This being is full of force but is not just a Force. Yes, we were all thrilled when Luke listened to his mentor at the end of the first Star Wars movie and “Let Go.” He listened to/surrendered to/gave into the Force which then directed the impossible shot to save the day. But, there can be no good side or dark side of a force without conceptualizing good and bad/evil and getting to its source. And “forces” are results of conditions that must have antecedents (precursors). I always invite everyone to deeply consider these things. Oh, there are a lot of reasons not to. It’s too complicated. Too deep. “It’s hard enough just managing my life. I don’t have to understand all of it.” But, “What if?”

If you’ve made it this far, you’re unbelievably patient! Here it is. Yes, there’s a Force. Yes, there’s a Secret. Yes, there’s an Emptiness and a Unity. Yes, there most certainly is a plan, for which we should all be grateful. But, none of this is disembodied and the plan is not especially obvious. In fact, the plan has a basis in so much that we take for granted but, in fact, is counterintuitive. (To put this differently, the plan is based upon most things we accept as a regular part of our reality but involves elements that don’t on the surface make any sense.)

What is God’s Plan? Well, yes, there is a God and he/she/it (I have thoughts on the nature of God’s gender but let’s not go there now, although I’ll use the familiar He because he is, in essence a person which is a whole other essay), is both rational and intentional. This God is all-powerful and all-knowing. This God is the source of all that exists, including the conditions for Free Will and Evil. And, like us, those he created “in his image,” he has a plan. In fact, he has a lot of them, just as we do.

Yes, to answer the first question at the top of this essay, God does have a a plan. I’ll pick up with what that means next time.