Give God a Chance

Sometimes philosophical and religious writers emphasize something they call a "worldview." This is similar to what scientists might call a cosmology. A worldview is a model of the big picture of why the universe exists, how it works, and what part we play in it. It is recognized that our worldview affects our attitudes and behavior, and, in turn, the future of the planet.

Cayce often spoke of balance in our lives and in our thinking. One individual was told that, as a result of his exposure to the works of Socrates, he found, "the reasoning influences and forces from the material angle becoming at times barriers rather than the greater expression of the spirituality." (538-59) Another person was told, "the material may overrun the mental and spiritual. Coordinate them; and thus find first thy own ideal spiritually." (718-2)

In our educational systems, we have tended to develop compartments of learning. We have physical sciences, biology, sociology, anthropology, archaeology, political science, economics, religion, psychology, philosophy, history, arts, etc. Some of this specialization is constructive, but scholars in the various fields have often tended to be egocentric. Even though they may recognize that there is much overlap in the various fields, they tend to build their own little worlds with special terminology, jargon, and scenarios...even myths, if you will...that attempt to explain how life works. When taken to extremes this results in a fragmented view of mankind. Perhaps this is part of what motivated thinkers like Descartes and Einstein to look for some kind of unifying system.

When I was in college, I was amused by a running controversy between two of the professors. One of them, a psychology professor, insisted that all behavior is learned, while the other, a biology professor, attempted to persuade us to believe that behavior is completely determined by genetics. If the continuity of life is a fact, then neither of these views makes a lot of sense. We are living souls whose behavior is driven partly by past experiences, which are unseen to either the geneticist or the behaviorist. We are also motivated by our view of the future, which could extend beyond this one appearance in materiality. Heredity and environment do have very powerful influences on our behavior. They may even appear to be the only factors governing our actions when free will is not considered or not applied by the individual. Cayce reading 900-340 deals with this timeless debate between nature and nurture when it says:

The behaviorist and the geneticist have become polarized at the extremes of their imaginary continuum. Each knows that there is some truth in his or her position. Each is also aware that his or her perspective has not been proved to perfectly account for all behaviors but believes that more research will prove that it does. Even if each one objectively looks at the other extreme, they do not see answers for all types of behavior. Therefore, they conclude that the other perspective is simply wrong. However, they do have much in common. They have both confined themselves to a debate that is tangential to the truth, and they both blindly refuse to consider the obvious spiritual factors governing human behavior. I believe that Cayce reading 416-7 provides a third point of view that is closer to the truth:

To the extent that positivism has replaced the spiritual model, the above debate is typical of many controversies that exist in our culture. We take two opposing views, set them at the extremes of an imaginary continuum, and assume that the truth lies somewhere on that continuum. The problem is that actual truth may exist in another dimension completely untouched by our measuring stick.

Sure, it is sometimes fun to solve physics problems and work with machines without having to worry too much about offending anyone’s theological sensibilities. It is also edifying to experience the healing power of the Holy Spirit during a church service without having to first prove to a closed-minded skeptic that it works. Even so, it is naive to think that we exist in either realm exclusively. Perhaps some folks simply enjoy arguing about it. The real fun starts, however, when those who can integrate spirituality and science work together to improve the environment, to eliminate poverty and oppression, to heal, to save lives, and to make the Earth more fertile ground for souls to grow toward companionship with a loving Creator.

Once, when I was attempting to explain this kind of integrated worldview to one of my children, I used a two-dimensional coordinate system to represent the reference systems used by the various disciplines. The individual schools of thought (sociology, political science, psychology, religion, biology, physics, anthropology, etc.) were drawn with origin points at various locations on a sheet of paper. Then, making an analogy to the mathematical process whereby axes for different equations can be translated to a common origin to simplify the equations, I began to redraw each of the systems to coincide at a common point. The result was a large cross at the center of the page with arrows pointing to it from all directions. We decided to let that cross represent the Christian perspective...or Christ-centered worldview...as expressed in the Cayce readings, which could unify, in our minds, the divergent schools of thought. The readings often say that our purpose in materiality is to become aware of ourselves as responsible individuals and yet one with God. The cross might also represent the whole law...Love for God (vertical member) and love for fellow man (horizontal member)...which the readings so often stressed.