Monotheism, Knowledge & Understanding...

[absolutetruth0]

Hi folks,

I'm new to TOEQuest, and have been recommended it by a close friend who is into physics and philosophy.

I am quite a religious person, but don't seek to impose my views on anyone else. However, I would like to invite comments from people who are interested in the theory of knowledge, scientific and spiritual understanding and science to see what their take is on my perspective. My explanation of the Eucharist is set out below and deals with the idea that the purpose of religion is to helps people build lives where they build up their knowledge and understanding about the universe in which we live. Although I believe in one God, I do not think it is necessary for anyone to believe in God at all as long as they make efforts to truly understand the world that they live in.

If anyone wants to read about my broader philosophy on religion then please feel free to visit my website at www.absolutetruth0.moonfruit.com .

In the meantime, please respond with your thoughts and comments on the paragraphs below, be they positive or negative.

Kind regards,

Absolute Truth 0

Juncta Arma Decori



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In the tradition of the Eucharist, Christians take the Body of Christ in the form of bread, and the Blood of Christ, in the form of Communion Wine. I would like to explore these concepts in light of the interpretations that I have discussed in the "Misunderstanding & Sin" section (from the "Religion" section on the menu bar above).

I have a very simple interpretation of the Eucharist, and my explanation of the Eucharist is probably very different from anything that you have likely heard before. I submit that the meaning of the Eucharist has been lost over the years, although I do agree with Christians that the Body and Blood of Christ are represented by the Bread and the Wine when given at Holy Communion. Where once it was a way for Christ to illustrate to his followers the principles of knowledge, understanding and sin, it has now been relegated to a ceremonial process, albeit one which is central to worship in the various Christian Churches.

I think it is important to consider that at Christ's time, the concept of an idea did not exist in the same sense it does today. If Christ had a way of explaining something to his disciples at the Last Supper, then I am absolutely sure that he would have used some kind of analogy or illustration of his idea (or vision from God, or whatever he may have called it) in order to explain it.

I think that the Eucharist is Christ's way of explaining two crucial relationships. The first is where the Bread represents the body of Christ. My opinion is that the Body of Christ would represent all the "knowledge" that someone had of the world in which he lived. Secondly, the Wine represents the Blood of Christ, and I think that this is a way of explaining the concept of "understanding". Consider that when someone acquires a new piece of information, they retain it in their memory, or their "body of knowledge." At first they may not understand what they know. They may have found out that Pi is 3.14, but have no idea what this means. This piece of knowledge is incorporated into the body of knowledge of that person, but if someone doesn't understand what Pi = 3.14 means, then this knowledge will not affect their understanding any further, and won't allow them to see how Pi = 3.14 fits into their remaining body of knowledge.

Say that a teacher tells this person that 3.14 (called Pi) is the ratio of the radius of a circle to it's circumference. Immediately, this person would be able to make use of their new found knowledge, and if they can integrate it with their other knowledge about circles, then that person will have not only increased their knowledge, but also furthered their understanding.

If we think of the bread as the body of Christ, and the wine as the blood of Christ, then we should think about the blood of understanding that runs through the body of knowledge in a person. Someone with limited knowledge will have a limited understanding of the world, but equally, someone with a large body of knowledge may still have a small amount of understanding. This could be for a number of reasons, but it must be remembered that people can have very narrow perspectives at times. Some people are incapable of seeing the world from other points of view, some people have a small range of interests and everyone at various times in their lives can be ignorant and neglectful. Knowing something does ot guarantee that one is going to understand it.

The Eucharist is essentially a method of entrenching the notion that God wants us to collectively know the universe and to understand it. Maybe what the Eucharist says about Christ is that he was someone who, within the context of his time, understood the philosophical underpinnings of how his society worked which he was able to couple with a comprehensive knowledge of his culture and community. He wasn't concerned with the pursuit of scientfic knowledge and understanding, because it was spirituality, not science, that was the driving force of education and knowledge around this time.

It is interesting to note that in the modern day we are obsessed with the collection and collation of quantifiable and measurable data. We have an obsession with knowledge, which is driven by a misunderstanding that knowledge is power. In actual fact, it is understanding that is power, where it gives us the power to educate, to enlighten, to influence and to learn further about the things which we cannot measure and quantify.

I would say that the Messiah is someone who will be absolutely normal in the eyes of most people, but who will have gleened through his lifetime a comprehensive knowledge of the universe and world that he lives in. He will also have an understanding of the world which is second to none, and which I would say will lead him to solve some of the greatest problems we currently face. It could be Grand Unified Theory, String Theory or the cause of Gravity that the Messiah solves (Stephen Hawking suggests that he who solves the Theory of Everything would "know the mind of God" so I think that that is how the Messiah will conquer science and show how it relates to religion), or it could be that the Messiah settles the conflcits and disputes in this world. One thing is for sure though... if the Messiah is someone who is equal to all other people, he will be someone who has fulfilled a much greater degree of his potential than anyone else, but what will be the real miracle is how the Messiah will struggle to get his voice heard over all those people who are shouting and screaming their misunderstandings at eachother.

What is interesting to note is that the Bible does contain some passages that seem to hint at the above interpretation of what the Messiah actually is. Rather than being a person itself, I think that the Bible is trying to illustrate that the Messiah is a state of consciousness that a person can achieve. In this respect, the Messiah would be a title conferred to the first person to achieve this level of knowledge and understanding, but where this person would be followed by many who would be able to share in his knowledge and understanding. The Messiah may be the first, but he would be Prima Inter Pares, first among equals in the line of an infinite number of Christs. The Messiah, so to speak, should therefore be understood as the consciousness of the ways in which God and the universe works. The Messiah would, in this sense, not be a person as such, but the culmination of all the knowledge and understanding that the human race has attained in it's history. This interpretation, however, clearly casts doubt on the concept of Jesus as the Messiah. He may have reached the level of consciousness described here, but the Messiah would also be able to explain modern day science and the remaining mysteries that we face. It is for this reason that I believe that the Messiah is still to come, and in light of my belief that the Messiah will be a normal, everyday person, it is also the reason why I aspire to attain that level of consciousness. I may not be the first, but it is my ambition to get there.

Colossians Chapter 2, Verses 2 to 3 illustrate this point almost perfectly:

"Because they are united in love, I pray that their hearts may be encouraged by all the riches that come from a complete understanding of the full knowledge of the Messiah, who is the mystery of God. In him are stored all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."