Divinity 201 – A Sensible God

Last updated on: July 26, 2016 at 5:00 am by Father Seán ÓLaoire, PhD

Divinity 201 – A Sensible God 2016-07-20T10:52:50-08:00 Father Seán ÓLaoire, PhD

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Note: This is the second in a two-part blog on the Nature of Divinity. It was an experience I had on December 18th, 2007; I have left it in the present tense, though it is now nine years old.

Photo Courtesy of Pixabay

My God used to be very sensible. But, of course, I was really too young to understand. As a boy I saw him frequently, got the scent of his fragrance, heard his voice, tasted his words in my own mouth and reached out to curl my small hand around a single finger of his. Every one of my five senses connected me to him.

I made the mistake of talking to adults about this. They mussed my unruly mop of hair and smiled indulgently at my naiveté – that is everyone except my great-grandmother who had managed to survive into old age without ever losing her mystical ability; and my grandfather who was a life-long druid. A second, even bigger, mistake was made on my behalf; I was sent to school, initially to the nuns and later to the Christian Brothers. They told me that God wasn’t sensible but rather that he was sensible, as in he followed common sense. And I believed them, because they wore the insignia of God: habits and veils and Roman collars; and the important adults in my life all deferred to them.

For the next 13 years, I was meticulously versed in this sensible God, this down-to-earth, commonsensical divinity, who wore sensible brown shoes and created people to be sensible plodders. Sure, he did produce the odd mystic, but they were all safely dead. For the rest of us, the advice was to keep our heads down and measure out our lives in teaspoonfuls; dull, pain-filled, anxious lives that were best navigated by commonsense, old wives’ tales and Old Testament examples. For God was a commonsense God, even when he consigned unbaptized babies to Limbo or sent sinners into everlasting flames for missing mass on Sundays or eating sausages on Fridays. This, too, made sense.

At age 18, I entered the seminary, and God became even more sensible. In exquisite detail, Dogmatic Theology, Sacramental Theology and Moral Theology constructed a fully consistent, logical framework, backed by scriptural references that made it madness to be agnostic let alone atheistic.

That is until I started at university and majored in mathematical physics and pure mathematics. I was introduced to the “God of the gaps.” He was slowly being edged out by science and being given increasingly unimportant portfolios until such time as science itself had enough manpower and evidence to give him a golden handshake (with the presentation being made by Nietzsche) and retire him to an Old Folks’ Home.

Religion reacted by either vigorously defending the commonsense God of the scriptures or deftly surfing the scientific waves, remaking God to survive the Copernican Revolution, Darwinian Evolution, Relativity Theory and Quantum Mechanics. The more creative theologians even managed to find scriptural references that foretold all of these discoveries. These religious thinkers claimed that God is still really sensible and predicted that real scientists would eventually see the light.

I landed in Kenya at age 26 in a remote area without phones, electric light or companionship. So I did the reasonable thing, I began dabbling in mystical ideas, radical new cosmologies and in thinking-for-myself. We all have mystical experiences, but typically we regard them as unsubstantial, like the dreams of the night. So I began recording and working with the dreams of the night and also with the visions of the day. I had an “aha experience” when I read that in Hebrew “vision” and “dream” are synonyms. So when the prophet Joel said, “In the days to come I will pour out my Spirit on all humankind; your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams” he wasn’t discriminating against the senior citizens; for dreams are visions you have while you are asleep, and visions are dreams you have while you are awake.

God was very sensible again; but now he made sense because experiences of him were enabled by transcending the five senses, commonsense, theology and science and, instead, utilizing the soul.

And then, today, the 18th of December 2007, something else happened. It has been raining heavily for three days and the forest is spectacular during the rainy season; and my dog Kayla needs to walk. We set off, me in my rain gear and she in her house clothes; and we bumped into God – again and again and again.

First, I tasted Him in pearl-shaped droplets of water that hung on each twig. Every leaf on every tree was a chalice of God-life. I stuck my tongue out under a broad leaf and reverently received communion; the blood of God from a Eucharistic minister called Madrona. It was as ecstatic a moment as my First Holy Communion at age seven.

Then I saw Him. He sat astride a faery horse that wore green, gossamer-thin garments of ferns about its fetlocks. God’s long flowing locks were made of light-green lichen, and each strand was a lace lattice for catching dreams and attracting visions. His steed was planted upon the hillside with its powerful limbs soaking up energy from the earth as he rested on his journey. We saw each other and each of us whispered, “Namasté.”

As I continued to walk, I realized that each time I dug my sturdy staff in the ground I touched an acupuncture point on the skin of Gaia, and she responded by sending shivers of Earth energy up my spine.

Then I smelled Him, fleetingly. I had walked through a power spot! I stopped, backed up, and moved my head from side to side and sniffed like Kayla taught me. There it was again. I stood absolutely still and sniffed again. I had it! An entire shelf-full from the Akashic Records tumbled into my brain releasing a myriad of memories from many lifetimes on this planet. They danced like children newly reunited with long-lost parents.

It was evening before I returned home; all was still in the forest. I listened more silently than before and then I heard it, the sound of the sunset. It resonated in every cell of my body; light vibrating with light. After a few moments it was utterly quiet again; and then a new song sounded; it was the slow sensual symphony of the moonrise, a half-moon, teasingly concealing the left side of her face. This song would last for the entire night. And the stars responded with a poem of their own; a poem crafted by the genius of a Yeats, in the language of a Rilke and spoken in the mystical tones of a Rumi.

Finally, I climbed to the top of my shrine, the place I call, “Cnochán Dara na Naomh” or “The Hillock of the Oak Tree of the Avatars.” An ancient Scrub Oak rests there, a garland on the crown chakra of that sacred space. It is always the culmination of my daily pilgrimage. I rested my right hand on the weather-beaten bark and through my now-sensitized palm I could feel the heartbeat of the acorn that begot it; the slow powerful thump-thump-thump of the druid-tree.

So today I came full circle. Today, as I had done in my childhood, I smelled God, I felt God, I heard God, I saw God and I tasted God. After 61 years in this incarnation, I can say once again, “My God is a very sensible God!”

"personal/sensible" God

Previous Post

July 19, 2016

Divinity 101 - A God Built in Our Image and Likeness

Next Post

August 3, 2016 The Aliens Are Buddhas

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category "All Lives Matter" "Anatomy of Human Destructiveness" "belonging systems" "bite-sized pieces of God" "Black Lives Matter" "block universe" "butterfly effect" "call to prayer" "counting to 10" "dog-whistle" language "I Am" statements "late term abortion" "lefties" "Nature Nazis" "Nephilim" "opium of the masses" "othering" "personal" God "personal/sensible" God "private" property "punctuated equilibria" "Silent Night" "Sky Gods" "Super Archetypes" "symbolic"experience "TaNaKh" "the difficult passages" "The Prophet" "the seamless garment approach' "virtualized" money "waking Life" 'creatio ex nihilo' 'dissipative structures' 'emanatio ab Deo' 'God the creator' 'God the Redeemer' 'God the Sanctifier' 'in potentia' 'The End Times' 1% abandonment Abortion abortion debate Abraham abstract rationality abundance Adam and Eve advanced beings/civilizations Advent adventure afterlife agape akasha Akashic record Alabaster jar Alan Watts alchemy aleinu alignment alive allegory altered states of consciousness alternate state of consciousness Alzheimer's disease America 2019 America 2020 America 2021 amnesia Anam Chara anatma (no soul) angels animasphere anitya (impermanence) Annuciation apathy apocalypse apophatic language apostles archetype art artists ASC - altered states of consciousness ascension asceticism ashram astral form astral travel astrology atheism Atman attention attention/observation autism avatar awake awakener awakening awareness awareness/imagination Axial Age Babel Baltimore catechism Baptism bardo state Bealtaine Beatitudes beauty behavioral psychology Being-Knowing-Loving belief systems beliefs Benediction Bernard Haisch Bethlehem Bhagavad Gita biblical literalism biblical revelation Big Bang biophilic biosphere birth canal birthright bite-size piece of God black holes blame Blessed Trinity bodhisattva bodhisattva vow body bonding Book of Job Book of Kells Book of Psalms Book of Revelation border wall Brahma Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva Brahman brain brotherhood/sisterhood Buddha Buddha nature Buddhahood Buddhas Buddhism burning bush Cain and Abel camán (hurley) cancer Canon Law canonical gospels Caol Áit caol áiteanna capital punishment capitalism Carl Jung cataphatic language Catherine of Siena Catholics causal void cause and effect cell mates Celtic Christianity Celtic Feast of Bealtaine Celtic spirituality Chalmers channel of healing chaos consciousness chaos theory charism children chreode Christ archetype Christ consciousness Christ/Christa consciousness Christa Consciousness Christian Christian cosmology Christian Trinity Christianity Christmas Christmas club ciotogs civilization classical conditioning climate change climate disruption co-create co-creating reality co-creative power and responsibility co-creative power of attention codependency cognitive flexibility coherence collaboration collective attention collective consciousness collective imagination collective intelligence/effort collective prayer collective unconscious collective/universal consciousness communication Communion of Saints community Companions on the Journey (COJ) compassion compassionate caregiver competition complacency complex/interdependent society Complexity/Chaos Theory complexity/entropy conceptual thought concurrency Confucius connectedness conscience conscious conscious evolution conscious observation conscious observer consciousness consciousness examen consciousness-primary cosmos consciousness-primary reality conservatism consumerism consumption continuous creation conversations conversion cooperation Coronavirus corrupt politics cosmic consciousness Cosmic Mind cosmic patterns cosmic whole cosmology cosmos Council of Constantinople Council of Nicaea countable infinity courage court prophets covenant Covid-19 creating creation creation by subtraction creative intelligence creativity creativity/paradox creator crucifixion culpability cultural identity cultural trance culture cynicism dark night of the soul Darwin daughter of Sion death debate and detachment deconstructionism deity déjá vu dementia demi-urge democracy democratization of Spirit Descartes desert fathers/mothers destiny detachment determinism devil's advocate Dia de Los Muertos dialogue dignity of all sentient beings direct experience disassociation disciple discovery disease disillusionment diversity divination divine brain Divine Feminine divine inspiration Divine Masculine Divine nature divine realm of perfection divinity DNA Donald Hoffman donkeys Down syndrome drama dream dream state dream time dreamers dreams dualism duality dysfunctional family earth Easter Eastern mystics ecology ecumenism ego ego identity ego-soul dialectic Einstein Einstein's "Block Universe" elementals Elijah Elohim eloquence EM field emergence emergent phenomenon emotional heart empathy en mesoi en-souled human person encounters end times endangered species enemies energy enlightenment entanglement entrainment entropy-complexity environmental degradation epigenetics epiphenomena epistemology equality/democracy equanimity equation of enlightenment Erich Fromm esoteric eternal eternal/mortal eternity etheric body ethics Eucharist Eucharistic Prayer of the Cosmos evaluation evil evolution evolution into enlightenment evolution of consciousness evolution of purpose evolution of society evolution of virtues evolution/devolution evolutionary inflection point evolutionary programming evolutionary shift evolutionary trajectory existence existential inflection point exit strategy experiential knowing experiential symbols extending rights/curtailing rights extra-terrestrial societies extra-terrestrials faery folk faith fake news families family Family of Man fate Father God fear Feast of All Souls feedback feminine face of God Ferdinand de Saussure fetus fifth dimension filioque fire flora and fauna Flora Spiritualis flow foreign policy forgiveness fractals fractals of divinity free will freedom friendship fundamentalism Gaia galaxy Gandhi Garden of Eden Garden of Gethsemane Gautama Siddhartha gemilut hasadim generosity Genesis geometry global crises Global Game Plan global narcissism global transformation global warming gnosis Gnostic intermediaries God God as Father God the Father God's Dream God's heart God's immanence God's will God-conscious Godhead gods Golgotha good and evil Good Samaritan goodness Gospel of John Gospel of Luke Gospel of Thomas grace gratitude greed Greek 'prosopon' ground of being guns habituation hate haves and have nots healing heart heaven Hebrew scriptures hell higher consciousness Hindu Hindu stages of human life Hindu trinity Hinduism Hippocrates Hitler holocene extinction Holocene/Anthropocene holy human Holy Spirit Holy Trinity Homo Narcississimus homo sapiens homo sapiens sapiens Homo Sociopathicus homo spiritualis hope hospitality Huang Po human agency human conditioning human evolution human flourishing (eudaimonia) human history human life human nature human nature/divine nature human needs human psyche human species humans as a social species humility hunger/yearning hypnagogic hypnopompic I AM idealism identity identity theft ideology idolatry illusion illusion of scarcity illusion of separation Ilya Prigogine image of God imaginal cells imagination immanence of God immanent aspect of God immanent experience impermanence improvisation impulse of spirit incarnation incarnational experience incarnational phase inclusivity individual subjectivity individuality indulgences industrial revolution Ineffable Source ineffable transcendence inequality inerrancy of the scriptures infallibility inferior mortal realm infinite inflation/deflation information revolution inner tranquility innocence inspiration instinct instinctual responses integration intellect intelligence intention intentional community interconnectedness interdimensional interpersonal relationships intuition Iománaíocht Ireland irrationality Isaiah Islam Issac Issac Newton Jacob Jacob's ladder of Genesis Jane Goodall Jansenism Jean-Paul Sartre Jeremiah Jesus Jesus as Divine Word John the apostle Joseph Campbell Joseph Cardinal Bernadin joy Judaism Judeo-Christian bible judgment justice Kahlil Gibran karma karma gobbler kindness Kingdom of God knowing knowledge and wisdom kosmic laws Kosmos Krishnamurti lack language Lao Tzu Latin "purgare" Latin 'persona' laughter Law of Impermanence Law of Love lay-away living learning legalism Lent letting go liberal/progressive liberation lies life life journey life purpose life-time commitment light likeness of God Lila limbo liminality lineage living systems living water logos longing love loving God loving without knowing lucid dreaming lucid living Ludwig Wittgenstein Luke and John Magi Mahavira mainstream media male/female faces of God manifest realm mantra Mariology Martin Buber Mary and Joseph Mary Magdalene Mary Oliver Mary the mother of Jesus mass media material world materialism materialistic science materialists mathematics matrix matter Maya mea culpa meaning of life media meditation Meister Eckhart meme memory message metanoia metaphor metaphysical universe metaphysics metaverse metta (Buddhism) Middle America Middle Way migrating Milesians military-industrial complex military-industrial demons Mind mind-body problem mindfulness mini-mystics miracles miraculous/mundane mission missionary mitzvah modularity moksha monasticism money Monoimus monotheism moral laws moral values morality morality/applied ethics morality/legality Moses Mother Earth Mother God mother-love motherhood Mount Shasta Mount Thabor multidimensional creatures multiverse music mystery mystic mystical body of Christ mystical impulse mystical poetry mystical self-empowerment mystical spirituality mystical union with Source mystical void mysticism mysticists mystics myth myth of the given mythic realm mythology naivete Namasté narcissism national security state nationalism Nativity natural disasters Natural Order Nature nautral selection NDE near death experience nebula necessity necrophilic neighbor Neils Bohr neural pathways neurotheology New Age philosophers New Age speak New Year resolutions newborn nirvana no-thing-ness Noah's Ark non-conceptual prayer noosphere nuclear nuclear weapons observer effect Old Testament oligarchy omniscience of God one-ness only-begotten ontology operant reinforcers oral language origin of laws Original Blessing original sin orthodoxy othering out-of-body experience overpopulation Pacha Mama pain pair-bonding Palm Sunday pandemic shutdown panspermia parable parallel lives parallel realities parallel universes parapsychological conduits pareidolia past-present-future Pater Noster Pavlov peace Peggy Lee Pena Creek Pentateuch Pentecost pepo perception perceptual state perfection persona personal cosmology personal enlightenment personal evolution personal responsibility personal transformation personality personhood personhood and ensoulment Peter and John Pharisees philosophy physical universe physical water physiosphere pilgrim Planet Earth planetary ascension Plato Plato's ideal realm pleasure principle Plotinus (d. 270 CE) Plutarch pneuma Pneuma Floriensis pneuma spiritualis pneumasphere poets politics post-incarnational phase power of love practice of prayer prana prayer prayer of petition Pre-Conception contract pre-incarnational phase predetermination prejudice priesthood priesthood of women primary reinforcement prime directive prison-industrial complex pro-choice pro-life profit propaganda prophets proverbs psyche psychodrama psychological conditioning psychological evolution psychology punctuated equilibrium pure awareness purgatory purpose pyramid of power Pythagoras Quakers Quakers "Sense of the Meeting" quantum field theory quantum foam quantum mechanics quantum physics quantum physics/mechanics quantum shift quarantined race radah radical love rainbow body raison d'etre Ram Dass Ramana Maharshi rationality/reason re-birth re-gifting intelligence re-incarnation re-incarnational phase re-magining reality reality gestalt reason recession reconciliation recycling reductionism reincarntion reintegration relationships relativism religion religionists religious systems remembering remembering/imagining renewal repetition resource wars response-ability Resurrection revelation revolution Richard Rohr Rig Veda rights/responsibilities Rilke ritual river of life Role-self root causes/social issues ruach Rumi Rupert Sheldrake sacrament sacraments sacrifice Sadducees Sai Baba saints salvation Samhain Samsara Sat-Chit-Ananda Satya Sai Baba scapegoat scarcity science science as revelation scientific fundamentalism scientific revolution scientism scientists Second Coming secondary reinforcement secular power secular/sacred secularization seeker seers Self self-acceptance self-alienation self-awareness self-compassion self-conscious life self-forgiveness self-identification self-identity self-interest/tribal interest self-liberation self-realization self-serving pathology self-understanding sense of self sense of separate self sensorium sentience separate self separation service to self/service to other sexual harrassment shadow shadow pod Shalom Shared Death Experience (SDE) sheep/shepherds Shiva Shiva energy Shroud of Turin signifiers silence simulated reality sin sin of separation sinner skin-encapsulated ego society socio-political division Socrates Son of Man Song of Amhergín soul soul group soul mates soul pod soul service Soul-self sound Source space-time special and general relativity spirit spiritual choices spiritual dis-integration spiritual DNA spiritual evolution spiritual garden spiritual healing spiritual heart spiritual heredity spiritual journey spiritual monoculture spiritual path spiritual power spiritual question/mystical question spiritual seeker spiritual water spirituality St. Augustine St. Francis St. Gregory of Palamas St. Ignatius of Loyola St. John of the Cross St. Patrick St. Paul St. Thomas Aquinas states of consciousness staying asleep staying awake Steven Pinker stillness stochastic terrorism Stockholm Syndrome stories story storytellers storytelling stream stress subconscious subjective consciousness subliminal perception submission suffering Sufi super-consciousness Supernatural Supernatural reality surrender survival survival of the fittest sustaining intelligence symbiosis symbols synchronicity taoism Tarot technology Teilhard de Chardin telepathy telos/teleology temptation tension terrorism the "Magnificat" the abortion process the Art of Dying the Bible the Big Other The Centering Prayer the cross the dead the Fall The Great Schism The Hero's Journey the human experiment the living The Lord's Prayer the Mother the Old Order the Other The Sign of Peace the Veil the World theology theory of entanglement Theory of Everything (TOE) theory of General Relativity Third Heaven "Shehaqim" thirst Thomas Aquinas thought patterns thoughts/tulpas Tikkun Olam time time travel time-space-mind tomb Tonglen Torah trans-lingual trans-rational trans-spatial trans-temporal transcendence transcendence of God transcendent aspect of God transcendent God transcendental experience transcendental realm transcendental/transpersonal Transcendentals Transfiguration transformation transpersonal Tree of Life Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil tribalism Trinity true Self trust truth truths tselem Tuatha Dé Danann tulpa ultimate reality Uncategorized unconditional love unconscious unconscious psychological modules uncountable infinity understanding unity Unity Consciousness universal basic income (UBI) universal consciousness universe universe as a living system universe itself as a living system Upanishads values Vatican II Veil of Veronica victimhood Virgin Mary virtues vision visionary experiences visions Vivekananda void of self-consciousness waking consciousness Watson and Crick wave-particle duality wealth wealth and privilege wealth gap Wilder Penfield will to survive William James wisdom witnessing consciousness women's spiritual group Word Word-of-God-Made-Flesh world view wu-wei Yahweh yin and yang Yogananda Zen Zen buddhist monk zero-sum game Zoroaster

Select a Month June 2024 May 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 April 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 June 2022 December 2021 November 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 October 2020 August 2020 July 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz