Rational Religion


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There Is More There.

 

This is a Cardinal Principle, and it applies pretty universally, no matter what you are exploring.  

 

From theology to geology; from psychic phenomena to particle physics; alchemy to biochemistry; no matter what the discipline, one can spend a lifetime digging into its subtleties and complexities:  and discovering - purposefully or serendipitously - previously undetected connections to other disciplines. 

 

Because we must conduct all these quests with human wetware, it matters little to the questing individual whether the subject is astrology or astronomy.  There are always intriguing new avenues to explore and bring into the precious realm of the Known.

 

An alert reader of the previous few paragraphs will have detected a pattern in the syntax.  

 

Theology, psychic phenomena, alchemy, and astrology all fall into the realm of classical metaphysics.  Geology, physics, biochemistry and astronomy are scientific disciplines.

 

The former are endless resources (one is tempted to say "bottomless pits") of intellectual exploration because they exist entirely within the wetware and need have no relationship at all to the more objective and infinitely larger Universe outside the individual human skull. 

 

The latter are, as defined, "hard" sciences; more or less organized and concerted attempts to understand and make human contact with that Universe. 

 

(That these attempts are too often no less misguided and their results no less ephemeral than those of the metaphysicists is not the fault of the effort, or even the discipline; but the wetware itself.  Really, we ain't very bright.)

 

The point is that there is always more to learn; about anything:  Everything.

 

The only uncertainty lies in whether you feel it's worth pursuing, given your limited lifespan and finite component of brain cells. 

 

I expect that's why most people in this society reduce it all to whether or not it  "pays;" in money or other economic reward.  

 

In contemplating, or judging, this rather crass system of valuation, do not forget that the renunciation of materialism is still materialism; Just as celibacy is another way of dealing with sex.

 

 (*) So you think alchemy is a dead issue because nobody seriously tries to turn lead into gold any more, or at least the pursuit has graduated into the realm of atomic physics?   How about the worlds of Homeopathy, patent medicine and herbal supplements? Fanciful Chemistry is  still alive and proliferating.    And will continue to flourish as long as the placebo effect succeeds in making us feel better.