What The Heck is Duality?
What do the following pairs have in common? -female/male, dark/light, body/mind, soft/hard, wet/dry, hot/cold, black/white, tall/short, night/day., easy/hard.
Sure- we consider them opposites of each other, right? That’s what we were taught. Antonyms. Poles apart.
In philosophy and theology, they make up the concept of duality which says that the world is ruled by the antagonistic forces of good and evil, and that humans have two basic natures, the physical and the spiritual.
Is the god the source, or is the god a human manner of conceiving of the force and energy that supports the world?
In our tradition God is a male. This male and female differentiation is made, however, within the field of time and space, the field of duality. If God is beyond duality, you cannot say that God is a “He.” You cannot say God is a “She.” You cannot say God is an “It.”
― Joseph Campbell, Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor
Polar opposites…
But are they really? Is there such a thing as darkness, or is it merely lack of light. What about soft/hard. Take an egg. Isn’t it the amount of time it is in boiling water that makes it soft or hard boiled? And cold is a lack of heat, tall and short just a matter of height.
“That all opposites—such as mass and energy, subject and object, life and death—are so much each other that they are perfectly inseparable, still strikes most of us as hard to believe.
But this is only because we accept as real the boundary line between the opposites. It is, recall, the boundaries themselves which create the seeming existence of separate opposites.
To put it plainly, to say that “ultimate reality is a unity of opposites” is actually to say that in ultimate reality there are no boundaries. Anywhere.” ― Ken Wilber,
How About a Sliding Scale?
What if what we’re really talking about is a continuum containing a series of variations, or an ordered sequence where changes take place over a gradient.
For example, you always thought there were two sexes, right? Male and female.
But in a New York Times article written by a geneticist, she stated,” biologically speaking, there are many gradations running from female to male; along that spectrum lie at least five sexes — perhaps even more.”
“I believe gender is a spectrum, and I fall somewhere between Channing Tatum and Winnie the Pooh.” Stephen Colbert
And in the time since that article was written the understanding of different genders has grown, and there are now any number of different gender classifications.
Facebook lists 58 different genders from which people can choose an option. LINK
Or look at night/day. How many terms do we have for gradations of our 24 hours?
Sunrise, day break, dawn, morning, high noon, afternoon, dusk, sun set, evening, eventide, twilight, nightfall, midnight, early morning-
…most having to do with the amount of light or lack of it. When does day become officially night, and vice versa?
What we are seeing are not opposites, but positions on a sliding scale- a progressive linear gradation, moving from one to the other.
Put a wet towel in the sun, and it eventually will become dry.
A task that was at first hard, in time becomes easy, and some tests start with the easy questions which then become progressively harder.
Is Belief in God Only Yes or NO?
Now imagine belief in God as on a scale-
Imagine a continuum of say 0-10 for the subject-Faith in God
- =Don’t believe at all
10 =absolute faith
Faith is not static- it moves up and down the continuum depending on circumstances, state of mind, health, etc.
Say that your best friend is dying of cancer-On your last visit you thought for sure she’d die that day.
You have no faith in God but you say to yourself or out loud- ‘Let her going be painless, peaceful, and soon.’ My friend- that’s prayer, whether you meant it to be such or not.
Surprisingly, she doesn’t die but in the next few days goes into complete remission. The doctors call it a medical miracle or mystery…
Now unless you think only surface thoughts, you begin to ponder this event- and your no belief about God on the continuum sqiggles upward –maybe just a little, maybe a lot.
Does it stay there? Probably not- it fluctuates.
Even in people who would rate themselves as staunch absolute believers in God don’t sit comfortably at a static number 10.
Happenings, health issues, crises, death of a loved one, community or national/global tragedy- and even those folks ask- Where was God? Doesn’t God care? How could a loving God allow this to happen?
So- faith in God, in yourself, in the presidency- in your doctor…whatever- isn’t static.
It can be tough and tenacious, or fragile or crumbling- and anywhere in between
What is POSSIBILIANISM?
Dr. David Eagleman’s video on God vs No God (Link to this page) talks about how we live in a vast field of possibilities, and not a whole lot of certainties.
He quotes Voltaire saying, “Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. Certainty is an absurd position.” And Doubt isn’t the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith, wrote Paul Tillich
In light of so much uncertainty, Dr. Engleman coined a new word for where he now stood- Possibilianism-
Possibilianism is a philosophy which rejects both the diverse claims of traditional theism (belief in the existence of a god or gods, especially belief in one God as creator of the universe, intervening in it and sustaining a personal relation to creation) and the positions of certainty in strong atheism (the doctrine or belief that there is no God) in favor of a middle, exploratory ground. Link
This is basically what we’ve been discussing here.
There is a vast field of possibilities between absolute belief in God and totally rejecting the idea that God exists.
Is Doubting Traitorous?
Where we stand in our beliefs at the currant moment rests on many variables. One of those is doubt. How do science and faith mesh? What makes sense to our secularly trained mind? How can I “buy into” any kind of spirituality?
We should be unafraid to doubt. There is no believing without some doubting, and believing is all the more robust for having experienced its doubts.
“Kalil Gibran put it beautifully, “Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.” I like that. If doubts are not the opposite of faith, we can be a bit more open and honest about them with ourselves, others, and God.” Justin Holcomb
Do you think pastors and priests and rabbis never have moments of doubt, or questions, or dismay? If so, you’d be very wrong. An honest religious leader will readily admit to moving along the continuum as well.
‘A young lady raised her hand and asked, “Pastor Ray, when I listen to you speak, you always sound so certain about everything. Do you ever doubt?” I told her I thought that was a very important question.
My answer was short and simple. Yes, I do have doubts. I don’t talk about them very much, but I doubt every day.
(After I told this story on Sunday morning, a very godly man was concerned about that statement — did I really mean it? Absolutely, I said. I have doubts and questions that I cannot answer every single day.)
I don’t know how a person can be a Believer and not have doubts from time to time.
Faith requires doubt in order to be faith. If you ever arrive at a place where all your doubts are gone and all your questions are answered, take a deep breath and relax because you’ve arrived in heaven.
This is one of the hidden secrets of the church. We all doubt from time to time. Doubt itself is not sinful or wrong. It often can be the catalyst to new spiritual growth.’ Rev. Ray Pritchard
Doubt causes you to dig deep. It creates a need for better understanding. It makes you ask profound questions. It opens you up to subtle, and ellusive concepts. Because we’re not trifling with small matters here, doubt shouldn’t upset you, but cause you to even search more. The person that doesn’t doubt hasn’t truly searched his or her beliefs.
What is My Point?
An atheist says there is no God. A theist believes yes- there is- But all of us are not absolute- we are on a fluctuating scale, a long continuous line, sometimes a little closer to one end than the other. And sometimes it’s a real balancing act.
They say there are no atheists in a foxhole faced with potential death and one’s own mortality.
Now either you don’t give a crap whether you live or die, or you’ll be damned if you’ll ask for help from anyone or Being- but most people at a time like that turn to prayer, whether or not they are believers in God.
Here’s a thought- “OMG” and “Dear God!” or “Jesus!” are basically prayers. Short, terse, coming from deep within. Not that the person voicing them realizes that.
Listen to the sounds of people watching the Twin Towers falling and you will hear those words over and over.. Even “Noooooooooooooo!”- to whom really is that expressed???
Why Desire Spiritual Growth?
So- if we don’t stay at a some stable, stationary place on the continuum, but move around on it, then what’s the aim in striving for spiritual growth?
The point of spiritual growth is to strive for upward movement- to ride out the storms without plunging into an abyss- to reach smaller fluctuations instead of being on a faith rollercoaster.
It facilitates and even encourages growth in many other areas as well. It expands your mind to consider potential possibilities, and it gifts you with the means to explore and discover your own self, and that which is your own belief system.
It’s your spiritual beliefs and understandings that put grounding under your feet but the whole cosmos over your head.
