Filling the existential gap

Meins Coetsier writes of Rainer Rilke's idea of three generations within religion (Modern Age, Summer 2011), with the first generation finding God, the second building a temple and “imprisoning” God with rules and regulations, and the third generation suffering spiritual impoverishment and breaking down into “little shelters.” After that comes the generation that has to search for God again.

Where are we? Well, we do now see from sociobiology that the “imprisonment” of religious ethics helps bond people for success in survival and reproduction. But I think this sort of three generation religious narrative happens with both individuals and societies. Some never leave their positions, some evolve through all the phases. But the modern world in general seems to be in the phase of building little shelters or islands of security within a chaotic world.

I believe that the material, rational, and spiritual alignment to our evolution to Godhood fills the existential gap. The cause of being is seen as our evolution to Godhood, which creates our authentic relationships. Godhood becomes not only the symbol of our goal but the real natural object, the supreme material-supermaterial object of our evolutionary goal. This also becomes a theme for “political theology.”

The Spirit-Will-To-Godhood which activates life before life is shaped by evolution has been intellectually missing (not physically missing) and separated from religious and nonreligious cultural life. The Spirit-Will with its goal of Godhood gives man back something greater than himself. Without the character, tone and guiding belief of our evolution to Godhood we shrink to virtually nothing in the cosmos.