The Divine Universe

In the late nineteenth century, Friedrich Nietzsche declared that God was dead. He then argued that, because our morality is based upon belief in God we have no valid reason to be moral. He waxed lyrical about the blessed state of those superior persons who are freed entirely from religion and morality. In Nietzsche’s time Western society knew little of any religion other than Christianity and he directed his attack specifically towards what he understood as the Christian God.

 

In fact, Western morality is not based entirely on religious belief. For most people it owes a great deal to the pragmatic moral philosophy of the ancient Greeks. To be happy one must live sensibly, nobly and justly[1]. This represents a widely held ‘commonsense’ morality.

 

But, in any case, was Nietzsche’s God, in fact, the Christian God, the Holy Trinity? He complains that our God is too Jewish. He sees YHWH, the God of Jesus Christ, as primarily judge of humankind and argues that one cannot love a judge, even a merciful one. He complains also that he only loves people on condition that they believe in him, and makes threats of eternal punishment against those who do not.

 

One must admit that Nietzsche’s god  - an ‘up there’, judgemental and punitive tribal potentate in an extra-terrestrial kingdom – does lurk in the pages of the Bible, but he only peeps out here and there. There are far more references to God’s infinite mercy and kindness and his uncompromising compassion and justice. The Christian God is not so much our judge but rather our source (Father) and our saviour. There are serious consequences for sin, but they come from our injured relationship with one another and with nature, not, I believe, from divine wrath. And the allegorical story of Job challenges directly the notion that suffering is necessarily the consequence of sin.

 

Nietzsche’s god is too anthropomorphic. The Jewish God, YHWH, is a mystery, not even to be named. All images, anthropomorphic or otherwise, are absolutely forbidden. The post-Nicene Christian God, the Holy Trinity, owing as much to Aristotle as to Moses, is even more intellectually challenging than YHWH, but the Trinity is certainly not an extra-terrestrial personage. He is not even an entity among other entities; he is the ultimate source and essence of all being. As Meister Eckhart put it: “God is everything, but everything is not God.” The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

 

Nietzsche’s thinking was confined within the materialistic science and philosophy of his day. He insisted that the universe is nothing but a chaotic and meaningless collection of material objects. Nothing could be less like the universe as understood by twenty-first century physicists and cosmologists. They see the universe as a single living organism in which order, diversity and complexity have been increasing, and metabolic processes of renewal, change and growth have been happening from the beginning. Earth’s biosphere, and that of any other planets, is a product of natural cosmic processes. We are a product of our living universe. Philosophers of science also argue that, if life materialises in any part of the universe, then it is a property that belongs to the universe as a whole.

 

In the nineteenth century, matter was understood to be what could be perceived by the senses, and consisted of small, indivisible objects called atoms. A physicist today sees matter very differently: as essentially an intricate dance of infinitesimal energy particles that are, confusingly, also waves, depending on what you look for. Einstein proved in 1905 that matter is essentially energy.

 

A number of philosophers of science also see the universe as having mind[2]. We experience mind through our own particular physiological makeup, but ‘pansubjectivists’, as they are called, hold that this is a particular manifestation of something that is innate in the cosmos as a whole. Mathematical physicist, Brian Swimme, even goes so far as to say that we should see the universe as a spiritual event rather than a material object.

 

The twentieth century also saw some significant developments in both popular and academic theology. In the 1960’s, Bishop John Robinson led a forceful attack on the anthropomorphic, ‘up there’ god, still popular among both laity and clergy[3]. In spite of opposition from many clerics and bishops, he made a significant impact on many thoughtful lay people and even some clergy. 

 

In Nietzsche’s time, theologians and scientists were openly at war. This is no longer so and some theologians have developed their thinking about the nature of the physical world and its place within Trinitarian theology. Paul and John[4] saw Christ, the Word, as a cosmic being, in and through whom the whole universe subsists. Theologians today frequently speak of the Cosmic Christ, and Professor Sallie McFague[5] has developed an ecological theology based on the belief that God’s incarnation (embodiment) is in the whole universe, the totality of physical nature.

 

I doubt if Nietzsche’s arguments carry as much weight today as they might have done in the late nineteenth century. Not that I think the public is any more religious than it was then, probably less so in the strict sense. But the intellectual environment has changed, most radically in science but to some extent in theology as well. Materialism is losing ground. There are signs that, in spite of their indifference to the Church, people are looking for a spiritual interpretation of life. A significant number are turning their attention to Eastern traditions, Hindu and Buddhist particularly.

 

There is no sign that ‘modern man’ is going to follow Nietzsche’s advice to abandon morality. The consequences of risky, selfish and unjust behaviour are being acutely felt in today’s global state of war and financial crisis. The immorality inherent in the individualism, espoused and politically promoted by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980’s and neo-conservatives since, has caused social disintegration and financial chaos. Barak Obama and Kevin Rudd both won their spectacular public support through proposing a more compassionate and just society. And, in a world at war, people are beginning to look for the justice without which peace is impossible.

 

Nietzsche and his social class lived in a time of complacent security and stability. His philosophy has a deliberately provocative, almost playful quality about it. Such thought-games are no longer popular. Today even the middle classes are feeling deeply insecure. People are searching for certainties. Spiritual interpretations of life and a longing for transcendent values and a sound ethical system are becoming increasingly evident.