Harold Morowitz, in his book, The Emergence of Everything: How the World Became Complex, points out that nature is governed by certain laws that revolve around physics, chemistry, etc. He then says, "If God operated through a set of inviolate and deterministic laws [of his/her own making-my words] then God was removed from the world of mankind," because in order to be a hands on God he/she would have to, of course, act through miracles, which would violate his/her own laws. BTW, a God who violates natural law through miracles is referred to as a "transcendent God," the God of Christians. Morowitz goes on to point out, "As the universe got larger and older [through discovery-my words] the immanent God became more and more distant." All of this, has solidified my (and other's) belief in Deism. But, a belief in a distant God is not very consoling, to say the least, particularly when you, essentially, have no family, like me. So, I have wished, over the years, that I could discover some way to explain this absence of God in away that would be acceptable to me.
The problem, then, (for me) has been in how to reconcile the differences between an immanent God of Nature with a transcendent God who is responsive to the needs of humanity. Morowitz presents an idea that reduces this distance, and offers me (and perhaps others) a little hope. I'll try to explain it as best I can.
Morowitz also points out that the evolution that lead to Homo sapiens involved the continuous development of brain size, as well as, manual dexterity and social organization; in other words, the laws of nature (the immanent God) operating under the rules of selection gave rise to Homosapiens and human society. Morowitz writes, "Sometime over the last 5 million years, something radically different occurred: the emergence of a species capable of altering some small portion of the universe in ways far more radical than anything in the past." So, according to Morowitz there appears to be something special, not only about earth, but, about humans as well; therefore, one could argue, as Morowitz does, that the transcendent God is present in humans, and acts through them, because, after all, humans are a direct result of the immanent God's laws of nature. The loci of this transcendence is, of course, human consciousness-the mind. Our level of intelligence is, after all, what sets us apart from the rest of the animals. The problem, of course, is that while humans are capable of, and have done, great good, they are also very capable of accomplishing incredibly heinous acts against humankind, as well as the rest of nature.
This reality was a bit of a stumbling block for me, until I realized that without opposites we cannot appreciate either; in other words, if humans always acted in a noble and righteous, fashion, we would never be able to appreciate (or understand) what being a "decent" human being was all about. So, there is a necessity for both good and evil, and along with this comes, of course, free choice,or free will . . . . whatever you want to call it, which, again, makes our consciousness central to our existence in the form of decisions we make along the way.
This idea of God existing in us is, of course, not novel, but, I think some of the early Christian theologians were probably thinking along this line.. They didn’t know about evolution, but, it appears (to me) that they too saw great potential “in humans” as expressed through the conscious and deliberate decisions humans made that set them apart from other animals, and prompted these early Christian thinkers to profess that we are “temples of the Holy Spirit,” and “made in the image and likeness of God.” This may not be acceptable to some folks, because it puts humans on a pedestal in terms of the rest of nature, but, that may very well be the case.
Before, while I recognized that humans were part of nature, I didn’t think very highly of them (me) as a species; however, despite our failings, there seems to be something inherently good about humans, which is our "saving grace." This idea of an “inherent good” is an interesting topic as well. But, enough for now.
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