Mysterian

January 7, 1998

Don’t bother to look up that title in the dictionary – it’s not there. I believe I have coined a word to describe my cosmic theology. In a prior Musing several years ago, I quoted J.B.S. Haldane: “Now my suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we CAN suppose.”

This venture into that line of thought was sparked by Annie Dillard, writing in the January 1998 “Harper’s”. I tip my hat to Annie Dillard, because she composed an essay based on statistics which is both fascinating and a trigger for one’s speculations.

Consider this paragraph in her essay:

“Ten years ago we thought there were two galaxies for each of us alive. Lately, since we loosed the Hubble Space Telescope, we have revised our figures. There are nine galaxies for each of us. Each galaxy harbors an average of 100 billion suns. In our galaxy, the Milky Way, there are sixty-nine suns for each person alive. The Hubble shows, says a report, that the Universe ‘is at least 15 billion years old.’ Two galaxies, nine galaxies, sixty-nine suns, 100 billion suns ....”

Read that again being aware that there are nearly 5 billion persons on this planet. 9 galaxies for every one of us, each galaxy with 100 BILLION SUNS. In our galaxy, the Milky Way, sixty-nine suns for each person alive!! These stellar findings stun my ability to comprehend.

Or, to quote physicists Kasner and Newman about a near-at-hand object: “Our efforts to grasp the number of electrons that pass through the filament of an ordinary fifty-watt light bulb in one minute equals the number of drops of water that flow over Niagara Falls in a century.” (CLEOPATRA’S NOSE, Daniel Boorstin).

Can you grasp THAT?

In the face of such overwhelming Numbers, Forces, Distances, where is there a slot for a Zeus? An Allah? A Yahveh? A Christian Trinity? I know that believers will testify that God exists and we are his children. For them it is a leap of faith and a comforting belief. I have no quarrel with them except that I cannot say “Yes” when my mind says “No.”

But the events in the Universe seem to refute any idea of a God “who holds moral relations with man,” to use the old phrase. Annie Dillard calls attention to April 30, 1991, when a series of waves drowned 138,000 people. Quoting her again:

“Two million children die a year from diarrhea, and 800,000 from measles. Do we blink? ... The flu epidemic of 1918 killed 21 or 22 million people.”

Every year, sometimes every month, there is a “natural disaster” that kills multitudes of persons.

For years I have been a Humanist Unitarian Universalist. I hold that all philosophies, theologies, credos, catechisms are human interpretations of human experience. I believe that reason can prevail over revelation, although it does not seem to most of the time. I believe that the problems of humankind will be solved by human persons or they won’t be solved at all; that we need to recognize that all humans deserve respect and dignity; and that our never-ending task is to reach for universal brotherhood/sisterhood and all that is implied in that goal.

But I cannot fit a cosmic theology into the human scheme. The Universe is too astounding, awesome, for any rational speculation or logical conclusions. Therefore I am a Mysterian.

Whatever this Universe is and the causes of its Dynamisms, Force, Time/Space enigmas are a deepening mystery. As Annie Dillard’s article brings home, the more we discover, the greater the mystery. Nothing convinces me that there can be a final or even tentative answer to “why?” Why is there such an amazing Universe? What is it we are trying to comprehend? Why is there anything at all? Thus, I think of myself as a Mysterian. As Ray Bradbury wrote, “We are an impossibility in an impossible Universe.” In a lighter vein, Woody Allen observed, “I’m astounded by people who want to ‘know’ the Universe when it’s hard enough to find your way around Chinatown.”

So as a Mysterian I will never know what the Universe is or why, but I’m here on a planet where there is truth, beauty and goodness as well as the contradictions and prostitutions of those values. While standing in awe of the cosmic mystery, this planet is our world, our home. Embrace it, value it, improve it, and share.