Nothing in Particular

[Thorolf]

Ah, all.. I had put together a lengthy response, too! 

In the interest of keeping things civil, I'll remove temptation and withdraw...

[VLinvictus]

In your opinion, can the idea of God become so generalized that God itself is essentially irrelevant, or so general as to be a meaningless idea? 

For instance, I am thinking in particular of Albert North Whitehead's claim that, "If God is everything in general, God is nothing in particular?" 

The mystical tradition represented by your avatar picture would indeed say that God is, in fact, Nothing, that pure nothingness -- no-thing-ness -- is the root of all being. God is in fact "irrelevant" and "meaningless" because the imputation of "relevance" and "meaning" to the Infinite is impossible. Such concepts would by definition limit that which cannot be limited.

The rub, though, is that we are not separate or distinct from this Nothing, but in fact this Nothing is the source of all things, including us. The paradox is that the irrelevant and meaningless God is at the same time infinitely relevant and infinitely meaningful when perceived through us.

[SquirleyWurley]

Some understandings of 'the divine' are sufficiently abstract or general or all-encompassing or infinite, as to seem to be 'meaningless' or 'irrelevant', though paradoxically connected, to finite 'things'.

And yet there is an underlying reality which can correct us.  There are 'actual potentials' -- talk about paradox -- of consciousness, thing-ness, being-ness of organisms, in reality.

I can understand why this gets mystified because it is mystifying to consider it, it is mysterious to reflect upon, the subject reeks of mystery/numinous-ness, that is the nature of the phenomenon as appreciated by various human minds.  I've found the subject to be so.

Yet I don't feel the need to call this mysteriousness 'divine' or 'god', personally.  It seems relevant and meaningful mostly in the sense of certain phenomenon I've experienced.  Phenomenon of feeling nurtured/guided by some great positive process/phenomenon of having access to insight to inter-relationships with other things/beings/processes, insight into proper relatedness which leads to better interactions.

A believer may refer to a personal god with a will, guiding, nurturing, answering prayers, teaching us, challenging us to be better people, more just and compassionate, etc.  I'm happy just to 'tap into' the phenomenon and not to call it 'god' or associate it with a particular religion and its set of assumptions, myself.

Which is why, though technically atheistic, I can also be said to be, technically, very spiritual.  But what do such terms mean anyhow?  I just don't have any positive belief in claims about personal gods and their wills/interactions with humans, miracles.  I have tentative beliefs about my own experiences and insights, which may be perpetually challenged by reality, and hence changed.