In The Absence of God: Dwelling in the Presence of the Sacred
Sam Keen. Q and A.
Q. You strike out with a two edged sword against both neo-atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, all of whose books have been on the NY Times best seller list in the past months, and the defenders of religious orthodoxy. Why?
A. To begin with they are both dogmatic. “True Believers” threaten us with damnation if we don’t believe in their particular brand of “revealed Truth.” The neo-Atheists insist that all forms of monotheism, even the most liberal and progressive, are murderous, intolerant and irrational and they argue that we should all become rational atheists. Admittedly, a great deal of religion is unintelligent at best and violent at worst, but that doesn’t mean we should abandon the jewel in the lotus because it floats in polluted water..
Q. You argue that we need to return to the root meaning of religion which involves the experience of elemental emotions. What are these emotions?
A. We might begin with the experience of wonder which is the wellspring of both religion and philosophy. D.H. Lawrence got it exactly right—”There is a sixth sense, the religious sense, the sense of wonder.” Why should there be something rather than nothing? Where did I come from? What is the meaning of my life?
Q. What are the other elemental emotions?
A. To name only a few: gratitude, compassion, joy, humility, reverence, trust and open mindless.
Q. These emotions aren’t the ones we usually associate with the average CEO or NFL quarterback. They don’t mix well with a drive for success.
A. Exactly, that is why they have been repressed in modern societies and must be recovered. Secular culture teaches us to be self-assertive, hard driving, ambitious, aggressive, prideful and patriotic.
Q. Are you saying we must abandon these quintessential American virtues in order to be religious?
A. At the very least, we have to acknowledge that there is a radical difference between a secular and a sacred manner of being in the world. In the 21st century we will have to learn to cherish all creatures in the commonwealth of sentient beings if we are going to preserve our fragile environment,
Q. Among other things, you propose that we declare a moratorium on all religious word and undertake “a verbal fast.” What is the point of this?
A. To transform religion we need to recover its mystical element. Learn to be silent. Refrain from using the tired, old language and explore new metaphors, symbols and poetic ways of expressing what it means to dwell in the presence of the sacred. We need to take religion away from the clergy and the theologian and give it back to the singers and poets. End the pious arrogance of claiming to know the unknowable.
Q. Give me an example of some new metaphors.
A. Instead of God: The Ground of Being. The G-d Beyond God. (Tillich). The Self Surpassing Surpasser of All (Hartshorne) The Cosmic DNA. The Big Bang and Blossoming. The Particle Rancher and Wave Rider. The Lord of Fractals. The Universal Unknown Subject of our Insatiable Longing. Central Casting. Etc
Q. I am not sure I could pray to The Cosmic DNA.
A. Maybe not, but it will stretch our imagination to think about The Ever Evolving One and Many (formerly known as God) in new ways.
Q. You refer to yourself as a reverent agnostic. How does that differ from being an atheist?
A. I don’t know enough to be an atheist. I don’t believe in the kind of God I hear about on Sunday morning television, or the God of Jihad and Country, and I don’t know how to think about the unknowable intention, energy, mind, purpose that unites the myriads atoms and galaxies into a single timeless universe. So I remain, happily, ignorant of the totality. But I do have a sense of being at home in this strange world and dwelling in a sacred place.
Q. Rumor has it your wife is a minister in United Congregational Church. Does your agnostic version of faith bring you into conflict with her more traditional notion of religion?
A. Hers is a progressive type of Christianity that is more concerned with social justice and establishing a caring community than it is with orthodox belief. Neither one of us takes the creeds very seriously. We enjoy frequent disagreements. I am not a member of her church, but I attend from time to time and am warmly welcomed. And, after all is said and done, religion is more about loving dialogue than it is about right ideas.
Beautiful interchange above, Sam Keen, with Q.
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Dear Sam, I found you! It occurred to me, “Where’s Sam?” I decided to type in a probable web site and see if I found you. And here you are! This is after a workshop with you years ago at Creative Energy Options, in Springhouse, PA, a fondness for your mind and heart, The Passionate Life, Fire In The Belly, Sightings, and a therapy session where my profound guide said to me “There is a book, you don’t have to read it, or even get it but it holds a question that I think you’ve turned around” I immediately knew he was speaking of you, and the question: “Where are you going, and who’s going with you?” I had used your question in a small book I did on Designing and de-cluttering for I felt the question was perfect for any reader to use in deciding what was going with them in terms of possessions. (What Color Is Your Slipcover? Rodale) Can you imagine my shock that the question my counselor brought up was probably the only question I would have been capable of surfacing! It truly caused delight. But the question had been pinpointed because he felt I had turned it around. I was living from: Who’s going with me, and where am I going? It was stunning and right on and set me on a path of awareness that promises to heal a whole lot of my journey. I thought you’d enjoy the story. I thank you for the question, and laugh at my own innocence and using it in my book, and misusing it in my life.
It’s so good to find you, and to read you. It’s been like diving into a soft pool of bubbling truth. I hope you are well…and never stop. Denny Daikeler
While among new Metaphors might also be *Inexhaustible Energy*, or *Lord of the Anabolic Analeptic Analecta*, being Psycho-cosmically de-VINED [as in Ps 147-8 of *Fire in the Belly* ], I find that among the life-giving Elemental Emotions, both [cosmic] Trust and [cosmic ] Gratitude have now radically died for me – they now only operate at an immediate human level – I can no longer reconcile the Atrocity [ not mere Mystery ] which, beyond any human agency, is embedded in both what Teilhard termed the Lithosphere [with its Sunamis or Earthquakes or Meteoric Extinctions ] and also in the Biosphere [with Plague, AIDS, Cancer ] – apart from the Theo-Toxicity in the Noosphere [ be it Islamic Jihad or Christian Crusades, Inquisition, Conquistadores or obscurantist dogmas and rules ] where The Cosmos is so blatantly Indifferent that it is -in part – radically repulsive and everything of Value is of purely human creation. Eternal conflict and struggle – against Destiny, Fate – is the only way we create or defend Value in the Cosmos, as well as in society. Any religious activity, however *progressive*, which reduces the Agony of a *heartless world* to the socio-cultural level, and elides the Cosmic horror, is another Opium of the People. The *Sigh of the Oppressed* is at the Cruel, or more precisely Indifferent Cosmos itself, and offers no *salvation* to us in our Flawed, Fragile and Fragmentary human condition.
Hi Sam. you gave a list of “elemental emotions” that need to be recover. the last of which is listed as open mindless. i’m not trying to be smart or anything. I’m just wondering if you meant “open mindedness” (which would make sense) or you actually meant open mindless (which would be really cool albeit confusing and in need of explanation). thanks!
HELLO SAM..I first met you in 1970 in “to a dancing god” and since then through your other books. I taught for 40 years and passed on many of your words and thoughts to generations of my students. I am almost as old as you are now and was reflecting on some of my past lives with a friend and you appeared again. I have always thought of my books as friends. I happy you are one. I think it is always “good” to know you have touched someone.
Hello Sam,
I saw you at a workshop for the Iowa Psychological Association a few years ago. Delighted to know that your voice is still out there.
I just lost my father and of course this stirs up my still unanswered questions about things spiritual as I try to grieve my way along. I was deeply moved by your book “To Love and Be Loved.” Many thoughts from Part III come back to me these past days.
I have been listening to a few philosophy courses by Irving Singer at MIT. His “pluralistic” approach to philosophy reminds me of you. The world and the important basic issues we all struggle with, are too complex to be solved in any final way. The best we can do is to try to be clear about what we think and articulate it humbly, compassionately, and in ways that resonate with others if we are lucky. Religion, in the broadest sense of the word, or spirituality is an area where this attitude is most needed.
I look forward to reading your work again.
Best Wishes
Jim
I still remember being a philosophy graduate student in 1974 in Norman, Oklahoma and reading your interview with Earnest Becker. It was life-transforming for me at 28 years old when I was so hungering for existential conversations and hating to have to read anything other than the existentialists. It led me to read “The Denial of Death” and to realize that I was not insane since someone thought like me. I am a Black Baptist preacher and pastor who has been an adjunct in religion and African American Studies for years at three different universities. I have lectured in different places in the world and inevitably, Becker comes out of me and I have you to thank.
Thankfully, Jeff Greenberg, one of the psychologists who does Terror Management Theory is here at the University of Arizona and I had a great conversation with him about Becker. You mentioned about not knowing God and I am with you at least in part. I feel that Judaism’s penchant for not pronouncing God’s name gets at God’s innefable sovereignty and I do feel that Western theology particularly has missed the Zen quality of Hebrew scripture and over-rationalized God. I thank God that I come from a culture of suffering people who at least sometimes still see the world in less than literal terms and experience directly the bluesy bittersweet quality of death/life. You are a breath of fresh air.
Read your forward to “Denial of Death” and haven’t been so impressed and touched by an essay in a very long time. So clear eyed, brave and articulate. It led me to your site and after Becker, to YOUR oeuvres. At 63, it is time to rethink my drink. Thanks for the epiphany.