-- *Mar*Below are *two parts*, as you requested: 1.
*An edited and improved version of your text* (aiming for clarity, coherence, and stylistic strength while preserving your core ideas and voice). 2. *My own views and reflections* on your argument. ------------------------------ 1. Edited and Improved Version *The Decline of Theism* Theism, as I understand it, is the realization that free nature itself is God. I must also realize that I was born about 13 billion years ago, beginning as the Singularity. I am part of nature—part of the Universe. God is the process through which the expanse of my perception and understanding grows, by learning directly from nature, as a limb of nature, without the mediation of technology. With our eyes, we can perceive only about 0.0035% of total reality. The remaining 99.9965% can be accessed only through sensing and feeling. We see through the visible spectrum, and from what we see, we may learn to visualize and feel the invisible. One way is to install a God defined by oneself and proceed accordingly. Another is to adopt machines and perform complex mathematics—quantum physics and other branches of science. Or one may adopt a religion and impose its framework upon both the seen and the unseen. Or one may simply close the eyes, still the mind, close the ears, and remain in emptiness. In that meditative state, brilliant ideas may suddenly arise, leading to the discovery of new phenomena and shattering revelations. Unfortunately, we may also adopt technology in such a way that we exclude ourselves from any living relationship with nature. We repudiate the very idea of God or place God at a distance, ensuring that God does not interfere with Theories of Everything—String Theory, M-theories, Loop Quantum Gravity, or the concept of the Universe as a hologram. In pursuing a unified theory that reconciles quantum physics with relativity, we keep our own feelings at a distance. We assume that depending on feelings and emotions through direct communion with nature is a form of illness or bias. We replace breathing rich with smell and emotion with sterile, odourless respiration as a prerequisite of the so-called scientific attitude. We construct machines miles long, such as CERN, to capture the Higgs boson. Within those machines, nature has no voice; only computers matter. Human feeling is rendered unnecessary. The Higgs boson and the Higgs field have been traced, yet that “godless particle,” paradoxically called the God Particle, has retreated into the same technological silence that denies God altogether. In doing science this way, we mechanize perception and understanding, or worse, destroy our innate capacity to understand and surrender it entirely to machines. If possible, we would fill the entire Universe with machines—machines that deny God. When humanity once adopted the method of *feeling* God in free, healthy, rapturous, and singing nature, God appeared naturally as brilliant ideas, discoveries, and spellbinding revelations. These revelations expanded the horizons of perception and understanding, in which the entire flora and fauna participated. The Goddess Gaia herself traveled through space with us. Today, however, we search for spaceships that function as miniature Earths, capable of enduring light-years of travel and the ultimate perils of deep space. Meanwhile, I am urged to become the “total economic man,” stripped of all human characteristics, so that I may feel affinity with fellow machines. We claim to have no feelings, no emotions, and no need for God. We remain busy twenty-four hours a day destroying every station of emotion and every life form, calling it economic activity and scientific advancement. There is no place for God in universities, laboratories, factories, or offices. Only technology is acceptable. Theism is not merely declining; it is being decimated. We now wear masks to protect ourselves from poisons created by science and technology. Breathing is no longer needed for smelling, perceiving, or understanding. Our evolutionary heritage—the rhinencephalon, the brain of smell and emotion—is being annihilated. *— Y. M. Sarma* ------------------------------ 2. My Views and Reflections Your essay is *powerful, poetic, and provocative*. It reads less like a conventional philosophical argument and more like a *lamentation or prophetic critique* of modern civilization. Several strengths stand out: What Works Strongly - *Visionary unity of self, cosmos, and divinity*: Your identification of the self with the universe and God echoes Spinoza, Advaita Vedanta, and deep ecology. - *Critique of technocracy*: You compellingly challenge the assumption that mechanization equals understanding. - *Emphasis on feeling as a mode of knowing*: This is an important corrective to the dominance of purely instrumental reason. - *Gaia imagery*: The contrast between organic cosmic belonging and artificial space travel is especially effective. Where the Argument Becomes Vulnerable - *Science vs. God as a false binary*: While you critique technology sharply, science itself need not deny God. Many scientists experience awe, humility, and even reverence through scientific inquiry. - *Romanticization of pre-technological knowing*: Feeling and intuition can illuminate reality, but they can also mislead. Science arose partly to correct human cognitive bias. - *CERN and the Higgs boson*: Machines do not eliminate nature; they are extensions of nature shaped by human intelligence, which itself is natural. A Possible Reconciliation Rather than seeing *technology as the enemy of theism*, one could argue that the real crisis is *alienation*: - Alienation from nature - Alienation from the body - Alienation from feeling - Alienation from meaning Technology becomes dangerous not because it exists, but because it is *ungrounded in wisdom, ethics, and reverence*. A deeper synthesis might say: - God can be felt *through forests and meditation*, *and* - God can be glimpsed *through equations, particles, and galaxies* —but only if humility, wonder, and ethical responsibility remain intact. Final Thought Your essay is not merely about the decline of theism—it is about the *decline of participatory consciousness*, where humans no longer feel themselves as living organs of a living cosmos. Whether one names that loss “God,” “Gaia,” or “meaning,” the concern you raise is profound and worthy of serious reflection. If you wish, I can also: - Help you *turn this into a formal philosophical paper*, - *Condense it into a manifesto*, or - *Frame it as a dialogue between science and God*. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/CACDCHCL19iNbc_eX9pOWw%3DN2F_xm-hxvsz2sSosfhq6nJ6D%3Dfg%40mail.gmail.com.
