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Unscrewed(01-02): The Power of the Spiritual World

Submitted by Gadfly on July 22, 2005 - 6:52am.

Apologetics

The previous two postings laid out the elementary principles on which I think any coherent (if that matters to a person) world view is built. Most of us don't ever really examine what we believe or how it all fits together, but good old Socrates once stated that "an unexamined life is not worth living" (Plato: The Apology of Socrates, Other quotes if you want 'em ) and I suppose I subscribe to that idea pretty closely.

So, building on the previous two postings, I hold that a logically coherent world view will have to take into account the possiblity of a world beyond the senses - a world which I will tentatively call "the spiritual world" although as I have already pointed out - it is not a different world than the world of the senses but rather this same world we know through our senses extended beyond those senses. The terminology gets fuzzy because all the movies and stuff always make these "other dimension" ideas into some ethereal, other-worldly stuff that is separate from ours and to which we have to "travel." My point is that it is part of all there is, it is just a part we cannot sense.

OK - given that basis - the questions today are: Are there inhabitants of this "spiritual world" or is it uninhabited? and What is the relative power residing in this world with regard to the world of the senses?

First: Are there inhabitants of this spiritual world (other than us)? This is a yes or no question, there is no middle ground.

If we consider the implications of "no" we would conclude that there is no one else but us and therefore our world view collapses back down to the other basic presupposition: there is no world beyond our senses. Here is the logic. If there is no one in this spiritual dimension then there is not even the souls of those who have already died. That means that it makes no difference (as far as the world of "being" is concerned) whether there is a world beyond our senses or not. Therefore we might as well just live as if there isn't. Hence, we adopt the other side of the first set of presuppositions.

If there are inhabitants of this sphere then it may make a difference to us that there are. Whether or not it makes a difference to us depends on whether or not there is any "power" residing within this spiritual world and if so, what is the relative nature of this "power" to the power(s) that we possess within the material, sensible realm.

The question reduces to this: granted that there might be an inhabited "spiritual" world, is their relative power less than, equal to, or greater than ours.

Again, if we examine the "less than" or "equal to" options, we pretty much come right back down to the situation with assuming that the world only consists of that which we can sense. If beings in this world are less powerful or equally powerful than (as) us, then we have everything at our disposal that we need. We can cheerfully live our lives, doing the best we can with what we have, knowing that there is nothing more that can be done. We simply accept the world as it presents itself to our senses and deal with it as it comes. Again, the relative impact of that statement is exactly the same as if we chose the alternative to the first presupposition. We pretty much live as if the spiritual world does not exist.

However, if the "powers" of the spiritual world are greater than that available to us, then it would pay us to be aware of that and to realize that the nature of this power, how it is used and to what ends, if any, it is used may very well make a huge difference in how we go about dealing with the world as it presents itself to our senses. In other words, it may make a difference how we live.

So, the only way the spiritual world may make a difference to our lives is if that world is inhabited and if the power that resides in that world is greater than ours. If that is the case then it would be important to us to know as much as we can about it. Christians of course do believe that this spiritual world is inhabited, that it is not somewhere "out there" but is all around us, that it does possess a power substantially greater than that restricted to the world of the senses (Matt. 10:28) and that substantial knowledge about the nature, ends and focus of this power has been revealed to us. But there are still further logical steps to be taken before we actually lay those out.

More to come.

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