Religion rationalized, intended as an introduction to the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

Chapter I WHAT IS TRUTH?

And observations on the following related subjects: "The Realm of Truth Located and De fined" "Quality," Method in Thinking" "A Bit of Preliminary Philosophy" "Relationship" "Immortality" "Divine Revelation" "The Lord Jesus Christ" "Mans Chief Interest" "The Fact of Reality" "Optimism" "Provision" "Spirit is Substance" "Psychology is Not Spiritual Truth"

Chapter I. WHAT IS TRUTH?

And observations on the following related subjects'. "The Realm of Truth Located and Defined/' "Quality" "Method in Thinking!' "A Bit of Preliminary Philosophy/' "Relationship/' "Immortality/' "Divine Revelation/' "The Lord Jesus Christ/' "Man's Chief Interest/' "The Fact of Reality/' "Optimism/' "Provision/' "Spirit is Substance/' "Psychology is not Spiritual Truth/'

ON the morning of the day of the crucifixion, Pilate said to Jesus, "What is truth ?"

Immediately preceding the historic question, Jesus had declared to Pilate: "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." — John 18:37.

"The Truth"

TRUTH ! Note well this word "truth" as PECULIARLY employed by Jesus, and note

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the extraordinary tribute which He paid to that, WHATEVER IT IS, which the word stands for.

Was Jesus acquainted with some REAL- ITY which He designated "the truth," or was He paying superlative tribute to some vague and indefinite generality?

Unless we can acquire some definite and concrete knowledge concerning the reality represented by the word "truth" as Christ employed it the purpose intended to be served by this book will have failed.

Did Christ come into the world to bear witness to the truth of the natural sciences? Evidently not.

Did Jesus claim to be the original chemist, astronomer, geologist, economist? No.

Was Jesus referring primarily to that truth which we call veracity, as distinguished from deceit and falsehood? No.

What then was the reality, with which He was acquainted and to which His whole life had born witness which He called "the truth"?

Can it be that there exists a distinctive realm of reality, a realm of phenomenal reality, the facts of which are distinctively and

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exclusively those of "the truth"— -of spiritual truth? Yes.— Yes!

The first step which we will now take, in whatever contribution this book may make in rationalizing religion, will be to locate and define that particular realm of reality in which all facts ,are distinctively spiritual, and the knowledge of which facts is distinctively the understanding of TRUTH. Pilate's question, after centuries of baffled study, is answered in our time!

The distinctive realm of reality of which truth is predicated will presently be defined and located. Some preliminary observations, however, will be helpful.

Every scientist and intelligent man acknowledges that all human knowledge is capable of classification. Certain kinds of knowledge, for instance, are classified under the terms mathematics, botany, statesmanship, medical science, and the like. There is no fact but what has its pigeon hole. Boundaries, as definite as the geographical ones which distinguish continents, nations, states and the like, also distinguish the areas of knowledge which go by the names of the various sciences, such as geology, astronomy, physics and the like. The knowledge of spiritual truth is likewise to be distinguished from all other knowledges.

The Realm of Truth Located and Defined

That particular realm of reality, of phenomenal fact, which Christ referred to on the day of His crucifixion as that to which His whole life had borne witness, can be defined so simply and with so few words, that the reader is now cautioned — cautioned! . . . against passing this part hurriedly.

Here it is.

The realm of truth may be defined as qualities in the emotional states and thoughts of human beings— QUALITIES IN ' THE EMOTIONAL STATES AND THOUGHTS OF HUMAN BEINGS!!

This is it.

Here is the location.

Here are the boundaries.

Although limited by the boundaries established by these few and simple words: "QUALITIES in the emotional states and thoughts of human beings," the areas of reality within these boundaries will be found to contain unlimited fields for exploration, investigation and study.

The knowledge of truth is the knowledge of these human qualities, including, of course, their relationships to other things. It is nothing more and nothing less and nothing else.

Quality

The word "QUALITY" represents a certain reality, even as it applies to material things, so important and estimable, as to deserve rank in the highest aristocracy of words. As it applies to human character its position it yet more exalted, for the reason that if we could but distinguish the possible differences of quality in the emotional states and thoughts of men, we would see all of the differences between any conceivable heaven on the one hand, and hell on the other.

The difficulty in seeing and studying the different qualities, the good and evil qualities, the harmonious and antagonistic qualities, the constantly changing qualities for weal or woe, in human emotions and thoughts, is in finding the STANDARD OF VALUES in relation to which all values of a human life are to be measured. Suffice it to say, at this point: all definite and concrete knowledge of spiritual truth is nothing other than the knowledge of the different qualities in the emotional states and thoughts of human beings and in comparison with a perfect quality or standard which will later be brought to light.

Method of Thinking

When Columbus discovered America he found a new region for exploration. When Marconi invented a mechanism which gave wireless telegraphy to the world, he demonstrated that he had correctly surmised the existence of a new, or theretofore undiscovered, realm of reality which had invited him to the pursuit of his investigation and invention. Every known realm of reality, or any that is surmised to exist, is at once a challenge to intellectual initiative. Qualities in the emotional states and thoughts of men is a known realm of reality — they are a realm not simply surmised as existing, but one that is known to be. Scarcely more is known by the world at large about the particulars of it, however, than was known by Columbus about the particulars of the great continent which lay beyond the circumscribed landscape which he viewed

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from his vessel. This new realm of reality, the realm of human qualities, is challenging, beckoning to, inviting human intelligence to come to it for investigation and exploration to acquire such riches or values as such added knowledge may prove to be worth.

Preparedness is as much a requisite in scientific discovery, geographical exploration, or spiritual study and investigation, as in war. METHOD, therefore, is as indispensable in penetrating the realm of spiritual truth as it was for Marconi to penetrate the electrical status of the spaces surrounding the earth in demonstrating the miracle of wireless telegraphy; or as it is for an astronomer to make an intellectual round trip of a thousand million miles in safety; or for a geologist to go back a million years before his birth; or for a chemist to organize an army of inanimate soldiers for scientific conquests. Heretofore, method in spiritual investigation and thinking has been lamentably lacking in theology, and among the representatives of the different religions and sects and denominations. This book is an attempt at pioneer work in the creation of METHOD for acquiring distinctively spiritual knowledge — for ascertaining the facts of spirit, AS THESE EXIST IN THE NATURE OF THINGS.

The stars existed in the nature of things before the telescope was discovered, and the phenomena of earth crust formations were here before the science of geology appeared, and chemical relations between substances existed before any chemist made any practical use of any of them. And all these things existed in the nature of things. And, likewise, spirit exists in the nature of things. Qualities in the emotional states and thoughts of human beings exist in the nature of things. Who dare say, in these times of startling discovery, that man is permanently barred from finding the method for discovering the facts of the spirit, facts concerning the destiny of man, concerning God, immortality, divine revelation, and other fundamental facts which are to be classified as religious or spiritual? Who dare say then that the most fundamental of those things which now are, and have been, matters of religious conviction, faith, hope, aspiration, may not become matters of definite and concrete knowledge?

A Bit of Preliminary Philosophy

Did you ever stop to think that in learning even the simplest things of ordinary knowledge, the general and universal method is to learn by first experiencing the effects of things in or upon oneself? Through the five doors of the natural senses the objects of the world enter the corridor of ones thoughts, and they there introduce themselves, they force an introduction, by means of inflicting one with experiences respectively distinctive, and thereby the person distinguishes them relatively. He extends to them such courtesies or consideration as he chooses according to his judgment or desire or necessity; but thus it is that knowledge of natural things comes into one's possession. And, likewise, as will be shown in the following chapters, the method by which one learns of God is by first experiencing the effects of Him in or upon himself, and then by perceiving that these effects are distinctively those from God.

It ought to be remarked here that only a portion of a man's experiences are caused from without by worldly objects entering by the five ways of the senses. Some experiences l8 RELIGION RATIONALIZED

are caused from within by spiritual objects which impose thoughts and emotions by interior "influx." How otherwise account for the persistency of objectionable thoughts and feelings? A large portion of our emotions and thoughts are produced by an interior spiritual environment by the method or by means of "spiritual influx."

Relationship

We will delve a little deeper in this bit of preliminary philosophy. RELATION- SHI P, as all know, means nothing less than that everything is affected by everything else. For instance, if any speck of dust should suddenly become annihilated, the status of everything else in the universe would become somewhat changed on that account. Any effect that is produced by one thing upon another, which one can detect, enables him to know something about one or both of the two objects. But a person can never detect any effect of one thing on another, except by his first becoming noticeably affected by one or both of them.

It is true, of course, that we do not detect, that is, take notice of the majority of the innumerable effects produced in or upon us by outside agencies, such, for example, as by the atmospherical pressures upon our body or by every one of the hundreds of millions of other people in the world. They are too numerous. We would not have time, for one reason, to give even passing thought to every one of them. But, philosophically speaking, we know that it is conceptually possible to learn of anything that is related to us or that affects us, and to learn of it by the method of first noticing the effects which are the ultimation of its relationship. Therefore, if, in the nature of things, there is a God, we are forced to acknowledge that relationship exists between Him and man. If, in the realm of reality, God is ; if God and man are two realities, the relationship between them means that they affect one another. Therefore, the method by which we should endeavor to acquire a knowledge of God is by detecting and noting and interpreting those distinctive experiences in our own lives, which can be established as effects of His relations to us. This method will be in keeping with the manner of learning whatsoever we know about anything. We will show later that the effects produced by God in or upon us, those which can be detected and distinguished as such, and afterwards studied and interpreted, are those which bring to light contrasts and distinctions in the qualities of our emotional experiences and thinking.

There has always been a class of agnostics who have affirmed that even if an infinite God exists we can not know it, for the "self evident" and "sufficient" reason, as they say, that the finite mind can not comprehend the infinite. The observation in the preceding paragraphs is a complete refutation of this presumptuous assertion of agnostics. The finite mind can detect the effects in or upon itself of outside realities, even though they be the effects from the infinite. To be sure the finite mind can not comprehend the infinite, but it can comprehend how it is being affected in some particulars by the infinite. The finite mind can not comprehend so much as a grain of sand, because infinitessimal things reside within even so small an object as a grain of sand. But when the grain of sand is blown into one's eye and he feels that particular effect; or when it is utilized in the manufacture of glass which prevents the sand from being blown into one's eye, he learns a few things

about the grain of sand which are true so far as they go.

There must be a point of beginning in our learning about anything, and it is likewise so in our learning about God. We first learn a few things about God from effects which we first discover as being from Him in our experiences; and, thereafter, we find that the effects produced by Him in our lives or experiences are so numerous that we may continue to grow in the knowledge of God throughout this life and then on forever. It will be shown further on that the particular effects of God in us, which can be distinguished, are those by which the qualities of our emotional states and thoughts are changed and improved. Our emotional states are as real as sense impressions. They are matters of experience, and hence matters of definite knowledge to reside in the memory and to be used as materials for constructive thinking and reasoning. Enough for this bit of philosophy at this time.

Immortality

Before this great word IMMORTALITY all of us stand, at secret intervals, with fear and trembling. "If a man die shall he live again?" God and immortality are two of the several biggest words in the religious or theological vocabulary. Where can any intrinsic value be conceived of as existing in the literature of any religion, or in the ecclesiasticism of any church, without its identity with the thought and hope of immortality? Therefore, is there a method for investigating the question of immortality? The pages which follow will present this method. For the preliminary purposes of this first chapter, however, a few simple observations upon the general subject will be sufficient.

The question of immortality is primarily the question of what a man is potentially.

The acorn is potentially an oak tree. The tadpole is potentially a frog. The caterpillar is potentially a butterfly. The babe is potentially a man. Do there exist within the man those potential emotions and thoughts which are to be the fruitage of a thousand years experience, or of a million years?

What is the nature, or what is the mechanism or composition, so to speak, of that subconscious region of a human being, which either does or does not qualify him for the continuation of life after the death of the body? If it should be in the nature of things that the composition and mechanism of a human being are such that he can not be annihilated, and that he must necessarily continue to live and to grow throughout eternity, then we might know that a thousand years from now, ten thousand years from now, every man will be experiencing thoughts and emotions different from any that are experienced now, and representing the ripe fruitage of all preceding growth and experience. Would it not seem as possible to find the trail of such discovery as it has been for the geologist to ferret out fairly accurately some of the earth's conditions of a general nature of a million years ago; or for the astronomer to tell of some of the general characteristics of the phenomenal facts on planets and stars thousands and millions and hundreds of millions of miles away? To what extent then is it possible to acquire a knowledge of those deep things which are at present only potential in man, but which, in hundreds or thousands of years, will be among his then conscious experiences? This would be, so far as it should go, knowledge of immortality .

There is needed only the right method for penetrating and investigating, or studying the realm of human potentiality, to learn of concrete facts concerning immortality, because human potentiality and immortality are the same thing. When we know that qualities in the emotional states and thoughts of men are the realm of truth, we have taken the first step in discovering the method for studying human potentialities.

Divine Revelation

The question of the existence of a DIVINE REVELATION is primarily the question of the existence of a spiritual light by which a man is enabled to see spiritual objects and realities — to recognize and distinguish the differences and the contrasts in the qualities of the emotional experiences and thoughts of human beings.

If spiritual realities exist — if qualities in the emotional states and thoughts of men are many, are even opposites and antagonists, are of varying degrees, composing a vast and wonderful realm of phenomenal fact — then the probability is that PROVISION has been made to enable men to see them. This provision would be a light as distinctive as the light of the solar sun. (The potentialities of a man are as great and wonderful as a planet.) Men see the natural objects of the world by means of the light of the sun. When the sun goes down at night and is absent, then light disappears and the prevailing darkness creates a condition which prevents men from seeing material objects. The visible objects of the world at dawn declare the presence of light, and the light itself proclaims the sun to be its source. No worthy purpose can be served by my simply asserting that there is a divine revelation, and that it is to be found in the Bible. But if the contents of this book should awaken any of its readers at their spiritual dawn, and they should see for the first time a realm of spiritual objects by a light that most manifestly emanates from the Bible as its source, its purpose in respect to the question of a divine revelation will have been accomplished.

The Lord Jesus Christ

THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. To say that Christ was divine; that he was the son of God; is scarcely more rational than the speech of a parrot unless behind these words there is understanding of some of the general distinctions between the Divine and the finitely human. Without some essentially true conceptions of Divinity all affirmations of belief in Divinity are of questionable value. Affirmations of this kind, without a foundation of spiritual knowledge, have lead to most fantastic speculations and irrational assertions and guesses. For instance, they have led to the belief in the absurdity that God and Jesus Christ are two infinite beings — as if it were possible in the nature of things for two Infinities to exist at the same time! And, again, by affirming that Christ is God, while thinking of Him and describing Him as to his finite aspect, solely, they reduce the Infinite to the finite and thereby destroy all idea of infinity and remain in ignorance of the infinite and divine Being. That there is only one God, one infinite and divine Being and that He became incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ can be seen to be true only by the aid of that spiritual light from Divine Revelation which, in revealing qualities in the emotional states and thoughts of men, shows that the Quality of the emotional states and thoughts of Christ was absolutely unique, perfect and Divine — was the Quality of God Himself — the very quality to be recognized as the STANDARD with which all other qualities in the realm of human emotions and thoughts are to be compared and judged. This subject will be pursued at length in succeeding chapters.

Man's Chief Interest

WHAT IS MAN'S CHIEF INTER- EST? Is there any special or particular interest which, in the nature of things, and on account of what is potential in man, could be truly said to be man's chief interest, in relation to which the values of all other interests are to be estimated?

If man is immortal his chief interest is something entirely different from what it is if he is only mortal.

Immortality and mortality are TWO POINTS OF VIEW, as different as any two locations in the world that might be selected.

These two points of view are those of religion and science, respectively.

Science defines man's chief interest from the point of view of mortality. The radius of its vision, from its point of view, circumscribes the following chief interest: Man's physical and mental well being during his temporal (and ephemeral) stay in this world.

From the point of view of immortality, man's chief interest is this : Man's eternal well being and prosperity.

A man's motives, intentions and conduct throughout life are manifestly vitally and organically related to whichever of those two points of view he adopts as his own. And motive, intention and conduct determine the desirable or undesirable destiny of every man.

From the strictly scientific point of view, or that of mortality, the value of every scientific fact is estimated by what it contributes to man's physical and mental well being here and now. The use or abuse of things, according to the scientific estimate of values, is determined by the effects of them upon his temporal interests. Even the pragmatic philosophy, which declares everything to be true just to the degree of its practical working or use, recognizes no higher standard of values than man's earthly welfare; and the practical working or use of a thing is, hence, determined by the effect of that thing upon man's worldly prosperity.

The most successful men in this world in just temporal ways are those who have been wise enough and sufficiently self controlled to make temporal sacrifices for the sake of future gains. If man is immortal, may it not be that there are some forms of sacrifice which continue throughout the length of this life which contribute to the gains and success to be enjoyed in the life which follows this one? The same degree of wisdom and self control as that displayed by the worldly wise man just alluded to, when employed by one whose point of view is immortality instead of mortality, will revolutionize the motives, intentions and conduct and lead to a fruition of personal character and power and capacity altogether different from those to be enjoyed by others.

What is meant by regeneration and degeneration in a human life? What is meant b^ character and the lack of character? What is meant by growing into the very best of what it is possible for one to become and by turning out to be the very worst of what it may be possible to become? Here man's chief interest stands out clearly by contrast. And his chief interest is seen to be closely identified with the standard of all values. Evidently the standard of all values is to be determined by that which is discovered to contribute most effectively to the very best outcome to life that is potentially possible. Therefore, those conceptions of honesty, justice, morality, virtue, purity and righteousness, which, in the nature of things, contribute most effectively to a man's best possible fruition, would be, according to the standard of all values, right and good. The same standard would declare that those other conceptions of these things, which divert the direction of a man's development away from his highest possible attainments or to the extent of their diverting influence, are bad, evil and wicked. Hence, in determining what is best for ourselves as to any religious attitude we may assume, the question is not one of any theory or church dogma, but it is a question of WHAT IS — and of finding it out.

If the standard of all values comes to light in wonderful detail for practical application and direction in the Qualities of Christ's innumerable experiences then something of Christ's own nature will be brought to light by the same light.

The Fact of Reality

Reality is.

Think of it!

Reality is.

Again, think of it!!

Reality is.

Again and again and again, think of it!!!

When I first thought of it I was surprised.

When I began to think of its significance I experienced disturbed astonishment.

Continued meditation upon the simple fact of reality has at times awakened impulses and emotions of indescribable amazement.

I was surprised at first because absolute nothing is the antithesis of reality; and, naturally, nothing seems far more probable than something.

The fact that reality is, is absolute proof that reality has always existed because something can not come from nothing.

The detection of my own personal consciousness is my first detection of the existence of reality.

This is at a point on the outermost rim, as it were, of reality. If the intelligence should be permitted to penetrate into the depths of

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reality, what are the wonders that might come to light?

Whatever one's notions may be about a personal God, he knows that he himself as a finite man did not create himself. He is the workmanship of self existent Reality. Other manifestations of the workmanship of eternal Reality also declare their respective existences. One bows before the reality of sun and stars, of earth and material forces, of innumerable other human beings and of his own inexplicable nature pregnant with both ominous and sublime possibilities.

The detection of one's own personal consciousness is, as said before, the first knowledge of reality. Personal consciousness is a LIVING thing. This is proof that LIFE is identified with Reality. Whatever the eternally self existent Reality may be in Itself, one thing we know as a self evident fact and that is that life is identified with It because human life is derived from It. Therefore, something superior to finite human life dwells in the realm of self existent Reality from which finite human life derives its existence.

There is not an iota of evidence to even suggest that a rock has personal consciousness.

And yet a rock is one manifestation of Reality. So is the sun. And so are all the material and inanimate things of the world. But their functions? They have all contributed to the growth of the conscious lives of men! They live, as it were (have a semblance of life), in their use, and the end of their use is living men. The self conscious rational lives of men are the end to which all the things of inaminate nature are seen to contribute as the function which, by nature, they severally fill. Then, whatever a man may be, per se; whatever he may stand for in his organic relation to self existent Reality, one thing is manifest, and that is that his relation to material nature is that of lord to servant. Nature is nothing other than finite agency or instrumentality to serve the needs of finite human life.

"Is the servant greater than his lord?"

Can something come from nothing?

Can life be created by death?

What then do we see or conclude (when we look upon the various aspects of Reality as they appear in this world, the very first one of which is one's own personal consciousness which reveals the fact of finite human life), as to the nature of self existent Reality? Is "It" as inanimate as the sands? Or is It as alive as a man? It cannot be both. Evidently nothing is lacking in the infinite and self existent Reality which we discover here as some of its aspects. Its own personal consciousness can be nothing less than the personal consciousness It bequeaths to human beings. Its wisdom can be nothing less than the wisdom of men derived from It. Its emotional experiences can be no less alive than those of men, which come from It.

Note furthermore that its power and facilities within Itself for providing for the growing needs of living human beings can not be less than the ability to create the instrumental inorganic agencies of the material world. The uses served by inanimate things represent the living powers of Reality for achieving Its ends. The existence of the inanimate sands, already referred to, might seem to be a manifestation of something equally as dead in that from which it originated — in Reality — if it were not that the function or use of the sands, as that of serving human life, which is also derived, belies such a conclusion. If the function or use of human life was to serve the sands such conclusion would be permissible. There is a semblance of life in the function or use of that which in itself is dead. The function or use of the sands or other inanimate things proves that they are manifestations of facility within Reality. Reality, in other words, contains within Itself all facility, all equipment, all instrumental agency for making Itself effective and these things are manifested in the inorganic things of nature. Reality, then, can be nothing less, nothing inferior to, all that we call human life, and It must be inclusive of all the things in the created universe that serve human life. Self existent Reality, then, is either Human or Superhuman! This is a logical conclusion. It paves the way for more detailed information about God.