WillSpirit!

This post is one in a string of essays about spirituality. It may make sense to start with the first entry in the series.

My series of spirituality posts is a work-in-progress. Each entry is essentially a second draft, and even after posting I reserve the right to revise the documents. I know doing so is frowned upon, but I am trying to offer something effective for others who share my desire for faith, but who insist on respecting the bounds of science and common sense. Naturally, as I get comments, or think further, or reread, I see ways to make the text better. Rather than posting a series of versions, or showing my corrections, I will update on the fly. What you read today may change tomorrow. If anyone wants to see an older draft, I will do my best to find it if you ask.

The reason I bring this up now is that late yesterday I ended my post with the acronym BUCCUA—Benign Universal Consciousness that Connects Us All. It came to me in a rush, and I did not spend time thinking of alternatives. This morning I looked up ‘buccua’ in the dictionary. The word is absent, but ‘buccula’ is close, and it refers to a double chin. Not exactly an elevated concept. I kind of like the look and sound of BUCCUA. It echoes the adjective buccal, which refers to mouth, like the ‘mouth of God.’ It sounds a bit like bacchanalia, which is lighthearted and pagan. But it can’t be said to have an attractive pronunciation, and does not quite roll off the tongue. It also reminds me of bocce ball. Maybe that’s not a bad thing, since it conjures up unpredictable collisions and leisure time. But it isn’t exactly lofty.

So this morning I got busy with alternatives. Here are a few:

• Transcendent Universal Mind that Encompasses Everything–TUMEE
• Pervasive and Universal Spirit that Holds You—PUSHY
• Benevolent Integrating Omniscience, Present and Eternal–BIOPE

Would it surprise you that I prefer the last? It brings in ‘bio’ for life, sounds a bit like ‘hope,’ and captures all the elements that I think BUCCUA (oops BIOPE) should possess:

The BIOPE list of ‘divine’ qualities:

• Benvolent–This is important, because I do not believe this entity to be neutral and dispassionate (or even worse: stern and judgmental,) but instead forms a current of love.
• Integrating–It connects everything and everyone.
• Omniscience–If only because it interweaves all minds and all matter/energy/time, it is both aware, and aware of everything.
• Present–It has presence in the metaphysical sense. It is accessible and with us.
• Eternal–It has always been and will always be. It may evolve along with the universe, but it has roots that anchor it outside the stream of time.

I welcome suggestions, and will continue to think about this. In the end, poor BUCCUA may get axed.

BIOPE goes beyond my initial promise. I said my goal was to show how a universal consciousness might exist within the constraints of what we know to be true and reasonable. By invoking BIOPE, I am not just saying that something might exist, I am beginning to spell out what it is. This skates dangerously close to devising a theology. On the other hand, an entity without the qualities of BIOPE might not be worthy of faith. If it was not benvolent, and just stood by without real concern and love, it would offer scant comfort. If it did not integrate everything, then it would not awaken us to our connection with others. If it were not omniscient, then our hearts could hide from it, and it might fail to motivate us. If it were not present and accessible, we could not get any real benefit from it. And if it were not eternal, then it would lack one of the prime characteristics we expect of a divinity.

There may be qualities I should include that BIOPE fails to capture. And you might argue with one or another of these characteristics. But I think BIOPE pretty well captures the pieces that are both necessary and sufficient if we are to have effective faith.

Which brings me to the question of effectiveness. The first ‘Cornerstone‘ (I may change this to ‘key’ by the way–to highlight that my goal is to open a door, not build a theology) of my program for showing that we can reasonably enjoy faith, was that ‘Faith Works.’ What does this mean?

At the end of the last entry, I said that my next post would “show how belief in [BIOPE] can be beneficial to individuals and society.” Because I woke up worrying about acronyms, I just spent this space proposing a better set of letters, and in the process listed the criteria a ‘God-like’ entity should satisfy. Having given a better picture of what it is we can allow ourselves a leap of faith toward, I am now in a position to show how such a leap helps. But I’ll beg your forbearance, and put that step off until the next entry.

***Click here for the next entry in this series.