Golden Rule Radical

Posted By David on May 29, 2009

The limits of my metaphorical language for God are the limits of my experience of God – Paul McKenna, creator of the Golden Rule Poster

Whether we call it western rationalism, scientific method, or just plain old hard nosed practicality, those whose worldview is based on observable fact have long been at odds with those who see the universe from perspectives that are less cut and dried.

And not without cause. It wasn’t until we accepted that the world followed logical processes of cause and effect, entropy and evolution, that we became capable of transforming human existence. And while we may argue that not all of that transformation has been good, it would also be difficult to argue that we would have been better off without it.

And yet – humanity is a species of art as much as it is of engineering. Our creativity begins, not with calculations in our computers, but with beauty in our hearts, poetry in our heads.

Metaphor is the language of that creativity. It allows us to describe the indescribable; to experience that which we can only imagine in the tiniest part.

So it is with our experience of God, of Theos, of the Divine. Where once our ancestors turned God into little more than men and women writ large, we, through metaphor, bring a depth to our language for God that we were without.

This doesn’t mean that we know God, or that, as some try to claim, we are God. It means, rather, that our experience of God can, if we allow it, be more profound than was possible to any before us.

And if that is true, how we can do less than strive all the more to act in ways that are in accord with that experience?

With compassion, and love, and generosity to one another and all of Creation.

And that will not be metaphor. That will be Golden.

Categories: Agapé
Tags: compassion, god, Golden Rule, Golden Rule poster, heart, love, paul mckenna, perspective, universe