Arguing God From Consciousness? | Marilyn Schlitz
Why It Matters
Reframing God as an immanent consciousness challenges traditional doctrines and offers a framework for more inclusive, psychologically grounded spirituality, affecting both personal practice and institutional religion.
Key Takeaways
- •Consciousness prompts humans to construct a concept of God.
- •Durkheim links communal rituals to emergence of divine ideas.
- •Judeo‑Christian view narrows God to a personal supreme consciousness.
- •Alternative view sees God as immanent, integrated whole consciousness.
- •Shifting perception can foster humility and holistic spiritual practice.
Summary
In a recent conversation, the host asks Marilyn Schlitz to evaluate the classic “argument from consciousness” that posits God’s existence because humans possess self‑awareness. Schlitz frames the debate within anthropology and sociology rather than pure theology.
She cites Emile Durkheim’s “Elementary Forms of Religious Life,” noting that early bands created totems and communal rites to mark a feeling of something larger than themselves. That collective awareness, she argues, seeds the mental construct of a deity. By contrast, Judeo‑Christian philosophers extrapolate from individual subjective consciousness to a singular, personal supreme consciousness, a move she calls historically and politically conditioned.
Schlitz uses the brain’s corpus callosum as a metaphor for a “semipermeable” bridge between the self and the cosmos, urging a shift from a dualistic, separate God to an immanent, integrated whole. She highlights practices such as gratitude that dissolve the ego‑world split and foster a sense of belonging to a universal consciousness.
The discussion suggests that reconceiving God as a symbolic map rather than an external ruler can reshape religious language, support more inclusive spirituality, and influence how institutions address the human need for meaning in an increasingly secular world.
Comments
Want to join the conversation?
Loading comments...