Probably so. My personal view of the universe is distinctly physical, not spiritual. I have never been able (outside the Sistine Chapel) to imagine a god after man's image. And the ceiling IMO is a creepy mannerist illusion. I can project my mind into molecular and atomic levels, and into subatomic, quarklike structures and down into quantum foam, and never in the direction of the small, observe or imagine anything at all that resembles spirit. Even substance dissolves into nothingness. The flashing into existence and out of virtual particles is devoid of person or god or spirit. Likewise, I can project my mind into the outer universe, slip into black holes, burning globular clusters and in 3 or 4 or 10 or 11 dimensions never find the laws of physics written down, or need or observe any spiritual existence.
Yet by pressing on my eyelids I can create beauty in my retinas and brain far more magnificent than any one however great an artist can paint. I cannot capture it and show it to you. If I did not know the physiology I might imagine that I had seen god. I have had visions in dreams and under medication or drugs that exceed Dante at his most absurd. I have heard ecstatic music that sets Bach to shame. But when I set it down it turns out to be Grieg's "Solveig's Song" reeking of sentimentality. I think that I and others who imagine divinity is in their heads, are merely mad, for a moment, or for all time. No one can preserve the prophetic moment and all others to share. Like the dental patient who thought he had understood the the secret of the universe while under nitrous oxide discovered when he read his notes: "Everything smells of petroleum." |
