Before knowledge, beyond information. Unamuno, Life 8.23
Knowledge
is ultimately too limited to show us the world that lies beyond its
grasp. We know, and the fact of our knowing, by its necessary
limitation, reveals to us that reality is too much for knowledge, too
great for any form we might create to contain it. The images of
divinity that we form are so many attempts to indicate the revelation
of this vastness.
Es
a nosotros mismos, es nuestra eternidad lo que buscamos en Dios, es
que nos divinice. Fué ese mismo Browning el que dijo
(Saul
en
Dramatic
Lyrics):
’Tis
the weakness in strength, that I cry for!
my
flesh, that I seek
In
the Godhead!
«¡Es
la debilidad en la fuerza por lo que clamo; mi carne lo que busco en
la Divinidad!»
Pero
este Dios que nos salva, este Dios personal, Conciencia del Universo
que envuelve y sostiene nuestras conciencias, este Dios que da
finalidad humana a la creación toda, ¿existe? ¿Tenemos pruebas de
su existencia?
Lo
primero que aquí se nos presenta es el sentido de la noción esta de
existencia. ¿Qué es existir y cómo son las cosas de que decimos
que no existen?
Existir
en la fuerza etimológica de su significado es estar fuera de
nosotros, fuera de nuestra mente: ex-sistere.
¿Pero es que hay algo fuera de nuestra mente, fuera de nuestra
conciencia que abarca a lo conocido todo? Sin duda que lo hay. La
materia del conocimiento nos viene de fuera. ¿Y cómo es esa
materia? Imposible saberlo, porque conocer es informar la materia, y
no cabe, por lo tanto, conocer lo informe como informe. Valdría
tanto como tener ordenado el caos.
Este
problema de la existencia de Dios, problema racionalmente insoluble,
no es en el fondo sino el problema de la conciencia, de la
ex-sistencia
y no de la
in-sistencia
de la conciencia,
el problema mismo de la existencia sustancial del alma, el problema
mismo de la perpetuidad del alma humana, el problema mismo de la
finalidad humana del Universo. Creer en un Dios vivo y personal, en
una conciencia eterna y universal que nos conoce y nos quiere, es
creer que el Universo existe
para
el hombre.
Para el hombre o para una conciencia en el orden de la humana, de su
misma naturaleza, aunque sublimada, de una conciencia que nos
conozca, y en cuyo seno viva nuestro recuerdo para siempre.
Our
own eternity that we seek in God: this is the quest that divinizes
us. The same Browning was the one who said (in the poem Saul, from
his Dramatic Lyrics),
’Tis
the weakness in strength, that I cry for!
my
flesh, that I seek
In
the Godhead!
But
this God who saves us—the personal God, the Consciousness of the
Universe that subsumes and sustains our own individual awareness, the
God who gives human purpose to all creation—does he exist? Do we
have proofs of his existence?
The
first thing that meets us here is our sense of the notion of
existence. What is existing, and how are there things of which we
affirm that they do not exist?
Existing,
in the etymological sense, means being outside ourselves,
beyond the realm of our mind: Latin exsistere,
standing apart. But is there really anything outside our mind, beyond
the
consciousness that contains everything known
to us? Without doubt. The
matter of our knowledge comes to us from beyond. And how is
this matter, before we
encounter it? Impossible for
us to know, for knowing is projecting form onto matter, and there is
thus no way of knowing the formless without
informing it. As
impossible as achieving order
that is also chaos.
This
problem of God's existence, a rationally insoluble problem, is at
root nothing but the problem of consciousness or awareness itself.
Does the consciousness exist, as well as insist? Is the soul
substantial? Is the human soul eternal? What is the human end of the
universe? Believing in a personal God who lives, an eternal and
universal awareness or conscience that knows us and loves us, is
believing that the universe exists for
us. For humanity, or for an
awareness or conscience in the human order, participating in its same
nature though it be more exalted: a consciousness that knows us, and
in its bosom our memory dwells forever.