A New Theology
On making theology a science
Welcome to the The Theology Company (TTC). Our product is scientific theology. TTC is the corporate face of the natural theology project: Natural theology
Theology is the traditional theory of everything. Traditionally "everything" has be taken to include the visible world and an invisible God which is other than the world.
Here we break with this tradition. We we propose that God and the Universe are identical. If this is so every human experience is experience of god. We do not have to wait till the next life to see God. We are in it now. This is just as true when we see God in the stars and the oceans as when we feel God in our own hearts. On the other hand, the vision of God is not all bliss, as some think. It is life, with all its ups and downs, finishing in death.
If the world is divine it is self-sufficient, no longer controlled from outside. It is responsible for its own reality. We too are responsible for our own reality. Further, our assumption makes theology scientific. Science is based on observation, and to say the world is divine is to say god is observable. The advantage of scientific theology is that science tracks truth. Since there is but one God, eventually there will there will be but one theology. We have seen this happen with the other sciences. Theological unity will become the foundation for religious unity and peace on Earth.
If the world is divine it is spiritual, like God. It is no longer dull matter, but living spirit. This may not be easy to see after thousands of religions have spend thousand of years of telling us that our material bodies are enemies of the spirit, but it is true. As we shall see, quantum physics tells us that the world is a gigantic communication network, just like our brains, the seat of our minds. The Universe, as some have guessed, is the mind of God.
This theology has practical consequences. Theology is the science that corresponds to the art of religion, that is to the art of peace.
The ancient religions often act like brands competing for market share. They sometimes develop friction at their interfaces. Here we shall see an underlying unity in all religions. From an abstract point of view, every religion is a communication protocol.
A shared religion allows an group of individuals to act as a community, that is to share a common goals and agreed methods of attaining them.
In an effective community, we are all peers on the network. In the communication theoretical notion of peerage we find solid foundation for human rights and freedoms. The network picture also allows us to see similar structures contributing to the creation of the world at all scales.
Science has taught us that we are not the centre of the universe. We often think that communication, intelligence, bonding and so on are special to ourselves, overlooking the skill of the universe that created us.
We must understand that cosmic art if we are to fit in, that is, survive. As a species we are only a few hundred thousands years old. As far as we know the Earth will remain habitable for billions of years, if we don't muck it up too badly. And there's the rub.
The current theological situation is similar to that found in physics and biology in past centuries. Everybody had different ideas which were often in conflict with reality. Time and work have created broad areas of consensus in these sciences because everybody is observing the same reality using reliable methods.
The scientific community has no serious doubts about evolution, for instance, or recursive function theory.
On our definition of god, theology and religion can follow the same trajectory, toward a reality based consensus.
This would be a valuable achievement. The purpose of the theology company is to become part of the scientific theology industry, to develop and trade of enough of this value to survive and grow while contributing to psychological, social and ecological wellbeing.
