Concealment
I am remiss in not having discussed concealment up to this point, at least not that I can recall.
Fortuitously, though, concealment is closely associated with the question of science.
Originally science received considerable impetus by being conceived as the pious effort to read God's book of nature, along with the Bible, of course. But as time passed, there was more passing of the ammunition and rather less of praising God, up to the present. The more pious founding fathers of science could hardly have conceived of our present technocratic society. That God was lost in the shuffle, was hardly an oversight. It seemed that God did not have a prayer in competing with the Juggernaught of science and technology.
Now I am by no means the first to suggest that this usurpation was part of a bigger plan. At some point in our spiritual maturation we would have to be weaned away from the parental God. We had always been accustomed to the teat of mother nature as our special entitlement. Science would open a Pandora's box, with no visible Pandora. As we rushed to embrace the materialist cornucopia, we naturally forgot about Mother. Father remained as remote as ever.
Science was to be the handmaiden of our spiritual adolescence. This has been our rebellion, our golden opportunity to test our individual spirits before having to realign ourselves and comprehend that we are the actual protagonists in this cosmic drama.
This planned adolescence is all in the spirit of the best possible world. Adolescence is an awkward and often painful experience. Ours has been no exception. In a better world, could this have been avoided? I am skeptical. It is no small burden to have to come up with a better idea.
This singular creation was not an experiment. There is a least action principle involved. The teleology of optimality is unavoidable in this alpha/omega bootstrap process. Am I thereby denying the free will of the creator? I am only saying that Her free will has been thoroughly redistributed amongst all of us. The now ending epoch of science played no small part in that most significant of developments. Realize also that God is 'simply' the means by which our alpha selves realize our omega selves. God is our Omega Self in the dimension of eternity. If this strikes a few as bordering on heresy, then we heretics have some very illustrious and spiritual company.
5/25/02