The religious differences of the world could be resolved with the one true confession of faith: “I don’t know.” I don’t know who I am or the ultimate nature of reality. My spirituality is an open question I’m living into, and I’m avoiding the temptation to need all the answers before I try. My morality is choosing love now. My understanding is trying to stay humble about what I think I know, and not taking myself too seriously.
We should replace our creeds with questions because all we really know with certainty is the questions we would like to have answered. Asking questions creates expansion, but having the answers shuts down spiritual exploration.
Doubt is better than belief because it requires more courage and conviction to delve into the unknown and admit your uncertainty. Doubt is a better path to finding “God” than faith in principles and writings that have no connection to the authority of your own heart. Doubt is a process of searching and discovery, but faith in the unknowable is collapse into a spiritual coma.
It feels like freedom not to know and to admit it. Embracing and rejoicing in not knowing is spiritual liberation because the need for certainty is a burden and false solution to anxiety that creates many delusions. It is healing to not define yourself by being right or wrong. It is transformational to find out you’re wrong when you thought you were right, and a sign of maturity if this excites you.
Religious institutions have confused intellectual certainty of god with faith. But faith is about experience of the unknown beyond knowability. “I don’t know” is the religious sinner’s prayer of salvation from the slavery of intellectual certainty and the death of spiritual experience it brings.
The God-in-Not-Knowing is perhaps the only place with room enough left in the universe for a God to exist. Having “the knowledge of God” is the problem, for “God” is known by knowing you don’t. Those who have confused their idea of God with the reality of the numinous experience may need to become atheists for a time in order to experience the divine. The religious may need to give up faith if they want to experience “God” more than they want to know. Uncertainty is the irony of spiritual knowledge.
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BOOK ME TO SPEAK: andrew@lifeafterdogma.org about healing religious trauma and psychology, spirituality and mental health, interpreting the Bible through a mystical, nondual lens, psychedelics, and other topics. I also provide consultations for therapists and ministers and speak on podcasts and video channels.
Do you feel psychologically traumatized by religion, or isolated and disempowered by trauma and limiting beliefs in your life? I’m Andrew Jasko, Master of Divinity (M.Div.), M.A., Counseling Psychology in progress, and I work to help you transform your trauma into the place of your power and connect to a healthy, authentic spirituality that works for you (whether that’s as a spiritual, atheist, religious, transitioning, or agnostic identifying person). I was born into a minister’s family and became a preacher and missionary to India, after studying theology at Wheaton College and Princeton Seminary. As a Christian, my relationship with God was my passion, but unhealthy religious teachings caused me an anxiety disorder, sexual repression, and spiritual disillusionment. I felt alone, traumatized, and abandoned by the divine. After an agonizing crisis of faith, I rejected religion and spirituality. Then, I had an unexpected spiritual awakening through mystical and spiritual practices like meditation, psychedelics, and connecting my heart’s desires and intuition through my Divine Mindfulness practice. My passion is to help you in your spiritual or life transition to heal and connect with your authentic spiritual wholeness.
