Today we no longer regard the universe as the cause of our own undeserved troubles but perhaps, on the contrary, as the last refuge from the mismanagement of our earthly affairs.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Today the fate of humankind is even more crucially linked than ever before. The boundaries between the problems of 'others' and 'our' problems are being increasingly erased.
Whatever your religious persuasion, if you believe that that the universe is governed by benign forces, at some point you have to explain why there is so much suffering, misfortune and misery in the world.
The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent.
We are living through a remarkably privileged era, when certain deep truths about the cosmos are still within reach of the human spirit of exploration.
Divorced from the cosmos, from nature, from society and from each other, we have become fractured and fragmented.
When we see what the universe has to show us, we can go no further.
I've found in my own life, if you try to struggle against what the universe is telling you, you set yourself up for more of a battle.
The universe is not indifferent to our existence - it depends on it.
The problem of evil, that is to say the reconciling of our failures, even the purely physical ones, with creative goodness and creative power, will always remain one of the most disturbing mysteries of the universe for both our hearts and our minds.
To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.