The Loss of Intuition

One of the great and unrecognised problems in the contemporary world is that we have not only rejected religion but are also in the process of separating ourselves from natural law. Of course, when you abandon belief in a transcendent and divine principle then rejection of natural law cannot be far behind because it is no longer tied to anything. It has lost its roots in the real. But our separation from natural law has also occurred because of an over-reliance on reason and the downgrading of intuition.

I say reason but it is not really that because the modern version of reason is frequently irrational. By this I mean that it dismisses the only coherent explanation for life, consciousness and all the qualities of existence, which is God, because of a lack of material proof, but it has nothing to replace that with other than speculation based on preconceived ideas of materialism. This has led to the assumption that things we know to be real, such as love and beauty, are not really real at all but merely subjective impressions with no grounding in fact. Everyone knows this is nonsense but we have allowed ourselves to be duped into thinking it must be true because we have been blinded by the spurious authority of modern science. We have been deceived by the power that science has manifested on the material plane into thinking it has some authority on the spiritual plane when the truth is it has none whatsoever. How could it? It doesn't even acknowledge the spiritual plane and can certainly not contact it by any means at its disposal. But because it has nothing to say on the subject it takes that to mean there is nothing to say. Irrational!

As ought to be clear, the idea of God is totally rational given the evidence of our mind, our senses, our feelings and the world around us. (We don't even have to bring tradition and revelation into it.) Nothing else can begin to account for our experiences and our very being; indeed for the fact that we are rational creatures with free will which, again, is obvious to all but the deluded. If we didn't have it the very concept would be meaningless to us. That our understanding of God and how he works leaves many things unanswered merely points to our present limitations not to any defect in the notion of a Creator per se.

Now to compound our error of using reason irrationally, we have also rejected intuition. But intuition has answers to many of the questions that present themselves to a normal person wondering about life. For example, what is spirit and what is nature? What is a human being, what is a man, what is a woman and what should be the relation between them? What is the good? What is the natural order and what happens when that is overturned?

Reason unaided can't provide trustworthy answers to these questions. It may try to come up with something but since it is working with incomplete data, and since the person or group exercising it is rarely as objective as they present themselves, its answers are likely to have problems. But intuition knows. It's true that this knowledge is usually quite vague and so it should not just be accepted without some analysis. That's because at our present stage of evolution our intuition is not perfect. But it does at least point us in the right direction. It is not complete or detailed but it is a good guide to what is. Reason can help to flesh it out and develop it but it is not necessarily verifiable by reason on its own for intuition goes beyond reason, even if reason can ground intuition and provide a solid framework for it.

When Adam and Eve went wrong in the Garden of Eden (and the opening chapters of the book of Genesis speak profoundly to the intuition) it was because they closed off their intuitive mind and listened to the voice of so called reason. Firstly, as spoken from the mouth of the serpent who was the first to vaunt the merits of reason above all else, and secondly, as it came from their own minds when, and this is significant, these were distorted by an agenda of self -interest. 

Obviously I am not saying reason is in any way bad or wrong in itself, but it is limited and it can be used by the ego to justify untruth. Now we have elevated reason above its station and demoted intuition to a lowly position when it should be seated at the head of the table. No true philosopher disregards the intuition. Actually for all true philosophers it is primary. The fact that it is not yet perfect is a reason to cultivate it not one to ignore it.

The natural law is increasingly disregarded in this world as groups with self-seeking agendas (see above) twist reality to suit their own ends and desires. But if we listen to our intuition we can see through  all these manoeuvres and return to wisdom. And we must do this or else we will experience yet another fall which means further separation from God, and that means more misery and alienation even if, as it was back in the Garden of Eden, a future determined by reason is often presented as one of happiness, fulfilment and enlightenment.