This is a 20 minute TED talk by an English vicar soon after the South Asian tsunami in 2004. A very thoughtful speech about what could, and could not be, the nature of God; and what we don’t know.

It reminded me of Paul Tillich’s notion of “the God beyond God,” and this quote from Albert Einstein…

“A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty – it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man. I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the type of which we are conscious in ourselves…Enough for me the mystery of the eternity of life, and the inkling of the marvelous structure of reality…”

Towards the end of his talk, Vicar Honey mentions the Hindu concept and greeting of “Namaste.” (May our true selves meet, and recognize the divine spark within each of us.) I think this is what Rumi was referring to when he wrote, “Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.”