Conceiving of a Divine Intelligence – New Perspectives on Five Atheist Arguments
- Brainz Magazine
- Jan 25
- 6 min read
Written by Andy Travis, Therapist
Andy Travis is a therapist specialising in addiction recovery, mental & mood health, sex/love/relationships, and men's well-being. He uses techniques like live guided meditation, simple hypnosis, and somatic enquiry, personally tailored to give his clients access to their inner resources.
This article builds on my last piece, Beyond Data Chips. Consciousness. The Next Frontier of Intelligence. It suggests that consciousness is more than just a product of brain activity. That each individual is animated by an infinitely tiny point of peaceful, self-aware light, situated in the control centre of the brain, above and behind the eyes. Contemplating the non physical nature of the inner self is key to conceiving of a Divine Intelligence beyond matter.
I grew up an atheist. I thought God was a concept humankind had made up in order to feel safe. In my childhood, the closest thing I had to a religious experience was when my family went to see Monty Python’s The Life of Brian (1979), a comedy satirising religious dogmatism. When I was 18, I read Raja Yoga New Beginnings (1989) by Ken O’Donnell. It spelt out ideas about God that I had never heard before, and that made complete sense to me. Read on if you would like both a logical and contemplative inquiry, offering radically different perspectives on some of atheism’s key points.
1. Life: Evolution, creation, or a third option?
Ever since Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species (1859), scientific thought has favoured the theory of evolution over creationism. If God created the world, who created God? This is one of the foundations of Richard Dawkins’ best seller, The God Delusion (2006). The reasoning is solid. But what if there is a third hypothesis that is both rational and incorporates the Divine?
What if the universe has always existed? In this theory, the cosmos was never created, and time is not linear, but cyclic. A simple way of looking at the Law of Entropy is that in a closed system, everything moves from new to old, from order to chaos, and the only way to halt or reverse entropy is if there is an input of energy from outside the system. The material universe, encompassing space and time, is a closed system. It progressively ages and becomes chaotic. God is outside of space and time, and when the universe has reached maximum entropy, it is His or Her role to put in energy and return souls and matter to their original, ordered state.
2. If God exists, why is there suffering?
Many belief systems say that God is merciful and omnipresent, everywhere. If that were the case, it is not logical for there to be all the suffering we see in the world today. Seeing sorrow everywhere, you might say, “Surely a loving God would not allow this, there must be no God.” Let us instead consider the idea that God is not everywhere, does not cause sorrow, and does not have the role of managing it.
We could see the suffering in the world as a sign of collective entropy. Every individual starts their journey in the material dimension with a full “soul battery,” which gradually runs down. As our energy dissipates, our thoughts, words, and actions become disordered, and we cause suffering for ourselves and others. God, instead of being the all-pervading, cane-wielding Principal of Earth School, is the spiritual power source from beyond who recharges our souls.
3. Where is the evidence for a supreme being?
Consider love, the wind, or gravity. These are invisible, but can be understood by their effects. I personally think the best evidence is deep, balanced, long-term transformation in people’s characters and lives. I am grateful for my own gradual progress here, and I see it in the communities I connect with. In addiction recovery circles, people who had overwhelming, destructive obsessions and compulsions are now free one day at a time and bringing benefit to the world, and in meditation centres, people are generously empowering themselves and others through their self-development and service.
I recognise that the above is subjective, and what you would call anecdotal rather than quantifiable evidence. Yet this is the paradox. I do not believe we can meaningfully contemplate a Divine Intelligence with our analytical selves alone. Let us experiment with taking the parameters of evidence beyond what your five senses and science’s instruments can detect. What if replicable inner experience was a good start? You will have the opportunity in the last section of this article to try a guided meditation, with the aim of tuning in to a higher frequency of divine intelligence.
4. Is God a delusion born of evolutionary need?
Richard Dawkins, in The God Delusion, makes a fair point, faith can comfort. In evolutionary terms, a calm and comforted brain may survive better than a fearful one. Belief can soothe the fight or flight response, thus strengthening cooperation and the safety of the tribe. Yet to reduce faith to its survival benefit is to overlook the possibility that calm may be a soul’s original state, a state that enables the soul to regain coherence with its power source, God.
In my opinion, Dawkins is right to debunk religious delusion. But is all faith blind? For the last 37 years, my goal has been to live a life of faith based on understanding and experience, not on simply accepting what a holy person or scripture says. The clearest teachings and meditation practices I have found are here, The Brahma Kumaris. Regardless of whether you align with one spiritual path or many, whether through prayer, meditation, or a combination of both, divine evolution can begin with moments of stillness and inner connection.
5. God as a vengeful old man in the sky?
Watching The Life of Brian when I was about nine, we laughed till we cried at a crowd’s collective delusion that Brian was the Messiah. Today, I recognise that faith itself is not childish, but our beliefs about God can be. The bearded patriarch hurling thunderbolts was never meant literally, it was mythology’s metaphor for power and justice, unhelpful if it fostered obedience based on fear.
An alternative is to understand God as a genderless, bodiless, egoless soul of pure kindness, the highest point of consciousness, a being of light, truth, and loving intelligence. Imagine the Supreme not as a vindictive ruler, but as a star-like, silent radiance, unchanged by time and not bound to matter. Using these ideas, my heart and intellect relate to God out of self-respect rather than religious devotion.
Your inner laboratory: Making the abstract intimate
Feel free to test everything you have just read, right now, in the laboratory of meditation. Find a quiet place away from distractions. Sit comfortably. Take a few long, slow, deep breaths. Allow the body to relax more and more with each breath. Allow your heart to feel safe in this moment. Imagine the essence of your consciousness to be an infinitely tiny point of self-aware light, sitting above and behind your eyes. Slowly read the following once or twice, allowing each line to sink in.
Beautiful One
Foreign yet so familiar.
Innocent – alien to matter – You never eat, drink, or sleep.
Most importantly, you never forget yourself.
Once in forever,
You enter this world to make everything new.
Contact
You’re telling me that I, too, have a home beyond Earth;
That my body is just a spacesuit;
And that, like you, I’m a tiny star.
You’re taking me back, into Your rose-gold-red lap of light.
Weightless.
Oceanic.
Belonging.
The Apex of a vast, self-aware constellation,
The Brightest Star,
Surrounded by an egg-shaped force field of love.
An Entity silently humming with wisdom and warmth.
You reach out to me with a telepathic ray of purest feelings,
Softly overwhelming,
Infinitely beautiful.
Magnetically drawn towards You,
Old impressions of time and space dissolve,
As I move through your aura.
Two stars quietly touching.
I merge into Your acceptance,
Your unquestioning kindness,
Your tenderness.
Celestial Mother, and child.
Read more from Andy Travis
Andy Travis, Therapist
In 1988, when Andy was 17, his mother began training to be a lifeline telephone counsellor. She would often talk to him about it. He was fascinated. The following year, Andy had a series of out-of-body experiences. They confirmed what he'd been reading about the parallels between mysticism and quantum physics. He embarked on a lifelong journey of meditation. In his early 30s, a mood disorder and sex/love addiction led him to 12-step peer-support groups, where he continues to volunteer today. He established Meeting Point Counselling in 2016.
