the revaluing of meaning

If you were talking with a theoretical physicist, you may not expect to understand his language completely or maybe even partially, unless you were also schooled in that language. You would no doubt comprehend, however, that he was describing the universe (reality) as accurately as he could, and would make modifications in his language and theory as required and needed.

The same is true for a theoretical theist, who unlike the phys-icist is not looking to describe the physical world, but the realm of the theos, or meta-physics (that which goes beyond and underlies physics).

These days physics is regarded by many as the supreme language of description, partially because of its practical product-ion (hubble telescope, a better can-opener, the ability to bomb the moon, etc.) and partially because it requires no reflection on meaning.

Theoretical theism, or metaphysics, has been relegated to the trash heap of scorn by some because meaning has been devalued, constricted into the physical realm only (the meaningfulness of sustaining a 4 hour erection, the ability to tweet at will, the satisfaction of castigating one's opponents, demeaning thus taking the place of meaning).

Theoretical theism, or metaphysics, focuses precisely on questions of meaning. What is the Ground of existence? What is the supreme value? What is life? Who is asking these questions? Can one step out of duality and its oppositional behavior? What does it mean to step out of linear time and live in the eternal now? Is the Source approachable? Is there a hierarchy of beings of which we are a part? Is the universe alive and conscious, self-aware? What is this energy called love?

I appreciate the irony of the word theoretical. "Retical" refers to rhetoric, the expounding of ideas. "Theo" has connotations of theos, of God. So theoretical physics, amusingly, means the expounding of ideas of God, in the physical realm. O shudder! O horror! I can see the supportive pillars of materialistic science looking to stand alone in non-theistic splendor, begin to crack and tremble and fall -- fall into the supportive arms of its true partner -- metaphysics and physics entwined forever in conjugal bliss.