Mixed Media | How Do You Know God is Not in a Tree?
Curtis Childs | Thursday, January 27, 2011 What is it about this simple video by Curtis Childs which has attracted so many positive responses and over 2,000 views on YouTube? Perhaps people have left the age of reading and require video before engaging with interesting ideas. Perhaps the ideas written by Swedenborg are magnetic when presented in an accessible and humorous form? Viewers have said, "Amazing, succinct, powerful!" "This made me THINK and I LOVE that!" "Nice little video. I'd like to see more like this." "As an agnostic I found this very interesting. Well done sir." If you're one of the people who finds this video to be a useful medium for sharing cool ideas, share it on Facebook or pressure Curtis for more. -Editor
This video came to me on an incredibly beautiful day. The sun was low (this time of year that goes on at about 4:30 pm) and the colored light bouncing off everything was so crisp, so vivid—everything just seemed so, real. I was just observing objects: the Bryn Athyn Cathedral, the fields, the silhouettes of trees and, contrary to my normal M.O., I was feeling pretty peaceful and present. I wasn't just on a walk, though, I was on the clock. It was a work day and I was trying to pull inspiration for presentations. It was my job to think about religion, but I had this strange experience: being as happy, connected, and peaced out as I was, the last thing I wanted to do was engage in head-work about religion-affiliated ideas. It seemed like it would be artificial to put some worldview over the reality of the physical world I was enjoying so much right then.
If I hadn't been obligated to think about religion by my job, I think I would have just left it at that, and enjoyed the rest of my walk, but, since I was costing people money, I slowly opened myself up to the possibility of that line of thought. Nothing came at first, and I was careful to not mess with the state I was in by pushing anything. The first concept that came to me was that this moment, when I'm content and connected, isn't what religion is for. Religion is for the other 97% of my life, when I'm hurting, or confused, or anxious. Religion is for those times. It seemed quite a legit use, and I immediately agreed with the idea.
The next nudge happened when I was a couple minutes down the road, looking at the evening sun blazing through the branches of a nearly-bare tree. It was SO vivid, SO real, and I was enjoying it like crazy. Then all of the sudden, I got the idea "what if God was actually that real?" It was an awesome idea. God is so often an intellectual concept that the idea of him actually being really real—inhabiting the same world you do—can be quite powerful. That idea came with a note attached: religious ideas can even add to your happy moments. I had been really enjoying looking at the sun and the tree, but with the God idea, a different, potentially even stronger joy swept over me, so that thought about God made that great moment even better.
Suddenly, armed with both of these realizations, some validity to religion was back on the table. So now I wanted to think about religion, but was still in a state that felt complete and happy in the physical world. The video that follows was a narration I started telling myself, or anyone else who might be in a similar state, to convince myself that thinking about God had a place, and that what has been discovered about God is not out of place alongside what has been discovered about the plane of existence our bodies inhabit.
Curtis recently released this second video as well. More polish this time, but his style continues to replace combative argument with humor and question as a way to get people thinking. -Editor.
Curtis Childs
Curtis Childs is a semi-attractive twenty-five year old living in Huntingdon Valley, PA. He recently graduated from Oakland University with a Bachelor's in Communication. He jams all kinds of stuff, including guitar and video games, and can spit rhymes with the best of them (this is not a joke). He is currently employed full-time creating and performing in a program that is designed to connect kids to a friendly God, and encourage them to be pumped about being decent to each other. He one time got an article published in a book by Penguin Classics. So there. He would also like to say that Emanuel Swedenborg is just about as hip as it gets.Wondering about the inspiration for this article? Look up the New Church, which is based on the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.
Reader Comments (2)
I like these videos Curtis! That's all I have to say right now.
Very intriguing! I enjoy learning a little more of the background for your inspiration. Thanks for the testimonial. Both videos are great, and I like how the animation develops from the first to the second. Do more! This is a great medium for a variety of people.