Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia; Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.
Lao Tsu philosopher or demi-deity?
Post 82.April 30, 2019
Deism as a Non-Religion
Religion devolves from Philosophy
Consequently, as the imperial religion became more formal, legalistic, authoritarian, and centralized, intellectuals of Europe began to rebel against the rule of dogmatic ecclesiastical law, and to turn back to freethinking Greek philosophy as a path to personal enlightenment. Whereas Buddhism turned away from the material world, and looked within for the eightfold path to Nirvana, Deism abandoned ancient scriptures & institutions in favor of introspection for philosophical understanding of G*D. Likewise, Taoism was a response to the rigidly prescribed collective rituals of Chinese society, preferring naturalness and spontaneity. All were open to secular Science for knowledge of the natural world5. Deism was not a monastic practice though, and its meditations were both rational and intuitive. Yet, like primitive Buddhism, it denied the need to worship providential deities. Like early Taoists, most Deists envisioned their universal deity as an abstract principle instead of a humanoid ruler6.
As did the Hindus & Chinese, Hebrews and Jews had their own deep thinkers, but the “common folk” among them were more interested in blessings than thinking, and preferred succor to meditation. They lived in fear of death and demons, and were quick to bow in submission to the powers-that-be7. The Old Testament repeatedly admonishes “the people” for straying from the official deity of Israel, and for worshipping less austere and more naturalistic foreign gods. Like Buddhism, Christianity was supposed to be a step away from the outdated practices and formal rituals prescribed by divine law. But, as the Jewish cult was absorbed into the Roman empire, it assimilated many of the still popular pagan ancestor & nature gods (saints & holydays), and adapted some Jewish symbolism (passover) to suit gentile tastes. Although the Catholics aspired to be the Universal church of Christ, during its 2000 year reign, it has fragmented into over 40,000 sects & cults8. This lack of cohesive unity, by itself, should indicate that the Lord is no longer shepherding his straying flock.
Buddhism and Taoism are not communal theistic religions, but personal, inward-directed philosophies. Like their Western counterparts though, over time they have sub-divided into a profusion of “schools” with a variety of unique beliefs and rituals. That’s because, in practice, the common folk still want the same old miraculous interventions. So, although Siddharta never claimed to be a deity, most of the current forms of Buddhism seem to worship him like a Hindu god. Tibetans even claim to have a new bodhisattva for each “era”, similar to the sequential manifestations of Krishna. These fractures in the core faith, in each case, followed the formalization and popularization of the original simple philosophy into a complex religion adapted to the wants & needs of the sheep-like masses.
Will this be the fate of the modern Deist revival, if it ever finds broad acceptance among non-philosophers? If so, is that necessarily a bad thing? I suspect that Enlightenment era Deism was a reaction to the age-old problem of a deep philosophical insight degenerating into superficial rituals and superstitious fetishes. This seems to be an example of historical dialectic9, in which an accepted thesis is attacked by a new anti-thesis, which eventually resolves into a synthetic compromise of both views. Perhaps that’s in keeping with the BothAnd principle.
End of Post 82
Sagan’s Hope
Sagan noted that “we are in need of other sorts of myth, myths of encouragement. Many religions, from Hinduism to Gnostic Christianity to Mormon doctrine, teach that — as impious as it may sound — it is the goal of humans to become gods.”
“Or consider a story in the Jewish Talmud left out of the Book of Genesis. (It is in doubtful accord with the account of the apple, the Tree of Knowledge, the Fall, and the expulsion from Eden.) In the Garden, God tells Eve and Adam that He has intentionally left the Universe unfinished. It is the responsibility of humans, over countless generations, to participate with God in a ‘glorious’ experiment — ‘completing the Creation.’”
This shows that Sagan was perfectly aware of the interpretation of religion that I am proposing: The promises of religion are true, because we’ll make them true.
I doubt that Sagan had a Transhumanist “glorious experiment” in mind when he called for a reconciliation with religion. But my own worldview could be interpreted as describing the Big Bang & Evolution as a sort of experiment in world-making. Apparently, the Programmer left the the progressive program open-ended, to allow Freewill and Chance to partly determine the ultimate outcome of the evolutionary process. The Turing Church is a technological futurist society that expects computing power to eventually become god-power. It’s similar to my own view, except that my Programmer is eternal & transcendental, and pre-human rather than post-human.
5. Secular Science : “If scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims.” ― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality
6. Deist Salvation : Despite their rejection of Christian doctrine , some Deists still expected salvation in some form. Not because of the supreme sacrifice of the son of God, but more along the lines of Nirvana or Karma.
7. Submissive Masses : Whereas intellectuals have often favored democratic governments, the masses have been more inclined toward dictatorships. When the Hebrew tribes began to think of themselves as a single state, they clamored for a king like neighboring nations. But they soon learned that human rulers can be Both magnanimous & benevolent And cruel & sadistic, just like their super-human deity.
9. Religious Dialectic : Like all social systems, religions go through dialectic cycles of Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis. For example, naturalistic gods, abstract gods, and hybrid god-in-the-flesh. Glossary : Dialectic
NEXT
BACK
Forum
