Thursday, May 24, 2007

Ransacking the Cosmos and Vandalizing the Pages of History (5.17.09)

For the more one discovers of God, the more one finds one has to learn. Every step in advance is a return to the beginning, and we shall not really know him as he is, until we have returned to our beginning, and learned to know him both as the beginning and end of our journey. --Fr. Bede Griffiths, The Golden String

Several months ago, I came across this oddity that I tucked away for future use:

"Recently, the comedian and movie star Sinbad had to announce that he was not, in fact, dead of a heart attack at age 50, as his Wikipedia entry claimed. Somebody vandalized the page, claimed Wikipedia spokeswoman Sandra Ordonez."

"Vandalizing the page" is an apt metaphor for the secular misuse of language, which culminates in the unholy quadrivelum of multiculturalism, moral relativism, tolerance and diversity. It also forms the basis of left-wing guru George "rhymes with" Lakoff's Orwellian theory of "framing," which progressives employ to try to make their tasteless ideas even more palatable to the indiscriminate. And of course, the horizontal barbarism of deconstruction is the quintessence of the nihilistic ransacking of history.

When we refer to intelligence, we are ultimately talking about meaning. And when we refer to meaning, we are ultimately talking about the human event. No, not this or that finite human life, but the entire meaning of an anthropocentric cosmos that was once dead and unconscious but has awakened to its own hidden meaning in the form of the human subject.

This mysterious subjective center has appeared "out of nowhere" and cannot -- and will not ever -- be explained on any purely naturalistic grounds. But at the same time, the human center will not always be here. The cosmic "I" only fully opened around 40,000 years ago, and it will close again at some point in the future, one way or the other. The cosmos, let alone our solar system, will not always be fit for life, even if Sheryl Crow uses no toilet paper at all on her private jet.

Therefore, all meaning must be placed in the larger context of the meaning of meaning, or the Human Event. In the words of theologian Thomas Torrance,

"The fact that the universe expanded in such a way that the emergence of conscious mind in it is an essential property of the universe, must surely mean that we cannot give an adequate account of the universe in its astonishing structure and harmony without taking into account, that is, without including conscious mind as an essential factor in our scientific equations.... Without man, nature is dumb, but it is man's part to give it word: to be its mouth through which the whole universe gives voice to the glory and majesty of the living God."

Any philosophy that falls short of this is simply vandalism, not to mention blarney, since it has the effect of reducing the reality of our cosmic situation to rubble. All varieties of materialism fall into this category, as they begin their exploration by turning the cosmos upside down and inside out in order to try to understand it.

And any philosophical understanding that flows from such a backward approach begins with inversion but ends in perversion. I say this because the universe itself is an expression of the Human Event, not vice versa. Any true humanist understands -- either explicitly or implicitly -- that reality is a result of the irreducible hypostatic union of subject and object in the human person. The cosmos is actually an "outgrowth" of this fundamental reality, which is why we can affirm the truism that man is the measure of all things, with the exception of that which takes the measure of man, which is to say, God, or the Absolute.

Within the "Human Event" is the "God event." We call this latter event revelation, which includes the Incarnation. But in reality, the human event is itself a revelation and an incarnation. Specifically, the intellect -- no, not the puny intellect of the secular intellectual, but the nous, or intellect properly so-called -- is revelation "subjectivized," just as scripture is the intellect, or Word, objectivized. So if one affirms that scripture is the "word of God," it is another way of saying that the intellect through which scripture is understood is also the word of God.

But not exactly. Rather, the first and last Word of God -- the Alpha and Omega -- would have to be the hypostatic union of those two words in the human person. Again, the Human Event is ultimately the unification of the cosmic Subject and Object, and its highest expression -- at least from the human side of the Divine-human divide -- is what is called in the Orthodox Christian tradition theosis.

Thus, theosis is the ultimate meaning of cosmic evolution, a subset of which is the biological evolution that the Darwinians, in their metaphysical blindness, attempt to reduce to random mechanical changes. Here again, while I do not believe that "intelligent design" should be taught as science -- since it obviously transcends science -- to teach natural selection as metaphysical truth represents the most crude sort of intellectual barbarism imaginable. As Schuon writes, this kind of shallow secular intellectualism

"cannot fail to engender errors. It confers self-complacency and... introduces a sort of worldliness into the intellectual domain. Its good side is that it may speak of truth; its bad side is the manner in which it speaks of it. It replaces the virtues it lacks by sophistries. It lays claim to everything but is in fact inoperative. In intellectualism a capacity to understand the most difficult things readily goes hand in hand with an inability to understand the simplest things" (oomphasis mine).

Put another way, science is simply one of the diverse possibilities of intelligence as such. If, like the Darwinian vandals, we ransack the cosmos and turn it upside down, we place ourselves in the absurd position of using our intelligence to prove that it doesn't actually exist.

In other words, either natural selection explains our intelligence, or our intelligence explains natural selection. You can't have it both ways. Likewise, either intelligence explains the big bang, or the big bang explains intelligence. In reality, no matter how far "back" we search, we find only more divine-human intelligence, the radiance of which is the beauty, truth, and harmony of the mathematical equations governing the physical world.

But even then, "govern" is not quite right, since the big bang is in reality a backward projection of the Human Event, and without which it would be inconceivable. The equations governing the big bang are not the meaning of existence; rather, human beings are the meaning of those equations. The meaning of anything is not found in its constituent parts; reducing something to its constituent parts is how you destroy meaning, precisely. Rather, meaning is only discovered by understanding what the parts are pointing toward and converging upon.

This brings us back around to the ironically named "progressive" movement, ironic because it excludes the very possibility of progress. Progress, to the extent that it exists -- and it does -- can only be understood in light of the Absolute. Otherwise, how do you measure it? Easy. For the progressive, you simply "make something up." You create some admittedly arbitrary standard out of thin air, and then determine whether or not reality comports with your fantasy of how things should be.

But in the end, the progressive is hoisted on his own petarded philosophy, which insists that there is no ultimate meaning or truth anyway. Which is why progressivism is such a shallow politico-intellectual game of spiritually stunted adultolescents.

Real progress occurs when the human event inches closer toward its nonlocal goal, which is to say, its theomorphic center. Probably the single greatest leap in human progress occurred with the founding of America, and we can see how this is opposed on all sides by forces of darkness that would undo or arrest its further advance -- including the Islamists, leftists, progressives, scientific materialists, and other cosmic vandals.

As I wrote in the Coonifesto, the end is always here, because the end of the Human Event occurs any time one of its individual expressions passes from fragmented multiplicity to true unity-in-diversity, in a neverunending process. This is the cosmic Omcoming we all seek.

Meaning is the golden thread which leads us ever-upward, beyond the subjective horizon, through to the foundation and destiny of the world. This is where the divine substance returns to itsource and God offers the creation back to himSelf in an act of Divine Thanksgiving. This is the cosmic eucharist, the consecration of existence, the wholly communion of a part so ptee doing deuty for the holos. It is not a nothing but a transformational plenitude where the human subject is perpetually transfigured at the crossroads of the vertical and horizontal.

Sinbad lives!

The intellect knows through its very substance all that is capable of being known and, like the blood flowing through even the tiniest arteries of the body, it traverses all the egos of which the universe is woven and opens out “vertically” on the Infinite. In other words: the intellective center of man, which is in practice subconscious, has knowledge, not only of God, but also of man’s nature and his destiny; and this enables us to present Revelation as a “supernaturally natural” manifestation of that which the human species knows, in its virtual and submerged omniscience, both about itself and about God. --F. Schuon

54 comments:

Anonymous said...

Will,

I've been thinking about your comments regarding the role of the "dark night" as a predecessor to salvation. Here are my thoughts on the nature of evil and its relation to man's role in the cosmos:

Evil can never be overcome by bargaining with it.

There can be no compromise or dealing with evil. Such actions will always backfire because evil is constantly altering the rules of the game to suit its own ends.

Evil cannot be defeated from the outside. It can only be held at bay.

Evil is only overcome internally, through the free sacrifice of itself to the good within.

Evil will disguise itself as the Good, in order to coerce good people to unknowingly work for its own corrupt ends.

Evil coerces man in two distinct ways that precisely invert the operation of the Good: it promises seeming rewards that are in actuality poison fruit and it foments fears that impose barriers to seeing the good.

Man, because of his weakness and finite nature, will always succumb to evil and temptation.

Man will always fail. All men will be broken.

And the corrupted, broken man will work, sometimes under the guise of compassion, to corrupt and break other men.

But through their battered bodies and shattered minds, the righteous few will catch a glimpse of the unbreakable spirit shining through.

They will see the part of man's being that cannot be corrupted from without, but only denied from within.

To truly become man, one must first recognize his fallen, weak, mortal and contradictory nature.

He must understand and subsequently master himself, in order to ultimately transcend himself by aligning his being with his immortal center that is beyond being.

This is the role of man in the cosmos. He is nothing in and of himself. Man has meaning only in his role as a vessel for transcendence.

Without transcendence, man is, at best, precisely nothing, and at worst, a knowing or unknowing force of evil.

Therefore, the nobility of man lies not in what man is, but rather, in what he might become.

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

Anon: We're often called 'Human Beings' which is only part of the picture, but isn't 'Human Becomings' a bit more poetic? Don't remember where I first heard the term.

Anonymous said...

I like that, Riv.

The human life is a chance to become something far greater than what we are, a chance to become what we are meant to be.

And the interwoven complexity of the human experience of becoming is truly remarkable.

It is a gift that is so easily misused or squandered.

Sometimes there are just no words. Pure awe.

Joan of Argghh! said...

You create some admittedly arbitrary standard out of thin air, and then determine whether or not reality comports with your fantasy of how things should be.

Because if you don't know where you're going, all roads lead there.

Talk about setting the bar really low! And, if there are no goals, there is no failure. Wonderful! And if you're losing the game, change the rules. Awesome!

I think I'm getting the hang of the Leftist Allure. It so easy, a caveman could do it!

robinstarfish said...

Revealed Truth
secret inner life
hunger in the heart of man
unseen until felled

----------------------

The old Motel Zero has been sold to Basque sheepherders. The new and improved Motel Zero has relocated and opens today for business. All coons stay free.

The new MZ features the most exciting O-Pool (patent pending) on earth. Or Ultimate Troll Disposal (UTD), depending on the swimmer's POV.

Joan of Argghh! said...

This whole post, and especially Schuon's quote at the end put me in mind of what an old preacher used to say, "I just know in my knower."

Of course, if you also "knew in your knower" you'd smile at the shorthanded phrase --an entire esoteric underpinning of cosmic proportions in six words-- and move higher up with the revelation of the gnower. Cool.

Susannah said...

I'm getting "reminders" here...

1. "Human becomings" reminds me of something I read in a Walker Percy novel, but I can't remember exactly what it was.

2. Robin starfish's haiku reminds me for some reason of Mark Heard's song, "Lonely Moon" I guess 'cause the animated man's "middle's" missing.

I'm still trying to get my head around a couple of paragraphs in this post. Makes me dizzy!

Van Harvey said...

"So if one affirms that scripture is the "word of God," it is another way of saying that the intellect through which scripture is understood is also the word of God."

Coming back to that Complementary angle which Aristotle seemed to evoke. As your mind forms to an object of perfection, it enjoys a brief union with that which created it....

"Put another way, science is simply one of the diverse possibilities of intelligence as such. If, like the Darwinian vandals, we ransack the cosmos and turn it upside down, we place ourselves in the absurd position of using our intelligence to prove that it doesn't actually exist."

That's one thing that lefties & trolls (&? Is there another kind?) excell at!

Humans... some intently being (new in their knower), some contentedly becoming (knew in your gnower), all here on Gagdad's Isle (I'll?)!

Susannah said "I'm still trying to get my head around a couple of paragraphs in this post. Makes me dizzy!"

Me too... stop spinning please....

Anonymous said...

I just wanted to compliment Van on his Star Wars insight yesterday. I was a small kid at the time, and that movie spoke to me in ways that nothing else even tried to at the time.

One of my greatest hopes for the future is that so many kids are reading Harry Potter. There's good and evil, and even mediocre politicians denying the existence of evil and people afraid to speak its name.

But I think what ultimately made Reagan cool was a hockey game, that being the US Olympic victory over the Soviets. In the midst of the energy crisis and the invasion of Afghanistan, all of a sudden people were reminded that it was possible to feel good about America. We had so gradually lost faith in the goodness of our nation, and I think that hockey game reminded us that what we stood for was actualy superior, that we could actually beat the Russians.

And by golly, a decade later we did.

Van Harvey said...

Joan of Argghh! said "I think I'm getting the hang of the Leftist Allure. It so easy, a caveman could do it!"

grr @#$! First you delete my friend Haisl's blog... then... then you pretend as if you know our ancient secret of CaveOnTheLeftAllure! I...I...I've lost my appetite!

wv:nnjhkgpw - ninja kung pow! Take that! homo sapien knew knower! Fie!

Anonymous said...

If Sinbad lives does Virtuegood die?

dicentra63 said...

You create some admittedly arbitrary standard out of thin air, and then determine whether or not reality comports with your fantasy of how things should be.

For some on the left, the standard isn't all that arbitrary nor that unpalatable: no sexism, no racism, no homophobia, no war, no conflict, no poverty, no suffering, no environmental damage, etc.

Will heaven contain suffering or hatred or war? No, of course not, so how can you object to the leftist ideal?

The pernicious aspect is that they think that human beings (they themselves) are smart enough to structure a society such that these things no longer exist, as if societal structure were the first cause and not the result.

If only the smart people were in charge, we'd "educate" people to reject hatreds and stuff, then everything would be fine.

As I get older, the more clear it is to me why the Fall of Adam is the second pillar (Creation, Fall, Redemption) of theology, and why Old Scratch is working so hard to obscure that fact.

julie said...

Since you've restructured the sidebar today, Bob, I'd just like to not that Sal has a blog, too. (TW Mizze)

julie said...

:)

Joan of Argghh! said...

Oh Van, Haisl's blog was just done on a dare. Made my point, published and poof! Delete!

Of course, blogger, after losing all my past blogs on the change-over, keeps finding the old deleted ones and putting them "out there" where I never intended. So I have to go looking every now and then to make sure I'm still in the shadows.
:)

CARL TOFFLE said...

Just dazzling, Bob. Today’s offering clarified many of the ideas you have set spinning in my top shop. I started my journey convinced that humans were insignificance itself - grains of cosmic dust in the vastness. Becoming conscious of the role of consciousness changed all that into a realization of our central place in the whole shebang.

If you hadn’t painted it so convincingly, I’d still be looking in all the wrong places for clues to what impels the first step and culminates in the final embrace.

Please continue rending the ‘quadrivelum’ and synchronizing the spinners. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Which version of his-story is really true?

As an Australian I quite like the version of European and especially American history as described by Jack Forbes in his book COLUMBUS AND OTHER CANNIBALS.Plus his other work too.

Jack Forbes being a member of Native Americans that experienced the full force of the "cannibalism" that he so thoroughly describes.

Similarly I also like the work of the Native American Vine Deloria Jr in his books GOD IS RED and CUSTER DIED FOR YOUR SINS. Plus his work altogether too.

Anonymous said...

"Jack Forbes being a member of Native Americans that experienced the full force of the cannibalism that he so thoroughly describes."

I'll give the man credit. It's not easy to write from inside some white guy's stomach.

Anonymous said...

Jack Forbes
MMMM tasty.

Anonymous said...

Dupre,perhaps you should read the book first and find out what he ( Jack Forbes) means by cannibalism.

Anonymous said...

It's not our fault. My people had to eat the Aztec before the Aztec ate everybody else. He who hesitates is lunch!

Anonymous said...

I devoured all of Forbes' books!

So how could I have read them?

Anonymous said...

Actually, I couldn't read his works. I don't speak smoke signal.

julie said...

I always thought that inside a cannibal, it was too dark to read...

Anonymous said...

Damn bloody Hawaiians! They ate Captain Cook!

Anonymous said...

J of A mentioned the caveman, makes me fantacize about time travel. Who would have the harder time surviving: me, transported back to his time, oe he forward to mine? He would probably have the edge, depending on where he landed. All of my intellect would be of little use without so much as a pocketknife or a piece of string. I don't really know how long I would survive. He could be like a lion scaring buzzards away from the food, but he would eventually have to meet Mr. Glock. The sum total of what man has learned is staggering, to the point of being unable to comprehend the possibility. What a wonderful place this cosmos is!

Anonymous said...

Oh, and my ignorance is showing: what is ptee?

julie said...

The Anchoress has me convinced - let's impeach Bush! (TW Sig, Carl & Alf)

wv: bboil - cannibal cooking at its finest

Gagdad Bob said...

Sawdust:

Not your ignorance, just one of the many bobscure references I pack into each post, ensuring that none of them will ever be completely understood. It's from a self-referential line in Finnegans wake, when a part so ptee does duty for the holos, we soon grow to use of an allforabit.

walt said...

Okay, let me play "my ignorance is showing" too, if I may.

Your May 17 post ended with "which is not very courageous, but very C.S."

What is "C.S.?"

Gagdad Bob said...

Chicken sh*t.

Never be afraid to ask!

Gagdad Bob said...

Of course, also a reference to C.S. Lewis' essay, The Abolition of Man.

walt said...

Of course.

And a backhanded reference to Senator McCain, no doubt.

Rick said...

RE “Vandalizing the pages of History”

Or His-story.

It seems that to place science above everything, or natural selection above intelligent design, or to distort historical fact but claim it is true, is to specifically break the 3rd Commandment. God created the order of the Cosmos. Therefore He alone retains its order and history, and its yet to be expressed history, if you will. To distort ANY history is putting yourself in place of Him and claiming that which ultimately, firstly and lastly, belongs only to God. It ignores God’s authority over that which He alone chooses to reveal or not to reveal over time.

God’s name in vain. I had never thought of this Commandment in this context before.

Anonymous said...

love your posts whilst listening to Bill Evans "Village Vanguard Recordings".

sq

Joan of Argghh! said...

Some cannibals boiled up a few missionaries and ate them.

Afterwards, they all had severe stomachaches.

Upon further investigation, the medicine man found out what the problem was.

"You boiled these missionaries?"

"Yes," they replied.

"No wonder!" said the medicine man, "they were Friars!"

Van Harvey said...

aninnymouse,
Oh just for a little recreational troll whacking, just a sip, I for one am rather pleased with how Columbus's adventures turned out (namely the USA), and on the clash of cultures level, have no regret whatsoever over tactics used, how it progressed, etc.

I wish the Israelis would use it as a tried and true plan of action.

I'll point your silly ref's to this provoking little morselChristopher Columbus, We Salute You,and leave it at that; do enjoy.

Joan of Argghh! (gasp!) I have no idea how that caveman made that post using my nic, I must'a not clic...er... I mean, one must have snuck in while I was getting coffee - Shocking!

Van Harvey said...

Anonymous said "Which version of his-story is really true?"

How utterly gender-centric of you, His-story! What, too lazy to write His-her-story? And how about that blatant dis'ing of the gender neutrals!

HOMOPHOBE!

Van Harvey said...

(Actually, I only just realized what "his-story" was supposed to mean, I was searching all up and down the comments to find whose story ninny was refering too. Sometimes I'm so please with my ignorance!)

Joan of Argghh! said...

Can't fool me, Van.

Cavemen don't say, "Fie!"

:0)

Van Harvey said...

Col. J. C. Beaglehole "Damn bloody Hawaiians! They ate Captain Cook!"

Beggin' your pardon Col., but he's damn lucky the bloody Tongans didn't get him - they'd have made him bar-b-que his own legs and taste test himself for them, and force him to call "Heads or Tails" before yanking off his head and tossing it to see who got to use his ribs for a wishbone pull. Savages.

Sure know how to throw a party though.

Van Harvey said...

"Cavemen don't say, "Fie!""

Doh!

Anonymous said...

Bob writes:

"In other words, either natural selection explains our intelligence, or our intelligence explains natural selection. You can't have it both ways."

I don't see why we can't have it both ways; it simply depends on how you use the word "explain."

The statement could be parsed as "natural selection is the cause of our intelligence; in turn, our intelligence provides the written and/or verbal explanation of natural selection."

Problem solved; now we have it both ways.

Anonymous said...

bf, I also note that Bob writes:

"The equations governing the big bang are not the meaning of existence; rather, human beings are the meaning of those equations."

This statement is not watertight; it could be that God might like to bang out a universe or two without life, just to watch the fireworks.

Those equations might have plenty of meaning for Shiva with OR without humanity.

Humanity cannot be assumed the be-all and end-all of the universe; we simply don't have enough information on Brahma's intentions to make that call.

Or if you can make that call, then you've been speaking to The Man. In that case, rock on bro.

Anonymous said...

Hey Ausimouse,

Forget trying to swipe Columbus & Custer. You've got your own Natives to be guilty about.

Lets have the names & titles of Abo sob-stories, where they whine about the things brought to them by the dregs of the English penal system.

Mighty lovely, no doubt.

Anonymous said...

Today learned the full name of someone who works at my new job site:

Maria de la Luz del Bosque

Mary of the Light of the Forrest

Lovely name for someone who makes her living cleaning restrooms.

But for the Grace of God, go I.

Van Harvey said...

ximeze said "Hey Ausimouse, Forget trying to swipe Columbus & Custer. You've got your own Natives to be guilty about."

And when you've got yourself worked up into a nice, comfortable state of self-loathing, here's one to get you all provoked again,
Australia's "Original Sin:Why Prime Minister Howard Should Not Apologize to the Aborigines"

Bon apetite'

Gagdad Bob said...

bf goddrich & skin:

Your analysis is riddled with logical and translogical flaws that I don't have time to correct. In any event, if that's what you believe, I certainly won't try to talk you out of it.

Van Harvey said...

bf1 said "The statement could be parsed as "natural selection is the cause of our intelligence; in turn, our intelligence provides the written and/or verbal explanation of natural selection.""

I don't think you can say that natural selection 'caused' intelligence, and shouldn't that have been stated by bf skin her? Did you get your nic's in a knot.


bf2 said "Those equations might have plenty of meaning for Shiva with OR without humanity. Humanity cannot be assumed the be-all and end-all of the universe; we simply don't have enough information on Brahma's intentions to make that call."

Without humanity, they have no meaning. I don't think you can use the word Meaning in relation to an all seeing all knowing God - by whatever name - meaning only has meaning to those who are learning, those who are not all knowing all seeing.

There is no meaning whatsoever, without human beings - or some alien equivalent. Without that, it's just stuff. He hasn't consulted me on it, but if the big G want's to set off a few universes for fireworks practice - it won't be for gaining any sense of meaning.

Van Harvey said...

It's Ximeze's fault.

Susannah said...

I do not trust the rationality of anyone who claims that blind natural forces are the explanation for this or this
or this
or this
or...

we could go on. Y'all are going to be sorry you taught me how to link.

To wit: explain yourself.

Natural selection doesn't account for you--for any of it. Not unless you ascribe to it intelligence. My husband and I always crack up when watching "Nova" (which he likes to rent). They continually terms like "design," "miracle," and in any number of ways describe "evolution" as purposeful, practically intelligent. It's unavoidable.

Susannah said...

Looks like I still need tutoring! Try this and this instead. :)

Anonymous said...

Seems like annonymous took the same series of sociology and history courses that my kids did at college.

For some reason, they were all called "White Men Suck."

Van Harvey said...

maineman said "For some reason, they were all called "White Men Suck." "

LOL! I'm so glad I'd just set my coffee mug down!

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