Sunday, May 17, 2009

Vandalizing History and Ransacking the Cathedral of Time

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. --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."

Vandalized the page. This is a perfectly apt metaphor for the postmodern 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 "reframing," 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 by Pomo sapiens, or "tenured ape."

Now, when we refer to intelligence, we are ultimately talking about meaning. And when we refer to meaning, we are ultimately talking about the human phenomenon. No, not this or that finite human life, but the entire meaning of an anthropocentric cosmos that was once (supposedly) lifeless 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 -- nor will it 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 whatsoever on her private jet.

Therefore, all meaning must be placed in the larger context of the meaning of meaning, or the Human Phenomenon. 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, or blarney rubble. All Stone Age 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 cosmos itself is an expression of the Human Phenomenon, 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. To put it another way, if existence were meaningless, man couldn't know it.

Man cannot be properly defined in the absence of knowledge of what a human life is for. Again, man is not simply a bit of discrete matter with easily proscribed spatial boundaries. Rather, a human life is something that can only unfold and express its wholeness -- and therefore its identity -- in time. But our movement in time is not simply arbitrary -- or, at least it should not be. Rather, it is guided by a telos, so that there is something that man -- both individually and collectively -- ought to become. As such, it is possible to waste our lives and fail to become human.

Human beings are not matter and they are not God. If we were matter, we could not evolve, and if we were God, there would be no need to. But in reducing himself to matter, the secularist covertly elevates himself to God, since nothing is higher or lower than anything else -- thus, with a single metaphysical error, the humanist makes a God -- and an ass -- a goddass -- of himself. You will have noticed that this is one of the contradictions at the heart of both scientism and leftism, and which ramifies into countless other clumsy errors too countless to count on every left thumb.

Both beyond and within the Human Phenomenon is the God Phenomenon. We call this latter business revelation, which includes the Incarnation. But in reality, the human phenomenon 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 (to paraphrase Schuon). 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. They are like two halves of a whole.

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 Phenomenon 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. [A point of metaphysical order: obviously this is only possible if God has first "taken on" human nature; we could never accomplish this on our own.]

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 genetic copying errors. 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.

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 Phenomenon, 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 one destroys 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, in a certain very proscribed manner -- can only be understood in light of the Absolute. Otherwise, how do you measure it? Easy. For the toxic asshat of the left, 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. And since reality never comports with our fantasies, the leftist is given license to "radically transform" (to put it euphemistically) the present reality.

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 phenomenon inches closer toward its nonlocal goal, which is to say, its theomorphic center. One of the most dramatic leaps 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, metaphysical Darwinians, and other cosmic vandals.

As I wrote in the Coonifesto, the end is always here, because the end of the Human Phenomenon 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 one of God's mirrorcles 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. --Schuon

46 comments:

goddinpotty said...

Wow, I did not know that tolerance and diversity were part of the evil postmodern leftist conspiracy. I will be sure to add them to my list of things to be afraid of.

"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own."
--- Thomas Jefferson

Cousin Dupree said...

And some people wonder why Bob must repeat himself!

Joan of Argghh! said...

I will be sure to add them to my list of things to be afraid of.
If only you would, and then ask yourself why you cherry-picked one phrase to misinterpret, you would have grown to the proper height of a mere grasshopper.

As it is, your screen name suggests your disposition, and invites a dismissal. You are dismissed. Please enjoy your recess.

julie said...

the humanist makes a God -- and an ass -- a goddass -- of himself.

Not only the humanist, but also the folks (like our regular anony troll who after all this time still doesn't get it; talk about stunted growth...) who insist on preaching "thou art that" without first realizing how much "thou aint that." I'm a Lebowski, you're a Lebowski, yes? yes?

No.

And as long as you insist on living an unchallenged existence (because if you're already God and it's all part of the plan and you get, like, infinite do overs, anyway, why not just go with what feels good? You don't have to change, it's all part of the plan. So let's all join hands and meditate and smoke a bowl and quite fighting with our leftist brothers who just want to love thy neighbors; we're all god together, so lets all feel good together), you will never actually make progress toward the Absolute. You dwell in the periphery, and you can't comprehend why anyone should be bothered to move toward the Center since it's all the same, and anyway it's hard to be good. Moving toward the Center actually requires discipline, struggle, and the very real possibility - near certainty, in fact - that ultimately you'll have to leave some folks behind, because you can't make their journey for them. You can only blaze a trail, and hope that they'll follow. It requires accepting that there is real good and real evil in the world, and you do have to pick sides and defend your choice. It requires facing up to the fact that You. Might. Fail.

(Sorry; obviously, a nerve has been struck. Repeatedly. Anyway...)

ximeze said...

"Wow, I did not know that tolerance and diversity were part of the evil postmodern leftist conspiracy."

Thus spake Flounder

JWM said...

Oh, no! Not the flounder- anything but the flounder!
Yaaarrrggghhh!

JWM

Gagdad Bob said...

I need to stop time. The Dodger pitcher is throwing a no-hitter through seven, and the Lakers are leading 8-0. It can only go downhill from here.

Gagdad Bob said...

So much for the no-hitter....

Van Harvey said...

"The cosmos, let alone our solar system, will not always be fit for life, even if Sheryl Crow uses no toilet paper whatsoever on her private jet."

Hoot!

"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, or blarney rubble. All Stone Age 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."

There's the old gag,

"Babe, would you sleep with a guy for a hundred million dollars?"

"Wow... that's a lot of money... I... uh... I'm not sure... I might...."

"Come on in, we'll have some drinks and hop in the sack"

"What kind of girl do you think I am!"

"That we've already established, now we're just haggling over price.
"

The left will always try to switch the grounds of a discussion away from Quality to a variation of quantity, in order to bypass or subvert questions of quality. Few people would answer 'yes' to "Would you sell yourself for money?", but by avoiding it, by pivoting the argument into pressing your face right up into the bark, they push the existence of a forest out of your awareness and concern.

They will never ask 'Is it right to enslave one person, let alone an entire people?", they'll only present you with an impact of quantity "This lady couldn't afford health insurance, and her baby died, don't we need to do something about that?!". And yes, as with Hilary's example, it'll usually be a lie, when you believe in quantity over quality, horizontal over vertical, pragmatism over principles, power over what is proper - what is good or what is true is inconsequential to your purposes... IOW ugliness becomes the new beauty.

“ To put it another way, if existence were meaningless, man couldn't know it."

What a Gem!

Van Harvey said...

gulpingpotty said "I will be sure to add them to my list of things to be afraid of."

A leftist weakness, when you you understand nothing and have no clue what you're talking about... gotta have lots of lists....

julie said...

The TOTUS bravely makes a stand for not making a stand.

julie said...

Van, I have a whole bunch of lists of things to be afraid of. They're stuck to my computer, and they constantly harangue me.

Stupid chores that need to be done. Doh!

Van Harvey said...

We used to have those lists on the fridge... but somehow the ones with stuff for me to do kept getting vandalized.




(No... didn't get me out of doing 'em... it was fun for awhile pretending it'd help)

;-)

julie said...

Heh - more tolerance for dissent and diversity of opinion.

Anonymous said...

Van 1:36,

Your "old gag" about the "Babe" who is offered to f*ck a guy for "hundred million dollars" is ummm er, aaaaah . . .Ok I will come out and say it. Why not call a spade a spade?
He, the MAN is a rich and clever guy. She, the woman, is a whore in his eyes.

On the other hand tho, if the "Babe" is a prostitute whore, what proper name should such a man be saddled with?

T

Joan of Argghh! said...

Yep. Pedants are ruining the Internet.

Anonymous said...

Joan, it may not matter to you, but it sure does to me, and I do point a finger at the men who want to frig whores and be called "proper men?"

It feels friging wierd when a leering at me guy (in front of his girlfriend and other women and men at the dance table) said to his bud-friends, "Wouldn't you want to jump something like that?"

PUUULEEEEEEEEZE! and I didn't give him any WHATSOVER REASON TO LEER AT ME!

By the way? great write-blog Bob. And apologies for this interlude.

wv's esses = close 'enuf
T

will said...

I agree, Joan. The internet is no place for heavy jewelry!

goddinpotty said...

Given the existence as uttered forth in the public works of Puncher and Wattmann of a personal God quaquaquaqua with white beard quaquaquaqua outside time without extension who from the heights of divine apathia divine athambia divine aphasia loves us dearly with some exceptions for reasons unknown but time will tell and suffers like the divine Miranda with those who for reasons unknown but time will tell are plunged in torment plunged in fire whose fire flames if that continues and who can doubt it will fire the firmament that is to say blast hell to heaven so blue still and calm so calm with a calm which even though intermittent is better than nothing but not so fast and considering what is more that as a result of the labors left unfinished crowned by the Acacacacademy of Anthropopopometry of Essy-in-Possy of Testew and Cunard it is established beyond all doubt all other doubt than that which clings to the labors of men that as a result of the labors unfinished of Testew and Cunnard it is established as hereinafter but not so fast for reasons unknown that as a result of the public works of Puncher and Wattmann it is established beyond all doubt that in view of the labors of Fartov and Belcher left unfinished for reasons unknown of Testew and Cunard left unfinished it is established what many deny that man in Possy of Testew and Cunard that man in Essy that man in short that man in brief in spite of the strides of alimentation and defecation wastes and pines wastes and pines and concurrently simultaneously what is more for reasons unknown in spite of the strides of physical culture the practice of sports such as tennis football running cycling swimming flying floating riding gliding conating camogie skating tennis of all kinds dying flying sports of all sorts autumn summer winter winter tennis of all kinds hockey of all sorts penicillin and succedanea in a word I resume flying gliding golf over nine and eighteen holes tennis of all sorts in a word for reasons unknown in Feckham Peckham Fulham Clapham namely concurrently simultaneously what is more for reasons unknown but time will tell fades away I resume Fulham Clapham in a word the dead loss per head since the death of Bishop Berkeley being to the tune of one inch four ounce per head approximately by and large more or less to the nearest decimal good measure round figures stark naked in the stockinged feet in Connemara in a word for reasons unknown no matter what matter the facts are there and considering what is more much more grave that in the light of the labors lost of Steinweg and Peterman it appears what is more much more grave that in the light the light the light of the labors lost of Steinweg and Peterman that in the plains in the mountains by the seas by the rivers running water running fire the air is the same and then the earth namely the air and then the earth in the great cold the great dark the air and the earth abode of stones in the great cold alas alas in the year of their Lord six hundred and something the air the earth the sea the earth abode of stones in the great deeps the great cold on sea on land and in the air I resume for reasons unknown in spite of the tennis the facts are there but time will tell I resume alas alas on on in short in fine on on abode of stones who can doubt it I resume but not so fast I resume the skull fading fading fading and concurrently simultaneously what is more for reasons unknown in spite of the tennis on on the beard the flames the tears the stones so blue so calm alas alas on on the skull the skull the skull the skull in Connemara in spite of the tennis the labors abandoned left unfinished graver still abode of stones in a word I resume alas alas abandoned unfinished the skull the skull in Connemara in spite of the tennis the skull alas the stones Cunard

julie said...

Cripes, man how many tabs did you swallow?

will said...

Julie, I think it's an ad for a cruise ship that has tennis courts.

will said...

>> . . . the human center will not always be here . . . The cosmos, let alone our solar system, will not always be fit for life . . <<

Not physical life, for sure. But I think once materiality - or "frozen God-consciousness" in effect - has served its purpose, the cosmos, along with its human center, will integrate said consciousness and become . . . something else. New heaven, new earth . . . a *really* new earth.

Van Harvey said...

aninnymess said "what proper name should such a man be saddled with?"

In my example? A Leftist.
In real life? A scumbag.

Not that I'm differentiating between the two.

candidate for best wv ever:
boosseas

Joan of Argghh! said...

Will, if the Intertubes are no place for heavy jewelry, then we are safe from Michelle Obama's clomping feet around here.

:o)

wv: sessesse . . . I have no response to this.

Skully said...

Now we're gettin' crackhead trolls?
Yeah, like I'm gonna read a three foot long paragraph of de-stilled dieatribe.

There jest ain't no cure fer stupid.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

So why is it that lefties and idiots (but I repeat myself), never quote Jefferson when he said every classroom should have a Bible in it?

For the lefties and idjits: that was a rhetorical question. No need to write an incoherent manifesto in reply. See? I'm a nice guy. I saved you hours of typing.

Anonymous said...

Van, I don't call "leftists" "scum bag", or any other name, therefore I agree that we disagree.

I wonder if ever there will be a "proper man" who will apologise on behalf of those brethern-men who leer at and think women are objects . . .

Glad I heard on TV that Trump is the director or owner of the beauty pagents and that his organization payed for Miss California's boob job. How Christian of her and everything. I'm sure she doesn't even have pre-marital sex seeing how she thinks she's so religious. Now, there's one woman -- out of countless other women -- who craves the eyes of many substitute daddies to ogle her, and they don't represent me.

Whilst at it - God is, never will be a male/MAN, or for that matter (a great big shudder now) a female/WOMAN.

T

Anonymous said...

Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. - Matt 5:17

You have heard that is was said, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY"; but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. - Matt 5:27/25

For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. - Matthew 5:20

Prince of Peace

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. They are like two halves of a whole.
But not exactly."

But is a 'word' ever really a word, that transmission point between author and reader, at any other time than when it is being read? Can it ever attain to its meaning on the other side of the authorial mirror, except through the reader's reading and understanding of it? Even then, that inspiration seems as though it is only ever able to fully attain to its intended expenditure as fuel for the spirit, as with oxygen burned in the lungs, when it is not just read, or even merely understood, but in being brought through into existence in being lived by... uniting body, mind and soul.

It seems that only then can the poetry ring out clear and true; from the Author through the page, into the reader and out among the light of day. An Author without a reader, is incomplete, and the Book is the nexus needed for them to find and fulfill each other... the full metabolic process of wordgitation, is needed for the word to ring true, to join between that which it came from, and those who it came into. Around that axis, it seems, that the author, the word and the reader, become One.

But not exactly....

Circling around… getting late.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

T said-

"How Christian of her and everything."

And how Christian of you to pretend to be able to read her mind.

Of course, you wouldn't be writing about her if it wasn't for that hideous and foul mouthed scumbag, Perez, who can't tolerate that Miss California and most people want marriage to mean the same thing it's always meant.

You sound rather bitter to me. Lose one beauty pageant too many?

Van Harvey said...

Sheesh... missed the 'T'.

Click.

Van Harvey said...

G'night Ben, Skully... not too much grog on watch....

Anonymous said...

Ben, from what I understand the Perez dude said what he belives to be true. So yeah he is right, and there 'aint nothing gona change his mind and I 'ain't gona loose my sleep over this. And I won't call him names.

Van, hehe = did you then like what the Prince of Peace said?

If you knew it was "T" who posted that would you react diferently? jes' wondering.

T

Skully said...

Speakin' of Scribes and Pharisees...

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

G'night Van!
I'll go easy on the grog. Ha ha! Skully hogged most of it anyway.

Anonymous said...

Goodness me, Ben thinks he is in heaven already and I am bitter -- how amazing is that?

T

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

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, or blarney rubble."

Ha ha! Great post, Bob!
I find myself rereading sections (actually, I usually find myself doin' that) to get a more Bobscure picture.

Very compelling. And I cooncur, repeteing (and peteing) really helps.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

"...thus, with a single metaphysical error, the humanist makes a God -- and an ass -- a goddass -- of himself. You will have noticed that this is one of the contradictions at the heart of both scientism and leftism, and which ramifies into countless other clumsy errors too countless to count on every left thumb."

Excellent description, Bob of leftties and scientismies. The godasses of vandalism and destruction. Of course they never look at the coonclusion of the omarchy they want.

Anonymous said...

Ben, you know what would be truly amazing?

If you truly knew that the same God that is looking at the world through your eyes is also looking out of Perez' eyes.
Bob's quote: "Human being is a "lens" where the vertical 'collides' with the horizontal in the most intense way uniquelly capable of knowing absolute truth."

And, if you read my blog, or in fact understood the essence-meaning of my 'testimonies' on this blog, you would realize that I know this. . .

T

Anonymous said...

Course, in the case of Perez, God may be staring out at a roided-up butthole as we speak eh?

T

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Emphasis: "Human", T.
Once Perez gets to the human stage I would be inclined to agree.

Miss C. said...

I don't care who you are, THAT is funny!

Skully said...

First, the Perez creature must get past his 'roid rage.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Heh! I hear Preparation H is lookin' for a new spokesmonkey.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

"But our movement in time is not simply arbitrary -- or, at least it should not be. Rather, it is guided by a telos, so that there is something that man -- both individually and collectively -- ought to become. As such, it is possible to waste our lives and fail to become human."

Bare's repeteing (obviously), hint hint.

Anonymous said...

Anony 9:51 is not same "T" -- as this T (*7*)

Ben, I don't revile or make fun of "gay" people. I don't make fun of "straight" people either no matter who they are and what they say. But that's just me.

On the other hand Ben . . . I wonder what that feels like to be inside your skin and head?
Not the same, and not so much, like feeling/being 'inside' the skin, mind and heart of the "Prince of Peace"?

T (*7*)

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