A Cosmos, a Theos, and an Anthropos Walk Into a Post

We're still ransacking Plato's Revenge: The New Science of the Immaterial Genome for any useful nuggets.

Useful for what?

For our total paradigm, or paradigm of totality, of course. Any such paradigm will have to account for the most striking features of this cosmos, one of which being Life Itself: what is it, and how did it get here? 

In this regard, our existing scientistic paradigm is a total fail -- which it must be, because it simply excludes or explains away what it cannot explain and what exceeds its grasp. 

So, it is high time for a fresh approach, perhaps a paradigm shift as dramatic and revolutionary as the one from Newtonian to quantum physics. This requires no new data per se, rather, a new way to look at it. At the same time, the new paradigm must not unexplain what the old one explained; it must transcend but include existing findings. 

In a secular world, paradigms and ideologies take on religious significance, because they serve many of the same functions as religion, e.g., situating us in a timeless quasi-mythological narrative and generating meaning. Thus, in the words of Klinghoffer, "Darwinian materialism" "functions for many as an aggressive, quasi-religious faith without a deity beyond nature itself."

In other words, the Absolute is displaced from transcendence to immanence. Nevertheless, there is always an absolute, nor can one ever literally eliminate transcendence and still presume to think. 

Rather, one can only pretend to eliminate transcendence, since it can only be done from a transcendent position. What we're really dealing with here is the Transcendent Absolute being absolutely immanentized by a creature who always has one foot in transcendence. It makes no sense, but there it is. 

Klinghoffer highlights an interesting irony in the divergent ways that Nazis and communists dealt with the transcendence/immanence complementarity. The Nazis, of course, took a bottom-up view by essentially absolutizing genes and eradicating the "bad" ones, e.g., Jews, Gypsies, and the insane. Conversely, the Soviet Union

took the opposite but also erroneous tack: denying the existence of genes however they might be understood. The party line... held that "nothing about heredity was inherent at all. In nature, everything -- everyone -- was changeable. Genes were a mirage invented by the bourgeoisie." They must be, or the Communist revolution would be handicapped.

So, the National socialists absolutized bottom-up genetic inheritance, while the international socialists absolutized their top-down dialectical materialism. And both enforced an intrinsically absurd absolute relativism.

Now, in reality, absolute and relative are complementary partners, as is the case with part-whole,  immanent-transcendent, subject-object, and time-eternity. We can never talk about one term without bringing in the other, whether explicitly or implicitly. 

Here is a passage I highlighted:

we can securely infer that purposive design occurred not just once upon a time, but also in the here and now -- a purposive infusion of form as an ongoing activity (emphasis mine).

This implicitly points to a vertical cosmos that is "open at the top" to information and energies that stream into it from above. The question is, does such a paradigm explain more than the existing one that posits a closed universe in which all information somehow arises from below? 

I'm not even sure if there's a theory of a theory for how that could happen. Rather, it is simply assumed -- another instance of the One Free Miracle that allows one to explain everything else. For the amount of specified information packed into the Big Bang, not to mention the even greater amount packed into the simplest living creature, is staggering. In the case of living things, it might as well be infinite. 

Here is another passage I highlighted, which goes to a cosmos that is open at the top, i.e., open to transcendence (and by the way -- at this juncture we needn't determine exactly how the cosmos is vertically open, only that it is open to transcendence):

Gödel demonstrated that every mathematical system must, at one or more points, rest on unproven, and unprovable axioms. The proof wasn't meant as an argument for immobilizing skepticism. Gödel was confident that we can know certain unprovable axioms, but he was able to demonstrate that such knowledge arrives mysteriously, from outside the axiomatic system (emphasis mine).

Now surely this means something, Beavis:

But what does it mean? Well, it means that in our new & improved paradigm, knowledge and other transcendental information and energies can arrive from outside the system. You can call it "mysterious," but no one can deny that it happens.  

Correction: to say "outside the system" can't be right. Rather, our total system is inclusive of the transcendent-immanent complementarity, which reminds me of the cosmotheandrism we were discussing a couple weeks ago: our total paradigm always involves an irreducible and interpenetrating dance of Cosmos, Theos, and Anthropos.

Word count?

Eh, plus or minus 800.

Space enough to coax a visual aid out of Gemini: "The image is designed to be a visual representation of the complex ideas you discuss in your blog post, particularly your call for a new, holistic paradigm." 

Symbolism of the Image

• The "Tree of Life" Structure: At its core, the image forms a central, glowing structure resembling a cosmic tree.

  • The roots reach down into a glowing, foundational layer, representing the material world or "immanence," from which life and systems appear to originate.

  • The trunk and branches ascend upwards, culminating in a brilliant, expansive light at the top. This signifies the vertical cosmos that is "open at the top," receiving information and energies from above, and the realm of the transcendent and the divine ("Theos").

• Interconnected Networks and Flow: You can see intricate lines and networks throughout the image, especially connecting the different layers. These symbolize:

  • The flow of information and energy streaming from the transcendent into the material world, representing the "purposive infusion of form as an ongoing activity."

  • The interconnectedness of all things – the absolute and relative, part and whole, immanent and transcendent – emphasizing that no single aspect can be understood in isolation.

• Cosmic Elements (Constellations & Nebulae): The subtle presence of star patterns and swirling cosmic dust throughout the image represents the Cosmos itself -- the vast, ordered, and comprehensible universe that you and Einstein marvel at.

• Abstract Forms and Light: The various glowing, almost cellular or symbolic shapes floating around the central structure, especially those emitting light, can represent:

  • Life Itself and the staggering amount of specified information found within living creatures.

  • The mysterious arrival of knowledge and "unprovable axioms" that Gödel pointed to, which seem to come from "outside the system" but are, in fact, part of a larger, integrated reality.

  • The human element (Anthropos), as our consciousness is capable of perceiving and participating in this grand, interconnected reality. The overall glow and intricate details suggest the complexity and wonder of human perception and thought within this paradigm.

• Paradigm Shift: The dynamic, luminous, and comprehensive nature of the image, showing a universe that is both grounded and open, visually encapsulates the "paradigm shift" you advocate for – moving beyond a closed, reductionist view to a holistic understanding where transcendence is fully integrated.

In essence, it's a visual metaphor for the "irreducible and interpenetrating dance of Cosmos, Theos, and Anthropos" that forms your "total paradigm."