Perspectives: Noxious Impulses

This post some may find somewhat offensive, and I myself find it very speculative, but hey, what else is this blog for? It has to do with the hypothetical origins of every system of ideological thought, explained from a theistic foundation. It will also serve as the guideline from which I will eventually, hopefully, write a second book that will serve as my Apologia. Admittedly I'm getting ahead of myself since as of this writing, I'm only halfway through the second chapter of the Consequences of Volition. Oh, there is too much to express on these pages.

I will try and express my views in as abstract a mode as possible. What follows simply derives from some basic principles. It will, inevitably, be incorporated into the mythos of Eldwan, to characterise the world, but also to grant it a sense of richness that may seem varied, but logical. The worldviews I will describe may not match up entirely with the fine subdivisions that modern philosophy distinguishes. It may be more useful to think of them as categories.

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1. The Theistic Worldview

This is the simplest to derive. If one accepts that there is a perfect God and He created a perfect universe, then this perspective towards life would be the most logical posture to adopt in a perfect creation. God made the world and after that creative week, He looked at it and felt immense satisfaction. It was all good. All created beings would have submitted to the wise design of God, and there would have been no hurt or confusion in the beginning.

There are three essential questions that I will track through the rest of this post that will help to characterise each worldview in a few key concepts. Let me introduce them here.

Does God Exist? - Which simply asks if the worldview accepts the existence of God or denies it.

Is God Good? - Which asks if an existing God has good purposes for what He has created. 

Is God Wise? - Which asks if a God with a purpose has the best possible means of achieving that purpose and knows what has to be done to attain it.

Is God Wise? Yes

Is God Good? Yes

Does God Exist? Yes

In the essence of the theistic worldview, the answer to all three questions is emphatically yes. God is wise, God is good and God exists. As long as all beings continue to abide by these principles and act accordingly, then there is harmony between creation and creator, and things proceed in the most effective time towards His good purpose. Those who adopt this view in relation to their God will always persist through every movement of the world, but they will at times be oppressed, and often, few in number.

2. The Heteristic Worldview

The first rebellion in one sense, was not flagrant, but in another, was the most decisive break from the worldview before it, since there was no precedent. It begins when a created being, who as I have suggested before, ought to be the first created being, decides to answer one of those questions differently. The rebellion has to be extremely convincing, but in essence still growing out of a sense of pride. Therefore, I doubt that the rebellious being could have gone around simply parading the idea that he would set himself up as rival god, at least at the beginning. Instead, I would say that the rebel would have touted a better method by which God's purpose could have been achieved. In a sense the message would have said: 'This is taking too long, there is a better way.' He himself would have to be utterly convinced of his suggestion before taking it to everyone else. In effect, he was questioning the wisdom of God. This worldview has the longest journey in its development, but I don't want to address that here.

Is God Wise? No then Yes

Is God Good? Yes then No

Does God Exist? Yes

God comes down very hard on the created beings who took that fateful decision to break the perfect harmony that existed before. Conversely, He also made arrangements for the rebellious to be reconciled to Him. The rebel himself persisted in his disobedience, and stubbornly proceeds to attempt to prove the superiority of his method of achieving God's purpose. Those who follow this view place their hopes in the rebel, and believe that he will achieve for them what God will not. At the same time, in order to achieve God's purpose, independently, they find themselves having to imitate the system of God as much as possible. Therefore, the transition between the answers. God's wisdom is borrowed, but His good character is degraded in this view.

This society is cut off from God, who is the source of all goodness and blessing. The rebel attempts to fulfil the role of an infinite god for his followers, but he soon realises that he cannot. Instead, he begins to focus his efforts to develop a select few, and the rest begin to flounder.

3. The Dualistic Worldview

Those who do not follow the rebel are now presented with a choice, once again with respect to God's will. To be clear, it is a choice between awaiting God's redemption plan or attempting to fulfil that redemption on their own strength. It would be appealing for some to say that redemption simply meant defeating the first rebellious impulse. Humanity now takes God's will into our own hands and decides that we will attain that will in our own way. Once again, there is a sense of irony about this view, as it is in essence, repeating the very same rebellion that it claims to want to destroy. This time the issue is not about God's original creative purpose, but about His redemptive purpose.

Is God Wise? No

Is God Good? Yes

Does God Exist? Yes

Adherents of this view believe that they have the authority to bring God's redemptive will to pass by the means they deem wisest. They earnestly believe that the first impulse is evil to its core, and ruining the creative will of God. They will walk a fine line between claiming the authority and representation of God's will on earth, and effecting their own imperfect wills more often than not. In their supposed divine sanction, they will inflict great suffering on the world by attempting to execute their flawed understanding of God's redemption. Their sense of righteousness will blind them to the gentle righteousness of God, and compel the greatest atrocities on those who follow the rebel. To these, the world is divided into two clashing impulses, the light and the dark, the good and the evil.

The finite leaders of these men are even less capable than the rebel at providing for the needs of their people. The society that results becomes highly stratified, with an elite that interprets the will of God for the masses and directs their efforts, mostly into conflict with the heterodox society.

4. The Humanistic Worldview

Centuries have gone by perhaps, and the wars between the first two rebellious impulses have drained the world and exhausted its population. Much grief beyond the imaginings of either set of leaders has flowed as a result of the clash of their ideologies. Bitterness and a desire for revenge have simply given way to a longing for peace and tolerance. The touting of God's purpose, either in its original sense or in its redemptive sense, as a cloak for personal ambition and pride, has caused many to be disillusioned with the very notion that God has goodness for humanity at His heart. They decide that they will strike out on their own, and rely on their own human faculties to guide their lives. Some say that God is no longer involved in the matters of humanity, that He has departed to realms unknown and left us to our own fate. Others begin to say that God is not good, and that we must determine goodness for ourselves.

Is God Wise? No

Is God Good? No

Does God Exist? Yes

Those who agree with this view begin to experiment, and they found an enlightened society, where humanity, in thoughtful self-examination, determines how to govern itself. They decide that the transcendent purposes of God must be put aside in order to realise their full inherent potential. God may exist, but His will is to have no practical bearing on this society.

By valuing men, this impulse guides a society flourishes as no other has for many a century. At the same time, it is more fragmented than any other before it, for every opinion is considered and upheld, and a thousand voices clamour with their perspectives, each seeming valid to some fraction of the populace. 

Then this movement's ironic backlash manifests. Tolerance becomes intolerant of intolerance. The leaders of this society cast moral judgements on the leaders of the other two impulses. They begin to mobilise against them. Perhaps the second impulse has already branded them traitors, and attacked them first. Whatever it is, the situation is inherently unstable. A new power has risen that claims morality as its prerogative which was previously the sole domain of another. The third humanistic impulse rushes back against the oppressive order of first heteristic and second dualistic impulses. They claim that they are liberating the oppressed. In putting man above God, they are happy to desecrate all that was once called sacred in defiance of the transcendent, because they sincerely believe that the transcendent has caused more harm than good. In their rampant transgressions, they degrade themselves and betray their ideals.

5. The Nihilistic Worldview

God disappointed man, then the rebel disappointed man, and in two phases, men disappointed men. There was now no recourse for the rebellious. Each impulse had given birth to another, each more destructive than the one before it. It seemed as though humanity was careening on a course towards complete self destruction. Hope died, and with hope dead, the very notion of God, meaning, morality and design took on a bitter anguish that could not be articulated. Being so utterly scarred by the abuses of the impulses that have come before, this final, destructive impulse emerges as a final, most antithetical movement. It represents the very opposite of a God who delighted in life, meaning and significance, and consumes its followers in a rampant hurtle into self annihilation. 

Is God Wise? No

Is God Good? No

Does God Exist? No

It proposes that life is without any higher meaning. With that, there are two responses. The first we may call stoicism. It states that life is inherently capricious and hostile, and we should always prepare for the worst and not be surprised by the suffering of the world. The second is hedonism, which grasps recklessly at what offers the little pleasures in life, being content with scraps that themselves grow cold from overindulgence.

This last movement cannot, in its purest form, hope to achieve anything beyond a promotion of death. It grows only by drawing converts from the other worldviews, for in itself, it offers no motivation to continue the exercise of life. So God offers life, and nihilism drains it like a void, consuming the gifts of the divine source.

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In future posts, I will elaborate on the characteristics of each of these movements individually, for in my conception, they are far from abstract. All future movements that arise are nothing more than permutations and variations of the beliefs that arise from these fundamentals.