John Lukacs and Russell Kirk too quickly announced the end of historical determinism (The Passing of the Modern Age). Our will is not as free as they wish it to be.
History may be a teleological process, as John Lukacs writes, (Historical Consciousness) but it is not only or merely moving toward that end of mankind and the Day of Judgment in the sense of the Involutionary Inward Path alone, or in the Traditional religious sense. It is not a purely spiritual teleology, it is a spiritual teleology which activates material evolution, or the Evolutionary Outward Path to Godhood.
And Lukacs, again, too quickly announced that our evolution will be only the evolution of our consciousness (Teilhard de Chardin made the same mistake). This was another side-stepping, and perhaps unconscious slight-of-hand, of the controversial subject of human evolution. This was a serious mistake which stunted Conservatism and stunted true Western progress. Men are so terrified of the “armed ghost” of historical determinism (and perhaps rightly afraid), that they create another ghost, the end of materialism. We are so afraid of Stalin and Hitler (wrong or evil as they may be) that we murder materialism.
It is true that quantum physics has made scientific certitude less possible, but this does not mean that scientific certitude does not exist, as Lukacs wishes it, and this does not mean that materialism is dead. We are simply too ignorant at this point in our evolution to have scientific certainty in these things. Nevertheless, the Evolutionary Christian Church exhumes the material evolution to Godhood, with the Evolutionary Outward Path, while maintaining the religious teleological end of the Involutionary Inward Path of Tradition. That is, we can have both Spiritualism and Materialism. One dare not kill the other.
History may be a teleological process, as John Lukacs writes, (Historical Consciousness) but it is not only or merely moving toward that end of mankind and the Day of Judgment in the sense of the Involutionary Inward Path alone, or in the Traditional religious sense. It is not a purely spiritual teleology, it is a spiritual teleology which activates material evolution, or the Evolutionary Outward Path to Godhood.
And Lukacs, again, too quickly announced that our evolution will be only the evolution of our consciousness (Teilhard de Chardin made the same mistake). This was another side-stepping, and perhaps unconscious slight-of-hand, of the controversial subject of human evolution. This was a serious mistake which stunted Conservatism and stunted true Western progress. Men are so terrified of the “armed ghost” of historical determinism (and perhaps rightly afraid), that they create another ghost, the end of materialism. We are so afraid of Stalin and Hitler (wrong or evil as they may be) that we murder materialism.
It is true that quantum physics has made scientific certitude less possible, but this does not mean that scientific certitude does not exist, as Lukacs wishes it, and this does not mean that materialism is dead. We are simply too ignorant at this point in our evolution to have scientific certainty in these things. Nevertheless, the Evolutionary Christian Church exhumes the material evolution to Godhood, with the Evolutionary Outward Path, while maintaining the religious teleological end of the Involutionary Inward Path of Tradition. That is, we can have both Spiritualism and Materialism. One dare not kill the other.
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