All Is Existence And Essence Within

Essence (Spirit, Will To Godhood) does not give the thing its content and substance, existence (the material being, body, the object) gives the thing its content and substance. Essence activates existence, but essence is a supermaterial extension and substance of material life and existence, it is not non-material. All is existence.

Existence does not exist only in the mind, as Kant seems to suggest, existence is the real thing, which the Scholastics seemed to confirm.

Essence is not the only "real" actuality of things, as St Thomas seems to suggest, essence is the supermaterial activating force of material and supermaterial existence---essence is not more actual than existence.

Essence is part of existence although not identical with existence because existence can be material and essence is supermaterial, as Godhood is.

Existence does not derive from essence, as St Thomas seems to suggest, existence and essence are always together, one activating the other, at various levels of evolution, all the way to Godhood, the highest evolution.

The Being of Godhood is only different from the being of man in the level of evolution. Essence and existence are always together as things evolve all the way to Godhood.

This seems to mean that Dasein, or us being here in the world, is not omitted from this definition of being or Being. The only difference is in levels of evolution.

It is not “time” that is the unity which pervades the various Beings and beings, it is evolution. Time is only a secondary definition of real things evolving in the cosmos.

I take the products of thought to be real things, something like  objectivism and Scholasticism (see "Heidegger and Aquinas”, by Caputo). Real things enter the mind and mingle with what is in the mind and memory and what is a priori in the body (eg. the Spirit or Will). What we see has to do with what is seen as well as what is is our minds and memory. What we see is the product of the actual things our senses see.

Existence never stands outside of its causes—existence is always connected to essence. Essence does not cause existence, essence activates existence always from within existence.

The Four Givens: How and what we think and see

How and what we see and think is intermingled with, (a) what our senses are seeing now, (b) what we have thought or experienced of the senses before in our memories, (c) input from the Will To Godhood or the Spirit Within, (d) and how we synthesize and define this intermingling.

The first given, the senses, lead this intermingling, followed by the second given, past memories, the third given, Will to Godhood, and the fourth given, the synthesis of these things. The fourth given, the synthesis, is vitally influenced by the third given, the Will To Godhood that activates life to evolve, which is then shaped by evolution from without. This seems to place the third given, the Will, within the second given of past memories and experience.  The Will would be a priori.

Which of the givens is most important? The third given, the Will to Godhood or the Spirit Within, which is the central drive, the Inward Dynamis or instinct of life. There can be various balances between these givens but what we want is the balanced hierarchy of the Will To Godhood consciously not unconsciously leading the givens. This can bring physical-mental-cultural health, as the Will To Godhood activating life and real upward evolution can become the primary direction of culture.

There is never an end to rebirths

“Rebirths” have the goal of Godhood. Unlike the Hindu and Buddhist systems, the goal is not to end the rebirths. There is never an end to rebirths unless actual death takes place. The Spirit or Will To Godhood can only be passed on through successful reproduction and survival. Our bodies retain genetic similarities that change and mutate, but the Will To Godhood or Spirit Within remains the same activator of life within each new birth, as evolution shapes life from without. The Spirit is supermaterial within the material body. Attaining Godhood depends on upward evolution, not downward devolution, so the concept of “karma” in the Evolutionary Christian Church is related to actions leading either to evolution or devolution.

Is it possible America could become again the dominant manufacturing nation?

Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel, has half the answer. "We should offer tax credits or a five- to 10-year tax holiday to companies, domestic or foreign, that want to set up or expand a factory in the U.S."

How would we finance it? As most foreign nations impose value-added taxes averaging 20 percent on U.S.-made goods that enter their countries, put a tariff of 20 percent on all foreign goods.

Hundreds of billions would suddenly pour into the U.S. treasury. Imports would slowly shrink. Production in America would soar.

That's how Hamilton, Madison, Clay, Lincoln, McKinley and T.R. did it, before America forgot how she became great.."

(See the full Buchanan essay here.)

The Great Error

The Great Error in the Western and the Eastern religion was in distinguishing between the moral and the natural. This is where the Great Spiritual Blockade of the material world began, it was thought that God could not be something as “inferior” as natural or material life.

The Evolutionary Christian Church (ECC) seeks to correct this Great Error. Godhood can be reached providing the natural world evolves to the supermaterial world of Godhood. When we pursue anything far enough and deep enough we find a natural system.

Religious mystics from all disciplines sought the Involutionary Inward Path to the Soul Within which was usually confounded with Godhood. Deeper still at the Zenith of the Soul is the Spirit-Will with Its Evolutionary Outward Path activating life to evolve to Godhood.

The ECC retains the Inward Path of religious tradition in the Twofold Path, but not at the expense of the activating Spirit or Will To Godhood Within and the Outward Path of the natural world.  Life is activated by the Will To Godhood or the Spirit Within, and life is then shaped by evolution from without.  The religious and scientific task or mission is to see that evolution to Godhood and not devolution takes place.

Identity

Our central identity resides in the Spirit Within, or the Will To Godhood. Secondary identity resides in the Soul, Mind and Body which are activated by the Spirit or Will. We are primarily seeking to evolve to Godhood, and secondarily seeking to survive and reproduce successfully.

Primary identity is defined in the Evolutionary Outward Path, secondary identity is defined in the Involutionary Inward Path, which are the Twofold Path of Evolutionary Christianity.

Who are we? We are the secondary “I” of the Soul and the primary Golden Gift of the Spirit Within which seeks to activate our material mind, body, Soul, and supermaterial Spirit, to evolve to Godhood in the Kosmos, by way of survival and reproduction and upward evolution. We are this whole package.

Is morality subordinate to the interest of evolution? No. Evolution is subordinate to the morality of the Spirit Within which seeks upward evolution to Godhood---we value right and wrong accordingly. Evolution shapes life from without and can shape either devolution or evolution.

One thing defies evolution: the activating drive of the Spirit or Will To Godhood which seeks the goal of Godhood, working with the amoral outside forces and mutations of evolution. But the Will does not really defy evolution, it works along with natural evolution activating from within. As we become more conscious of the Will To Godhood we can help It in It's task of evolving material life to supermaterial Godhood.

Finding the Spirit

 Just the opposite of mystics who say that sensory things are a veil, it is the nonmaterial abstract definitions that are the veil over the real Spirit Within, which activates life to evolve from within all the way to Godhood, while evolution shapes life from without.  This transvalues the veil.  

 

Deep beneath (not beyond) the general physical, psychological, emotional life of man, at the zenith of the mind is the Soul, which is the traditional, desire-free destination of traditional religion. Yet deeper still at the zenith of the Soul is the Spirit, or the Will To Godhood. When the Spirit is not known, or blocked, this blocks our chances at evolving to Godhood, because it is the Spirit that activates life to evolve to Godhood.

We have to be more like physicians of the Spirit than theologians and philosophers, in making the Spirit open and accessible to mankind. Why? The standard abstractions of the theologians and philosophers deny the physicality or supermateriality of the Spirit within the body, which is a real activating force. They have concentrated instead on nonmaterial abstractions while blocking the real Spirit in favor of the desire-free blissful condition of the Soul.

Looking for meaning only in the abstract is a problem in theology and philosophy. Finding meaning, as Nietzsche said, is to “become good neighbors to the closest things.” I would say become neighbor to human nature, to our biological drives and instincts. Here the Spirit can be found at the Zenith of the Instincts as the Will To Godhood activating life and evolution from within, while evolution shapes life from without.

We can use the mind and Soul to see or intuit the Spirit, but we can also ask the Spirit Itself to help enlighten us.

Unseen laws of nature

Human knowledge tends to see nature as a closed system of laws. While this may generally be the practical way to think about nature, we must leave room for laws of nature not yet seen or known. “Miracles,” if at all admitted, might be explained this way as the product of unknown laws of nature.

In Evolutionary Christianity the Spirit Within or the Will To Godhood, the evolution to Godhood, and Godhood Itself, are considered unknown laws of nature yet to be discovered by science. Seeing these things derives from unknown sense perceptions and not from a nonmaterial experience. Just as the self is seen as a bundle of sense perceptions, this physicalist view sees the superphysicality of Godhood.

This is where the terms idealistic naturalism and theological materialism come from, in seeing a wider superphysical system not yet seen within the laws of nature.

Toward a materialist-ontological foundation for theology

Being never transcends being

Ontology is not a “transcendental” science in Evolutionary Christianity, evolution creates the only transcendence, from the material to the supermaterial in evolution, and eventually evolution attains Godhood. Being never transcends being.

EC reduces Being to being, rather than the other way around, which phenomenology seems to do. But we could retain the capital letter “Being” to indicate the Zenith of Evolution, from being to Being as Godhood.

Being signifies not “is” but “In-Itself.” The “is” is valued far less as definition than the Thing (Spirit) In-Itself (Body).

“Real” is the material and supermaterial real. Real doesn't pertain only to essence (the Thing-Spirit-Will To Godhood) but to both essence and existence (In-Itself-Body). Existence does not signify a definition but an existing body.

Existence does not so much “derive” from essence (Spirit), existence is activated by essence, and they always dwell together as one. Essence has real existence living within a real body.

We do not know the essence or existence of Godhood, and to know Godhood we need to become Godhood, then we will know both God's essence and existence, and not until then. This will therefore not be “mere” knowledge of Godhood, we will need to become Godhood.

It is not only in Godhood that essence and existence are at their zenith, they are one and the the same in all living creatures, they are different only in degrees of evolved bodies. This is how the Being of God, at the Zenith of Evolution, differs from other creatures.

In EC it is not only philosophy that is the same as theology, it is also projected to be the same as materialistic science. The science of God, theology, is also the science of material and supermaterial evolution. Strictly speaking, theology is a probable or possible science, which suggests theological materialism or idealistic naturalism.

Real Ways Of Seeing

Phenomenologist's seem to separate how we see into (1) what comes in from the senses, and (2) what supposedly is already there in the mind as the “essential,” or universals version of, say, an individual tree.

But these are not equal and the definition of the tree is not superior to the actual tree seen with the senses, the real object tree is far more important than it's denotation as a general tree. And furthermore, the general tree is not an Essence existing outside the senses, the universal tree is the product and creation of the senses and exists in the sensual world of the mind as definition.  Even if two plus two is endlessly four, it is far less  important than actual trees.

I reserve the term “essence” for the Spirit Within, or the Will To Godhood, but the Spirit is part of the sensual world in the form of supermaterial substance, It is not merely immaterial definition. This means there is no real separation between essence (the Spirit) and existence (the Body).

The two ways of seeing are (1) from the body-senses-mind-Soul (Soul is the Zenith of the mind), and (2) from the Spirit-Will, and both ways of seeing are material or supermaterial. The central knowledge of the Spirit is knowing It's goal of Godhood and seeking and activating within the vehicle of life to evolve life to Godhood. The Spirit influences the material and supermaterial world in the upward direction of evolution, working within evolution which amorally shapes evolution from without.

This supermaterial world has not been included in positivism and empiricism but it should be included in the future. We affirm what is “given” by the senses but also by the supersenses. At this time this is knowledge from intellectual intuition, so knowledge of the Spirit or Will To Godhood is classified at this time as idealistic naturalism, or theological materialism. But the Spirit-Will physically exists perhaps in every cell of the body.

Ethnic Federalism

" Since 1991, Ethiopia has gone further than any other country in using ethnicity as the fundamental organizing principle of a federal system of government. And yet this pioneering experiment in “ethnic federalism” has been largely ignored..."  Essay Here

Islam and the West

The West has championed reason, which has mainly been interpreted as merely the individualistic, enlightened, self-interest of the bourgeoisie (see “Reason Defended” Modern Age Spring 2011). But reason includes knowledge from sociobiology that needs to be included, which has seen the importance of group selection.

Islam is group-oriented and aggressively in offense, whereas the West is more individualistic, even as it is both passive and aggressive in business. We need to think more in terms of group selection. This is the way the West can deal with the various forms of religious, political and racialist globalism.

We can do this by affirming thousands of small independent states, or ethnostates, protected by a light federalism determined to prevent global imperialism.

But no culture has risen or lasted without being grounded in religion, and Evolutionary Christianity affirms the evolution to Godhood of all people, all states, all races, each in their own fashion within a wide variety of ethnostates.

The Likeness Of Godhood

Irenaeus more or less said that we are made in the “image” but not the likeness of God. This can confuse if image suggests nonmateriality. We are made in the “likeness” of Godhood who has what we have, Holy Spirit, Soul, Mind and Body, only Godhood has these things at their highest evolved state, at the supermaterial zenith of these things.

Our aim, activated by the Spirit Within, which is the Will To Godhood, is to become the full and perfect likeness of Godhood at the Zenith of Evolution. This is the goal of the Spirit and the goal of life, which evolves against the amoral obstacles of evolution, which shapes life from without even as life is activated from within to evolve to Godhood.

On Instincts

“Following the instincts” has often been defined as a bad thing by the rational world, but the instincts are good, the Spirit Within is the highest instinct in nature.

Instincts began to be something to block when philosophers and theologians misread and misdefined God and Godhood. This led to a material-hating and life-hating concentration exclusively on the Involutionary Inward Path to the Soul Within, which defined the Soul essentially as God, while excluding or simply being ignorant of the Evolutionary Outward Path to the real Godhood.

Following our instincts need not lead backward to the “noble savage” but forward to civilizing the beast through material evolution to Godhood, activated by the Spirit Within, which is the Will To Godhood. The instinct of the Spirit reaches for higher consciousness, higher intelligence, greater beauty and goodness, and wants to evolve beyond the noble human savage.

Evolution is amoral, it shapes life from without and can be evolutionary or devolutionary. The Spirit Within which activates life is the zenith of human morality, It's goal is to ride the vehicle of life all the way to Godhood by way of upward evolution. Logic and reason essentially derived from instincts and were evolved because they were useful in survival and reproduction. The Spirit can guide us in our heroic journey to Godhood.

Essence and Existence As One Real Object

To give “essences,” described as such things as numbers that exist whether there is a world or not, equal or higher value than contingent existing things, is a value system that bothers me. This is what I call the idolatry of denotation or definition. Reducing a thing to its “eidos” or essence, such as the essence or number defining trees in general, is an essence that does not exist in reality and therefore it has far less value than the real thing.

I do not even define Godhood or Being with this sort of essence-definition, this defines a God that does not exist. Godhood exists as a Real Supermaterial Object. When I use the term “essence” I mean the thing-subject, as the Spirit-Within, which is not merely a definition but an existing supermaterial object or dynamis.  Existence and essence are one existing object. When I use the term existence, I mean the in-itself-object, which is the actual body within which the Spirit-essence dwells; this is the thing-in-itself.

Idealism for me is the presupposition, derived from intellectual intuition, that we are evolving in the material and supermaterial world to Godhood, the Supreme-Thing-In-Itself, activated by the Spirit Within or Will To Godhood. Godhood is not a number or denotation but a Real Supermaterial Object. This leads to the term idealistic naturalism, or theological materialism. I think this intellectual intuition is derived from sense experience, but a sort of sixth sense from the Spirit-Within. So it is a weak sort of idealism defined as that which is not fully known, yet derived from and existing as a material object.

Ethnostate, Nation, World

The order of interest in human nature tends to be individual, family, ethnic group, nation and world. The world is made up of different ethnic groups, and in general, each wants to associate with its kind.

Homogeneous people tend to live more harmoniously than mixed populations. This is a realistic view based in human nature which should be at the base of political philosophy. The attempt at “melting pots” destroys harmony and variety, and melting pots don't fully melt.

Civilized people are capable of endorsing the primacy of ethnostates without rejecting a national and world identity. Light federalism can protect the ethnostate, nation and the world.

“Cooperative competition” is also a higher calling. Existing structures, such as the small, independent states in the original United States Constitution, can be adjusted without revolution.

World research centers, first suggested by Raymond Cattell, can be devoted to the study of preventing the death of ethnostates, and advancing evolution for all ethnic groups.

Finally, the ethnostate, nation and world are anchored in the religious imperative of life evolving to Godhood, activated by the Spirit-Within (the Will To Godhood), and shaped by evolution from without.

Good, Evil, Free Will and Hero-making

I do not distinguish between the moral and the natural, all is in nature, including morality which is part of nature. The best morality most closely follows nature. This relates to not distinguishing between essence and existence, essence lives within existence.

Good and evil reside within nature, featuring the good of evolution and the evil of devolution. When we are unconscious we are at the mercy of nature, which is shaped in many different directions by evolution from without, even as we are activated by the Will To Godhood from within. Higher consciousness and intelligence allow us to better see and harmonize with upward evolution toward higher species of existence, and eventually to Godhood.

This defines not a limited Godhood but a natural Godhood.

We are “free” to choose between good and evil the more we rise in intelligence and consciousness, and less free to choose the lower we fall in consciousness and intelligence. This is why the world can be seen as a place of Hero-making, with the trials and tribulations of upward evolution, against the forces of devolution, which can be diabolical. This is where the virtues of courage, honor, altruism, etc. come from.

Heroism leads to the evolutionary virtues of the Evolutionary Outward Path, and Saintliness leads to the desire-free bliss of the Soul in the Involutionary Inward Path. This Twofold Path is included in Evolutionary Christianity, and there is and will be Celebration Masses for both Paths.

Being and being

If only “beings” are, what does “Being” mean, asks John Caputo (“Heidegger and Aquinas”). I think Being in this sense is meaning only, and far secondary to 'being.” But this is not how Being is defined in Evolutionary Christianity (EC).

Being is Being at the Zenith of Evolution and being (small b) is all evolving life leading to Godhood. The Spirit is Being within yet is still defined as small b being.

Both Being and being are actual physical objects with material and supermaterial substance, in the world, of time, and belonging to causal laws. To “define” these things is far secondary to their actual existence.

Definition is not worthy of the terms being or Being, these are not abstract concepts. Essence is existence and existence is essence. This suggest a rejection of any real distinction between essence and existence---this is not Thomist. I uphold the Involutionary Inward Path, and I uphold upward evolution in the Evolutionary Outward Path, which is the Twofold Path of Evolutionary Christianity (EC). Heidegger's teacher, Braig, seems to have been closer to our way of thinking about Being than Heidegger.

The most basic presupposition in EC is the Spirit-Within, or Will to Godhood, which is the offspring being of the transmuted Godhood Being. And Godhood or Being is the goal of the Spirit which activates life from within to evolve to Godhood. Life is then shaped from without by evolution. Being is a supermaterial yet at this time ideal concept which precedes being and gives birth to being.

This helps define idealistic realism and theological materialism.

Ordered Evolution

“Survival” is not the final test of ethical values, evolution is, which of course requires survival. Divine evolution moves upward in consciousness, intelligence, etc., profane devolution moves backward. If we are not moving upward in evolution we may run down in entropy, which might define hell.

Psychologically, I don't advocate surrendering the ego to the Id, but I do think we should refer the ego to the Spirit or the Will To Godhood, which exists at the Zenith of the mind and Soul. Too often we have thrown up a blockade against the instincts when we needed to sublimate and enhance the lower instincts with the highest instinct of the Spirit. The Will to Godhood stands at the Zenith of all instincts.

Priests of the Evolutionary Outward Path are the theologians of evolution and philosophy, and sociobiologists and geneticists are, as Raymond Cattell called them, the “physicians of society.” But before we jump in fear to this evolutionary perspective and conjure up Nazism, upward evolution moves along with Tradition. The Upward Path needs to harmonize with Conservatism and the Involutionary Inward Path of traditional religion. We seek the balance of Ordered Evolution, conservative change. This means that representative democracy, and other systems, are included. I prefer thousands of small states, or ethnostates, protected with a light federalism.

I could agree with the late Raymond Cattell's “Beyondism” in advocating much more sociobiological education, and promoting group or ethnic freedom and development, “cooperative competition,” avoiding genocide by cultural preanalysis, avoiding hedonism or overindulgent humanism, and in setting up strong research centers for these things.  This is the world of the future.

Ken Wilber on evolution not being random

“...Eros is the drive of evolution---Spirit's own drive toward more and more complex forms of Kosmic manifestation...Some think that this is some sort of chance, random mutation---but that, in fact, is exactly what it isn't. It's the opposite of chance or randomness in the universe. It's evidence of a force that is pursuing against randomness in the universe...All of this, without exception, is driven by love...Neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory holds that all of these transformations upward were just the result of chance and randomness. But there is no way in hell that the universe went from atoms to Shakespeare out of random stabs. This is an extraordinary driven process. The astrophysicist Erich Jantsch referred to evolution as “self-organizing through transcendence,” which is a good way to think about it. Because when this shows up in human beings, Eros shows up in increasingly higher, self-transcending levels of unity and consciousness...”

(Conversation in EnlightenNext, Issue 47, 2011 -p-48)

Essence always exists in existence

Supreme Godhood is not a nonmaterial “idea” as in Plato but is a Supreme Actual Object, or Objects. Existence is not a “form” as in Aristotle. Unlike Avicenna who gives only God a unity of essence and existence, essence and existence are always together but existing at various levels of evolution. Essence and existence are not separately existing reality as in Aquinas, they exist together, Spirit-essence within existent-body, as one with body but at different levels of evolution. Essence seems to be only a name in Locke. And with Husserl and Heidegger essences seem to be the central thing to endlessly analyze, more than they are actual, real, existing, material and supermaterial objects.

Essence always exits in existence. The Spirit-Will, as supermaterial essence, resides in the existing material body. This is nonduality, as the material world evolves all the way to Godhood, where the same Supreme Spirit resides in the Supreme Existing Body of Godhood. Essence always has existence within existence. When Godhood is attained in evolution, this is not the first time existence and essence are unified (contrary to Avicenna), Godhood is the Zenith of the evolution of an always united existence and essence. The essence-spirit, or Will To Godhood, activates within the evolving existent-body, where they reach their Supreme Essence-Existence in Godhood.

What we see, and how we see

It only seems like we have a double sort of consciousness: what we see immanently from our brains inside, and the object or thing we are looking at outside. But as we evolve, as consciousness evolves, we see more of the objects outside our minds. Less evolved life sees less of the world than we do, although they may see or sense some things we do not. At the Zenith of Evolution, with Godhood attained, Absolute Consciousness can be achieved, the total outside object is seen; here the subject and the object are the same. This means there is not really two poles of consciousness but different subjects observing objects from various levels of evolution.

If we leave the Spirit or Will to Godhood out of the picture, then without the foundation of the senses, we do no thinking at all. Intellectual intuition is the way we can know the Spirit-Will within, until or unless science finds a better way of seeing the Spirit-Will. This means we take Husserl's phenomenology, which seems to accept only what consciousness “describes” of the real world, as well as the odd world of the mind, and we add the Spirit-Will within as a “presupposition” of consciousness in describing reality. We do not see the Spirit-Will as “metaphysical” but in a supermaterial sense, a sixth sense at this time.

We see with the senses but we are influenced also by the supermaterial sense of the Spirit or Will to Godhood. We are influenced by the activation of the Spirit-Will with the goal of evolving material life to Godhood. The goal of the Spirit-Will is the real Supreme Object of Godhood. In idealistic-realism or idealistic-naturalism, the thinker takes what he can see and know of the real world and uses intellectual intuition coming in from the Spirit-Will to complete the ideal picture of reality, still based in materialism.

I think the religio-philosophy of Evolutionary Christianity or theological materialism is placed in the spatio-temporal world with experiences in accord with the scientific world, but some of the senses are experiential, or probable, or intellectually intuitive. Yet even these are considered to be within the world of the senses, and therefore eventually within the order of science.

Thoughts on being

There is no lifeless being, to be is to be evolving. The primary activity of being is the Will To Godhood of the Spirit-Will, which evolves self-consciousness.

Heidegger's teacher Braig pointed out that “Nothing” is a fiction of the mind, and I add that Nothing is not Godhood, as mystics often suggest it is, when they are actually speaking of the self-willed state of a desire-free Soul within man. Even being in the mind is not nothing, it all goes back to the supermaterial Spirit-Will Within which initially activates the mind.

This way Being belongs to the causal laws of actual being. I agree with Braig (“Heidegger and Aquinas,” John Caputo) that actual being acts toward an end, toward the state of complete actuality, total self-consciousness, total self-realization, or as we say, this is Godhood---and I add that being is activated by the Spirit-Will. The Scholastic's seem to have also had the view of being as the “actual, but was it not the Platonic actual of non-materialism?”

Husserl's desire to avoid all presuppositions in philosophy is a presupposition, an ideal. But we are born with the presupposition of the Spirit-Will within which activates life to evolve to Godhood.