The Hope We Offer

Most future studies find us doomed for collapse, unable to contain population growth and industrial growth. This then leads to decline in industrial growth, food production, and a decline in population, and the collapse of global civilization.

There is a growing culture of hopelessness in politics, science and religion which affects our ability to take action. Workable ideas are not even sought when we give up hope.

Our hope is to reinvent our way out of this doomsday model, not only with revolutionary new technology but with ingenious new-yet-old social structures.

Decentralization should not be viewed as collapse, it can save America, and it can save the world. We do not need secession from the too big central state, we need decentralization from the central state. Each small state needs to affirm its own community, its own craftsmanship, its own progress, but the small states need the protection of a light federalism.

Raymond Cattell rightly emphasized that war can be discouraged when quality is chosen over quantity, since quantity is given the advantage in war. Our tendency to make dysgenic war can be overruled by our advancement when we do not make war. Cooperative competition under these terms is then possible.

We need to emphasize other kinds of “progress” and not merely economic progress.  Free enterprise can be retained for its success, but not made a God. We need to see progress in terms of sacred evolutionary advancement, that is, the biosocial advancement of humanity in evolution on the path to Godhood. 

We need to evolve brighter healthier people, not more people. This can best be done in a world of small states, or ethnostates, which is the social structure real human nature prefers, the social structure that imperialism and supremacy always come back to in any case. Then the longer term sacred goal of evolving to Godhood for all people, all states, can be bonded with religion.

Answering four classic questions

How do free will and determinism coexist? We are free to choose from several determined choices.

How can God be both omnipotent and benevolent? It is not God that brings evil and injustice, it is nature which sometimes seems cruel to us as a means of evolving life toward Godhood.

Is there a direction to evolution? The reality of the evolutionary process has shown a direction toward higher, more complex, more intelligent, more conscious forms, in spite of backward and sideways going.

The last question relates to the question, is there purpose in the universe? The purpose of this ongoing evolutionary process is to evolve life to Godhood.

These answers give reason for optimism and idealism. We can civilize the beast and learn to prevent the decline and early death of a people or society by understanding the social and biological patterns that bring collapse, and by applying voluntary population control, and voluntary genetics. We not only can prevent negative ends but we can seek positive ends, even as we recognize that competition, separation, and distinctiveness are a good thing on the evolutionary path to Godhood.

On the origin of laws

In the Theoevolutionary Church theological materialism defines human laws as part of the laws of nature, which religious or moral laws, and political laws, need to try to harmonize with. This also includes human nature as seen in terms of the laws of nature. We can apply reason and science as well as intellectual intuition and faith to try to discern the laws of nature, and how to apply them.

Social contracts do not in themselves “civilize “ men, as if social contracts were removed from “uncivilized” nature, social contracts are of nature and are sociobiologically derived, like all of culture. There is both a biological and social origin to social contracts and to there natural consequences. Social contracts need to harmonize with natural laws or social contracts will not last for long, as nature always pulls human culture back to real human nature and to natural laws.

The Spirit-Will-To- Godhood exists within nature activating nature to evolve toward the Zenith of Evolution, which is Godhood. The Spirit-Will is also a law of nature within the material-supermaterial world, which is then shaped by evolution. The Spirit-Will is discerned by intellectual intuition and faith at this time, but in the future will be affirmed by reason and science.

This seems to combine the various ideas of the philosophers regarding nature and the laws, and from these traditional ideas on the law emerges our revitalized definitions of the Spirit-Will, Godhood, and materialism.

The universe is not indifferent

It is true that Godhood will be reached by mastering the universe, but this does not mean that the universe is completely indifferent to us. Life within the universe is activated by the Spirit-Will-To Godhood which seeks Godhood in the universe by way of material-supermaterial evolution. This is a religious concept which will one day be a scientific concept.

The central idea is to unblock the blocked channel of the Spirit-Will-To-Godhood to let the divine activation to Godhood flow into our lives and our culture, which then becomes the basic ground of religion, philosophy, psychology, sociology, or civilization.

Both religion and science can be biased

Scientist's talk of the importance of having strict boundaries between science, religion and ideology, so that science can be completely objective, but I obviously don't like those boundaries. Aside from various human abilities to be objective (science can merely have more complicated bias than religion), it is a truncated and limited way to live in the world.  I think these specialties need to balance one another, each can affirm the other, or at least they can use each other in a more holistic worldview.

Evolution is an important key to understanding all the specialties, for example, in the Theoevolutionary Church the evolution of life has a Godhood end-goal, which, so far, is affirmed by religion and not by science. These can be reconciled not only with each other, but with philosophy and ideology. Religion can unite all of these, while science demands their objective separation.

On the other hand, religion has often demanded separation from science and ideology, or ideology has demanded separation from religion, and so on, which also becomes a truncated and limited way to live in the world.

The Shell and Kernel in the Twofold Path

“...Ye shut up the Kingdom of heaven against men. For ye neither enter in yourselves; neither do ye let others enter.” (Matthew 23:13)

Adapting the well-known analogy of the kernel and the shell for the Twofold Path, the Involutionary Inward Path is the outer shell of the Evolutionary Outward Path, which is the kernel, activated by the the Spirit-Will To Godhood, the Essence of the Kernel.

This changes or even transvalues the traditional way of comparing the spiritual and material--- it is the disparaged material world that evolves to the supermaterial world and eventually to supermaterial Godhood.

The shell has been blocking the evolution of the kernel in a Great Spiritual Blockade, when they should be working together in harmony. The Theoevolutionary Church seeks to unblock the kernel of the material-supermateral Path to Godhood.

Philosophically this transvaluation relates to naturalism, expanded into theological materialism, and bringing the Object forward as real (Outward Path), and defining the definition or denotation of the object (Inward Path) as a mirror of the object.

Balancing Universal and Independent Values

“A people perishes when it confuses its duty with duty in general.” Nietzsche

Traditionalism in religion, and even many modern liberals, emphasize service to present man as he is, and attack or forget the idea of progress, that is, those who believe man has a goal beyond present man. These values need to be balanced even though they are different values with different virtues. This relates to universal and independent values, with traditionalists and modern liberals weighted on the side of universal values, even though universalism is at the farthest reaches of human nature and human bonding.

I do agree with universalism, unlike many nationalists, in the sense that the same stars shine down on all men, as all men are activated by the same Spirit-Will To Godhood. This is a central argument against universal dictatorship and imperialism by any one group. But universalism has to be balanced with the affirmation of independent, distinctive people. Duties to a particular group are not the same as duties to a different group.

This is why I agree with those who want to see distinctive, individual states within the United States, protected (as the Constitution intended) by a federalism much lighter than what we now have. Bio-social psychologist Raymond Cattell constanltly emphasized that to keep evolution, creativity and advancement going we need competitive inter-group agreements, we do not need modern day Genghis Khans or modern globalist dictators.

Our highest goal is to evolve to Godhood, and we do so in evolutionary ways that relate to real human nature, in variety, distinctiveness and cooperative competition. Human beings are capable of this behavior because it is most natural.

Problems with Ken Wilber's psychograph

Wilber's “psychograph” compares types of intelligences: cognitive, interpersonal, psychosexual, emotions and moral, with how developed these intelligences are in relation to his three “stages” of development: egocentric, ethnocentric and world-centric. “World-centric” is the highest stage that the various intelligences must reach, or aspire to, according to Wilber.

Problems with this psychograph, and problems in Wilber's psycho-religio-socio-philosophy, derive from problems in defining or accepting real human nature, as defined correctly by sociobiology and naturalism. Human nature is weakest at the world-centric stage and strongest at the egocentric-ethnocentric stage, as the result of thousands of years of successful evolution, and the attempt to religiously or socially circumvent these traits of human nature is archaic and misguided.

Real human nature is not evil and the attempt to redefine the weakest bonds of human nature as the strongest bonds does not work for long, as social structures always fall back into harmony with actual human nature. The world-centric Soviet political philosophy snapped back into ethnostates after only 70 years, which included the severe indoctrination of its people in the world-centric vision.

Wilber nevertheless defines the “spiritual” world-centric vision as the highest spiritual stage and the material ethnocentric stage as one of the least desired. This follows the standard religious blockade of the material world in order to follow the Involutionary Inward Path to the God-Within. Wilber's philosophy is centered on the Inward Path, all human nature is stretched and biased toward this Inward Goal.

What is missed and blocked in these kind of spiritual blockades is the Evolutionary Outward Path to Real Godhood, the God first seen in the Inward Path. The material and supermaterial world need to be unblocked so that they may emerge from the exclusively Inward God, which is the precursor to Real Godhood. All human nature does not have to be blocked or biased in the Outward Path to True Godhood.

In the Theoevolutionary Church, religion, psychology, philosophy and social doctrine are brought back in harmony with real human nature and the natural world. Out of the Inward Path to the God-Within emerges the Outward Path to Godhood Without, out of philosophical naturalism emerges theological materialism. And the Inward Path can be retained in this Twofold Path. Human nature and religion become harmonious with the natural world.

A wide variety of small states, or ethnostates, protected with a light federalism, allows real human nature to advance and flourish, as the human species evolves in variety to Godhood. Indeed, the world-centric vision is required at the farthest and weakest end of human bonding to keep the human species from destroying itself, while cooperative competition is seriously pursued. Supremacy, imperialism and the suppression of real human nature is discouraged, and the blocking of evolution to Godhood is unblocked. Refinement or sublimation of the Inward God is pursued, not blockage or suppression, as we civilize the beast of unconscious evolution toward conscious material and supermaterial evolution to Real Godhood.

The Deluding Maze

Word games, number games, played earnestly by initiates into the Revealed Religions, and into their occult level counterparts, were the forerunners of those modern philosophers who rate words, definitions and denotations far above the actual objects described.

It's a self-deluding game, a truth-deluding game, serious as it is played, in which Truth and Godhood are reduced to virtually nothing, or to a sacred word or a mathematical equation.  But true to sociobiology, the deluders derive power from the delusions, unconsciously or consciously.

The material world disappears or is greatly devalued in the minds of the diviner-intellectuals. Real Supermaterial Godhood and the Path of evolution to that Godhood is completely lost in the maze.

It is now time to unblock this Great Spiritual Blockade against evolving to Real Godhood in the cosmos.

The Twofold Path is the way to reconcile the Involutionary Inward Path, which has turned into a deluding maze, and the Evolutionary Outward Path, which unblocks the maze leading to life evolving to the Real Supermaterial Object Godhood.  The Outward Path has emerged from the Inward Path retaining the old in the new, ending the Great Mystic War.

Orthodox Judaism, Sociobiology and the Theoevolutionary Church

Some traditional fundamentalist Christians criticize Orthodox Judaism for preferring the ancient oral teachings, written down in the Mishnah, and the Babylonian Talmud, to the written text of the Bible. Moses is thought by the Jews to have left both written and oral teachings, with the more occult oral tradition of the Mishnah having precedence over the Biblical text. For example, the Christians say the written text of the Bible prophesied Jesus Christ as the Messiah whereas the oral teachings of Judaism sharply criticize Jesus as not being the Messiah. The malleability and interpretive skills of the rabbis are therefore criticized as being loop-hole finders and hairsplitters regarding the written text rather than proper followers of the written text. It is also said that Judaism both religiously and biologically promotes Jewish racism, preferring the Jews exclusively as chosen over every other people.

However, Orthodox Judaism and the studious leadership of the rabbis is in natural harmony with sociobiology in all but one important area. By promoting its own people, Judaism is completely natural and healthy, and underlines basic ideas of sociobiology, which suggest that religion has been a way to help people survive and reproduce more successfully in the world, better than they would have without religion. The problem with religio-biological supremacy, or chosenness, is that it creates great resentment by those who are denigrated or dominated by supremacy and imperialistic behavior, which can then in reaction lead to pogroms---although pograms against the Jews were also caused by sheer jealousy of a successful people, and by Christian imperialism.

All ethnic groups are naturally and sociobiologically correct in promoting their own survival and success, the problem comes when one ethnic group is thought supreme and becomes imperialistic. Then variety ceases, which is so important to evolution, and a uniform mediocrity can develop. Successful survival therefore calls for cooperative competition, which can help in preventing wars that are almost always negative and dysgenic for all.

Ethnic solidarity and altruism toward ones own is a central and enduring part of human nature, and should not and cannot be suppressed for long, but this does not mean that other ethnic groups should be denigrated or destroyed. The Theoevolutionary Church affirms geopolitical variety, which can grow in the form of global ethnostates, protected by a light federalism. In this rational structure, chosenness-supremacy and imperialistic-hegemony will damage the successful survival of the human species.

We are all evolving to Godhood along our own paths in our own environments and we need to affirm this sacred and natural dynamic. There is even a strong basis for ecumenism between all the Revealed Religions in that they all affirm the same God-Within seen by way of the same Involutionary Inward Path, more or less.  Natural differences in religion and ethnicity can be affirmed and even championed in the Evolutionary Outward Path of evolution to Godhood, which is the Path to Real Godhood, the God first seen, and mirrored, in the Involutionary Inward Path to the God Within. This is the Twofold Path of the Theoevolutionary Church.

Yes We Can Civilize The Beast

“War is no argument against the necessity of inter-group competitive agreement.”   (Raymond Cattell)

Can we continue to have inter-group competition as long as there is no risk in international competition of the destruction of the human species, or is this a naive hope?

It better be more than a naive hope, and we better be able to civilize the beast, even if in human history there has been only an all-out competition between groups, with sheer force very often being the rule.

We need to civilize this beast because competition is, as Raymond Cattell put it, the most efficient basis for evolution, for improving group structure, technical advancement, inter-individual ethics, and improving with-in group altruism.

The human species is capable of this cooperative competition, for example, with global ethnostates and with light federalism holding things together, protecting the evolution of all people, in civilized variety and competition, as we evolve toward Godhood.

If one group conquers through sheer force, instituting a uniform culture, the great benefits of competitive variety among groups will be lost, and evolution would stop or be halted. In any case imperialism always breaks back down to nations and ethnostates.

Even if, unfortunately, the reality of power, military or political power, transcends cooperative competition, the final structure needs to be a federation of states, and not imperialism and supremacy--- for the reasons just given. The Theoevolutionary Church could affirm this geopolitical structure and would help ethically guide the upward direction of evolution to Godhood for all people, with the bonding strength of religion.

Involution and Evolution in the Twofold Path

The “integral vision” of Ken Wilber (and the Revealed Religions before him) have us tapping into the various states and stages of consciousness, eg. waking, dreaming, deep sleep, to find answers for living our lives. This is involution, not the evolution that is claimed by Wilber. Involution can lead, at its zenith, to knowledge or the experience of the God-Within, but involution does not lead to the God-Without reached through material and supermaterial evolution.

The Twofold Path brings evolution not involution forward as the real path to real Godhood, the Godhood first seen in the involutionary path to the God Within, which is only a mirror image of real Godhood attained through material and supermaterial evolution. Involution is only one half of the complete religious worldview. The Theoevolutionary Church follows both paths.

Involution really goes “nowhere” although in the religious sense it leads to the great somewhere of the God-Within. But it should be understood that involution requires blocking or dissipating the very evolutionary path that leads to real Godhood. The balance between these is found in the Twofold Path.

The naturalism-plus of theological materialism

Culture and circumstances change but there remains the core of human nature, which remains the same as it was when it developed in hunter-gatherer times, before higher civilization developed.

A definition of human nature is vital knowledge that must be included in religion, philosophy and politics. How one defines human nature relates to how one relates to religion, philosophy and politics.

E. O. Wilson said that human nature is a collection of genetic patterns of mental-physical development and that culture is created or “biased” in the direction of these genetic patterns. Sociobiology goes on to define religion as myths which helped the practitioners of the myths survive and reproduce more successfully.

Philosophical naturalism also thinks of human nature as a natural phenomena evolved to through natural selection and through no spiritual cause.

In every human culture ever studied, human nature included, among other things, kin selection-preference, incest taboos, marriage, hierarchy, division of labor, gender differentiation, localism, and ethnocentrism. If culture proposes to not include these things, it will always return to these things. These things also happen to be at the core of conservatism and tradition, whereas many of these traits are missing in, say, communism and post-modernism.

The theological materialism of the Theoevolutionary Church generally accepts and includes naturalism in its view of human nature, but supermaterialism is added to this view, including and going beyond philosophical naturalism. Included as naturalistic and supermaterial is the activating Spirit-Will, or the Will to Godhood, which activates life and human nature to evolve to Godhood in the cosmos, yet it is shaped by natural selection and evolution.  

This is the Godhood first seen within man, in the Revealed Religion, which mirrors the real Godhood that can be reached through outward evolution in the cosmos (see the Twofold Path).  Faith or intellectual intuition is included and required in affirming the Spirit-Will, as well as the sacred end-goal of Godhood, at this time, but scientific naturalism will one day affirm both the Spirit-Will and the goal of Godhood in the cosmos.

Why We Affirm Free Enterprise and Competition

If we ask how competitive different groups should be, the basic answer is as long as there is no risk of destruction of the human species, competition can go forward. There should also be restrictions on big nations turning on small nations and devouring them. And populated nations should not be allowed to ship there surplus populations to another nation. But the most important restriction on competition is the risk of destruction of the world of nations and groups.

As social psychologist Raymond Cattell said, competition is the best way to improve group structure, to advance technology, to improve the ethics of the group in altruism toward the survival of the group. Each group needs to receive the consequences of its own actions for positive natural selection to take place. Cattell rightly wanted to avoid what he called the “Hedonic Pact,” an agreement to abolish all competition in order to enjoy a hedonistic life style. This would stop evolution. This means we avoid totalitarian imperialism and one-people supremacy, which bring no competition and fusion of all cultures into one mediocre culture.

Above all, we must not stop evolution which leads to the purpose for our being here, to evolve to Godhood.

Problems with Ken Wilber's integral vision

Wilber's integral vision underplays the importance of sociobiology in defining human nature, and the social and religious doctrines human nature is harmonious with.

It neglects the Outward Path of evolution while teaching not evolution as is claimed but involution.

Wilber's stages of consciousness are also involution not evolution.

The stages described as egocentric, ethnocentric and world-centric are not a "hierarchy of morals" but a description of real human nature seen from its strongest bonds to its weakest bonds.

The wisdom or mystical traditions of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and the Jewish Kabbalah, which Wilber claims to integrate, all feature the Inward God of involution, they do not integrate and only mirror the Outward Godhood reached through evolution.

...more on this later.

Politics

Once again Chris Mathews called Mitt Romney a “phony” on “Morning Joe,” which is funny because Chris is the real phony, thinking of himself as some sort of clever fist-fighter from Philadelphia when he is really a weak, loudmouth, liberal journalist with authority problems.

Not that I approve of Romney who, like Ron Paul more or less, calls for unregulated markets, which is like having a city without a police force. At least Ron Paul has the courage to stand up to the neoconservatives who never saw a war they didn't like, whereas Romney loves the neos.

We really need someone like Pat Buchanan, who unfortunately has been crucified for speaking hard truths to the borderless globalists, and to Israel. We need to go back to the original economic nationalism with free enterprise, we need to decentralize, we need to give the power back to the states, as the Constitution intended, and we need to seriously protect our borders.

Will this happen? Yes, either by choice or by picking up the pieces after the globalists ruin the world.

The conditions for affirming capitalism

The Russell Kirk center has reminded us that Christians and others can rightfully affirm capitalism and the free enterprise system because this economic system has created the greatest real wealth for the greatest number, which then has led to broad generosity in the nation. But this does not apply when big capitalism, ruled by a few elite, controls the government, which is like fascism only with a few capitalists controlling government. This is the main reason why we have to get the money out of politics and go back to the original regionalism and decentralization of our original Constitution. We don't need big government socialism or fascism because they do not create the expanded real wealth and generosity of capitalism and free enterprise.

Human nature, social doctrine, and religion

Human nature defines human loyalties in this order: self, kin, ethnic group, locality, state, region, nation and world. This order harmonizes with real human nature, as recently reaffirmed by sociobiology, and when social doctrine does not harmonize with human nature, it does not last for long or work well---and societies always snap back, as if on a leash, to the order of loyalties just mentioned.

It turns out that this order of loyalties more or less defines paleoconservatism, affirming monogamy, respect for family and kin, localism, regionalism, with many small states, and with nations competitive but in need of some cooperation. Each small state develops its own variations on ethics based on it own conditions for maintaining itself.

Some form of middle course between the extremes of total isolation with deadly competition, and one-world uniformity, can protect variety and competition, which is so vital for improvement and evolution. As Cattell pointed out, it is quality rather than quantity that counts in natural selection. This means there needs to be some restrictions on competition and force in the world.  If the human species is destroyed then no group survives.

The Theoevolutionary Church sees the need for a common world religious bond, in evaluating the progress of evolution, with the sacred goal of evolving to Godhood, the God first seen in the Revealed Religions (see the Twofold Path.)  That is, a religious bond which favors---for all groups---the evolutionary advancement of humans, and beyond, which is the deepest meaning behind life and the cosmos.

The Worldview

Raymond Cattell pointed out that the ethical behavior of people in small states is different from the ethical behavior of a federation of small states, and ethical behavior between nations is different than small states and federations. Most of human history was a fierce no-holds-barred battle for dominance among different groups with no mercy and no real cooperation between groups.

The good possibility of the whole human species being destroyed, determined the need for some sort of cooperation between groups. If one group is merciful and the other group is not, the unmerciful group can have the advance. Small states need to remain as independent and self-sufficient as possible, with their own unique ethical standards based on their own survival needs. But cooperation regarding weapons of world destruction, environmental pollution, depleting of natural resources, etc., needs to be affirmed.

This does not define an egalitarian world but a cooperatively competitive world. The Theoevolutionary Church (TC) projects the human species evolving forward and upward to Godhood, and TC favors groups and states who advance the human species in evolution, but no one group is given supremacy or hegemony over any other, all groups are affirmed in their individual paths toward Godhood. Independent feedback and the results and consequences of their own behavior is vital to retain within the states in this process. Evolutionary knowledge is shared as the Church becomes not only the ethical guide to Godhood for all, but as Cattell also imagined for his Beyondism, TC becomes a sociobiological research center for all groups, all nations, in the great mission of evolving to Godhood.

While we agree that evolution is the prime process in the universe, unlike Beyondism we add the vital dynamic of a divine urge in evolution, seen in man through the Spirit-Within, or the Will To Godhood, which works along with natural evolution. We also add that there is a Primary Goal to evolution, which is Godhood. The TC does not launch itself out on a goalless adventure of evolution, as Beyondism tends to do; our goal is to evolve to Godhood, the Godhood which was first glimpsed in history, and prehistory, through contact with the God-Within of traditional religions.  TC this way includes traditional religion, unlike Beyondism, in the Twofold Path.  Revitalized-Conservatism  affirms Ordered Evolution. 

Thoughts for the New Year

Let me reiterate in a very concise way what I believe is the way out of the Dirty Tricks Culture which now dominates America.

We need to return to the original small states and regions of our Constitution, protected by a light federalism, which works well with actual human nature, where men are most comfortable in small ethnostates, more or less.

We need to break up the big Dirty Trick monopolies, get the money out of politics, return to economic nationalism without isolationism, and seriously protect our borders.

These things can be done voluntarily or involuntary, we can wait for it to happen, or help it along, as empires always fall back into their original small states and regions.

The Revitalized Conservatism and Ordered Evolution we affirm is bonded with the Theoevolutionary Church. The God first seen in the Inward Path of Christianity (and the Revealed Religions) is now unblocked in the Outward Path of our evolution to Godhood, which is our ultimate mission and the meaning behind the cosmos.

This can renew us and give us a long-term sacred vision and mission, and provide us with the revitalized religious base from which all civilizations sustain themselves and grow.