First and Last Things

Theologically, it seems not to be the attraction of Godhood that accounts for the evolution of higher beings, as Teilhard de Chardin suggested, it is the activation of the material world by the Spirit-Will-To-Godhood that seeks Godhood, which is then shaped by evolution. It seems to have little or nothing to do with Godhood Itself.

Schopenhauer's will-to-live, Nietzsche's will-to-power, Bergson's vital force seem closer to defining the Spirit-Will than any attraction by Godhood pulling evolution forward.

Unlike the God of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Spirit-Will contains the cause of life but is not also the maximum of life. The Spirit-Will contains the goal of Godhood but is not the goal itself. The maximum of life is the Godhood evolved to

This suggests that Godhood is the goal of life but not the initiator of life. The Primal Material seems to be activated by the Spirit-Will, as all life is, and they seem never to be separated. Then together they define life evolving to Godhood, first activated by the Spirit-Will, and then shaped by evolution.

I see no good reason why this cosmic dynamic cannot go on forever. It seems to be an endless cosmos with endless room and there are probably always Gods arriving. There may never be an end to evolving perfection, if there was an end then that perfection might have no further function and might therefore cease to exist.

I also see no good reason why there ever was a beginning, a first cause, which requires no less proof than the no beginning perspective.

What glorious things can evolve, and have evolved, in the cosmos, over endless time and endless space.  We need to consciously, not merely unconsciously,  join that sacred cosmic stream.

The older God was seen inwardly, which is fine and needs to be included in the Twofold Path, but real Godhood is evolved to in the cosmos, and we need to get on with it.

A harmonious inward and outward life

The inward life does not seem to work so well with the outward life in the great religions and in the great psychologies, the exciting inward life of St. Thomas Aquinas or Carl Jung is often at odds with the less exciting outward life.

This is not necessarily so with the Spirit-Will-To-Godhood in the philosophy of the Theoevolutionary Church. Here the inward activating Spirit-Will requires outward material life to evolve to Godhood.

This suggests not the volcano of repression over the inner sexual self of Freud, but harmony and rhythm with the flow of natural life. It is not merely the sexual libido that seeks to break free into full expression, it is more deeply the Spirit-Will-To-Godhood.

Modernity isn't the main problem, as Traditionalism always suggests, it is disharmony and discord in the basic instincts. The fullness of human nature need not be repressed or suppressed as it often is in sentimental modern liberalism. Real nature, and human nature, prefers truth, beauty and merit, and sublimating human nature toward these virtues can be more harmonious.

With the Spirit-Will affirmed there is less inner/outer conflict, yet there is sublimation of the human forces of sex, aggression and compassion, because the Spirit-Will has a definite goal to which material life needs to be guided or sublimated, which ultimately is Godhood.

This sublimation takes the form of voluntary, non-coercive, culture-genetic selection in reproduction, in Ordered Evolution, directed toward Godhood, which is at the zenith of truth, beauty and merit. This culture-genetic dynamic can lead to real and more natural psychological maturity and fill the spiritual emptiness and rootlessness of modern life.

The evolution of religion

The many vital things offered by the great religions were not replaced by modern skepticism and existentialism, and not replaced by the science of sociobiology alone, and not even by Raymond Cattell's noble attempt to combine science and religion (Beyondism). The great religions developed large and broad values and morals over long history which helped humanity literally survive as they sought God. These values were explained but largely rejected by modern developments in science and philosophy. The problem is that the great religions are so slow to change they can become stagnant before they change. This slowness has helped create order in humanity, but it is always threatened by impatient radical changes.

Modern skepticism, existentialism, science, sociobiology, and Beyondism generally rejected the great religions even if they brilliantly explained them, and this rejection tends to keep these modern fields from becoming a replacement for the large and broad sweep of the great religions, even if the modern motives were to try to save humanity from early destruction---but occasionally to try to advance one group over another.

Rather than rejecting the great religions, the Twofold Path in the religious philosophy of (TC) affirms the great religions in evolutionary sociobiology. The Inward Path to the virtual God Within of the great religions is carried forward in the Outward Path of material-supermaterial evolution to real Godhood. This also helps retain Ordered Evolution as we evolve toward Godhood. Order enhances evolution, positive culturo-genetic changes have time to succeed or fail without destroying the whole sacred adventure to Godhood, first begun by the great religions.  The task or the heroic mission is to develop a broad functioning religion from the religious philosophy of the TC.

Not merely spiritual theology

According to Walter Kaufmann (“Critique of Religion and Philosophy”) God's answer to Moses was, “I am who am (He who is).” I think these words can be interpreted as Godhood being a living object, a supreme object, and not merely a spiritual definition or mathematical form, a being at the highest point of material-supermaterial evolution, not a Being beyond being, not a Gnostic God with no connection to the material world, but a Godhood arrived at in the world by way of material-supermaterial evolution.

This Godhood might also be seen as, “I am the pure act-of-being” (St. Thomas) but only if the act of being is seen as a supermaterial existing object and not something beyond the actual world. I have an impossible fantasy of St. Thomas seeing this material-supermaterial Godhood at the end of his life when he said all his writings seemed like so much straw compared to what he had seen. He supposedly also asked to hear the 'Song of Solomon” on his death bed, not theology, and this could be seen as a work examining material beauty and not merely an analogy of spiritual things---but this is probably not what St. Thomas saw.

This is not the same inward interpretation of God as Moses, Jesus or Buddha, this is an outward revitalized Godhood, hypertrophied into the natural world. This is not Augustine's God of “I am he who never changes.” A Godhood arrived at through material evolution certainly changes. This is the Godhood of theological materialism and not merely the God of spiritual theology. To adapt a saying by St. Anselm, this interpretation both understands in order to believe, and believes in order to understand. Both science and faith need to be applied at this time to this worldview.

The Future Is Permitted

Huxley's “Brave New World” has intimidated people for long enough, the future is okay.  Ethical responsibility is possible, and likely, regarding future scientific developments.

Conservatism can believe in Ordered Evolution, radicalism is not necessarily connected to “progress.” Desacralization need not happen.

It was wrong for Mill, Marx and Darwin to more or less slay theology and metaphysics. It would have been better to adapt man's place in nature to to both religion and science.

Philosophical naturalism is not the premise to work with, theological materialism is, which includes both philosophical naturalism and theology. Theological materialism is the successor to theology, by synthesizing philosophical naturalism and theology.

There are “unintended consequences” in life, but that should not doom us to moldy corners afraid to move out into the air. It takes a little courage but courage is a vital virtue.  Real compassion requires a longer term perspective.

We can define positive pluralism and negative pluralism, with positive pluralism embracing completely natural group selection and small states, within light federations, whereas negative pluralism bemoans the so-called relativism of pluralism apparently preferring a uniform humanity. We are all evolving to Godhood in our own way, and we certainly are capable of assisting one another along the way.

It is time not to be afraid of the idea of progress. Comte and Cattell's idea of progress attached to theological materialism can lead evolution to Godhood. God remains much the same, but the inward God of the great religions is hypertrophied and revitalized into outward Godhood, with life activated by the Spirit-Will-To-Godhood, shaped by natural evolution, and reached through material and supermaterial progress into the future.

A Religious Psychology Theory

History and civilization seem to be attempts to adjust to the energies and forces of the Spirit-Will-To-Godhood, which first activates life, and then life is shaped by evolution. The Spirit-Will is not merely the drive of the libido of Freud, or the power drive of Nietzsche, or the inner world projecting into the outer world of Jung. The Spirit-Will is a deeper, sacred, instinct, the zenith of the instincts. Sex, power and the psychic life are means to the ends of the Spirit-Will, which has the goal of evolving all the way to Godhood in the cosmos, and does so by activating material life to evolve to Godhood. How these things are balanced becomes the task of a “religious physician.” This is the well we go to for renewal of the modern world.

Why sociobiological adjustments of sex, aggression and compassion is the sacred path

To seriously consider genetic as well as cultural adjustments requires a more austere discipline, made more difficult by not being considered politically correct at this time, as cultural Marxism continues to lead modern culture, in spite of its failures. In addition to advocating positive genetic and cultural improvements in intelligence and health, the three adjustments of emotions which Raymond Cattell centered on in his science-religion of  Beyondism were sex, aggression and compassion. Cattell believed these things could be changed through genes and culture. That is, changing such things as the kind of psychopathic aggression that is simply incapable of learning, or adjusting the short term types of compassion which seemingly help people in the short term but does much damage in the long term. 

Cattell divided the ethical system of any group into two parts: “universal” ethical rules necessary for any group to survive, and the “particular” ethical values of a particular group. Cattell wanted to have international research centers to support sociobiology research in these important areas.

I think the Church also needs to be involved in this research since the sacred goal of long term evolution is Godhood. We believe that the Godhood of evolution is the God first glimpsed only inwardly by the great religions. Godhood is now seen as attained through material and supermaterial evolution. Furthermore, the material world is activated by the Spirit-Will with the goal of attaining Godhood, and then the material world is shaped by evolution.

This is the religious-scientific sacred narrative of the future. In order to attain Godhood in evolution we will need to sociobiologically adjust sex, aggression and compassion through genes and culture, similar to what Cattell suggested, but with the sacred goal of evolving to Godhood. Godhood is the supermaterial absolute of intelligence, beauty and merit, attained through evolution. But this needs to be a voluntary mission, without coercion, applied to all humanity, living in their natural, bonded groups. Real compassion can help adjust downward trending groups before their extinction or cultural death.

Although some people will want to avoid such sociobiological ethical demands, it is the groups with the higher demands who survive in the long run. Sparta is not my ideal state but Cattell reminds us that austere Sparta defeated the more permissive Athens after 20 years.  We have many thousands of years to go, if we can survive.

Bringing back sacredness, myth, romance and heroism

Sacredness, myth, romance and heroism have largely gone out of our modern culture, and they have also gone out of religion, philosophy and science. The religious philosophical mythos of the Theoevolutionary Churchbrings these things back, with the epic narrative of our evolution to Godhood in the cosmos.

The God first glimpsed inwardly by the great religions is affirmed and transformed in the outward evolution of the material-supermaterial world to Godhood. Religion and science can join in this great adventure. Life evolves upwardly, with great heroism, with fallings and risings, all the way to Godhood in the cosmos.

Here is a reason to like the presocratics: Homer was more right than Plato in showing the Gods as anthropomorphic, for which Plato banned him from the Republic---Plato preferred that his highest God to be a nonmaterial mathematical Form. Godhood is not human but the Gods have material and supermaterial life.

And this is the God of the great religions, and this is also the Aristotelian God of Aquinas, but this is a transformed Godhood from the God that the great religions found inwardly---now real Godhood is also seen as attained outwardly in evolution.

It may be easier at this point in our evolution to speak of Godhood as having an absence of flaws regarding truth, beauty and goodness in comparison to humans. Evolution explains the progress of these virtues, with Godhood as having attained the zenith, or absolute, of these things.

Buchanan on the sociobiological forces changing the world

The latest column by Pat Buchanan, “The New World Disorder,” again shows how Buchanan remains the only conservative political commentator with the courage to see and speak the truth about the sociobiological forces that are changing the world, and the necessity of an alternative to the worldview of the neoconservatives, who continue to create disorder in the world.  

No Dualities

Religion and psychology have thought of the inward life as good and valid and outward life has often been thought of as evil or primitive compared to inward life. It is important not to see the Twofold Path of the EC as part of the duality that has plagued religion, philosophy and psychology since ancient times. The Inward Path is connected to the Outward Path as the heart is connected to the body. Mind and body are no more separate than soul and body or spirit and body.

Nietzsche thought the inward priests and intellectuals hobbled the outward life of people to gain control over them, but Nietzsche then went too far and rejected much of the inward life of priests and intellectuals. Nietzsche did not see that his “will-to-power” was really the material Spirit-Will-to-Godhood connecting the inward activating Spirit-Will to the outward life of material and supermaterial evolution to Godhood.

Outward life and object-life need to be revived and given new life over the inward life which only defines or activates life-objects.  Godhood is not a concept or number or material-free form, Godhood is the zenith of material and supermaterial object-life evolution.  The material Spirit-Will is never separate from the material life it activates.

Mixing science, poetry and religion

Raymond Cattell rightly warned against combining science and poetry, using the example of the hatred of Karl Marx for the middle class which strongly influenced his house of cards economics.

But the emotional satisfaction of identifying the Father Within, or God Within of traditional religion with the Godhood attained at the zenith of material evolution is such a combination of science and poetry. If such a dynamic were not real, and it is real, it would be brilliant and practical to invent it.

Such emotional bonding as the Twofold Path can enhance and encourage our successful survival and evolution out into the cosmos, while avoiding the radical revolutionary break from traditional religion.

But the fact is, we do claim idealism and faith at this time as necessary to see and know the zenith of evolution as Godhood, and to see the Spirit-Will or Tirips as activating life, which is then shaped by evolution.

This does not need to contradict science, or future science, which is why it is such a powerful poetic synthesis.

Affirming progress and order in theological materialism

Religious naysayers against “progress” have been right some of the time but not all of the time. Marxism and fascism were brutal negative examples which scared off conservative intellectuals, as well as secular humanists, and biased them against ideas of natural progress.

The naysayers have been wrong on both religious and scientific grounds in attacking the idea of progress. There has been collective progress not only in human culture but in human evolution, which can also bring forward a teleological or utopian worldview, in the goal of evolving outwardly all the way to the Godhood  first glimpsed inwardly in traditional religions.

The religious naysayers have therefore been blocking progress toward the very Godhood they champion by blocking the idea of material and supermaterial evolution to real Godhood. Conservatism requires a Revitalized Conservatism that emphasizes the evolution in Ordered Evolution rather than order without evolution.

Theological materialism is the successor to both religious naysayers against progress, and naturalistic secularized science. Theological materialism is grounded in the the idea of progress within order, while it gives philosophical naturalism and evolution a sacred foundation. This is original, modern, religious philosophy still tied to tradition in the Twofold Path. 

Argument for Godhood

All living things act in a way attempting to attain survival and reproductive success. Taking this dynamic to its highest analogy, living things essentially seek to attain survival and reproductive success in an eternal or near-eternal way, and this highest success is called Godhood. Natural evolution is the path of this seeking eternal success in survival and reproduction, and the Spirit-Will-To Godhood is the activating engine of material life, which evolution shapes.

Does Godhood therefore preexist in the Spirit-Will which activated life to evolve to Godhood? Godhood is the desire of the Spirit-Will, the Spirit-Will seeks Godhood, the Spirit-Will is not Godhood. The Spirit-Will requires material evolution as its vehicle to arrive at its supreme goal of Godhood. Many attempts at evolving to Godhood in the cosmos were not successful, but there are always new chances in the Primal Beginnings of many cosmos.

This suggests that there is only one kind of material reality. The mental and mathematical-Platonic live within the material realities of our minds alone. Even the Soul exists at the Zenith of our minds as the condition of bliss reached when our minds and bodies are emptied of all desires of the flesh.

Even the Spirit-Will which activates material life lives within material life requiring material life to evolve to Godhood. It is not yet clear if the Spirit-Will can reach beyond the material body, but I doubt it can, other than through material and supermaterial reproduction.

The Libido and the Spirit-Will

Civilization was not primarily developed by way of the repressed energy of the sexual libido, which was a central insight of Freud. And the desire for successful sexual survival and reproduction of ones genes is not the sole creator of civilization, as sociobiology suggests. Sex and reproduction are secondary to the central instinct which activates life, the Spirit-Will, or the Spirit-Will-To-Godhood.  Life is then shaped by somewhat random natural evolution.

Sex and aggression are sublimated (a better word than repressed) into building civilizations of evolving groups of people, but not for survival sake alone, and not only for healthy sexual balance. We are activated to sexual reproduction and survival so that we may continue to evolve toward Godhood, out into the cosmos, beyond the human species, all the way to Godhood.

The Voting Dilemma

In the words of Pat Buchanan writing on Romney's choice of Ryan, I also believe “people, private institutions, entrepreneurs and businesses are the creative and energizing forces in society,” unlike Obama, who essentially believes government is “the engine of prosperity.” That is a stark difference.

But I have a very big problem with the globalism and neoconservatism of Romney and Ryan, who are certainly not the equal of paleoconservative-economic nationalist, Buchanan, who was nefariously elbowed out of politics by neocons and Zionists. But is this enough of a problem not to vote for Romney and Ryan?

Perhaps we should try to solve our terrible economic troubles first, as Romney/Ryan suggest we do, however, to solve them also by continuing to gut manufacturing in America, and by going to war with anyone who will not let us take over the resources of their nations, seems like pouring fuel on the fire that is devouring the West. But we may simply be too broke to get involved in foreign entanglements, even if Romney approves of them.  

Beyond the philosopher of the future

We have to go beyond Nietzsche's philosopher of the future, who he defined as being a creative genius and the center of a value theory. Nietzsche did not really see our evolution to Godhood as the goal of mankind's individual and collective efforts, he thought as far as the superman creator of values, which was not high enough. Even the “high and noble cultures,” which at least early Nietzsche affirmed, did not see the goal of Godhood in evolution. The creative genius and superman are only temporary---although important---stopping off places along the evolutionary way to Godhood. In a healthy culture with the long view, all social, religious, government, and educational arrangements ultimately relate to evolving to Godhood.  This is solid ground in defining noble and ignoble cultures.

The wellspring for transformation

The religion, myth and symbols of the the Theoevolutionary Church (TC) are the wellspring for moral, social and biological transformation. It is both a rational and romantic religious worldview, with the base of evolution in science, and the romantic-religious foundation of evolving to Godhood.

This is not a struggle against capitalists, or proletarians, or other religions, this is a struggle against devolution and nihilism. This can be done with an Ordered Evolution, which means a Revitalized Conservatism, and not radical revolution.

The Twofold Path harmonizes with traditional religion---the individual Platonic Inward Path of tradition is attained through the sociobiological Outward Path to Godhood. The blissful dream world of the Inward Path to the Father Within is realized in the realistic Outward Path of evolution to Godhood.

Neither Marx nor Augustine were complete in taking sides on defining “evil”. Evil can come from both the structure of society and from the selfish id. The inward therapeutic of psychology is not enough, the outward  sociobiological is also required.

What matters most in evolution is the separation of powers---the central dictatorships of the state, and imperialism, are anti-evolutionary. Small states and even ethnostates protected by a light federalism, and voluntarily guided by religion and science, are the way to proceed.

The Spirit-Will, Free Will and Evolution

The Spirit-Will activates all life to evolve to Godhood, but outside evolution shapes material life, and in doing so, the healthier, the more fit, the best, whether in brain or brawn, have success in survival and reproduction, and can also move upward in evolution.  This is not cruelty on the part of nature toward the unsuccessful, this is simply real life and real evolution preferring the best to proceed.  The activation of the Spirit-Will does not assure the evolution to Godhood, but it seeks for all material life to attain Godhood. This gives evolution more choice, even more randomness than an absolutely determined Spirit-Will-material-life would supply. “Free will” is not the Spirit-Will but it acts something like the Spirit-Will in man. Free will is connected to determinative things so it is not entirely free. We have choices in what we do but they are not unlimited choices. The goal is determined but the path is freer.

How Christianity and Ordered Evolution are Compatible

Sir Arthur Keith said that “The law of Christ is incompatible with the law of evolution---as far as the law of evolution has worked hitherto.” This is like the dilemma St. Thomas Aquinas faced, when the exhuming of Aristotle's Reason seriously threatened to topple the faith of Christianity.

The Twofold Path in the Theoevolutionary Church makes Christianity compatible with evolution by seeing the Inward God, or the Father Within of Christianity, as the first intuitive glimpse of the Outward Godhood attained through material-supermaterial evolution in the cosmos.

But this compatibility is not done simply as strategy, this is knowing that historical and religious reality require a long term Ordered Evolution to Godhood, which combines the importance of Conservatism and Ordered Evolution with progressive evolution.

The Inward God of Christianity is reached by blocking the mammalian instincts, by blocking “all the desires of the flesh,” (not dissimilar to the inward God of eastern religions), whereas the Outward Godhood is reached by affirming and sublimating the drives of biological evolution toward Godhood.

Higher civilizations manage to redirect mammalian instincts in more spiritual directions, and the zenith of the instincts, the Spirit-Will, seeks to activate material life to evolve to Godhood.  The Outward Path is like swimming downstream in the current of life, the Inward Path is like swimming upstream as an ascetic against the currents of life.  These two streams are made compatible when the ascetic Inward God is seen as the  precursor to Outward Godhood attained through evolution.

Regarding the traditional proof of God

It may be an original theological concept that the Spirit-Will-To-Godhood contains both the cause and goal of life, since the Spirit-Will is what activates material life and does so because it seeks the goal of Godhood. The Spirit-Will is never separate from the material which it activates so there is never a single, non-material, spiritual cause.  

I do not see an unmoved, non-material God as the cause of the world, the Primary Material is periodically activated by the Primary Spirit-Will from which there is no separation, and there is always an endless evolution to Godhood, with many “failures” and fewer successes, and always with new chances. It seems just as likely that there never is, or was, a “first cause” or a “one” thing first moving another thing, things may reasonably go on forever, being moved by the Spirit-Will, and then shaped by evolution.

The two remaining “occult” entities in what I consider a naturalistic pattern are the activating Spirit-Will and Godhood at the zenith of evolution, which I believe will one day be acknowledged and defined by science---for now they require “faith” and intellectual intuition.

Thoughts on bioconservatism and artificial intelligence in evolution

I think in terms of voluntary, non-coercive, evolutionary advancement, beginning with screenings for genetic diseases, genetic counseling, birth control, all voluntary yet still encouraged. We want to halt devastating diseases which are passed on, but we also want to encourage healthier and more intelligent people with good  physical and mental health. It seems odd that one has to affirm these obviously positive things.

I can acknowledge Francis Galton's statement from the late 19th century that human civilization with its easy survival has often thwarted the mechanisms of natural selection which applied for millions of years---although good modern nutrition can also raise IQ's. When intelligence declines then civilization as we have known it declines. IQ correlates with many sociobiological factors, and these things have indeed been determined objectively by science.

We can exalt the healthy genius and the talented who have given so much to the average man. We have a long way to go in our evolution to Godhood, and Godhood is defined as the zenith or the absolute of intelligence, beauty and merit.

I affirm a bioconservative position on bioengineering and trans-human evolution. The growth of computers does not automatically mean that biological evolution will be superseded by technological evolution, computers are still autistically intelligent zombies, as David Pearce put it.

I do contrast biological intelligence with artificial machine intelligence, we are not forced to become cyborgs, or a combination of  human and artificial intelligence, and we are not forced to accept nonbiological artificial intelligence ruling over us.

It is true that genetic evolutionary change is slower at this time than exponentially advancing computers, but genetic engineering is speeding this up considerably. Computers can be used to help advance biological humanity, not rule us, and not combine with us.

There will be anarchic bio-hackers seeking to expand their minds, like those today who experiment with designer drugs, and perhaps they may need to be regulated---an intelligent sociopath is still a sociopath. There will probably be future competition between bioconservative evolutionists and those who radically promote artificial machine super-intelligence. But competition is part of evolution.

The creation of human civilization evolved mainly by way of  the bonding ethics of group-selection, and this remains deeply within human nature. Any future evolution will need to work with human nature in developing political philosophy, not against it, if we are to have the long term evolutionary success we need. For example, I see a world of thousands of small states, or ethnostates, protected by a light federalism, and guided in evolution toward Godhood by religion and science.

We certainly will invent and use higher and higher technology, but our future successors will be supermaterial descendants of ourselves and not digital machine monsters run on computers. The Godhood we are evolving to is not a superintelligent robot.
 
It should be made clear at this point that while we can affirm voluntary selective breeding, negative-eugenics (eg. disease curing), genetic engineering, gene therapy, human cloning, germ-line engineering, etc, we cannot affirm the projected man/monster/machine melds of transhuman technologies, and the like. This is where bio-conservative evolutionist's separate from the singularity and transhuman machine philosophies. In any case, human nature, or the nature of life itself, may put up its own obstacles to its own death, or its takeover by machines.
 
Reckless radicals seem to want to do such things as modify human cells with artificial cells until there is no natural biological identity left, which defines the death of natural life. We do not believe evolution can continue in that way. The Spirit-Will which first activates all life to evolve to Godhood, before natural evolution shapes life, will die if natural life dies.  

Although we certainly will be aided by superior machines and technology, we see Godhood as the zenith of natural material-supermaterial evolution, and not a machine-God.

The way out of nihilism: Nietzsche's death of religion was premature

Early Nietzsche saw no way to avoid the collapse of religion and the subsequent nihilism and “barbarizing” of culture. He thought that modern science, naturalism and modern philosophy had been the main culprits in its demise. In later work Nietzsche proposed a new philosophy or “religion” of the superman, the transvaluation of all values, eternal recurrence, the will-to-power.

But Nietzsche's death of religion was premature in light of the development of the synthesis of Christianity and theological materialism in the Twofold Path of the Theoevolutionary Church. The God of Christianity, the Father Within of Jesus Christ and the Inward Path, was a traditional, virtual, glimpse of the real Godhood which can be attained through material and supermaterial evolution in the Outward Path to Godhood.

This religious philosophy can save Christianity, and religion in general, and  it can give sacred meaning to science.  We are all evolving to Godhood, bonded within our various groups and ethnostates. This is the revitalized-conservative way out of the nihilism and hedonism of the modern world. The revolutions of communism and fascism were too radical and too far removed from human nature to work for humanity.

The Great Turn Around

I do not think that evolution is blind, although for most intents and purposes it looks that way because evolution wanders around and bumps its head against brick walls and goes down blind alleys. In this I depart from most scientists, including one of the best, Raymond Cattell.

A sacred instinct, a sacred erg, activates material life which is then shaped by evolution. This sacred instinct is called the Spirit-Will, or more formerly, the Spirit-Will-To-Godhood, and this activation helps explain the path of material evolution from the simple to the complex as the Spirit-Will seeks the highest evolution possible, which is Godhood.

Affirming the sacred instinct of Spirit-Will leads to the Great Turn Around of the Twofold Path in the Theoevolutionary Church In the great religions, the Involutionary Inward Path turned the material into the spiritual, whereas the Evolutionary Outward Path turns the spiritual into the material. The virtual God, or Father Within, of the Inward Path of Christianity, and the great religions, is reached by evolving to the actual Godhood of the Evolutionary Outward Path. The spiritual and material can meet here, religion and science can meet here, traditional religion and future religion can meet here.

How far can we extend group morality?

The scientific work of Wilson and Cattell, as well as common observation, shows that morality evolved from group selection. Survival advantages went to the groups who could bond together morally without killing each other, in competition, and even war, with other groups. The groups with the morality which was best bonded within the group were more successful in survival and reproduction. Individual and kin selection took place within the bonded groups. Kin and ethnic selection does not disappear from basic human nature when group selection is acknowledged, politically incorrect as this may be.

To demand equality with no preference for ones own group departs too far from actual human nature,which is why it has never worked. But I think it is possible to extend group selection to cooperative competition, rather than murderous competition between groups. Both culture and genetics are involved in this sublimation of aggressive drives.

Competition in group selection is the natural way to find positive evolutionary mutations, which can ideally then be shared with the world, while maintaining the natural preference for ones own group. It has been shown time after time that cultural and genetic stagnation sets in without competition. Does this sound like too much for humans to handle?  Human beings are capable of this, but it does seem to require the cultural and genetic sublimation of aggressive and sexual drives toward higher evolution. We are all evolving to Godhood but we won't get there without cooperation within the parameters of actual human nature and group selection.

The one basic instinct that needs to be affirmed is the Spirit-Will-To-Godhood which activates material life and is then shaped by evolution. To evolve in the world and in the cosmos to Godhood is the essential purpose and reason for our existence, and it is the present and future mission of religion and science to help in this sacred mission, by guiding the various competing groups in how we may best survive and evolve.  

Why humanity needs religion

Nietzsche made the remark that people would have the void as purpose rather than have no purpose, and he also talked about people becoming nihilistic if they had no religion. Nietzsche considered this a sign of weakness in people.

Philosophy and science did not successfully fill the void of lost religion. The big picture was missing, and emotional holism, moral direction, and harmony was missing. Modern humanity tried to fill the void with consumerism, food, sex, drink, movies, but these did not make them feel satisfied with their lives. Nihilism followed.

The reason people would rather have the void as purpose rather than have no purpose is not because they are weak or slaves, as Nietzsche suggested, it is because sacred purpose is built into the deepest zenith of our instincts, as the Spirit-Will-To-Godhood that drives material life to evolve to Godhood, which is then shaped by natural evolution. This is the base of revitalized religious philosophy for humanity.

Elegance

“Human reason does not exclude the merit of faith, but is a sign of greater merit.” St. Thomas Aquinas

It is the Spirit-Will-To-Godhood that leads “faith,” not human reason, but there is an elegant harmony between reasoned and empirical materialism and the activation of materialism by the Spirit-Will, which pleases both faith and reason.

The elegance in itself is important in finding the truth behind the patterns of existence. Without first seeing an elegant pattern, reason has little structure to examine, inelegance seems more unrealistic or unnatural, although we have to be careful here that we are not biased in our preference for seeing elegant patterns.

The most elegant pattern is seen in the Spirit-Will activating material life to evolve---shaped by natural evolution---to the supermaterial Godhood first glimpsed by the great religions, which harmonizes faith and reason, religion and science, past and future.  

Identity

In “The Politics of Myth,” Robert Ellwood suggests that what we identity as most important tends to define our political philosophy. For example, socioeconomic class, race, religion, the individual, etc. Communists prefer socioeconomic class, fascist race-nation, liberals the individual, and so on.

Group identification (along with individual selection) has just been reaffirmed by one of the greatest living scientists, E. O. Wilson, reversing his prior preference for kin-selection. I think all three, group, individual and kin selection work together, but group selection is the main unit of selection developing the ethics of our various cultures.

Group selection brings us in the direction of older romanticism, as well as conservatism, and turns us somewhat away from the liberal Enlightenment with its affirmation of the autonomous individual. But romanticism and conservatism also affirmed the individual and the hero.

Group selection and romantic conservatism are seen in the religious philosophy of the Theoevolutionary Church where the struggle for survival and evolution to Godhood becomes mythical, almost apocalyptic.  We politically project thousands of small states religiously evolving upward toward Godhood, under the protection of a light federalism---not imperialism--- and guided, voluntarily, by the church.  

But evolution itself is grounded in the science of the Enlightenment, which also fits the character and tone of the TC. This defines a holistic worldview and religion, which we do need in our long evolution to Godhood.

Religion and Psychology

Religion has been looked at by psychology as having spiritual values arrived at from the sublimation's of instinctual (ergic) frustrations, eg. sex and aggression frustrations. This seems largely true, with a vital exception. I believe that the foundational instinct, the Zenith of the Instincts, is the Spirit-Will which activates material life before life is shaped by evolution.

That is, religion and culture arise from the sublimation of instinctual frustrations, which has a sort of negative tone, but religion and culture also arise more deeply from the positive activation of the Spirit-Will, which essentially defines life itself.

Psychology and science in general have not acknowledged this sacred activating base beneath religion and biological life, they acknowledge only random evolution seeking survival success for the sake of survival success, with no long-term religious goal of Godhood.

This makes the ECC more a religion than a psychology, and this separates us from such great influences as Raymond Cattell and E. O. Wilson.