Monday, December 30, 2013

The continuum of faith and science in theological materialism


Many years ago Nietzsche pointed out that human morals and valuations had lost the preservative function which animal instincts have, creating missing or chaotic value systems. Sociobiology tends to agree, saying human valuations in reality preserve the individual, community, state, culture etc. The almost experimental morality of modern life has all but lost its preservative instincts and lost the preservative function of values.

The evolutionary perspective of theological materialism adds the end-goal of evolving to Godhood to our valuations and morals . This necessitates preserving individuals and cultures, but it offers a continuum of valuations all the way to Godhood in the cosmos. Theological materialism follows science all the way, particularly sociobiology, but unlike Nietzsche, it also includes Jesus, Plato, Kant and Hegel in that their philosophy transcended science with the belief in a romantic “beyond.”  This beyond applies even when the beyond is truncated as an Inward God.

What theological materialism adds is the belief that science will one day affirm our evolution to Godhood, so that Godhood will then be located both in faith and in science. Virtues are looked at as evolutionary conditions. The highest beauty, intelligence, truth and goodness is attained when Godhood is attained in evolution. To adapt a phrase of Nietzsche, this is the way all the chords in tragic being can ring in splendid unison.  This path of our evolution to Godhood isn't seen as a contradiction between faith and science but as a continuum.

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