Burke, Pagans, Evolution, and Godhood

The power of conservatism in human affairs is too strong and true to ignore, which is one reason why I am not a Nietzschean, or a modern pagan. But the power and truth of science is also too strong and true to ignore, which is why I am not a conservative of the Traditionalist School. I believe that we must improve on the inheritance of past religion, not only improve on the inheritance of political philosophy, with ideas and actions that fit into the older patterns, with gradual innovations, adding to the permanent body. Edmund Burke was very concerned with the pace of change, but theological materialism is also concerned with the direction and goal of change in our evolution toward Godhood.

Evolution is affirmed rather than revolution, with nature as the living model of how to change. In the Twofold Path, the Outward Path harmonizes with the order of nature in the material evolution of life to supermaterial Godhood, the God first seen symbolically in the Inward Path of traditional religion. Godhood is separate from man only in evolutionary terms.

A religious conservatism that refuses to change may relate to a God that is outside of nature, which is a definition outside of nature rather than a God. But radical revolution is also outside of nature's way of conservatively changing, which is why radical revolutions are rarely successful in the long term, and we are evolving for the long term.