Theological Materialism: Redeeming both materialism and spiritualism

(A response to “Honesty in the Face of Delusion,” by Mihail Neamtu, Modern Age, Fall 2010)

Materialism has at least as high a standard as spiritualism in the theological materialism of the Theoevolutionary Church. It is not only materialism which caused the “disenchantment with the sacred” (Neamtu). Rejecting the material world---the real base of spiritualism---caused disenchantment with both materialism and spiritualism.

In reality, atheism offered consumerism, nihilism, hyper-individualism, and the oblivion of modern philosophy. But religion offered anti-materialism which can also become a form of nihilism and oblivion.  Atheism sinks into a void, but spiritualism sinks into the nothingness of anti-materialism. 

Religion offered the pursuit of individual happiness tied to a sacred teleological goal, but the goal was all inward, seeking the God Within, the Father-Within. Materialism could not offer a teleological goal, at least not until Supermaterial Godhood was understood as it is in the Theoevolutionary Church TC).

Theological materialism reshapes or revitalizes the Traditional Inward Religions, both West and East. We do not throw out the religious traditions as atheism does, we renew the sense of belonging to a long past, present and future religious history, while including the history of materialism in our religion.

The final answer to the exuberance of the pagans is not the anti-materialism and monasticism of spiritualism, but the fulfillment of the promise of both spiritualism and materialism in evolving to Supermaterial Godhood. 

The Twofold Path in the TC contains both the Inward Path of Traditional Religion and the Outward Path of sacred evolution.  The Inward Path leads to the virtual God Within, which is later attained in the evolution of the Outward Path to Real Supermaterial Godhood.

Both materialism and spiritualism need a new raison d'etre which is more than the empty libertarianism of materialism, and more than the anti-materialism of spiritualism. The  TC offers a genuine, real, “transcendence” in the evolution of life to Godhood, the God first seen in the Inward Path of Traditional Religion.

We can recapture the beauty created in our past history by redeeming both materialism and spiritualism in the Theoevolutionary Church. When the Great Spiritual Blockade of our evolution to Godhood is unblocked we can build churches and cathedrals again . We need a new Mass of Joy from the Outward Path to accompany the Mass of Sacrifice of the Inward Path.

Sacred Wealth and Profane Wealth

Economics is less dismal for me if I think in terms of profane wealth as the physical products produced by a people, and sacred wealth as the people, the sacred reproduction of the people.

Reality and practicality says that producing physical products to sell, the profane wealth of a nation, is necessary to maintain sacred wealth, the evolving people of a nation.

People who make things, the creators of profane wealth, support people who do not make things, like the government, the arts, religion etc, so the right balance must be found between the two. Greed can easily enter the picture.

I think a value added tax (VAT) might create the right balance, say, 18 percent on foreign imports. This could fairly provide for the necessary government services. A value-added tax is plugged on to every good and service inside the economy. Taxing consumption in our country could be adjusted for the very poor.  This could do away with income taxes.  This could bring manufacturing back to this country.

As to religion, it is the Church ideally which manages people as the sacred wealth of a nation. I don't see a big problem with monarchy or theocracy (or combining them as in the ancient Priest-King), but we live in an American Republic, and I do have a problem with trying to change things with revolution and radicalism. And dual sovereignty between the states and the government has advantages over the old ideas of power. The Founders did think that a Republic could include a hereditary aristocracy, as did the Roman republic, but they forbade states from erecting aristocratic republics.

The Church is independent from the government and from business, the Church is an important sacred guide but not a profane ruler. The Church, as defined by the Theoevolutionary Church, has its own leadership, chosen by merit, to help guide our evolution to Godhood, no matter what form of government it finds itself dwelling in.

A voluntary 15 percent contribution of ones profane wealth to the Church seems little enough if the Church manages the sacred wealth, the sacred evolution of the people to Godhood. Without being grounded in the long, sacred, reach of religion, even productive civilizations do not last long, as history has shown, time and again.   

The new religion of 9/11

It seems that we have a new secular religion in America, a new mass of sacrifice called 9/11.  Why?

Certainly the victims and heroes of 9/11 deserve our sympathy and gratitude, but who is promoting the new sensational religion of 9/11?

An alliance of neoconservatives and the media are promoting the new religion of 9/11. The neoconservatives want America to remain permanently at war with Islam, and the media agrees, although the media also sees better ratings in featuring the tragedy.

The old noble ethos was to move on from past tragedies, and not to remain in permanent resentment. Now we have a culture of resentment, sensation, and revenge, at least in the media. 

We would not be at war with Islam if we had not first invaded their territories. Whether the media or the neoconservatives like it or not, we need to bring our troops home. We can then defend ourselves from any real threats to our national security with power second to none.  Is it not the neoconservatives and the media who are now the threat to our national security? 

The Future Value of Our Dual Sovereignty and States Rights

The Civil War scared people away from speaking of States Rights. This is understandable given the great pain and suffering caused in that tragedy. But times are changing, science and demographics move ever forward, and this subject will be introduced again.

Much will depend on reemphasizing the power of the states, without renouncing the federal government. But perhaps the most important development will be in interpreting, or reinterpreting, the importance of group selection and states rights over abstract individualism, without losing individual rights. And no-one wants to bring slavery back.

In the past this was a legal argument regarding “compact theory,” the theory that states, not individuals, are the principles of the Constitution.. More recently it is the Tenth Amendment  people who affirm that: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Science has moved forward and developed a better understanding of human nature, for example, in the field of sociobiology, which has reaffirmed group selection as a natural law. This can help deepen and strengthen the states rights arguments.

The coming reality of demographic change (a reality few people like to look at) predicts increasing conflict between different people, races, and cultures in America, and in the world, therefore emphasizing the importance of small independent states to separate the combatants will help to avoid violence and even secession. This is not fun to contemplate but it is realism.

The United States has a great advantage in having a Constitution which provided dual sovereignty to the states and the federal government. But we will need to interpret the Constitution as giving far more power to the individual states. This way moderate conservatism can prevail over radicalism, and Ordered Evolution  can continue.

Supermateriality as the antidote to religio-philosophical abstract Being

If I take Caputo's view that St. Thomas thinks that Being is act, not phenomenon, not noumena, not substance or accident. Whereas Heidegger thinks Being is not act but is the quiet splendor of what shows itself, wholly removed from causality and actuality.Then I disagree with both these philosophers.

The act of Being (esse) does not bring forth the Being, the act resides within the Supermaterial Body of Being as the activating Spirit-Will (the will to Godhood), as it also does in material life. The Spirit-Will is not Being, It animates Being as It does lesser beings. The Spirit-Will doesn't “congeal” into Being, the Body of Being exists with the animating Spirit-Will within the Body of Being.

Being/Godhood is involved in making and causing, Being makes and causes--or more precisely transforms into the next stage of Godhood. Being does not exist beyond cause, cause is part of the active Spirit-Will within the Body of Being. Being seeks eternal representation like other life forms in the cosmos. We do not need a causeless Being other than to please a mathematical or philosophical preference for abstraction.

Supermateriality is revealed as the antidote to religious and philosophical abstract Being. Being/Godhood is supermaterial and therefore connected to the material world. Immaterial abstraction is not required in reality.

The mind is a faculty of the Body of Being, as the Spirit-Will is also part of the Body of Being. This means that truth is a faculty of mind existing in a body. “Absolute Truth” defines the Body/Mind/Soul/Spirit-Will of Being/Godhood, and not merely abstract thought in a mind free from a body.

The truth defines the material object, and Absolute Truth defines the Supreme Supermaterial Object or Objects (Godhood). Truth belongs together and included with Body-Mind-Soul-Spirit-Will in Being, and also in beings.  As above, so below.

The Chief Force of the World

The Spirit-Will, which is the Will To Godhood, is the chief force of the world, not the abstract power of Nietzsche's philosophy, not fear and not worldly acquisition. The Spirit-Will may sometimes uses these other forces, or work with them, as it does with the outside shaping force of evolution.

This means that life has a sacred meaning and a goal, the kosmos has a goal, which is Godhood, the sacred evolutionary goal of the Evolutionary Outward Path to Godhood.

The world is crucified in the Involutionary Inward Path to the God-Within, the Father-Within, the world is reborn in the Evolutionary Outward Path to Godhood in the kosmos. Both Paths are affirmed in the Twofold Path of the Theoevolutionary Church.

Alchemical Symbols

the Theoevolutionary Church (TC) does not seek secrecy with occult or alchemical symbols, but the following may help explain some of our differences with the old alchemy.

Esotericism tends to worship numbers and symbols rather than real objects which numbers and symbols can only represent. This is the real “transvaluation” that has taken place in religion and philosophy. Numbers are veils for real objects. The paper tiger is given power by believing in the paper tiger.

What alchemy is really about when it speaks of “changing metals,” is changing man from lower to higher to superman to Godhood, and not merely in the spiritual sense. Man does not play God in this, man allows the Spirit-Will, which activates life, to evolve to Godhood.

What better than evolution can discern how one essential part could be logically deduced from another thing? We can see how Godhood is defined as the accumulated parts evolved into a Godhood much greater than the parts.

The “alchemy of God” can describe evolution of the phenomenal world to Godhood. We can at this time dimly know the process, our “philosopher's stone” does not yet know the “supersubstance” which defines God, but the Spirit-Will which activates evolution seeks to take us there. It is the Spirit-Will, not the Demiurgos that is seen as the working cause,

The transmutation of man to Godhood is accomplished through evolution. This could be called the new alchemy, and it is the central concern of the Evolutionary Outward Path of the Theoevolutionary Church. The Involutionary Inward Path contains the ancient version of the alchemy which "transmuted" man to at least mirror the Golden Soul-Within, the Father-Within. the Theoevolutionary Church holistically studies and applies both in the Twofold Path.  Evolution applies the “elixir of the philosopher's stone,” which includes man himself evolving to Golden Godhood. The nature of the elixir is biometaphysical and supermaterial.

Far from disparaging science, the Theoevolutionary Church says that science could be seen as elevated to a “material alchemy,” to work in conjunction with Traditional “spiritual alchemy,” with both helping us to arrive at Godhood, through involution (spiritual alchemy) and evolution (material alchemy.) Science has, until now, enjoyed prestige and support for the pursuit of more mundane goals, much as the modern chemists have departed from the spiritual goals of the alchemists.

We maintain that the spirit is not at war with matter, because matter is the vehicle by which the Soul and Spirit evolve to Godhood. Therefore, the light is not at war with the dark, the Suryas and Asuyas can join together. We don't spear the material dragon, we ride the dragon to Godhood.

Here is Buchanan at his clearest on “How Capital Crushed Labor” in America

“...Does the cost of production here in America alone explain the decline in manufacturing and stagnation of workers’ wages?...

...since the Revolution, America has had a standard of living that has been the envy of the world. From the Civil War through the 1920s, as we became the greatest manufacturing power the world had ever seen, our workers enjoyed pay and benefits that were unmatched anywhere.

Yet our exports in those decades were double our imports, and our trade surpluses annually added 4 percent to the gross national product. How did we do it?...


...We taxed the products of foreign factories and workers and used the revenue to finance the government. We imposed tariffs of up to 40 percent on foreign goods entering our market and used the tariff money to keep taxes low in the United States...


..A new class came to power that looked on tariffs as xenophobic, on economic patriotism as atavistic and on national sovereignty as an antique idea in the new world order it envisioned.

By 1976, editorial writers were talking about a new declaration of interdependence to replace Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, which was now outdated...

...But why did corporate America, with its privileged access to the greatest market on earth, go along with sharing that market with its manufacturing rivals from all over the world?
The answer lies in the trade-off corporate America got.

Already established in the U.S. market, corporate America could risk sharing that market if, in return, it could shift its own production out of the United States to countries where the wages were low and regulations were light.

Corporate America could there produce for a fraction of what it cost to produce here. Then these same corporations could ship their foreign-made products back to the USA and pocket the difference in the cost of production. Corporate stock prices would soar, as would corporate salaries — and dividends, to make shareholders happy and supportive of a corporate policy of moving out of the USA.

Under globalization, America’s investor class could and did get rich by the abandonment of America’s working class.

America is in a terminal industrial decline because the interests of corporate America now clash directly with the interests of working America — and, indeed, with the national interest of the United States...”

(Full Essay Here)

Being Does Not Sit There Timeless

Being “sends itself” to life in the form of the material Spirit-Will, which activates all life to evolve to Godhood. Being does not sit there timeless, unconnected to the world while occasionally reaching out to effect the world. Being is a Supreme Supermaterial Object or Objects.

It is the material Spirit-Will which engineers or activates the world from within, while being shaped from without by evolution. Eternity may be in the inner core of the Spirit-Will.

Truth or Absolute Truth defines Being/Godhood but truth is not an object itself. Absolute Truth exists in the Mind of Godhood only. Absolute Truth also does not sit there, timeless, unconnected to Supreme Supermaterial Objects. Truth is always defining an object and not a living abstraction only.

Being is not defined merely as an “act” of Being, Being acts, acting does not sit there alone timeless.

The Spirit-Will is not Being/Godhood, it animates all beings and Being Itself, but is not Being. The Spirit-Will, the Soul, the Mind, the Body are all parts of the object that is living beings as well as parts  Supermaterial Being/Godhood, and these are not defined as Being individually.

Reason and science have problems measuring theses things. Reason and science tend to reject what they cannot measure. I think that these macro/micro conceptions of Being/Godhood and the cosmos will one day be measured, perhaps with a new technique of measurement. Meanwhile it is possible to overcome measure-bound things in a moment or two of intellectual intuition, when reason perhaps joins with intuition to arrive at something greater than the sum of its parts.

The Exoteric/Esoteric Religious Nexus

It seems likely that Indo-Europeans, or Proto-Indo-Europeans were the founders of Pharaonic Egypt. It is said that the root of rabbinic Judaism is Pharaonic Egypt and Babylon. Freemasonry is grounded in Kabbalic Judaism. The School of Traditionalism is based in Indo-European or Hyperborean pre-history. Christianity and Islam have roots in rabbinic Judaism and Zoroastrianism. 

The Revealed Religions all share the Involutionary Inward Path to the God-Within, or the Father-Within, by way of blocking the material desires. They are often bitter rivals, yet they share this basis for ecumenism, usually without knowing it. This means that these religions are at least religious cousins. 

The Theoevolutionary Church (TC) shares the God-Within with these Inward Path religions, but Evolutionary Christianity also affirms the Evolutionary Outward Path, which is the Path of evolution to Godhood in the Kosmos. This defines the Twofold Path of the Theoevolutionary Church, which stands alone in affirming material-supermaterial evolution as the true vehicle to Godhood.

The Evolutionary Outward Path is the real way to “repair the world” (Tikkun Olam). This is also the way to understand both fate and free-will. We are given by Godhood the raw material of life, and we are given the activation of the Spirit-Will, which are deterministic, but then our mission is to advance life in sacred evolution to Godhood, and to increasingly deny macro devolution.

The exoteric/esoteric separation is illegitimately developed when one group alone seeks power over the others. The Theoevolutionary Church is conducted openly, there is no need for secrecy when evolution is affirmed for all people, all races.  Different people, different races, usually do advance separately, in small states, but we insist in the equal right and agreement of all to advance and evolve to Godhood, which is seen as the sacred ground of all life.   

Changing our name

I am in the process of changing our name to “The Theoevolutionary Church” from Evolutionary Catholicism to more broadly and correctly define our mission.  This blog name remains the same.

The steering wheel of economics

Individual greed is usually the steering wheel of free-market capitalism, not innocent “self-interest.” Greed too often is selfish and ignores or even rejects community concerns.

Economic conservatism puts the community before selfish greed, while still allowing the free enterprise system, which has created economic miracles. Economic libertarianism  usually goes with free individual greed alone, which often ends up ignoring community concerns.

Concern for the community logically leads to local economic concerns and economic nationalism, whereas individual greed alone leads to global capitalism, which in reality respects no borders or communities.  We need fair trade with the world rather than free trade.

The wheel of economics has to be steered by community concerns and not by individual greed, without losing the free enterprise system.

It is the evolution of life to Godhood which is the ultimate engine of life, and not the social tool alone of economics. A variety of small, stable states and national economic order are required before evolution can successfully take place over time.

The Exoteric Synthesis of Esoteric Rivalries

There has been a battle in the West between exoteric and esoteric religions, with the Orthodox on one side and the Neo-Platonic-Gnostic-Hermetic-Kabbalistic-Rosicrucian-Masonic on the other side.

But these movements in reality have the same basic goal, the same spiritual end, which is opposed to the material world, even though they apply different methods to manipulate the material world in the process of seeking the spiritual world within. And the Eastern religions can also be classified in the same Inward Tradition.

One side does not represent the spirit and the other matter, as we are often led to believe, both sides affirm the God-Within, the spirit against matter. What they really are is rivals seeking the same Inward goal. This can be seen as the left and right hand path to the same spiritual goal. These rivalries reveal the natural, material and evolutionary nature of religion and philosophy, which have claimed to be beyond such things.

The Theoevolutionary Church (TC) stands away from these Inward Path rivalries.TC retains the same Inward Path but adds the Outward Path, which finally unblocks the Great Spiritual Blockade against evovling to Godhood. This is the Twofold Path.

EC champions the unsecretive, and open perfection of the elements, of man evolving to Godhood, affirming the regeneration of the evolving material-supermaterial world, all the way to Godhood. In EC this is done without rejecting either the Orthodox or the Neo-Platonic Inward Paths to the God Within.

The Twofold Path is a synthesis of the spiritual and material, religion and science. The longtime rivals, the Orthodox and Neo-Platonic, are included in the same Inward Path. Naturalism and the evolution of the material to the supermaterial to Godhood are included in the Outward Path.

Retaining positive evolutionary changes will often require periods of separation, variety and conservatism, affirmed in small independent states protected with light federalism. But let the talented, healthy, intelligent, beautiful and good rise to the Absolute of these virtues (which is Godhood) no matter what gender, class or race. Conservatism must also understand that we are progressively evolving beyond the various races of the human species, all the way to Godhood.

We do not believe in holding back sacred evolution. None of you shall see Godhood before evolving. We must find a way out of the Abulia of the religious rivalries, and the loss of the activating Spirit-Will, which plunges the earth into darkness.

How to accept Fate

Accepting Fate, does not mean stopping there and putting up with anything that life brings. Accepting Fate means accepting the raw material of life and existence and then doing something evolutionary and sacred with that raw material of evolution. Out duty is to help life evolve to Godhood, not merely accept life. Stopping at Fate is like stopping at truth and making a God of truth. It is the concrete object of life and it's evolution that concerns us more than the truth defining the object.

Reason and Intellectual Intuition

One applies reason to the world, the concrete, this has been reason's proportion. Intellectual intuition can apply to the Spirit-Will and to what we can see of Godhood by way of the Spirit-Will, which activates life to evolve to Godhood, shaped by the reasonable world of evolution.

The Spirit-Will is the Zenith of the Soul, just as the Soul (psyche) is the Zenith of the mind. However, the Spirit-Will is also of concrete supermateriality. Reason is in the mind and Soul, intellectual intuition is in the Spirit-Will at the Zenith of the Soul. These are terms for the sacred instincts residing in the body

Reason or super-reason will one day measure supermateriality. At this stage in our evolution it is possible to overcome the more time-bound understandings of reason when reason and intellectual intuition have a moment of revelation, when they join together. This is the ideal of religious metaphysics and philosophy. 

But we must take care not to continue to make Gods of concepts, principals and words. Godhood is a Supreme Concrete Supermaterial Object at the Zenith of material-supermaterial evolution, and Godhood is a concept, principle, or word only secondarily, in the supermaterial Mind of Godhood.

Harmonizing The Revolution

The reality is that the Theoevolutionary Church points toward the most radical social change or revolution since the beginning of the Revealed Religions. But unlike most “radicalism,” the Theoevolutionary Church is harmonized and tempered with Conservatism, the inclusion of Tradition in the Twofold Path. Ordered Evolution and Revitalized Conservatism synthesize the radicalism of the mission.

Our mission is to help all people, all races, all cultures evolve beyond the human species upward in consciousness, intelligence, beauty and goodness all the way to Godhood in the distant future.  The affirmation of material life evolving to supermaterial life and on to Godhood, is the foundation of the social revolution, brought about by the addition of the sacred Evolutionary Outward Path to the Traditional Involutionary Inward Path.

In seeking to evolve to Godhood, the Theoevolutionary Church developed not to destroy Christian Tradition, or the Tradition of the East, but to fulfill these Traditions.

There needs to be a constant effort to raise all people, all races, all states in evolution, but inequality needs to be seen as natural and normal. The primary mission of the Theoevolutionary Church is to help all groups rise according to their own cultural procedures and abilities. The love of ones own people needs to be seen as healthy, this is the way bonding takes place in maintaining as well as advancing evolution. We champion small states, with a light federalism protecting their independence, as the best long term way to maintain and advance human life.

Imperialism and racial supremacy of any one kind, noble, chosen, or elite,  is not affirmed in the Theoevolutionary Church. Such supremacy can stop variety and innovation and can create deep and often violent resentment of one group by another, eventually damaging both groups. The world, the Kosmos, is evolving to Godhood, and not just one people, and the Church and the Twofold Path will help guide this evolution.

Contra Vedanta

I don't see Being “polarizing” Itself into something else while still remaining Itself united. Being becomes Being preceded by the uniting of formerly polarized life.

Only if an abstract principle or an idea is defined as God can God be thought of as distinct from a concrete object. Godhood is not an abstract conception but a Supreme Concrete Object.

A Third Force is present in all this, the Spirit-Will that activates from within all life to evolve to Godhood, which is then shaped from without by evolution. Even at the Great Union of Godhood it is the fully realized Spirit-Will which helps to Transform supermaterialism into the next cosmic Godhood, which then contains the distinctive qualities of the arrived Godhood.

Old cosmos containing the properties of past transformed Godhood continue to seek Godhood, following black holes, big bangs and other actions in the cosmos. This suggests a multiverse rather than a universe.

Adding Real Purpose To Nietzsche

It could be said that the Evolutionary Church adds direction and a goal to Nietzsche's anti-teleological will-to-power, and redefines the will-to-power as the will-to-Godhood, or the Spirit-Will, which seeks not amoral, undirectional power only, but seeks to activate life to Godhood from within, while being shaped from without by evolution.

Nietzsche thought that humanity “as a species is not progressing and does not represent any progress compared with any other animal,” ("Nihilism's Conscience,” Ronald Osborn, Modern Age, Fall 2010). For Nietzsche, life seeks power, goalless power, amorally or immorally if need be, or creates its own morality. Theology and metaphysics are spent forces for Nietzsche mainly because Nietzsche dismisses direction and purpose in power and in evolution.

But when Godhood is seen as a naturalistic and theological goal, the goal of evolution, then biology and theology need not settle for the empty spiritualism that Nietzsche detested. Nature and philosophy evolve to Godhood.

Nietzsche mainly wanted philosophy to ally itself with natural science, with what would now be called sociobiology, and Nietzsche thought this would finally do away with God and religion. But with sociobiology, the altruism which Nietzsche saw only weakness in, is seen as advancing the power of group survival and reproductive success, with religion helping to bond that altruism. I see no reason to reject these values as weakness in the will-to-power.

When sociobiology is seen teleologically then religion re-enters the world. The vitalism and teleology of the Spirit-Will (will-to-Godhood) saves God and religion while affirming the naturalization of philosophy which Nietzsche championed.

Nietzsche remains a nihilist, and his preference for naturalism in philosophy doesn't change his nihilism because Nietzsche saw no direction, no order, no goal to evolution, other than amoral, directionless power. This purposelessness seems to be another fiction to replace the old fiction of a material-free, evolution-free spiritualism.

All theology depends on joining with a new natural philosophy which sees direction and purpose in evolution. Godhood becomes the goal of evolution. Nihilism can only be overcome this way. At this point it is the “faith” that there is no purpose to the will-to-power in evolution, against the faith that there is purpose in evolution. I believe the science which Nietzsche truly preferred will one day affirm purpose, direction and the goal of Godhood in evolution. This will then give us the best of both faith and reason.

Grounding Being

It seems to me that both St. Thomas and Heidegger could not give Being a ground ( "Heidegger and Aquinas," Caputo). Being was left groundless.

I see it as a device, an abandonment, to say, as Heidegger said, that Being is "time," or more precisely, that Being gives Itself to man in the form of time, because our senses operate within the horizon of time. This way one doesn't define the ground of Being.

The way to ground Being is to secure Being in materialism-supermaterialism, to define the Spirit-Will as Material Essence, which is also supermaterial. One then can define Existence as a material-supermaterial Body, activated by the Spirit-Will, and shaped from without by evolution.

Godhood is this way grounded in Its own Essence and Existence, as all other causal life is, only Godhood or Being has evolved to the Zenith of the material-supermaterial world.

The problem seems to stem from the old duality of material/spiritual and the inability to see God as material-supermaterial, along with the insistence on a wholly spiritual God with no “confinement” in anything material or supermaterial.

Creation is “mutatio,” nothing can be created out of nothing. This is causal thinking, this is theological materialism. It is time to end the battle between spirit and matter, religion and science. At this time, reason and science can take us to the gate, and intellectual intuition and religion can pass us through the gate, until reason catches up.

Nothingness Is Not The Ground Of Being

When I define the “ground of Being” I see the material/supermaterial Spirit-Will as this ground, this Essence. But this is not the ground of Being claimed by most religious mystics over the centuries. They saw, and see, the experience of the ground of Being as the end of the path, they describe it as like a time before the beginning, they see “nothingness,” with no desire to do anything in the ground of Being. This leaves the question why and how did something come from nothing?

The great mystical error, which is also stunningly arrogant, is confounding the empty yet still physical and blissful Soul-State with the ground of Being. Indeed after much discipline and meditation designed to block or stop all material desires of the flesh, one can attain the empty blissful Soul-State. But this is not the ground of Being, this is not God.

The Soul-State of the Revealed Religions can tell us what it may be like when we finally attain the fulfillment of the evolution of the material-supermaterial world, which is not the same as the abandonment of the material-supermaterial world.

It is through the Spirit-Will, the Essence, not the Soul, that one can see the purpose of Existence as the endless evolution of life to Godhood, activated by the Spirit-Will.

Again, this means that something does not come from nothing. Godhood is not nothing, and the Soul-State of attaining nothingness does not define the ground of Being or Godhood.

The Soul-State and the Spirit-Will are goals of the Twofold Path. The Soul-State is involutionary, the Spirit-Will is evolutionary. But the Involutionary Inward Path to the Soul is no longer the central and only goal of religion, it is subsumed in the Evolutionary Outward Path to Godhood.

Think of this anti-life quote : "I made a pillow of my mother's bones and remained in an undistracted state of tranquility."(Milarepa).  The arrived mystic with no desire to do anything, and no impetus whatever, can be released from this Great Spiritual Blockade.  Life needs to be allowed to evolve to Godhood in the cosmos.

Body and Spirit Unseparated

Without the Spirit-Will the Body-Mind is unactivated to Godhood, and without the psychosomatic Body-Mind the Spirit-Will is impotent.

We do not separate the Spirit-Will from the Body-Mind as the Revealed Religions do thereby damaging and degrading or even killing the material-supermaterial vehicle of the Spirit-Will to Godhood.

The Traditional Religions have taken man out of the world, Evolutionary Christianity brings them back showing the Real Path to Godhood by way of material-supermaterial evolution.

The Soul is the Zenith of the Body, but the Spirit-Will is the Zenith of the Soul, it is the Soul that has been confounded for God.

Attaining the material-free Soul-State in the Inward Path can be a blissful reminder, a virtual experience of what fulfilled Godhood will be like in the Outward Path, but it is not Godhood.

The Evolutionary Outward Path unblocks the Involutionary Inward Path, while retaining both Paths in the Twofold Path.

Light and Dark can end their mystical war in Evolutionary Christianity. The Darkness leads to Light, and the Light creates Darkness.

Flesh is not in opposition to the Spirit, flesh is the vehicle of the Spirit-Will. There are sacred evolutionary and profane devolutionary uses of the flesh, but the flesh itself cannot be seen as evil.

A proper and just social order cannot be established by those who hate the world and the flesh. The Inward Path needs to be balanced with the Outward Path, with Ordered Evolution and Revitalized Conservatism.  

How paleoconservatism can be the way out

Basically, the neoconservatives, like the libertarians, put the economy first, and the paleoconservatives put the community first, and this makes all the difference in the world. The neoconservatives are the group that led to the downfall of the American economy, for example, by investing globally and thereby destroying American manufacturing, and by supporting their investments with military interventions around the world. Paleoconservatives were outfoxed by neoconservatives who found ways to appeal to the media and to evangelical Christians.

But as the nation becomes more politically, economically and racially fractured, the Paleos could be seen as the way out, separating the fighting sides by way of promoting the independence of the nation and the independence of the states. Economic-military globalism will fade in any case as America will be too broke to proceed globally. Then the Neos may be seen as elitist enemies of the people.

The Blacks and Hispanics, and increasingly poor whites and the middleclass, will see the Neos as exporting all their jobs and keeping all the wealth for themselves. Perhaps then their will be a contest between the Paleos and Liberals as to who best can help the people, with the Liberals advocating big government—taxing the wealthy---and the Paleos seeking economic nationalism, small government, and the independence of the states. Both will stand against the power of the global Neos. But the liberals may affirm global business if they think they can tax it, which could put them in league with socialist or fascist elements.

Paleoconservatism is distinctively American, which can be a big appeal to Americans, but Liberals will probably have most of the media, and the Academy, as they do now, so the Paleos will need to gain more media and academic power to continue their superior appeal.

All the contenders for the Presidency in 2012 are directly or indirectly supporters of globalism and therefore the neoconservatives, with the possible exception of Ron Paul. But as a libertarian Paul at bottom values the free economy ahead of the community, which is why so many neoconservatives promote him. We need an economic nationalist (fair trade rather than free trade), someone like Pat Buchanan, but he isn't running, and there seems to be none else like him on the stage. But such people will inevitably rise.

Being Within Time

Being-Godhood operates within the horizon of time, as other life, with the same general causes and senses, only Godhood has attained the Zenith of Causes and Senses by way of evolving to the final goal of evolution.

Defining a Being beyond time can be only as a non-concrete concept within the mind of whoever is doing the conceiving. Eternity is related to existence within time, or to concrete objects within time, which continue through reproduction or transformation.

God is considered “confined” to time and concrete things only by way of abstract conceptions. Man's arrogant own conceptions or abstract fantasies of “eternity” are not greater than concrete existence, which seems to have no beginning and no end.

As to the origin of Being Itself, men have often leaped to create an idea of a non-concrete origin, and then worshipped that non-concrete origin. There seems to have been no origin, no beginning and no end. It is not the concept of life but life which seems to have been eternally represented.

Creation of the cosmos and all life is a “mutatio” or transforming, rather than a creating out of nothing.

This leads some to worship “time” as the one eternal thing. But time exists only in relation to concrete objects moving through time, time is not a concrete living object.

The theological materialism of the Evolutionary Church could be seen as nominalist conceptualist, in that only concrete things are seen to exist, and abstract entities do not exist other than in the mind of concrete objects with conceptual minds.  Plato's influential claim that Ideas create form and shape was in error.

Absolute Truth exists only in the Absolute Mind of Godhood, the Supreme Concrete Object or Objects at the Zenith of Evolution in the cosmos, who then continue to transform.

Socio-political reality and human destiny

We strive for human excellence socio-politically, and in evolution, keeping in mind that we cannot expect perfection from human beings. Central to Edmund Burke's conservatism was “prudence” rather than strict ideology.

Godhood is attained at the end of a long chain of evolution, reasoning and culture and metabiolgy move upward in starts and stops and backward going.

In the end, Godhood is not merely found in the head or the heart but in the Supreme Supermaterial Body, the Supreme Object. The Supreme Object is better than love, intelligence, theology or philosophy.

All humanity is activated to evolve to Godhood, therefore, supremacy and imperialism lead inevitably to endless conflict which threatens the whole.

A way has to be found that allows for our evolutionary destiny while taking into account our imperfections.

Human nature is kin-centered, ethnocentric, patriotic, pair-bonding, traditional, therefore, political philosophy cannot ignore this for long without being reminded of it when society snaps back, often violently, from ideologies with little relation to human nature.

The realities of human nature, and our evolutionary destiny, suggest that mankind requires a variety of small virtually independent states, protected with a light federalism, and guided voluntary by the Church in upward evolution to Godhood.

Folk Religions and Philosophical Religions

"Philosophical religions” believe in a Principle of existence, or supreme wisdom, and do not always believe in actual Gods, as “folk religion” does, says Alexander Bard, who affirms the philosophical principles of Zarathustra.

The condescension of religious philosophers toward folk religion is ill founded. Gods do exist, they are evolved to in material and supermaterial evolution, and any philosophy describing them is secondary. The living object and Supreme Object come before any principle explaining them.

The ancient primordial folk religions, at least in this basic ontology, were more right then the later philosophical religions who look down on them.

The Great Religious Error

When the Bhagavad Gita (15:1-3) uses the metaphor of the cosmic tree with its roots above the ground and its branches below, it is a clear, unintended, picture of the great religious error.

The roots of materialism are rejected, trans-valued, into the roots receiving sustenance from nothing, from spiritual thin air. Materialism is thus utterly rejected in defining God and spiritual things.

For many centuries a single-minded conflict between nature and spirit has been set up that has utterly wasted much of the energy of evolution which seeks to evolve to true Godhood.

It is enormously arrogant to think that man can be God without first evolving far beyond the human species. This is the great religious error of confounding the God-Within, the Father-Within, with Real Godhood.

Yes, we must also affirm Christ, the Father Within (Atman, Brahman), which is experienced at the deepest part of the Soul. This virtual experience of God can strongly remind us of the evolutionary cosmic goal of Real Godhood. But we cannot remain blocked there in the bliss of virtual Godhood.

We must move forward in the Evolutionary Outward Path, which leads material life in evolution to supermaterial Godhood.

How the future can determine present events

Chance and natural selection do take place, of course, said Teilhard De Chardin, but there is a guided force in the selection process. I agree.

The Spirit-Will within activates life to evolve to Godhood, working along with chance and natural selection. This is how the future can determine present events, just as the past can determine the present.

Grounding the Ground of Being

Causal ontology

Being is confined to concrete things, but concrete things range from the simple material to the complex supermaterial. Godhood or Being is the highest evolution of supermateriality.

Being's “essence” is the same Spirit-Will essence as that which activates the simple material, only with Being, the Spirit-Will has reached the goal for which It activates all life to attain.

This grounds the "groundless" ground of Being of Heidegger and St. Thomas. Causality does attain Being Itself. It does not “limit” Being to be linked to causality.

Why does it limit Being to “simply” be the Being of beings? This seems to be seen as a limitation only if one prefers nonmateriality, mathematics, language, etc, to a grounded, concrete materiality-supermateriality.

Being Itself will not disappear, as it is feared, if Being is “confined” to the concrete. This fear seems to be based on a dislike of or escape from the grounding in materiality. Being does not disappear but is transformed into cosmic Godhood by way of evolution, which is certainly not a disappearing. This superconcrete transformation is the real “transcendence.”

Man does not make his way to an existing Being in time, man evolves to the Zenith of material-supermaterial evolution, which is the real Being or Godhood in time.

Man does not merely gain access to the “meaning” of Being, man can become Being, man becomes Godhood by way of evolution.

It is the Spirit-Will within, which is material or supermaterial ,that bestows Itself on man, not Being. Being needs to be evolved to. The Spirit-Will is not Being.

The Great Spiritual Blockade of materiality-supermateriality by theology and philosophy needs to be unblocked so that life will not be trapped in groundlessness, and so that life can be allowed to evolve to Godhood.

Reality and the Pattern of Ecumenism/Synthesis

Science and reason should not alone perceive Reality. Intellectual intuition and faith are also vital in perceiving reality. But those who apply reason/science and those who apply intellectual intuition/faith often reject one another.

The problem is that there seems to be a dominance of wealth over both science and faith, and they are made to submit to wealth. Even power tends to submit to wealth.

There is something deeper than science, wealth and power dominating these drives and that is the sociobiological drive to survival and reproductive success. Human beings, as other animals, have not always been conscious of their sociobiological imperatives.

Yet there is something even deeper then wealth, science, power and sociobiological drives, and that is the activation of all life to evolve to Godhood. Here, finally, we can have the ecumenism/syntheses.

This seems to mean that intellectual intuition/faith lead the way in perceiving reality, followed by wealth, power, science and sociobiology drives, not necessary in that order.

I believe that both science and religion will one day affirm supermateriality and Godhood.

The principle pattern of materialism evolving to supermaterialism and then on to supermaterial Godhood reconciles the warring camps. This takes all life outside the confines of wealth, science, power and sociobiology. Great civilizations have always been grounded in the sacred.  This offers life a  real divine imperative. 

The Joining of the Inward And Outward God

“ If the Evil Spirit himself could come into obedience, he would become an angel of light again, and all his sin and wickedness would be healed and blotted out and forgiven at once.” (“Theologia Germanica”)

The phrase, “the Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21) speaks to the Involutionary Inward Path, not directly to the Evolutionary Outward Path. The central mission of the the Theoevolutionary Church (TC) is to unite the Inward Path with the Outward Path in the Twofold Path.

Jesus speaks always from the perspective of the Inward Christ, the Inward Father, the God-Within. Jesus is the Western spokesman for the God-Within, Jesus is a great mouthpiece for the Christ Within.

The Revealed Religions West and East center on the Involutionary Inward Path, the same God-Within, the same Christ, but they use different symbols and meanings from different cultures. As Ravi Ravindra says, Christ is the way but Jesus is a way. This is the center for a religious ecumenism. 

With the the Theoevolutionary Church (TC) comes recognition of the Evolutionary Outward Path, which is synthesized into the Involutionary Inward Path. The Outward Path leads life to Godhood in material-supermaterial evolution. This is not the God-Within which gives a blissful reference to Godhood, or gives an identification with Godhood. This is the Supreme Supermaterial Object Godhood at the Zenith of Evolution in the cosmos.

True Godhood can be blocked by centering exclusively on the Inward Path. The right flow of energies from outside in (Inward Path), and from inside out (Outward Path) needs to be balanced. There is interplay between these energies relating to Ordered Evolution and Revitalized Conservatism.  The Twofold Path is the great joining of the Old and the New, the Beast and God, the Pagan and Christian.

An undivided, optimistic view of man and the cosmos

Man should not be seen as the apex of all evolution. We are evolving to Godhood and this means evolving far beyond man.

We need more than the micro history of man, we need the macro history of the cosmos. To do this we need to apply scientific empiricism, intellectual intuition and religion.

History and nature are related, and Godhood and man are related. The material-natural or the supermaterial-supernatural are all on a continuum of evolution, the difference is in higher and lower evolution.

We attain Real Godhood through evolution from the natural to the supernatural, the material to the supermaterial.

Traditional religion gives us a glimpse, a virtual reference, a blissful reminder of Godhood through the Involutionary Inward Path, but Real Godhood is reached in evolution through the Evolutionary Outward Path.

This is essentially an undivided, optimistic view of  man and the cosmos.

Theological materialism is not a Godless materialism

Theological materialism does not describe man's fate without God, as in standard materialism. Theological materialism is not man-alone without God but man activated by the Spirit-Will to evolve to Godhood.

The materialism of science, Marxism, liberal humanism, etc., does not allow Godhood or the Spirit-Will. These materialisms usually therefore acquiesce to an elite of scientists, technicians, politicians etc, with little or no religious grounding.

Man-centered philosophy tends to lead to dictatorial elites. Theological materialism is not man-centered, the Spirit-Will within material/supermaterial life activates life to evolve to Godhood, shaped by evolution from without. Intellectual intuition and faith play as big a part in theological materialism as they do in traditional religious spiritualism.

Theological materialism does not lead to Big Brother Materialism any more than religious spiritualism leads to Big Brother Spiritualism. Theological materialism does not call for a dictatorial class of priests or scientists. Priests guide the church in upward evolution to Godhood, aided by science and the humanities, and with the voluntary affirmation of the people.

Godhood is the sacred goal in theological materialism, this is not a horizontal end. Evolution moves from lower consciousness to higher consciousness, from materialism to supermaterialism.  This can suggest light federalism, small independent states, representative government, which best allows the variety of life to evolve to Godhood, with Ordered Evolution, and with the Revitalized Conservatism of the Twofold Path, not revolution.

How to save the American economy with a value-added tax

"... In the U.S. we tax our own citizens and then ask foreign countries to loan us the difference. Everywhere else in the world they tax their own citizens and then charge foreign corporations for entry access to their market.

U.S. companies annually pay an accumulative average of more than $550 billion to these foreign VAT systems.This money goes into the coffers of foreign governments; it pays for their bullet trains, alternative energy plants, universal health care, and free/subsidized access to a university education. Every year we in America continue to ignore our own needs in these areas due to lack of funding.

If the United States had a value-added tax, we would first need to lower income taxes and corporate taxes, leaving more money in the pockets of companies and individuals who can then go out and buy things in the economy. You then replace those lost taxes with a national consumption tax and build revenue on the things that people buy. In 2009 the United States imported $1.9 trillion worth of goods and products. If we had in place just a 10 percent VAT we could have raised $190 billion from those imports..."   ( essay here, from "Economy In Crisis")

Repairing The Great Theological and Philosophical Error

Assigning the Spirit to “elsewhere,” not connected to worldly causes, or natural causes, was the Great Theological and Philosophical Error. The material and supermaterial world was blocked, disparaged, hated by the mystics, even if they tried to concede to the less enlightened of the world in various ways, (eg, it is better to marry than burn, etc) This in effect meant blocking and disparaging Godhood, because Godhood is attained through material/supermaterial evolution.

What the traditional mystics were speaking of was the goal of the Involutionary Inward Path to the Father-Within, or the God-Within, which is not Godhood, the God-Within is the Offspring of Godhood. In the Twofold Path of Evolutionary Christianity it is acceptable and enlightening to attain the Father Within in the Involutionary Inward Path, but it not acceptable to stop there in the desire-free bliss of identification with Godhood, Real Godhood must be evolved to in the Evolutionary Outward Path.

Materialism and spiritualism need to be synthesized into supermaterialism, the left and right hand need to join. To civilize the "beast” of materialism is to evolve from materialism to supermaterialism and on to Godhood. The devil is said to guard the gate to heaven, and this is usually interpreted in terms of blocking the material desires of the devil, to pass through the spiritual gate to heaven by way of the Involutionary Inward Path. But this can also be interpreted as attaining supermaterial Godhood by way of material evolution to Godhood---no devil, no Godhood, no materialism, no supermaterialism.

Self-abnegation leading to the Father-Within of the Involutionary Inward Path is only half of religion. Self-fulfillment leading to Godhood of the Evolutionary Outward Path completes religion. This is the major theme of the Twofold Path in Evolutionary Christianity. This is the way to repairing The Great Theological and Philosophical Error.

Evolution and Purpose

Science has described evolution as random change without purposive direction and without inner direction. I think there is also a guiding force in the selection process.

Science and the synthesis of evolutionary biology with genetics have said that inward genetic mutations create the genetic diversity which supplies the raw material for natural selection to act upon. Perhaps it is here that direction and purpose also help influence mutations, along with the other causes of mutations. Both intuition and empiricism can be applied in studying this subject.

I am speaking of the Spirit-Will as that influence in activating life to evolve to Godhood, shaped by evolution. Entropy can influence but not kill this drive, it always rises with life, seeking to activate life to Godhood.

I have used the awkward word “outvolution” to distinguish this purpose from the rigid random chance applied to the word evolution. In any case, direction and purpose need to be included in evolution.

Overcoming The Oblivion Of Being

How can we overcome what Heidegger called “the oblivion of Being?” I redefine what has been defined as a subsistent ever-present Being and instead speak of a Supermaterial Transforming Being, or an evolving and reproducing Being.

This means that a subsistent ever-present Being in the old metaphysical sense does not exist and that Being exits in the elements of being-offspring, much as our ancestors exits in our genome. The Spirt-Will is this ongoing material activator within life which moves forward always and only through material evolution.

Meanwhile old cosmo's offer continual chances for life to evolve to Godhood, overcoming entropy, time and again, or beginning again after collapse.

Being/Godhood is “oblivious” to us for the reasons that St. Thomas Aquinas gave: our understanding remains concealed due to the infirmity of our minds, which I explain as lower and higher levels of evolutionary development, and not to spiritual enlightenment. Being itself does not “withdraw” as Heidegger suggests. The only “withdrawal” is not a withdrawal but a transforming reproduction.

Equal in Spirit-Will, Unlike in Group

All people, all groups, all races are equal in one respect: the Spirit-Will within is the same within all living things activating life to evolve to Godhood. But this does not mean all men are the same, this simple means that we are activated by the same Spirit-Will, which is the most important part of life, since it is the purpose of life in the Kosmos to evolve to Godhood.

Evolution prefers variety and divergence as much or more than it likes convergence, so the activating Spirit-Will within, shaped by evolution from without, creates variety, different people, different races and cultures, evolving in their own way to Godhood.

These differences and variety can to be applauded by advancing the practical application of many small states within a light federalism, which makes possible the advancement of the Spirit-Will in all people, and not just one people. Small independent states also can allow the time for beneficial mutations to take hold as evolution pushes us forward. This is not a radical political change, for example, the original United States Constitution already affirms small independent states within a light federalism.

Human beings are capable of cooperative competition, indeed, we must be if we are not to deny human nature, and evolve. We need to find relative harmony among human beings, while protecting our differences and our evolution to Godhood. No matter how much we love ourselves now, eventually we will evolve beyond the human species, to higher species, and continue on to Godhood, if we can work with our differences.

Godhood As The End Of Metaphor

The true name of Godhood is known only by Godhood, It cannot be a “forbidden word” for human beings to utter because it is not possible for human beings to know this word. We may have a mistaken word for God, or a word for a God that is not really God, but it is highly arrogant to claim that we can or do know the Word for Godhood, secret or not.

The same applies to the definition of Godhood, which is not possible for humans. We can use symbols and metaphors, we can stretch beyond our knowledge to define Godhood with metaphysics, metabiology or poetry, but it requires Absolute Knowledge and Absolute Truth to correctly define Godhood, and only Godhood contains these Absolutes. It is not that we do not wish to define Godhood, we cannot define Godhood.

Yet even Godhood Itself has to use symbols, or Absolute Symbols, to define Itself. Godhood Itself is not an Absolute Word, Idea or Principle. Absolute Symbol's remain symbols uttered by Godhood Itself, while Godhood is a Supreme Supermaterial Living Object or objects. Because we have no choice but to stretch for symbols to define ascending levels of Godhood, it does not follow that Godhood must be an immaterial symbol. Godhood is not immaterial but supermaterial. Here is where ontological errors creep into theology, metaphysics and philosophy.

When Godhood Itself does utter the Word or Definition of Itself, this becomes finally the end of metaphor. The word metaphor means meta (beyond) and pherein (to carry), to carry beyond, as Frederic Turner pointed out in his excellent essay on symbols in the American Arts quarterly. Godhood is the the final goal of “going beyond” as metaphor does, and as evolution does. With Godhood attained at the Zenith of Evolution we have reached the Zenith of going beyond. But even then there may be continuing ascending levels of Godhoods.

We do need a grounding for our metaphors, a foundation for our biology, otherwise we can become lost out in the stars. Tradition and Conservatism are the ground for our metaphorical and real-life evolutionary advances. We must not be lost to the world since it is the world that needs to evolve to Godhood. This illustrates the concept of Ordered Evolution in the Theoevolutionary Church (TC). We require both the order of tradition and the change of evolution. This is foundation of the Twofold Path, with the Involutionary Inward Path leading to the Father-Within, and the Evolutionary Outward Path leading evolution to real Godhood.