I have faith in the future of mankind.
Unlike the extreme element of the environmental lobby, I do hope for a bright future of glass, concrete and steel.
I just hope we can find a way to do it.
My general religous/political outlook can be confusing to people, until I explain it.
I would seem, at first glance to hold some incompatible positions.
I think it's worth enumerating the key elements of my outlook.
1. I agree with most of what Nietzche writes.
2. I agree with most of what Marx writes.
3. I believe firmly in evolution, indeed it is fundamental to my world view.
4. I am a practising catholic, and theologically am quite traditional, supporting the Tridentine Mass, not having much time for John XXIII, and admit candidly to being a keen admirer of the current Pope.
5. I actually vote Conservative and was a party member for years. I left because they didn't elect Michael Portillo as leader.
How do I reconcile these points?
Firstly, let me say I believe in a God.
Not a personal, God, I simply believe the Universe is conscious and has purpose.
I believe Evolution to be the only mechanism a benevolent and all powerful God would use.
Surely an Omnipotent God wouldn't sit down and design everything.
He'd just set in motion a Universe that eventually, produced perfect intelligence.
We are part of that motion, but we're not there yet.
I believe we are evolving towards something, and that is God-made-Man, or Man-made-God, however you choose to view it.
I believe Christ was who he said he was.
I believe his message was a message to show us how to reach perfection.
I believe the Church was set up to guide us.
When Christ came we were little better than animals, but I believe his teachings HAVE driven us forward.
People may not go to church any more, but who now would question the Sermon on the Mount?
If we did all live the way Christ taught, then Communism WOULD work.
Odd that Marx was an Atheist.
Nietzche too, helps sort the wheat from the chaff.
Nietzche shows us the ideal man, the superman that I believe is what we are evolving towards.
Nietzche shows us how the mind of perfected man must work.
I don't believe in an afterlife as such, though I can see why it was necessary to bribe Man to be nice to eachother with this bargain.
One day, we will learn to live that way, because it makes THIS life better.
I do think ONE DAY, we will have EVOLVED to live as a technologically advanced collective species, living in a state of free love and communism.
But we are nowhere near that yet.
And we shouldn't strive too fast.
I think the Church has always done what it had to do to keep Christ's message alive.
I do think the day will come, maybe 2200AD, or so, when the Pope will call an end to the concept of sexual immorality.
But not yet.
Because WE are not ready for the concept, and I believe Popes only announce what God thinks we are ready for.
Likewise, I have always supported the Tories for sound pragmatic reasons.
They have atrocious social attitudes, but they tend to run the country better.
Labour just never works.
Because state control isn't the answer.
Communism failed, not because it was wrong, but because mankind isn't grown up enough yet, it is still in it's Capitalist adolescence.
Maturity will be when we learn to live differently.
When Conscience and Reason become one.
God didn't create man in his own image.
God gave man an image of what he intended man to evolve into.
That's basically my worldview.
That's what my faith AND my politics are based on.
And, yes, I do genuinely have faith in this.
What else could a loving God want for us?
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12 comments:
You may not have reached perfection yet - but I believe I am well on the way... I would love to live in the future,where doors open and close automatically,and everyone wears white shiney suits and we eat like meal pills instead of cooking and have moon colonies and shit...
I like your views about how God put evolution into motion...different than I have heard before. But short of brainwashing, this kind of system you thrive for just does not seem possible.
Thought provoking as ever. But how do you reconcile your Catholic beliefs with Friedrich Nietzsche's self-styled status as “the Anti-Christ”. Indeed, Nietzsche had a tendency to scorn faith as well as reason. He believed that "since there is no God, everything is permissible"....
As for Marx, surely his ideology has "...not only left a sad heritage of economic and ecological destruction, but also a painful destruction of the human spirit". I tend to think Pope Benedict is right...
1. I agree with most of what Nietzche writes.
2. I agree with most of what Marx writes.
3. I believe firmly in evolution, indeed it is fundamental to my world view.
Oh my goodness - how can you put such confused thinking forward? The elements are diametrically opposed and can only produce confusion and darkness, rather than light.
Very well-expressed. I like reading your thoughts. :-)
Mutley- Expansion through he solar system; ie colonisation of the Moon, Mars, Venus etc, plus utilising the huge energy reserves of the Gas giants seems to me to be our next stage in expansion.
That or our annihilation.
Jenny- That view is pretty much the view of the Catholic church, ny theology is in many ways quite orthodox.
I don't think we need brainwashing to acheive perfection. It's just our reason isn't well enough developed yet to rise above self-interest for special interest.
Stan- Nietzche believed we had no need of God. In a sense we must accept that as we evolve we are capable of reasoning and need him less.
This is why Christ's message was the last- we need no more.
Live as Christ instructed, and then we can live in God's Love without needing to worship him.
he doesn't ask for worship.
I think a Catholic can accept the truth in a lot of what Nietzche says about the superficial way Christianity has been used- and how it often held back man's desire to rise above himself.
Marx' economic analysis was correct in my opinion, and the system he described is one that WILL work best, but not right now, and certainly not in 1917. Man wasn't (and isn't) advanced enough.
Communism imposed from above and effectively meaning state ownership won't work and will always be tyranny.
the state itself needs to be abolishd.
One day, we will be able to live wihout states.
Graf von SH- Not at all. We are evolving upward, to a better form of man, with a better life.
A life that truly leads us to conquer our entire environment.
the vision we have of God, the 'personal' God, is us.
I believe we are evolving towards a man who completely throws off his animal nature.
Marx theory, like Darwin's sees societal evolution as a process- the two theories complement eachother.
And the man of this time, the man we will need to be?
Only a mankind who live the values Christ taught, but is also the superman of Nietzche.
Each one of these teachings, in my view, encapsulates the truth from different angles.
Eve- I just feel it such a sad fact that to me, the future is a matter for hope, if people could realise that not only are all these creeds, which people see as opposed, possible, in my view, they are the solution.
Put bluntly, I believe that what I think will happen, will happen, or we won't be here to tell the tale.
Did you read "Our Final Century" by Martin Rees? I do believe we are fools dancing on the edge of the abyss...
I do not think I should debate God stuff with you -we will only disagree.
Crushed,
You truly are a professor of deep thought and reason. A very good discourse indeed.
Crushed,
as for Nietzsche: Coincidence? This afternoon I happened to re-read an essay by Thomas Mann about "Thus spake Zarathustra". One passage reads: "... there is no sentence that could not be found in one of Oscar Wilde's comedies and get a laugh at St. James Theatre. Would one want to praise Wilde, one compared his pieces with Sheridan's 'The School for Scandal'. Lots in Nietzsche seems to derive from this school."
As for communism: An atheists "devine" idea, thus not suitable for human beings.
As for your "fundamental worldview": can you hear my either pondering and courteous silence? :)
The Peace of the Night!
We will never reach what you describe as perfection.
I do believe we will have our shiny towers and easy access to food etc. but we will still have the tree huggers and the likes that want us to move back to the stone age. The hangers on you don't want to lift a finger and the people that want a share of what other people have worked for.
Even when we have enought to eat, live for a long time with few illnesses there will still be people that whinge about how they never have a chance and want a fair slice of the cake.
Sorry I'm so late coming to this and later posts, Crushed - blame the heat! Anyway, wonderful post. I'm wioth you on communism because I don't think true communism has ever been tried. I think it's closer to Christianity than many would admit. The afterlife as a "bargain" - I can see that too. I can't quite see why you were a Tory but we'll let that pass. I really like the way you write about your faith.
Mutley- It's more a question of how we interpret evidence.
I believe the universe transmits, and we receive.
I shall look up the book you refer to.
Sean- :( Nietzche to me, was a genius.
Bag- Yes, but it would be better if people were rewarded for their social contribution, not their ability to hoodwink others.
Welshcakes- Whilst we still live in a capitalist economy, it makes sense to support the people who are best at running capitalist economies.
Looked at objectively, life GAS ben better generally under Tory rule, it's just tory periods of office have been very socially reactionary.
Labour governments screw the country up and destroy our reputation broad, but they do have a socially liberating effect.
Roy Jenkins was the best Home secretary this country ever had.
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