“Materialism” can mean one of two things. If you are “materialistic”, you love shopping. If you are a “scientific materialist”, you believe that everything that exists is material. Biology is a sub-set of physics. Psychology is a sub-set of biology. Everything can be ultimately explained in terms of complex arrangements of matter and material processes.

Muggles are materialistic. They judge themselves and others according to their material possessions and material-acquiring-capacity (money). They don’t think much beyond the stuff around them. They spend an inordinate amount of time and energy on stuff. They feel lost without it.

Muppets are materialists. They think that scientific descriptions of regularities in Nature qualify as solid and robust metaphysics. They fail to understand that physics is not metaphysics. They would probably retort that science has no need for metaphysics. But then again, neither does snooker. Human beings do, however.

I am constantly taken aback by the arrogance and philosophical ignorance of scientific materialists. In one sweep they dismiss religion and philosophy as outmoded and unnecessary. Science is the only reliable truth. And science says that only matter matters.

Science doesn’t say anything of the sort of course. Science has absolutely nothing to say about anything beyond it’s self-delimited field of inquiry. Philip Goff makes this point with great perspicuity and lucidity in his book Galileo’s Error. Galileo explicitly defined the limits of science: scientists observe the external behaviour of natural phenomena but are silent about the intrinsic nature of things. Science does not ask what something is, only what it does. The soul, consciousness and experience are intentionally left out of the equation.

Due to its astounding success, however, especially in the development of ever more impressive technologies, we seem to have forgotten the limits of science. It appears as though science is capable of explaining everything, of offering a grand TOE (theory of everything), and taking the place of metaphysics and religion. But it only provides knowledge of the exterior of things. When it comes to essence or meaning, the “why” and the “what” rather than just the “how”, it can’t help us.

Scientific materialists need philosophy if they are to escape their materialistic strait jackets. They need to read Philip’s book. They need to read Mind and Cosmos: Why the Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False by Thomas Nagel. They need to read The Science Delusion by Rupert Sheldrake. They need to read Science and Religion by Alister McGrath. They need to read Miracles by C.S.Lewis. But they probably won’t.

The “Materialist Fallacy” is the first philosophical error affecting muppets. The second is the “Relativist Fallacy”. The third is the “Egalitarian Fallacy”. The fourth is the “Rationalist Fallacy”. In a discussion in the pub last night my antagonist committed all four fallacies in the space of half an hour. This is not uncommon in Muppet World, since the four fallacies naturally reinforce each other.

The Relativist Fallacy is the belief that all interpretations are equally valid because they are ultimately subjective and so have no external reference point or standard beyond themselves. The Egalitarian Fallacy is the belief that it is in fact the case or if not presently the case that it is desirable that all human beings are or should be equal. As with the Relativist Fallacy, just a little reflection reveals how contradictory and ridiculous this belief is.

The Rationalist Fallacy is the belief that reason and logic are sufficient for making sense of the world, as long as the words used to describe it are taken in their most literal sense. The rationalist has no time for metaphor. Which makes sacred scriptures like the Bible completely nonsensical and impenetrable. So whether you choose to “believe” it or not, a literal, rationalistic reading of scripture makes you a Rationalist Muppet, whether you are a tub-thumping religious fundamentalist or a tub-thumping anti-religious fundamentalist.

Perhaps it is no accident that the people I argue with on our Wednesday night discussion meetups are predominantly computer scientists and computer programmers. The Muppet Fallacies are a perfect match for left brain hemisphere dominance.

I studied poetry at university. I experimented with psychedelics. I went to illegal raves. I stayed at a Zen monastery. I read spiritual classics. I listened to sacred music. I went to church. I went for walks. Art, literature, music, religion, nature, the body, spiritual experience: these are the province of the right hemisphere. Science, binary logic and computer code are the darlings of the left. How to bridge the gap?

How can God even begin to make sense in Muppet World?

 

What do you wish for? Let me hazard a guess. You wish to be happy and for all beings to be happy. You wish to have peace in your soul and peace on Earth. Am I right? If not, I wouldn’t bother reading on.

So you wish to be happy. Not just fleeting happiness, but lasting happiness. Not just a temporary satisfaction of present desire but a permanent state of satisfaction. So what is that? Obviously not euphoria, ecstasy or bliss. That would be exhausting. Even if you lived in a perfectly orchestrated pleasure palace with perfectly timed breaks between pleasures, you wouldn’t necessarily be happy.

Maybe “happiness” is the wrong word then. It’s not so much about the highs of extreme positive emotion. It’s about feeling good at a more terrestrial level, feeling comfortable in your own skin, feeling that everything is alright with the world, feeling that just being alive is enough.

It might be easier to define happiness negatively rather than positively. If you are happy, you are free of negative emotions. You are free of greed, anger and fear. If you are happy, you are free of confusion. You see the world aright.

So lasting happiness depends on the state of your soul, or the content of your character.  As the saying goes, “wherever you go, there you are”. You cannot run away from yourself. If your character is sound and strong, you will be satisfied wherever you are. If not, even the most splendid palace will be cause for complaint.

The telos of human life, the aim, goal or meaning of life, is not really “happiness”, it’s “character”. Happiness is a by-product. The claim of Seneca, Marcus Aurelius and the Stoics (and almost all religious and philosophical schools throughout human history) is that the wiser you are, and the more virtuous and mature, the happier you are, in sickness or health, prosperity or adversity. Care of the soul is primary. Everything else is secondary.

“Character” is not “identity”. Identity is a poor substitute. You could say it is a displacement of character, an impostor, a simulacrum, a devious sleight of hand of the ego. The “Wheel of Samsara” describes six archetypal identities which are in fact the principal obstacles to the true development of character. They are the main obstacles to spiritual development.

You subconsciously or consciously identify yourself as a diva, for example. You are possessed by a “Diva Spirit” and express “Diva Nature”. You have Fame, Fortune, Power and Influence. You feel entitled to your superiority complex. But you don’t necessarily have a good character and you are not necessarily happy. You are possessed by Pride and Vanity.

If you identify as a muggle, you are either a Safe Muggle (Types 1 and 2) or an Ambitious Muggle (Types 3 and 4). You are either content to stay within the confines of family or societal expectations or else you aspire to divahood and work or hussle your way up the muggle pole. You need character in order to succeed of course, but your “Muggle Nature” will still be in defined by Ignorance and Spiritual Indolence. You will see nothing beyond worldly success.

If you identify as a muppet, you identify with a particular narrative and worldview. Type 1 and you are a scientific materialist atheist and vociferously believe that everything that exists can be reduced to material processes and that anyone who thinks otherwise is a superstitious fool. But if you’re an atheist simply because you haven’t really thought about, you’re a muggle not a muppet. It’s only the evangelical, militant atheists who qualify as muppets, because their atheism is really just another form of fundamentalist religion.

Type 2 and you are a postmodernist who believes that everything ultimately reduces to relativistic mush (either “Theory” or “New Age” mush). Type 3 and you are a political revolutionary activist and believe that the world is so corrupt that it needs to be razed to the ground. Type 4 and you are a religious fundamentalist who agrees, but who hopes that God will do the razing for you. Whichever brand you are called to identify with, you are basically “ideologically possessed”. Your Muppet Nature is chiefly characterised by the twin vices of delusion and dogmatism.

If you identify as a victim, you may find your sense of identity in collective solidarity with an oppressed group. If you have an ambiguous or fluid sexuality, you may find your sense of identity (and implicit victim status) in the LGBTQI+ “community”. If you are an ethnic minority and feel that this defines you negatively, you may find it in the BAME “community”. (I use scare quotes because I don’t think they are real communities). If you are a woman and feel that you are continually oppressed by the patriarchy, you will find confirmation and solidarity by identifying yourself as a feminist. These are Type 1, 2 and 3 victims.

Please don’t take this the wrong way. I am not dismissing or denigrating the value and importance of civil rights movements, whether women’s rights, gay rights or black rights. I am just pointing out how an over-emphasis on these issues to the point of basing your identity on them, can lead to psychological problems in the form of a deep sense of victimhood. Of course you can perfectly well be gay, black or a woman (or all three!) without being a victim. “Intersectionality” argues that you are “three times a victim” if you are a black lesbian, but that is a subjective, not an objective claim. There is a world of difference between believing you are a victim (which is a psychological condition) and actually being one (which is an existential fact).

You can fight against social injustice without necessarily adopting a victim mentality or subscribing to a victim narrative. It may be that there are simply some wrongs that need to be put right. This takes courage and character, not “identity”. The victim narrative is a vicious circle. The more you identify as a victim, the more powerless and oppressed you feel, which confirms your victim status, and prevents you from taking steps to strengthen your character.

The fourth victim type is the environmentalist who identifies with possibly the biggest victim of them all, Mother Earth. We are exploiting the Earth. We are abusing the Earth. We are destroying the Earth. We are raping our Mother. We are a cancer on the planet.

Again, care for the environment is obviously not a bad thing. In fact, it is absolutely essential. There are real challenges we need to face in order to keep the balance. We need to deal with the problems of species extinction, pollution and waste and climate change. We need to keep deforestation and over-fishing in check. All this is beyond doubt and beyond dispute.

But the victim narrative is not helpful. It is both psychologically damaging (many people are now suffering from “eco-anxiety”) and even potentially environmentally damaging, since it prevents people from seeing and addressing environmental problems realistically. Reacting (and over-reacting) to problems on the basis of emotional panic can have grave unintended consequences.

In sum, all four victim types are ruled by the debilitating and distorting vices of Fear and Dejection, which are again serious impediments to spiritual progress.

If you are an addict, you are either a substance addict or a behavioural addict. Types 1 and 2 are substance addicts: food and shopping in the case of Type 1’s and drugs and alcohol for Type 2’s. Types 3 and 4 are behavioural addicts: love and sex in the case of  Type 3’s and  entertainment and information for Type 4’s. If you are a demon, you are probably a tramp (Type 1), a criminal (Type 2), an abuser (Type 3) or a killer (Type 4).

I don’t mean to judge or pigeon hole. I am just pointing out how forming an identity around any of these types can divert our attention and energy away from the true telos of human life, which is the development of character.

The Wheel of Samsara describes the endless inter-play of stories and identities we attach to. The Orthodox Cross points to the development of true character. It begins with the Mystic, which is all about forgetting and unknowing. You forget your identity, your life script and your fixed belief systems and narratives and open up a space for your essential, unalloyed humanity to shine through.

The Mystic Shaman represents a shift from the left brain hemisphere to the right hemisphere. It represents the awakening of the mind and body in unmediated, global awareness, free from the identitarian bondage of the left hemisphere. From this place of freedom (firmly rooted in the right hemisphere) the Mystic Shaman can then employ the necessary functions and qualities of the left hemisphere to strengthen and develop an all-round, healthy, balanced character.

The Warrior Monk archetype facilitates the development of virtue and the Philosopher King the development of wisdom. Both virtue and wisdom are only possible through the harmonious collaboration of the left and right brain hemispheres, but with the right as the “master” and the left as the “emissary”.

Character is not about being this or that, left-wing, right-wing, gay, straight, white, brown or black. Forget your identity. If you really want to be happy and for others to be happy, you need to be virtuous, wise and not a little holy. It’s a life’s work, but it has the advantage of making life worth living.

 

“What are the roots that clutch? What branches grow out of this stony rubbish?” (wonders T.S. Eliot) They are the roots and branches of Ego, of the Default Mode Network, of Left Hemisphere Dominance, of the Babylon System, of the Matrix, of Satan, of the Anti-Christ.

They are Pride and Vanity. Anger and Hate. Fear and Dejection. Lust and Greed. Delusion and Fanaticism. Ignorance and Indolence.

Pride and Vanity make us divas. Anger and Hate make us demons. Fear and Dejection make us victims. Lust and Greed make us addicts. Delusion and Fanaticism make us muppets. Ignorance and Indolence make us muggles.

There is no escape from the forest of Samsara without cutting the roots and branches of vice. But where is the axe? Not in the forest but beyond it. There is no cutting the roots and branches without escape from Samsara.

What is beyond Samsara? What is beyond the dark forest of the fallen world?

Beyond Samsara is God. God is the only way out.

Escape from Samsara is escape from Ego. So forget your Ego and remember God.

God is Three-in-One: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The Father is the transcendent Parashiva. He is Emptiness, Energy, Matter, Life, Mind, Earth and Universe: Amun Ra Atum Ka Ba Gaia Jah.

The Son is the incarnate Shiva. He is Mystic, Shaman, Warrior, Monk, Philosopher, King.

The Holy Spirit is immanent Shakti. She is Peace, Love, Goodness, Beauty, Truth, Consciousness and Bliss.

Let this triune God be your axe to cut down the tree of Samsara at the very root. Then reject Satan and all his works, and the tangled forest of vice will never again grow back to stifle your spirit.

 

The Wheel of Samsara is the eternal round of transmigration through six realms: the muggle (human) realm, the diva (heaven) realm, the muppet (titan) realm, the addict (hungry ghost) realm, the victim (animal) realm and the demon (hell) realm. We experience the muggle and muppet realms as “Earth”, the addict and victim realms as somewhere between “Earth” and “Hell” (call it “Purgatory”), the demon realm as “Hell” and the diva realm as “Heaven”:

We experience the diva realm as “Heaven” but it is a fool’s paradise, a pseudo heaven. It doesn’t last and is characterised purely by pleasure, fame, fortune, power and influence, purely “worldly” goods. It leads to ego inflation, which inevitably sets the diva up for a fall, the greatest fall epitomised by the fall of Lucifer, who fell straight from Heaven to Hell.

Up to a certain point, the mugglish aspiration to reach the worldly heaven of the diva realm does in fact exercise the virtues and so does overlap with genuine spiritual development. This is because to get anywhere in the world, it is necessary to bring the lower impulses of the addict, victim and demon under strict control. You’ll never make it to the top if you’re constantly swayed and derailed by Greed, Fear and Hatred. You will also need to keep your muppet in check so that it doesn’t sabotage you on ideological grounds.

Psychotherapy is good for liberating you from the self-defeating demands of the addict, demon, victim and muppet. Life Coaching is good for helping you up the muggle ladder. But even if you do make it to the top, the diva realm will never fully satisfy you. You may even fall down to a lower level out of sheer boredom.

There is no ultimate satisfaction on the Wheel of Samsara. There is no salvation. There is no deliverance. There is only the eternal return of the same. As the Buddha taught, the only escape involves stepping off the Wheel altogether. He called this realm beyond the six realms “Nirvana”, which roughly translates as “cessation”. Nirvana is reality as it is experienced beyond the round of Samsara, reality as it is experienced once you have stopped being a muggle, muppet, addict, victim, demon or diva.

“Cessation” or “stopping” requires “kenosis” or “self-emptying”, “mu-shin” or “no-mind”. It requires stopping the incessant chatter of your “monkey mind” and stopping the incessant itch of your “ants” (anxious negative thoughts). It requires falling still and letting go. It basically requires meditation, “Dhyana Yoga” (“Ch’an” or “Zen”).

The bridge from the Wheel of Samsara to Nirvana can therefore only be crossed by the Mystic. Through meditation, the Mystic transcends the limits of the Samsaric world and enters a new world, a new dispensation, a new covenant, a new existence. Then, from the Mystic realm of Dhyana Yoga, she passes to the Shamanic world of Kundalini Yoga, the Warrior realm of Karma Yoga, the Monk realm of Bhakti Yoga, the Philosopher realm of Jnana Yoga and the Kingly realm of Raja Yoga.

These six Yogas constitute the Orthodox Cross:

Practice of the Yogas, separately and together, makes you stronger. It strengthens your body, heart, mind and soul. In truth, physical health, emotional health, mental health and spiritual health all require work (yoga) and the development of moral fibre and strength of character. This is the essential point, the key to unlock the prison of Samsara. It’s not just about being meek and mild, kind and considerate. It’s not about being weak. Nietzsche understood this, but few understood him.

The stronger you are, the easier it is to resist the lure of the Wheel of Samsara. It is spiritual weakness that makes us fall into the self-defeating patterns of the victim (“Be afraid. Be very afraid!”) and of the addict (“Go on. Just one more!”) and of the demon (“F*** you. I f***ing hate you!”) It is spiritual weakness that makes us fall for the complacency of the muggle, the self righteousness of the muppet and the arrogance of the diva (“I’m normal! I’m right! I’m the best!”)

It takes spiritual effort and persistence. For escape from Samsara is not a once and for all event. You will find yourself back on the Wheel over and over again. So just keep escaping. Keep escaping until there is no more Samsara and no more Nirvana, but only Satchitananda (“Being-Consciousness-Bliss”) in all worlds and in all directions. Don’t give up! There is nothing to compare in Earth or Heaven.

 

 

Everything is a teaching.

Lost souls remind you to find your way.

Great souls remind you who you are.

The whispering serpent reminds you not to listen to snakes.

The smiling sun reminds you to smile.

 

The cosmic battle for your soul is here on Earth.

Heaven and Hell beckon continuously.

It’s true.

And yet…

But it’s still true.

 

No one has the last word.

There is no last word.

Learn true learning.

There is no end of learning.

But beware of false prophets.

 

Rest in great natural peace.

Everything is reconciled.

Remember.

Believe in God.

Have faith in faith.

 

Be strong in faith.

Be strong in love.

Be natural. Be strong.

Remember the teachings.

Don’t worry about the teachers.

 

Teach love and peace.

Be good.

Be beautiful.

Be truthful.

Be soulful.

 

Tell her you’re sorry.

Tell her you love her.

But not necessarily in words.

Be happy.

Have fun.

 

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” is not a question we necessarily outgrow. Whether or not we are conscious of it, there is always something we are aiming at in our lives. But what exactly? Maybe it depends which part of us you’re asking. How would our inner muppets, muggles or divas answer, for example?

In Sola Ratio, Sola Scriptura I identified four types of muppet. Type 1 is the rationalist, scientific materialist, militant atheist type; Type 2 is the skeptical, relativist, postmodern hippy/hipster type; Type 3 is the radical, idealistic, extremist, political revolutionary type; Type 4 is the dogmatic, reactionary, literalist, religious fundamentalist type. I suggested that Types 1 and 2 are the unfortunate products of “sola ratio” and Types 3 and 4 are the lamentable products of “sola scriptura”, both “solas” being characterised by excessive left hemisphere dominance.

Well it might also be useful to identify four types of muggle and four types of diva, if only for the sake of comprehensiveness. A Type 1 muggle would be someone who’s aim in life is simply to do what is expected of them by their parents and family. As a consequence they tend to be rather conventional and unadventurous. This is the most traditional and probably the most common type of muggle.

Type 2 muggles are less attached to their family, but are very concerned about the approval of their peers and of the culture the find themselves in. They tend to be very image and fashion conscious. They will look the part, and may go to great lengths in order to fit in with the prevailing winds, perhaps getting tattoed, pierced or having a touch of plastic surgery in the process. They are usually very active on social media and are invariably rabid consumers of popular culture. They are basically highly conformist, even when the image they project is nonconformist.

Type 3 muggles seek approval not so much from their family or peers but through monetary success. Their main purpose in life is to become as rich as possible. This is partly for the sense of security that financial stability affords, but primarily for the status it confers. A large bank balance, a successful business, a nice house and car and an assortment of other impressive material possessions are the heart’s desire for Type 3 muggles.

Type 4 muggles just want to be adored. They put all their effort into activities that lead to general approbation, popularity and perhaps even celebrity status. Whereas Type 3 muggles are naturally attracted to the world of work, especially business and the financial sector, Type 4 muggles gravitate to more visible arenas such as the arts, especially acting and the music industry. They may be creative and talented, but their art is inevitably compromised by an obsession with image and fame.

So what about the divas? Divas are “top dogs”. They are the ones who have made it. There are two muggle top dogs and two muppet top dogs. Since the first two types of muggle are unambitious, they don’t even attempt to climb up the slippery pole to Muggle Heaven. Neither do the first two types of muppet bother trying to get up the muppet pole. They are content to feel superior in their own eyes.

Type 1 divas are basically the rich and the super rich. Type 2 divas are A-list celebrities. These are the two muggle top dogs, the “rich and famous”. Type 3 divas are powerful politicians and leaders and Type 4 divas are influential cultural, spiritual and religious leaders. These are the two muppet top dogs types, the movers and shakers wielding “power and influence”.

Deep down, what do you really want out of life? Do you want to be rich and famous, powerful and influential? If so, this is the Wheel for you. You might even get to be a diva in this lifetime. Chances are you will take a few spins round the addict, victim and demon realms as well, but you may judge that a small price to pay. If you play your cards right, you’ll probably spend most of your time as a muggle or a muppet, and may even be remembered as a diva after you die.

Alternatively, you could settle for ordinary muggleness and muppetry and spend your days quietly and unobtrusively as Type 1 or Type 2 muggles or muppets with the odd unremarkable foray into the lower realms of addiction, victimhood and demonology. Of course you might get lucky, have greatness thrust upon you and end up a diva anyway, without all the sticky sweat and tears. So, what shall it be? Fame, fortune, power, influence or mediocrity? Or is there something else to aim for?

Well there’s always the Cross. Does this model have a specific aim? If we break it down into the three lines (one vertical and two horizontal), we can discern three aims, one for the Mystic Shaman, one for the Warrior Monk and one for the Philosopher King. Together, these constitute the threefold goal for those committed to spiritual rather than worldly ends.

To be holy, virtuous and wise: that’s the ultimate threefold aim of the Orthodox Cross.

The Mystic Shaman is oriented to the cultivation of holiness through the purification of mind and body. Holiness is here closely related to both wholeness and healing. The essential qualities of holiness are Peace and Love.

The Warrior Monk is oriented to the cultivation of the virtues, and the virtues are rooted in Goodness and Beauty.

The Philosopher King is oriented to the cultivation of wisdom, and the key to wisdom is dedication to Truth, Consciousness and Bliss.

So there is the fundamental choice at the heart of life. Don’t choose, and you will just turn endlessly on the Wheel, like a child’s paper windmill in the breeze. Do, and the choice is between two different worlds and two different lives: one dedicated to fame, fortune, power and influence and the other dedicated to holiness, virtue and wisdom.

 

“Sola ratio” means that only reason can give us a reliable and accurate understanding of reality. This was the sincere belief of the Enlightenment philosophes, the champions of the “Age of Reason”. The exclusive nature of “sola ratio” (only reason) leads inevitable to a left hemisphere dominant vision, which ends up distorting or even ignoring reality through excessive attention to rational models, theories and systems.

“Sola scriptura” is the attempt to base reality on the revealed scripture. Maybe our reasoning faculties are faulty, but the sacredly validated truths of scripture are inerrant. They are the Word of God, so they can’t be wrong. We must defer our fallible human intellects to the unfathomable mind of the Most High. We must not question the sacred texts, but must uncritically see the world through the lenses they provide for us.

When there is only reason, everything is fair game for rational analysis and deconstruction. Everything is dissolved in the universal solvent of objective scientific observation and analysis into its smallest component parts. Everywhere mechanisms are laid bare. Whether or not the cosmic watchmaker is blind, our job is to take the watch apart to see what makes it tick. In rationally constructing diagrams, maps and models of parts of the “watch” we imagine that reality really is just an infinitely complex machine, without realising that our diagrams, maps and models are the creation of our own minds and may in fact have precious little to do with reality at all.

Followers of “sola ratio” are left brain people. In extremis they display autistic symptoms and behaviours. These are the rationalist, scientific materialist, militant atheist, logical positivist, nerd muppets. They are “Type 1 Muppets”. But there are other followers of sola ratio who took a different path. They do not worship reason in the same way Type 1 Muppets do, but take reason to its logical conclusion so that it ends up undermining everything it touches, including itself. These are the postmodern, skeptical, relativistic, nihilist deconstructionists, and their symptoms are more schizophrenic. These are the “Type 2 Muppets”. In both cases, the worlds of art, religion, nature and the body are de-mythologised and de-sacralised.

Followers of sola scriptura are also left brain people, but instead of rejecting all filters on the world and relying solely on pure reason, the scientific method and radical skepticism, they cling tenaciously to one ideology through which they can interpret reality. Their ultimate commitment and loyalty is to seeing the world through the lens of their chosen “scripture”, whether it be a traditional religious scripture or a secular system of thought. They refuse to consider alternative views or try out other “lenses” or multiple “maps of meaning” because that would amount to disloyalty and treason.

“Type 3 Muppets” are ideologically possessed political extremists. “Type 4 Muppets” are ideologically possessed religious fundamentalists. Both types are capable of extraordinary levels of violence in the name of their chosen scripture, whether it’s Das Kapital or The Book of Revelation. They make excellent revolutionaries and terrorists, but terrible lovers.

 

The four key books that launched the aggressive attack on religion known as the “New Atheism” are The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins; Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel Dennett; God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens and The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason  by Sam Harris. Collectively, these four writers have been affectionately dubbed “The Four Horsemen of the Atheist Apocalypse” because they appeared to herald the final and inevitable demise of religious belief. This was the Final Battle and they had won. (Sympathisers wisely omitted Alistair Grayling’s The God Argument: The Case Against Religion and for Humanism from the list because it is so toe-curlingly bad).

Since the publication of these hugely popular international bestsellers, however, there has been a growing interest in hearing the other side of the argument. How would religious believers respond to these full-frontal assaults? Are the heroic atheists right to be so confident in their supposedly unassailable position as defenders of the right and the true?

The debate rages on, but the celebrity atheists now find themselves on the back foot. The response has been measured, considerate and thoughtful but intellectually devastating. It is very difficult to see how the horsemen could recover their moral and intellectual integrity without willfully burying their heads in the sand or blocking their ears (which doesn’t do much for their integrity either).

Ironically, the meteoric success of the New Atheists may have re-awakened an interest in religion, and the books written in response to theirs, although far less of a publishing phenomenon, still have much greater sales than religious books generally have. The high quality of the writing and argumentation is also in stark contrast to the vituperative and condescending rhetoric of the New Atheists.

Contrary to the popular conception of the inevitable collapse of religion as a feasible option in the modern world, the following books, in my view, put the nail in the coffin of atheism as a tenable belief system. It is true that, as Dawkins quipped, Darwin made atheism intellectually respectable, but for those who take the arguments seriously, I predict that, as a consequence of these and other books on religion and atheism, it will be increasingly difficult to be an intellectually respectable atheist in the twenty-first century.

In no particular order, they are:

The Case for God: What Religion Really Means by Karen Armstrong; The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led me to Faith by Peter Hitchens (Christopher’s younger brother); Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and its Fashionable Enemies by David Bentley Hart; The Dawkins Delusion? Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine by Alister McGrath; The Science Delusion: Freeing the Spirit of Inquiry by Rupert Sheldrake; There is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed his Mind by Antony Flew; The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and its Scientific Pretensions by David Berlinski; Why There Almost Certainly is a God by Keith Ward; God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? by John Lennox; The Great Partnership: God, Science and the Search for Meaning by Jonathan Sacks and Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False by Thomas Nagel.

And four books on atheism by two former atheists and two avowed atheists:

God’s Funeral by A.N. Wilson; The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World by Alister McGrath; Reason, Faith and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate by Terry Eagleton and Seven Types of Atheism by John Gray.

John Gray is an atheist, but he has no time for the militant atheism of the New Atheists, as he makes clear at the start of the first chapter of his book:

“The new atheists have directed their campaign against a narrow segment of religion while failing to understand event that small part. Seeing religion as a system of beliefs, they have attacked it as if it were no more than an obsolete scientific theory. Hence the ‘God Debate’ – a tedious re-run of a Victorian squabble between science and religion. But the idea that religion consists of a bunch of discredited theories is itself a discredited theory – a relic of the nineteenth-century philosophy of Positivism.”

We need to move on from such left hemisphere dominated narrow mindedness. We need to move on from Positivism and Materialism, both fatally flawed, philosophically defunct ideologies. In my opinion, we need to move on from Atheism tout court.

Atheism, particularly the militant strain of it exemplified by the New Atheists, is inevitably a left brain view of reality. Only the right hemisphere can make room for the transcendent mystery we call “God”. Take away religion and you take away our main route to the right hemisphere, and ultimately to the very foundations of civilisation itself, which depend on holistic, embodied, right hemisphere consciousness. We in the West are presently running on the fumes of Christian civilisation and the cracks are starting to show.

The left hemisphere world of atheistic disbelief is populated by divas, demons, victims, addicts, muppets and muggles. The right hemisphere world of faith is populated by Mystics, Shamans, Warriors, Monks and Nuns, Philosophers and Kings and Queens, or at least by people with a sincere aspiration to embody these ideal types.

Next time you’re out on the town of a Friday or Saturday night, have a good look around you – which world would you say you’re in?

 

If you don’t believe in God or Nirvana, it’s highly unlikely that you will spend much time praying or meditating. There is no reason to retreat from the world in order to commune with nothing. It’s just a waste of time and effort.

If you do believe, you will be much more likely to turn you attention to the transcendent beyond. As C.S. Lewis put it, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” Your longing for this other world will lead you to pray and meditate.

In the last few posts I have been exploring the trinitarian doctrine of Kashmir Shaivism, which consists of “Parashiva”, “Shiva” and “Shakti”. Parashiva is the transcendent God (God the Father in the Christian trinity), Shiva is immanent consciousness (the Logos or the Son) and Shakti is the manifest energy of existence (the Holy Spirit). I described how meditation (and prayer) involves the gradual withdrawal of consciousness from all objects of consciousness, which can be understood as the withdrawal of Shiva from Shakti.

Without this intentional process of separating consciousness and form, there is such a fusion of awareness with the objects of awareness, that Shiva and Shakti cannot be distinguished. So the world and the self are experienced as an undifferentiated field of action. It’s all just stuff: things and thoughts, feelings and events. It’s just “one damn thing after another”.

Whether you are theoretically a monist or a dualist, that is, whether you believe that minds are reducible to physical processes or not, you will experience the world in a similar way, as a collection of stuff and experience. That’s if you live on “Earth”. If you live in “Hell”, everything will be tinged with the implacable malevolence of the Great Machine, but we don’t need to concern ourselves with that right now.

So what happens when you pray to God or meditate on Nirvana? Your individual consciousness withdraws and merges in absolute, universal consciousness. Shiva merges in Parashiva. What happens when you return? You come back “trailing clouds of glory”. You retain something of the experience of pure consciousness and develop a taste for it.

The more often you pray or meditate, the more often you “commune with God”, the stronger this sense of pure individual consciousness becomes, the stronger your Soul becomes. Shiva emerges from Parashiva. This is how God makes Souls.

Eventually your life becomes suffused with Soul. You become simultaneously aware of experiences and aware of your awareness of experiences and develop a capacity for Self Remembering or Mindfulness. Wherever you go, wherever you turn, you see both Shiva and Shakti, consciousness and form. This is what I call Pachananda, the “Bliss of the Earth”. This is the Pure Land, the Kingdom of Heaven.

 

Remember what peace feels like? Give yourself a minute. Take your time. Remember what love feels like? Remember what beauty feels like? Remember what goodness feels like? Remember what truth feels like? Remember what consciousness feels like? Remember what bliss feels like?

I’m sure you’ve experienced these things at least once, if not countless times. Just a little intention and a little imagination and it’s amazing how quickly and easily we can re-connect with the essential qualities of peace or love, beauty or goodness, truth, consciousness or bliss. And the more we do it, the more primed we are to do it again. We become habituated.

Virtue Ethics is all about habituation, about cultivating good habits. You can do this by behaving in accordance with a particular virtue, like acting courageously for example. Then, next time you are confronted with a difficult or dangerous situation, you will be more likely to rise to the challenge. But you can also do it by imagining acting bravely, or by imagining that you are actually a great warrior.

Remember what it feels like to be a warrior? Remember what it feels like to be a monk? Remember what it feels like to be a philosopher? Remember what it feels like to be a king or queen? Or a mystic or a shaman? (Those might take a bit more remembering or a bit more practice.)

Then, who knows, you might forget all those bad habits associated with feeling like a victim, all that wallowing in misery, feeling depressed, anxious, grief-stricken, helpless and weak. You might forget all your addictive behaviours, your cravings after food, drink, sex, entertainment. You might forget all your silly ideas and muddled thinking, your small-mindedness, your vanity and cruelty.

Neuroscience has repeatedly and conclusively shown us the extraordinary plasticity of the brain. On a purely mechanistic level, the fact that “neurons that fire together wire together” means that neural pathways can be re-formed and re-directed. You can train your brain if you just set your mind to it.

In Positive Psychology they don’t talk about virtues and vices because of their religious overtones. Instead they talk about “character strengths” and “character weaknesses”. Whatever the terminology we use, an explicit appreciation of the moral core of psychological well-being and flourishing is well overdue in the therapeutic field as well as in the culture at large.

It is not enough to transform “hysterical misery” into “common unhappiness” as Freud advised. It is not even enough to feel “common happiness” in a purely self-interested sense. True lasting happiness doesn’t come from a shrink. It isn’t about fixing your broken mind or overcoming neurosis. It isn’t ultimately just about you. True happiness comes from a deep sense of purpose and meaning, which is inevitably bound up with morality. And morality, if it is real and alive, is always moving, always developing and growing. True happiness is not a state. It’s a process.

If you develop your character, so that your character strengths begin to outweigh your character weaknesses, and if you can see that you are moving in the right direction, that you are making progress, then you will automatically get a sense of purpose in life. You will become increasingly motivated to be the best person you can be, so that you can do the most good in the world.  Funnily enough, the further along this path you travel, the more authentic you feel, the more yourself you feel. It’s almost as though you are slowly remembering who you really are. It’s almost as though you are slowly waking up.

Remember when you were spiritually enlightened? Remember God? Just keep remembering.