The purpose of religion -- at least from this vantage point -- is multi-dialectic, humanistic-existential integration.
This view of religion is totally post-Hegelian. That I would trumpet such a view of religion should not be at all surprising if you look into my academic background and the background-context of my other essays that are showing a continuing evolution in this direction. The ideas that I will begin to put forward are not for the faint of heart. They demand an open mind and an open heart. They may not be for those of you who carry a very 'anal-retentive, orthodox, conservative' view towards religion and God. My views could - indeed, definitely will - take us into some very unorthodox places as I move to integrate history, philosophy, mythology, science, and religion into one rather strange integrative package.
It all starts with an integration of three very Hegelian idealistic ideas: the 'dialectic', 'The Absolute', and 'God - but in a much more radical way than Hegel ever presented these ideas. I use Hegel's concept of The Absolute in a different way than Hegel. Hegel's philosophy was geared more toward Epistemological Idealism although he laid down the groundwork for what was soon to become Humanistic-Existentialism. Hegel wrote about The Absolute in the sense of seeking Absolute or Perfect Knowledge Through The Dialectic Process.
In doing this according to Hegel, we become closer to God. Not so for me because knowledge by itself is an empty shell. It has to have the emotional, ethical, and behavioral substance of Applied Action tied into Knowledge in order to impact both the individual and society. Thus, DGB Philosophy talks about Existence, Being, and Becoming on a higher and more important plain of existence than Epistemological Truth in and by itself. Knowledge means nothing if you are alienated from yourself, your friends, your family and loved ones, society, and your environment...Without the six being congruently and closely tied together -- knowledge, impulse-spirit, ethics, action, being, and becoming -- knowledge is empty, empty, empty, empty...
Thus, it is not only knowledge that needs to be learned dialectically but existence, being, and becoming as well. This does not contradict Hegel; it merely expands on some of Hegel's ideas that were less fully extrapolated on than his idea of Absolute Knowledge. Hegel opened the door for others like Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Freud, Jung, Sartre, Foucault, and Derrida to come. Last of all -- is little old me.
Let me say this again but in an expanded way: The purpose of life, the evolution of life, the history of life, the process of life and evolution - are all dialectically integrative through either 'friendly, peaceful negotiations' and/or 'hostile power plays and takeovers'. I endorse friendly, peaceful negotiations over hostile power plays and takeovers. And so too should politics and religion.
Dialectical integration equals 'thesis' vs. 'anti-thesis' coming together into a 'synthesis'. Again, this is classic Hegelian philosophy.
Here is where it starts to get spiritual and religious. You can even add a little Plato and Spinoza here both of who influenced Hegel. We are all 'pieces of a Divine Whole'. We all carry 'pieces of God within us' (Spinoza's Pantheism). But in order to reach for more of God - to incorporate more of God within us - we must not only look inward to find our own 'God-like parts' but we also have to look outwards too; we have to look outside of ourselves and 'walk in someone else's shoes' to find the 'God-like parts' of others and other plants and animals as well. And then we need to integrate this within side of us in order to reach for, to strive for, more and more of God's 'Divine Pantheistic Wholism'. The spiritual-dialectic process is one of: 1. Inside of Ourselves (Thesis); 2. Outside of Ourselves (Anti-Thesis); and 3. Inside-Outside of Ourselves (Integration or Synthesis).
In this way, the purpose of religion from this DGB Post-Spinozian, Post-Hegelian perspective is one of integrating our God-like qualities within ourselves with the 'Pantheistic Divinity of Others and Other Things into The Multi-Dialectic Integration of the Spiritual Whole'.
In this way, we can all become more God-like - we all can reach closer to The Absolute, closer to God's Spiritual Wholism.
Ask me how I got here and I shake my head. I was not here an hour ago but now I am here. Up until very recently, I would not have even called myself a spiritual, religious person. But somehow, 35 years of psychological and philosophical study have drawn me to religion and an hour of creative writing. And now I am here. What to do about it?
I contemplate my alienation from my sister, my brother, my daughter, and now most recently, my girlfriend of 10 years over a heart-breaking argument concerning my son - and I start to cry.
Philosophy does not always blossom out of strength, or completely out of strength. Partly, there is a strength of creativity and intellectual/emotional/spiritual vision out of good philosophy. However, often if not always too, philosophy -- like psychology -- is a projection of the author's own personality in both strength and weakness. On the weakness side of things, often a man's (or a woman's) idealistic philosophy is aimed at compensating for his/her own personal weakness(es). Look at Schopenhauer's philosophy -- from all accounts a very nasty, selfish, arrogant man --and you can see that. His philosophy is about Blind Irrationality, Selfishness, and Nastiness Ruling The World From A Unitary, Driving, Unconscious Source. This is what Schopenhauer called 'Blind Will' and it isn't too much of a stretch to say that Schopenhauer 'universalized' his own human 'narcissism' -- his greed, selfishness, irrationality, and nastiness -- so that it became the 'underlying, unconscious, driving will or force of the universe'. His own idealistic 'compensatory remedy' to this rather sad state of universal, and particularly human, affairs -- was a combination of Idealistic Eastern Philosophy, mainly Buddhism, and 'emotional catharsis' (emotional release) of pent up human emotions through creativity in the various arts. (This proposed 'idealistic solution' to man's sad state of affairs didn't stop Schopenhauer from being nasty and selfish in the rest of his life when he wasn't busy writing about the virtues of Eastern philosophy and the creative arts.)
Schopenhauer's philosophy went on to have a huge impact on Freud's creation of Psychoanalysis -- specifically, his theory of the 'irrational, unconscious foundation of man's psyche' (which Freud called 'the id'. You might call this Schopenhauer's philosophical influence in the building of Psychoanalysis, although others have speculated that Freud's close friend, Fliess, at the time also had a significant influence in this area. Nevertheless, Freud verbally recognized Schopenhauer's influence on the building of Psychoanalysis -- along with others he may or may not have officially recognized such as: Hegel, Nietzsche, the scientific materialists, the Enlightenment Philosophers, the hypnotists -- Mesmir, Charcot, Janet, and others that are not coming to my mind at this exact moment.
But here, we are talking about religion. What I have written here is a quickly evolving theory of religion. Does it have any substance to it? Can I live the religion I just formulated? Can I turn this theory of religion that I just created seemingly out of nowhere - but with the fully recognized help of Heraclitus, Plato, Spinoza, Schelling, Hegel, Jung, Perls and more - into an applied 'Multi-Dialectic-Humanistic-Existential Pantheistic Religion'?
Religion -- or spirituality -- for me, is a three step Hegelian, dialectical process: 1. looking inside yourself to become more aware of both your strengths and your weaknesses; looking outwards and contacting others in a process of learning more about your 'not self' -- and the particular strengths and weaknesses of your 'not self' -- whether this be in relation to a friend, a lover, a family member, a co-worker, an enemy, your environment, nature...
This second part can be particularly hard for many as we all tend to seem to have an inherent 'human bias towards self-centredness, selfishness, and/or narcissism' (this is the Hobbes and Schopenhauer influence among others, although others may argue that this bias is not 'inherent' but perhaps a symptom of materialistic, Capitalistic society. I say that human narcissism arrived long before materialism and Capitalism -- in fact, can be argued as being the conscious and/or unconscious philosophical foundation of materialism and Capitalism).
The third part of this dialectical, spiritual process is an integration or synthesis of our 'self' with our 'not self'. In an extrapolation of Classic Hegelian Dialectial Theory (Hegel's Classic Dialectic Theory was directed more towards the human evolution and 'perfecting' of knowledge through the dialectic process whereas I am extending this idea more into the domain of existence, being, becoming, spirtuality, and religion. Thus, in this latter DGB, post-Hegelian sense, we all can become more 'God-like', or 'closer to God', by existentially and spiritually evolving through a continual, life-long process of expanding our self-boundaries -- of incorporating more and more of our 'not self' -- integratively -- into our own personal self. We do this by showing a continual interest, compassion, empathy, and/or social sensitivity, towards other people, animals, plants, and life in general as we aim to move more and more closely towards a Divine Dialectical Wholism -- which in a Hegelian sense, and/or in this post-Hegelian DGB sense, is either God (in a pantheistic, Spinozian sense), or alternatively, God's Creation in a more 'Deist' sense).
God is the bridge between you and I. By accepting, respecting, and ideally, integrating our philosophical, religious, political, personal, cultural differences...we both become more God-like; we both become closer to God. By alienating ourselves from others through personal narcissism and/or righteous pride at its worst, we also alienate ourselves from ourselves -- or at least our potential expanded and more spiritual selves. In the process, we also alienate ourselves from God. To be sure, we need to establish and assert self-identity. However, we also need to establish and assert a creative, always changing, self-social identity and a working self-social balance. This is not easy as people generally through personal weakness and/or overcompensatory measures, end up with a philosophy and a lifestyle that is either too narcissistic and/or righteous on the one side, or too suppressive, pliable, selfless, and submissive on the other side.
God can be found in the creative negotiation, balance, and integration between 'too much' and 'not enough'. (See Heraclitus, the Han Philosophers -- integrating 'yin' and 'yang' or 'male and female energy', and W.F. Cannon -- 'The Wisdom of The Body')
Human pathology resides in too much self influence and not enough social influence. Or too much social influence and not enough self influence.
God is the bridge between you and I, between self and others, between self and society, and between man and nature. I call this a number of different but related things such as: 'Dialectial Wholism', 'Divine Wholism', 'Dialectical Evolution', 'Dialectical Negotiation and Integration', 'Dialectical Politics, Spirituality, Religion, Pantheism, and Deism'...
DGBN (David Gordon Bain, Dialectic Gap-Bridging Negotiations)
Nov. 18-20th, 2007.
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