Christ and the Alive World ("Animism")

The World is Alive

"Animism" or the belief that the natural world around us is alive, and has a degree of intelligence or consciousness, appears to be a spontaneous and common belief among peoples across the entire world.

My academic background was the study of religions - and it was an embarrassingly poor education - with nothing at all taught about Christianity. What struck me though was the profound commonality, underneath exterior differences, of this tribalistic, family-oriented, spontaneous religion and belief system that understood creation as having a spirit, or being actually alive. Animals, trees, rivers, lakes, mountains, etc. all have degrees of personality and spirit.

Perhaps one of the most profoundly "unorthodox" element in the works of Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and perhaps also all our most popular children's stories is they capture this worldview. Most often this is simply the expression that some animals can literally talk and think like people do. Even those who don't though have distinct personalities, memories, and even wills - that extends to everything in nature and God's creation.


Child Like Belief

When Christ commands us to have child-like belief, I think this is an element of that instruction. I think we are or should rely on our spontaneous and early understanding of the good, God, and the world to some extent.

One story that I think is worth meditating on is the boy Jesus teaching the wise men in the temple. We should certainly consider this story in light of His command to have child-like belief. Christ, despite being fully man (along with being God), was as a child more learned than the wisest men. Christ is a model of perfect man, and we should learn from this to appreciate that spontaneous, natural worldview and life that God supplies to us - that we are born with.

When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom... After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.

Lewis captures this in the Narnia tales. There is much of the supernatural world that only children can see, or at least, that only they can see spontaneously. Adults seem to unlearn these things as they grow, or learn to deny or forget them.


Christ and the Living World 

There are several utterances and actions by Our Lord that certainly make sense in this light, the light of a living world of intelligences - if we are willing to not explain-them-away and take them simply.

And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm.

Who else does Christ rebuke? At times His disciples, or the Jewish leaders in error. The water and wind obey Him as living creatures because He is Lord of creation.

 The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. 14 Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.

Why does Christ rebuke a tree out of season? I've read various explanations, but they don't always seem particularly straightforward - or perhaps explain the passage on a different level. I think Christ commanded the tree to bear fruit, as He has commanded the winds and waters to be calm, but the tree being disobedient (or perhaps inclined towards unfriendliness and evil) was to never bear fruit again as punishment.

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. 

Christ matter-of-factly treats the wind as having its own personality and desires. Was He "speaking down" to His listeners in an unscientific fashion, or should we perhaps take Him at face value?

He replied, "Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." 

In context, like with the above passages, having enough faith (following Christ, becoming more Christ-like) means creation will listen to you (because it is alive) - even a mountain can or will move itself. 

He replied, "If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers [cry out]!" 

Another passage that, I think, is more wondrous and makes sense in context taken at face-value (child-like) rather than explained away as a metaphor or exaggeration on Our Lord's part.

In Context of Tolkien 

If we take Tolkien's insights as real and true, than the above passages could easily be read as connected to Middle Earth mindset, because it would be the same with our world. In Tolkien too the at least some of the rocks have memories, mountains are alive, and much more.


Disease and Demons

One frequently difficult area for moderns is the connection between disease and demons. We argue that science proves disease is caused by germs (and not demons) so we tend to forget or feel uncomfortable with these passages.

A possible explanation that probably doesn't cover all these is that some or most diseases are evil in their own right - the actual identification of the disease is with evil, or the destruction of good, and that the disease has, to some degree and like the rests of creation, its own desire and personality (however clouded, confused, sickly/broken, etc.)


God Came into Creation

It may also be interesting to establish Christ's close connection to the natural world, as apart from towns and cities. He frequently visits the towns and cities to preach, but often removes Himself to nature or wild surroundings to rest and pray.

This is mainly in contrast to the modern assumption that we are mostly disconnected from nature and material creation, that is totally distinct and separate from of us (as opposed to also alive, conscious).

1. Jesus was born in a cave (the manger), and reborn in a cave (the tomb).
2. Jesus spent, early in His ministry, 40 days alone in the wilderness.
3. The Holy Spirit descended on Christ after being baptized in the river Jordan (not a bath, or with a small vessel, etc. - suggesting the closer connection to nature). 

We are also taught by scripture that He raised up all of creation by coming into it, not just Human nature, which suggests an even wider significance to the incarnation that the salvation of our souls - I mean that perhaps all of creation can be elevated to some sense (like at the end of Narnia) and that God Himself is deeply connected to all of the natural world - not just mankind - in imbuing it with different hierarchy and degrees of souls (that is, real and true life). 

 

Tolkien's Elves and Eden

I think that in Tolkien's work, the elves may represent, at least in part, men of Eden - those who would be happy, unblemished by evil, and primarily unfree to chose wrong. They would be content with the garden (creation) and live their peacefully, knowing no disease, death, etc.

That is certainly the picture we get from when the Hobbits visit places of elvish influence and dominion - peace, bliss, happiness, beauty - but eventually they must head back into the "real world" and know pain and suffering, and actively choose good in the face of evil. The elves mostly stay to themselves though, in their Garden-like surroundings, and can not know death by age or disease.

When evil was introduced into the world though by the serpent, man was deceived and came to know the difference between good and evil. He came to know suffering, pain, struggle - and this is the man as we know him now and in Tolkien's works. He is often and easily still deceived, but must struggle against the temptations of evil, repent, and try to do good with his relatively short life.

So man must actively chose good, and in this can potentially become closer to God, while the elves and such creation may be always beautiful, but can only go so far.

Most Fundamental Christian Beliefs

- God loves us personally and desires for us to love Him back.

- God is our Father and Jesus Christ is our Brother.

- God desires for us to apply this family relationship to His other children on earth, and treat them as brothers and sisters, or as an ideal Father would like to see us treat each other.

- Love is the primary reality, or force, tying all beings together.


The first and third were given by Christ as the most important commandments, from which all others derive. The second was established clearly in the Gospel, and the fourth I believe is clearly derived from the others. Our relationships to one and other, our family relationships, our relationships to our children are how our relationship to God is (and not just a reflection, though our relationship to God is or can be far more perfect).

God created us to live primarily as families to show and teach us our relationship to Him and His other creations/children.

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The more we love God, just as the more we love a good father, the more we desire to please Him, learn from Him, and trust Him.

I think, unfortunately, some descriptions of Him lead away from these primary truths, or are at least easy to misunderstand - we must certainly not mistake God for a bad tyrant, but we should really fear what can happen to us by doing evil - just as a child should properly fear running in front of a moving vehicle!

"News" Propaganda

On my iPhone's default "search" screen, news articles automatically appear by default. One of them was about a woman obtaining a degree in sacred theology. As boring and mundane as this sounds, this was promoted as one of the top 3 news stories in the World, at that time, for me to read.

The propaganda was obviously ridiculous and logically inconsistent. The story dry nonsense, and the "story" pushed completely disconnect from the facts - but that is the goal of evil - to use any premise to twist into lies and deceit.

After reading between the lies, the reality is that some elderly woman and obtained a degree that Priests usually obtain for the goal of becoming priests, but of course has never been excluded from anyone, and planned or hoped to teach future Priests.

This was twisted into the idea that Pope Francis was going to soon start promoting and allowing women priests, and that it would be really good as soon as the Catholic church progressed and had women priests, and we can all hope that this will be very soon now.

I can't think of this as anything but evidence that evil still really does see the Catholic church, despite all its flaws and challenges, as a real enemy and threat to its goals - and individual, believing, moral Catholics to still be a serious force against evil.

I think this is a good cause for hope! May God Bless and preserve the Catholic church against the lies and deceit of the devil, and may St. Micheal the Archangel be sent to protect us.

Three Options via Music

1. Mormon

2. Traditional Catholic

3. Rural/Southern Christian

Group Survival during Mutational Meltdown

Reference: http://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2016/04/we-are-worse-off-than-mouse-utopia.html

During the coming "mutational meltdown" and the coming collapse of civilization, for a healthy group to survive it will need to face both internal and external attacks, become autonomous from broader society, and have a worldview sufficiently motivating to overcome a long period of suffering.

Modern society is "uniquely" structured to succumb to mutational meltdown and fail fast, as outlined above and here:

1) No interest in preserving itself against internal or external attack. The most productive and intelligent members are actively denigrated and attacked, numerous policies actively handicap the productive workers while promoting the less productive, their labor is blunted, taxed, and wastefully "managed", while a massive influx of colonizers is welcomed, with the openly desired and stated goal of replacing or destroying the current backbone of our civilization.

2) Everything is highly correlated and linked on a worldwide basis, so that major disruptions to food and energy supplies, and even basics like clothing, will be felt globally. Large portions of the population, as in Africa, are dependent on world aid. Any major setback to the highly complex, technological system will result in major suffering, disease, and starvation worldwide.

3) First-world civilization has absolutely no motivating factor outside of basic hedonism and materialism (and the desire for self-destruction already mentioned). There is no cohesive culture or religion to hold society together and motivate people in the face of major hardships.

Traditional cohesive factors such as a strong uniting culture and ethnicity, with a clear and organized patriarchy are almost completely absent in broader Western Civilization. It is likely and necessary that these factors would emerge during severe hardships, but depending on the speed of collapse would be no guarantee for personal or group survival.

The answer, of course, is a strong and organizing religious faith, which was the basis of civilization for all of history and only abandoned recently. Not all modern religious organizations would survive, and especially those less powerful and loosely organized groups that require little in commitment of their members would fail overnight.

So our options are limited to those featuring:

1) A clear and organized chain of power (not a democracy) that will be obeyed by its members. Clearly a patriarchy is necessary, with the traditional model of divinely ordained Kingship.

2) A strong worldview that overcomes or even embraces discomfort, struggle, and suffering (Christianity has these messages) and a very clear and purposeful reason of existing now.

3) A very strong family structure, with an emphasis on protecting and raising children.

4) Autonomous structures for food, power, clothing, medicine, etc.

5) A way to survive despite heavy, strong, and sustained persecution utilizing modern technologies. Very possibly on a scale not seen before.

In all these factors considered, it appears Mormonism, especially early Mormonism, under the divine-Kingship structure (i.e. the Prophet organizing both religious and secular affairs) may be uniquely structured to survive these coming hardships. The system will likely have to revert back to a more isolated and independent model than currently exists - where many members are heavily involved in secular society, public schools, etc. - but the religion has done good about never forgetting its roots. They regularly recall the struggles of the early Mormon pilgrims, which the expectation that they are at least thankful or may have to experience it again, and have a carefully organized system for making sure members are financially independent, or at least not indebted, along with amble food stores to survive pro-longed hardship. Unlike the suicidal modern system, Mormonism has a clearly delineated and prioritized organizational structure where the needs of immediate family, children, and church members would come before broader society. While the organization is currently one of the most charitable around, these resources could quickly be diverted to prioritizing member survival and protection during a time of major hardship and failure in broader society. Even now Mormon Bishops on the local level have a unique power over their member's time and have extensive practice in organizing members for the above mentioned food storage operations, scouting, charitable operations, etc.

Secondarily, Catholics do have a long-history of survival through many of history's hardships. The problem being though that the whole church doesn't appear prepared, in the way that the Mormons are, for this coming catastrophe. It seems likely a very conservative, tightly-organized Catholic community would be in a good position for survival (e.g. similar to unique ethnic/Catholic immigrant communities that existed earlier in American history), where the Church's structured patriarchy could help selflessly organize members and create or renew a strong and binding culture. Monastics and others maintain the history of a organized life of work and prayer, seasonal feasts, etc. Those who join such communities, even the priesthood, tend to being of above-average intelligence as the study commitments are intellectually strenuous, and the discipline asks unique self-control and selflessness. These are all excellent factors for trusting one for a leadership role or class. Agrarian history and practices could be renewed, housing efforts organized, etc. Mentally the traditional Catholic liturgy puts a strong emphasis on bearing suffering. In many ways the Catholic traditional also preserves legal traditions, and to some degree the culture, of Rome. The main negative, as mentioned above, is these forms may not exist *now* as it does for the Mormon church. Perhaps to some degree one might look towards the Society of Saint Pius X, as even now it faces persecution from the broader Catholic church in its effort to preserve the traditional Roman/Latin liturgy in the face of Vatican II's modernization - has been uniquely opposed to modern moral and cultural changes - and has actually thrived and grown under this persecution.

(In this regard the Orthodox could also be a viable example, with its history of surviving persecution under Communism).

I'd say a third, and less clear option, might be some Southern churches. Some of the south still maintains a degree of cultural independence from broader society (and, again, persecution, mockery, etc.) and has a strong agrarian tradition, firearm and hunting skills, etc. On a smaller basis than the above two, smaller and closely organized communities would have the necessities for survival.

Faith

Politicians put their faith in money. If we have more money we can do X.

Christians should put their faith in God. If we perceiver in prayer, love, and striving to obey God's will, we can do anything.

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The use of money, like all things material, may be used for God's will, or for good, but we must strive not to put our faith in it or in creation. Our faith must be in God. Anything else is idolatry.