A short metaphysical disquisition for Karen:
There is both order and disorder in the universe. To someone like Aristotle, it seemed apparent that order was the major theme, and therefore that the Ultimate Being resembled Mind, the source of order. For the Epicureans, disorder seemed to predominate, so that Lucretius says--- "If God had made the world it would not be, a thing so frail and faulty as we see." Interestingly, the Epicureans conceded the reality of the gods, while denying their importance. It made sense to them that if chaos could generate order, as it had in the case of the earth and human beings, there might be beings superior to us in a more rarefied environment. However, though they might be more powerful, the Epicureans did not imagine they played an important role in human life.
To Aristotle, there was a hierarchy of actualization, and matter was less determined by its essence as it approached the center of the universe. Thus, things in the sublunar sphere were especially subject to contingency, and therefore chance. Thus, disorder was the result of distance from the Ultimate Being, which was fully actualized, and proximity to naked matter, which was formless, and close to nothingness, except for extension in time and space. Plato, on the other hand, actually thought that matter had a perverse character, and introduced irrationality into the universe. He imagined the demiurge, a sort of builder- god mediating between the mathematical/pure forms and the visible universe, and instilling them in matter. However, matter is not merely receptive, but distorts, and therefore introduces a note of chaos into the visible universe.
Heraclitus and the Stoics posited that order predominated, as an immanent Logos within the bosom of the universe. This Logos was a sort of active but impersonal Law that guided the development of things. If we only had the perspective of the Whole, we would see that imperfection and evil was illusory.
For the most part, pagan religion either assumed that the gods were derived from chaos, or that they were derived from a rational ground of things. If the latter, the myths were charming allegories, and needed a key to interpretation, since the gods must be more rational than commonly protrayed. If the former, the myths might very well be true, but they portrayed mere hedonistic supermen, and it was unlikely that they played a significant role in current human affairs. Of course, this was an advanced attitude. Plenty of people believed that the gods were worth placating or entreating, even if capricious and with dubious characters.
Of course, the belief in a rational ground came with the growth of philosophy. The Vedic gods precede Brahm and his manifestations, and have to be harmonized with the Vedantic doctrine. In other words, the preexisting religious culture was basically one of dealing with capricious and not altogether moral gods, and the idea of a central Logos or Mind at the root of universal order was a later development, which had to find its way into the preexisting culture.
However, the Fates and other such figures suggest a mediating doctrine between pure paganism and philosophical deism. The Fates, though themselves generated out of chaos, nevertheless turn around and order events among gods and men, through their loom. Similar ideas occur in other paganisms, where destiny is ordained by gods, and the incidental order of the chaotic universe is allowed to extend itself. The idea of a destiny where gods and men play their roles can easily extend, then, to a universe ordained by the God, where gods become either His manifestations or His messengers.
The God of the Bible is unique in that He creates matter, not merely imposing order, but positively bringing all into being. He is also unique in that a tale is meant to explain the aspect of disorder in the universe as a function of the moral autonomy of spiritual beings, rather than a defect of matter or the result of lowliness on the ladder of being. He is unique in insisting upon sole sovereignty, instead of incorporating prior gods into His narrative, and He is unique in creating a set of books meant to express in historical time a narrative of destiny that ultimately has worldwide implications.
However, He is not unique in that there is a strong reflection of the religious terms in which people had been thinking among the preexisting paganisms of the area. Thus, He often is spoken of in the manner that the pagan gods are, or there are confusions about the nature of His angels. He is also not like the God of the philosophers, insofar as He seems wholly engaged and with a definite purpose that He cares about. This might reflect a different synthesis of the primitive and sophisticated versions of paganism, or it might reflect a novel conception, perhaps one even encountered by the prophets.
The equivalent of "chaos" paganism is found in the nascent UFO cults, looking for superior beings, perhaps even postulating their current involvement in human history, and hoping to appease them and benefit. An elaboration in the direction of "destiny" paganism is stuff like Chariots of the Gods or 2001: A Space Odyssey, imagining that our shape as a race was somehow determined by early intervention from superior beings, who will one day return for more. The equivalent of Heraclitian/Stoic immanence is found in the fascination with the Tao of Physics, and various non- commital New Age manifestations of the idea that there is a harmony in the universe that we can tap into. Perhaps, most famously, it is found in the phrase "May the Force be with you."
The interesting thing is that, even given the premise that chaos is first, the human mind tends to assume that order, once given a foothold, will triumph over it. We see that even in those who see a coming heroic period for humanity, extending itself and its values in a godless universe. The difference is that we are the gods, not Zeus or Persephone. One can see it, for example, in the science fiction novel "Lord of Light", by Roger Zelazny, who creates a world where the original passengers of a space expedition live a Hindu gods, and their offspring are reincarnated endlessly (by machines), until some get to join the gods.
With minor variations, then, these seem to run the gamut of themes about the "Ultimate". The central idea is always the relationship between order and chaos..... |
