A Treatise on Natural Truth: Organic Truth Perspective II
Organic Truth Perspective II. The Natural World is not innately, metaphysically flawed, nor was it "created from nothing."
This truth follows on the heels of the previous discussion for obvious reasons. The story of human "sin" necessarily included the world, for the world- nature itself- was corrupted and turned hostile by the original sin of humans. To this distorted perspective was added the religious assurance that human beings were created special, apart from other creatures, and most like "God". The deed of ownership to the world- the power of imperium over other living things- was given to these Godly humans, and the pernicious belief that humans are exempt from the laws of nature was born.
The natural world is not flawed. It is doing what it has always been doing, for millions and billions of years before the advent of humanity. It is our perspective that it is flawed which is the only "flaw" in the system.
The natural world was not "created from nothing." This is not only a logical absurdity, but an ominous spiritual falsehood. Nothing comes from nothing. Something can only come from the previous existence of something. The natural world- the sum total of natural processes and materials- "came" from previous natural processes and materials. This is the final and unalterable truth about the origin of what we call the "natural world." If one were to seek the "original" or "first" origin of natural processes and materials, it could not be found; only previous processes and materials.
This apparent "infinite regression" is not merely a regression, but a procession. Nature was "always there", and always will be. If one were to seek "eternity", one need seek no further than what we experience in terms of "the elements" and "natural processes."
Monotheists who claim that an all-powerful and eternal being "created" everything out of nothing cannot answer the question of God's origins; they say he was "always there" or perhaps is exempt from notions of "time" as experienced by human beings. Monotheists tend to act satisfied by this answer, but claim to be unsatisfied with the same answer when it is directed towards natural materials and processes. This is because they cannot tolerate the idea that an all-powerful being who cares about their individual persons might not be in charge of everything. They would prefer to believe in the "creation out of nothing" impossibility- even going so far as to dream up a being that CAN "create something out of nothing"- before they will accept reason on the subject.
Nature was always here; or perhaps she and all her root-materials and root-forces are truly exempt, ultimately, from notions of "time" as experienced by human beings. Daily, Nature demonstrates how she constructs and shapes all things; she demonstrates how she gives birth to things and destroys things; an invisible God does not reveal the same. The belief in an invisible and human-like "God" existing in a sovereign position over a created nature is born (again) in human denial, in the human fear of Nature's apparent indifference, or the human inability to fully (or even mostly) comprehend all of Nature's great cycles and mysteries.
From point to point, the invented notion of a Nature-creating and Nature-ruling God contains all of the qualities of Nature herself- He cannot be understood, fully or at all; he is above our concerns; he kills at will, and gives or blesses at his own will or pace. He is source of all, and end of all. The "God" that has been layered on top of Nature is a human distortion, a tactic to dispel fear, to put a human face on the most pervasive and sacred processes that humans have no choice but to live within.
The notion that a creator must have "created" all things, in the same manner that a human craftsman creates a pot or a sculpture, is based again on a dim and limited human understanding of both causality and of the creative processes. There is a deeper, natural creativity that takes place in the shaping of children in the womb or the shaping of snowflakes, which is long previous to (and will persist after) the existence of human beings. That sort of creativity is the "World Creating" sort, the "Life shaping" sort, the true divine force.
The necessity of "something that is created" to have "come from a creator" is a primitive view of causality. If nature is uncreated, then a creator is not needed. Nature is not like a pot or a house. It is not something that was assembled from parts or dreamed up and willed "to be".
The Infinity of power and appearance that Nature expresses perfectly didn't have a "first" origin. Human persons within nature, as well as other, non-human persons, certainly had a first origin within the natural, cycling processes of the sacred whole, and to be clear, the root constituents and forces from which humans and non-humans alike were shaped share in the same eternity as nature itself. But there is no humanlike "creator" ruling over a created nature.
Organic truths do not preclude the existence of beings that can be rightly worshiped as "Gods" or even "Creators", and which have been worshiped by humans in the past in those ways. A deep element of spirituality seems to naturally exist within human beings from all times and cultures, with the lamentable exception of our more recent cultures. And this "recent loss", this turn to despair, materialism, and nihilism is born, in my view, from the long-term emotional and spiritual impact of the loss of organic truth-perspectives.
There are scenarios for the existence of powerful or divine Persons (who fulfill the role ascribed to "godly creators" from many human mythologies), scenarios which do not violate the observable and reasonable precepts of natural truth. If an unseen ecology of sentient persons (or perhaps even a singular "person") existed "previous" to the systemic arrangement and appearance that nature currently evidences from the human perspective, and, through that being or collective's unfathomable activities or influence, uncreated natural forces came to express themselves in a certain manner (subject to further natural, uncreated processes) that would be a fine, organic belief which would not be contrary to reason or truth.
If the presently existing collective of eternal natural powers somehow "co-create" a sentient or mysterious order of intentionality or personhood, (a "whole" which appears to rise above the sum of the parts) and that Person (or persons) somehow shapes or influences the outlay and unfolding of uncreated natural forces from age to age, this scenario, too, does not violate natural, organic truth.
More about "non-human Persons", including spiritual powers and beings that may once have been worshiped as "Gods" will be covered in a coming section.
