Belief that humanity is not the most important factor in the universe, but will constantly believe it is
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Inhumanism is a doctrine that states that despite all the achievements and accomplishments of mankind, we are not the centre of the universe. Rather, the wonders of creation and nature possess truths and beauties that we as humans will never truly comprehend the magnitude of.
This belief was first started by American Poet Robinson Jeffers, the guy above with the pipe and bad haircut. He believed that humans are naturally obsessed with thinking that we are the epitome of evolution. But like you said, evolution is not a singular instance, nor is it some manifest plan for all life to constantly improve upon itself. Rather, it is a natural process that sometimes relies on factors like genetic drift and pure happenstance.
Jeffers also believed that no matter hard we try, humans will always resort back to believing we are the universe's pajamas. But, he maintained his belief that nature possessed more beauty that humanity with all its self-centred, selfish ambitions and obsessions could ever hope to have. In "Rock and Hawk", one of his less famous poems (which, coincidentally, I have to do a project on), he sees a falcon on top of a rock and states that
I think, here is your emblem
To hang in the future sky;
Not the cross, not the hive,
But this; bright power, dark peace;
Fierce consciousness joined with final
Disinterestedness;
Basically, he's saying that a bird on a boulder, displaying the power of nature and its indifference towards human affairs, is a more powerful symbol than the cross on which Jesus died.
So while Jeffers is a great poet and has some interesting ideas, I can't completely agree with him. This is what I want to address here.
While he offers some important perspectives on humanity, from a Christian perspective, we can only agree with him to certain degrees. Sometimes as Christians we make the mistake of aligning ourselves to wholeheartedly with secular doctrines. I'm not saying that we should barricade ourselves in a church and refuse to listen or engage with anything that isn't scripture or Biblically inspired. We still need to be in the world as well as being not of it.
However, when we start sacrificing the teachings of Jesus for any other beliefs which we think is more interesting or better than the Christian faith, we may as well have sacrificed our faith entirely. Everything we do and witness must be seen and done with a lens of Christ and a Biblical worldview in mind. I need to say that I am in no way near achieving this in my own life, but I want to try to get this right.
I just want to bring up something quickly here that didn't sit with me right with your last post and I hope I don't come off too strong.
When I was talking about Machiavellianism, I was trying to convey that not only was living just for yourself and your own quest for power a bad thing, but so is the Machiavellian perspective on things.
This is where today's politics and the Western worldview comes in. We have all been indoctrinated to believe we need to focus on this world, on the "reality" of the earthly realm. This is why our society is so screwed up.
Not that every society isn't screwed up in one way or another, but I mean this is why as a a culture, we are doing so poorly, communally and socially.
We need to be rooted in this world, that is entirely true, I'm not denying that. God has given us this world and His creation for us to enjoy and live in, benefitting from all the wonders of the physical universe and all its magnificence and wonders. However, we can't simply be rooted here and never grow. We need to look up to things beyond this world, to the not-so-temporary world beyond. We need to remember how limited this life is and how there is a Kingdom, an eternal Kingdom, that exists outside of this universe.
Just like Socrates always looked to the beauty and the good of the eternal, we need to keep our eyes on the perfection and love of the eternal God. If we keep our eyes down and just look to what we have in this life, we will lose any chance of entering into a fuller life.
Machiavellianism is not a good thing in any respect. It is intelligent and it makes sense to us in this life, but it denies the very things that make life truly worth living: love, community, and hope for peace and restoration. Not by our own means, but by God's.
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Anyway, I just needed to say that. If you disagree with any of it, let me know as soon as possible and we can keep talking about it.
I like the Pokémon pictures you posted (I think too many of them look like furniture this time around, but oh well).
I got a lot of papers and presentations coming up, so wish me buenas suerte and bonne chance!
A guy told me yesterday that Midterm season is his favorite time of year because he gets a chance to show off what he knows and then feels good about it when he does well. I don't know if I totally agree with him, but usually midterms to me means the final is worth less (and sometimes contains less), so I like to look at it like that.
Have a great week, talk atcha soon!
-Clayton
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