Role of Religion and Spirituality

From: jimruttshow8596

Jordan Hall asserts that if the Christian Trinity is understood correctly, the Christian God becomes logically necessary for any possible world, including the Multiverse [02:35:01]. This assertion forms the core of a discussion on philosophical ideas around sacredness and spirituality and the nature of reality.

The Christian Trinity as Logically Necessary

The argument for the logical necessity of the Christian God, specifically the Trinity, is structured in three parts:

1. Ontological Primacy: A triadic structure, which is fundamentally relational, serves as the ontological primitive or “bootloader” for all conceptual and ontological characteristics [07:45:01].
2. Specific Triadic Structure: The Christian Trinity is identified as this particular necessary triadic structure [09:06:01].
3. Nature of Belief: Belief is understood as an existential commitment rather than a strictly mental operation [09:51:01].

Relational Ontology vs. Substance Ontology

The discussion delves into the concept of relational ontology, where relationship is considered the ontological primitive [23:19:01].

• Relational Primacy: Relationship, as a concept and an ontology, implicitly and necessarily contains the relata (the things in relationship) [25:15:01].
• Critique of Materialism: The notion of an object existing absent relationship is deemed plausible only within a substance ontology, which is seen as leading to materialism [26:49:01]. Materialism, in this view, arises from an implicit supposition that an object qua object is a valid thing in itself, allowing for decontextualization [27:36:01].
• Reality as Relationship: Reality itself is found in the relationship between subject and object, not strictly mapped to the object [14:12:12] [29:00:01]. The most real is relationship [29:15:01].
• Counter-argument: Jim Rut maintains that substance and relationship must coexist and neither can be prior to the other, citing thinkers like Russell, Whitehead, and Heidegger [35:50:01]. The universe we are “thrown into” involves the co-creation of these two [36:09:01].

Philosophical Concepts and the Trinity

Fundamental concepts are arranged in a hierarchical stack, where deeper concepts necessarily imply shallower ones [12:07:01].

• Core Concepts: Concepts like unity, multiplicity, sameness, distinction, being, and becoming are considered fundamental, more so than space and time [15:54:01]. These basic concepts form a “minimum compact set” [37:17:01].
• Trinity as a Mapping: The Christian Trinity aligns with this minimum compact set:
  • Unity: The “godhead” or wholeness of God [37:45:01].
  • Multiplicity: The three persons (hypostases) [37:53:01].
  • Relationality: The intrinsic relationship between and among the persons, where their shared relationship is the Oneness [38:01:01] [39:57:01].
• Analogy to Marriage: A three-person marriage can serve as an example, where the marriage itself is the unity, the people are the multiplicity, and the complex relationships define the relationality [41:15:01]. The “body of the marriage” is purely relationality [42:47:01].
• Trinity as a Platonic Form: The Trinity is presented as the platonic form of this unity-multiplicity-relationality characteristic that appears throughout reality [43:55:01]. Instances of this structure in the world “participate in” or are “instances of” the more basic structure of the Trinity [44:22:01].
• Dehumanizing the Persons: The “persons” of the Trinity are not literal human-like figures but rather fundamental aspects of reality [48:56:01].
  • Second Person (Logos): All forms of logos (narrative, incarnation) participate in and embody the second person [46:16:01]. This includes the natural laws and settings of the universe that enable complex emergence [55:46:01].
  • First Person (Father): The essence of the Father is found in the relationship between the Son and the Spirit [01:09:40]. It embodies the characteristic of “begottenness” (lineage, distinction with continuity) and “proceeds” (discontinuity or symmetry, holding things together without singular identity) [01:10:12] [01:10:48]. This sets transcendent constraints that enable certain things to happen within the domain [01:11:59].
  • Third Person (Spirit): The Spirit is the relationship of the Father and the Son [01:12:50]. It enables both distinction and unity, showing how multiplicity and wholeness are produced [01:13:06].

The Nature of Faith (Pistis)

The concept of belief needs to be distinguished from ideology.

• Belief as Existential Commitment: “Belief” (Greek: pistis, translated as “faith”) is defined as an existential commitment or a way of life, not a strictly mental operation [01:00:01] [01:04:01]. It is distinct from nominal belief, which is merely a fixation on a particular set of words or doctrines [01:26:27].
• Plato’s Influence: In Plato’s work, pistis refers to embodied, deeply intimate relationship with a domain of reality gained through engaged experience or mastery [01:36:18]. This is distinct from doxa (opinion/nonsensical stories) [01:35:55] and episteme (perceiving underlying principles/intellectual understanding) [01:37:09].
• Faith as Livingness: For Paul in the New Testament, pistis means “livingness” [01:28:16]. It is the cultivation of a capacity for a well-honed, harmonious, rich, nuanced, subtle, and intimate relationship with reality [01:38:59] [01:40:01].
• Living with Faith: One can live with faith (existential commitment) even while explicitly rejecting the ideology or nominal belief in the Trinity [01:34:45]. The ability to navigate life well, take risks, and act with confidence is built on this kind of faith [01:39:44].

Religion as Ideology vs. Christianity as Faith

• Critique of “Religion”: Much of what is commonly called “religion” is seen as either doxa (opinion/stories) [01:36:59] or a mechanism of control, invented or evolved for societal influence [01:34:46].
• Meaning of “Religio”: The word “religio” (Latin) means “binding together” [01:40:45]. It implies constructing scaffolding or artificial institutions to cope with being separated from the wholeness of life [01:40:56].
• Christianity’s Invitation: Christianity, when understood as becoming Disciples of Christ, invites one to enter into full, rich, nuanced, complete, embodied faith-relationship with the actual whole of reality [01:44:01]. It is a “personal God,” meaning it calls for a personal relationship with reality, not just an intellectual understanding [01:30:13]. This echoes John Vervaeke’s “religion that’s not a religion” [01:42:01].
• Beyond Ideology: The Trinity, properly understood, cannot be an ideology [01:49:41]. It is intrinsically mysterious and beyond human capacity to grasp epistemologically [01:50:22].

Science, Physics, and the Logos

The universe’s unfolding, described through physics and emergent complexity, aligns with the theological concepts of the Trinity.

• Physics as Logos: The universe’s origin, lawfulness, and unfolding are congruent with the physics story [01:13:01]. The “logos” (second person of the Trinity) is identified with the universe, or “creation” [54:47:01].
• Constraints and Emergence: The universe’s natural laws act as transcendent constraints, enabling and disabling certain outcomes, leading to increased complexity over time [55:46:01]. This process of emergence, where new levels of reality arise without violating lower-level laws, is seen as an aspect of the logos [01:16:50].
• Science’s Limits: Science, reliant on experimentation and observation of found data, cannot explain why the laws of physics are as they are [01:00:56]. This question falls into a more fundamental domain containing both logic and physics, which is the proper place for theology [01:22:51].
• Theology as the Discipline of Reality: Theology is framed as “the discipline of reality” [01:23:25], operating at a level more fundamental than physics or logic, explaining the underlying components necessary for a “world” to exist [01:25:01].

Biblical Literalism and Understanding Scripture

Biblical literalism is critically examined in favor of a deeper understanding of scripture.

• Literalism’s Origin: Biblical literalism is a relatively recent movement, emerging in the 19th century in American theological seminaries as a reaction to European biblical criticism [01:57:56]. It aimed to provide “fundamentals” as a harbor against perceived “degeneracy” [01:58:24].
• Scripture Beyond Journalism: Literalism erroneously presupposes that scripture should be understood like journalism or science [01:58:52]. However, scripture is “radically deeper” than journalism, history, or even science [01:59:12].
• Scripture as Good Fiction: Scripture is likened to “good fiction” or “great literature” [01:59:58]. While not literally true in a journalistic sense, it conveys “vastly more truth” about human existence and deeper patterns of reality [02:01:56]. This truth is accessible across diverse cultures and enables people to order their lives based on it [02:03:02].
• Critique of Academic Biblical Criticism: Academic biblical criticism is often seen as mediocre, subject to academic fashions and power structures, and failing to grasp the deeper truths conveyed by scripture [02:04:25].
• Historicity of Christ: The historicity of Christ is considered a binding point in reality that, along with the philosophical understanding of the Trinity, “unlocks another piece” of the Trinity [02:06:54]. The logical necessity of the Trinity is a stronger claim than historical reality, though the logical necessity of the Incarnation and Resurrection is also proposed [02:07:45].