Thursday 5 September 2019

Understanding the necessity for a purposeful creative consciousness behind the manifestation of this universe (William Arkle)

Edited from Divine Purpose - from The Great Gift by William Arkle (1977):  

There are a number of matters which I would like to define which are matters that seem to cause a deep stirring in the heart of our being and which require some response from us.

I will quickly go by the opinions of those people who do not see the need for a purposeful creative consciousness behind the manifestation of this universe. Such understanding must come to us as a simple observation beyond doubt, or it does not come at all.

We realise that there are people who are able to conceive of this manifest universe as an outgrowth from some haphazard life which is fumbling its way by accidents from one thing to another. I cannot sustain such a theory since I am aware that the organisation of matter has to reach an extremely high degree indeed before life can even begin a fumbling of any sort. 

Our time and attention is too valuable to remain in, what are for me, such unproductive fields. We must observe all things, but not limit them to the tangible and the 'scientific', particularly when we realise that our own consciousness is neither tangible nor 'scientific'.

My observations lead me to a purposeful God, a living responsive creative source, whose motives we may begin to discover in the way of our own nature and environment are formulated. Many of these qualities have become so clear to me that I would like to bring them to your notice in a direct manner...

Notes from BGC

I (sort of) wish I had seen, and attended-to, and recognised the truth of, this passage many years, many decades ago. I say 'sort of' because the fact is I probably would have ignored it on the basis that there 'must' be something wrong with such simple and clear reasoning.

After all, our culture and society has succeeded in putting the mass of its people into a state of perpetual undecided uncertainty on this matter for several generations. I mean this crucial matter of whether this universe is a purposeful (therefore meaningful) creation (or a manifestation as Arkle terms it) -- or whether it is some combination of causal determinism and randomness and therefore (necessarily) has zero purpose or meaning.

The modern mainstream 'line' on this subject is that there is no purpose or meaning to the universe but there is purpose and meaning to the individual lives of human beings - because somehow each person 'makes' his own purpose and meaning...

The fact that this is incoherent and self-contradicting nonsense somehow doesn't strike people - presumably because the only possibility of coherence comes from a universe that is created and purposive - so when people 'doubt' the reality of creation they immediately become incoherent when they attempt to do reasoning of even moderate complexity.

The whole thing is done by inducing 'doubt' - and the one thing that never is doubted is the grounds for doubt! Modernity has this created a metaphysics of doubt; a set of primary beliefs and assumptions implicitly stating that doubts are primary; and unless there is 100 percent certainty of perfect and unchangeable knowledge, with which every rational person must agree totally - then doubt will prevail. (And therefore doubt always and necessarily prevails.)

As Arkle says; the knowledge that this universe and reality is the product of a purposive and creative conscience - a God - is something that can only come to us as a single intuitive act, a thing we know directly. The difficulty is that 'beyond doubt' phrase - because for modern Man strategically-directed doubt has become a primary principle of our social discourse. We are officially required to doubt God, creation, the soul, objective morality; and increasing numbers of observed and experienced facts.

For modern Man, nothing is placed beyond here-and-now doubt; except for the current political abstract expediencies of the Global Establishment - and these change every few years; so among our many confusions and incoherences is moving from one unassailable dogma to its inversion, every few years.

But modern Man apparently finds this easy - because he has decided to doubt God, creation and the Good. And for such a person, nothing can be done. If 'manifestation' is doubted, nothing can stand - and incoherence becomes a permanent way of life.

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