The Way of Humanity

All history is mans attempt to save himself from discomfort. If this be true then salvation for most of humanity means total comfort or mindless bliss. Throughout history their have been four primary methods humans have used to attain this salvation. 

I. Religion (god exists and we should try to find bliss in the supernatural)

Supporters: Judiams, Christianity, Islam, paganism  

II. Humanism (salvation comes through creating the "superman" who will conquer poverty, war, disease through technology and education)

Supporters: Platonism, Fascism, Communism, Utopianism  

III. Naturalism (Bliss can be found in conforming to nature, to work with and benefit that which is growing around you)

Supporters: Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Naturalism. 

IV. Nihilism  (salvation is nothing, humanity is nothing, nothing is nothing and killing my girlfriend is no different then bringing her flower…or at least you can’t prove that its not.  

Supporters: Existentialism, Postmodernism

     Western history has progressed through these phases with minor exceptions and set backs in the following order, Religion > Humanism > Naturalism > Nihilism. I view this progression as one of decline. Humanity sought to find happiness in various supernatural deities but the gods were found to demanding and unsatisfactory, so we declined to seeking salvation in ourselves. When we tried to find happiness in jumanity it proved futile. Not only couldn’t we make ourselves happy but we also couldn’t even understand why we were unhappy in the first place. Once you remove the supernatural from a worldview it is utterly impossible to give any sort of rational answer for were we came from and why we are the way we are. Hence the widespread skepticism of today. Nature could not satisfy our lust for pleasure either…it was too cruel...to unfeeling for us so we gave it up. Now, we know that we know nothing and gain a sick sense of satisfaction from knowing that we know nothing.. School teaches us that when nothing is everything, then anything is relative and the best way live is by the social norms. In the common tongue this means, “be as happy as you can by hurting as few people as you can.”

     This is where we are today, or at least where much of the world is today. It’s mindset which represents the grounds at the bottom of the coffee cup or the crust of a piece of pizza  and I cringe thinking about where humanity might digress to from here. We have  a self destructive mentality because it has ceased to believe that anything ought to be achieved or changed. The results of living a worldview like this will bring about a life much like the life of a star. Stars emit energy through nuclear fusion. They convert their own innards into energy which emits itself in light and heat. Stars bust when they have nothing left to fuse and they collapse because they have literally eaten themselves from the inside out.  A worldview that is totally self focused seeks salvation from itself and once the person has exhausted all their resources they either give up or explode. Usually this explosion really hurts everyone, not just the person exploding. Is this not where we live? Haven’t most of us suffered or been hurt by some person who has lived this way, found it impossible and exploded leaving scars, broken relationships and hurt feelings?

 

     So what is the answer? It is not in fixing the worldview; it rests in fixing the desire. Throughout history man has tried every conceivable invention to get comfort but all have failed. The problem is not in the method the problem is in the purpose. Humanity is lost and the world is spiraling into chaos because comfort is not what we were meant to pursue. Man was lost from the start and to find true anything we must go back to the Beginning. It is in the council chambers of God where creation was planned in which we find true meaning. We don’t find happiness or comfort by pursuing happiness as humanity has done throughout all of history. We find true comfort when we pursue God and only a life spent in complete slavery to Him can we ever find rest. 

 

I’ve digressed significantly from my original point. Essentially this post is meant to say that all of history has been mans attempt at happiness. Our desire for happiness has taken society as a whole further and further away from God. The common ideas of toleration, and relative truth popular today represent the furthest mainstream philosophical  step away from God history has yet seen. Comment with disagreements because this is mostly conjecture based on my understanding of history.