BY PATRICK BLONSKI | OCT 16, 2021 |
On Wednesday September 1, 2021, Governor Abott from Texas passed a law banning abortion after 6 weeks. Various people in support of abortion were fired up on social media and immediately began to post emotionally-driven, non-factual information. In certain aspects, I can sympathize with abortion supporters because I know where they are coming from. I used to hold the view of “I wouldn’t personally want a woman to get one but it’s not my decision”. I eventually realized I had to do a lot of mental gymnastics and create logical loopholes to keep that view point. This led me to be unapologetically pro-life: abortion is killing a human being and in no circumstance should it ever be allowed or be an option. After having “conversations” with various people on both sides, I heard many of the talking points: Planned Parenthood is corrupt and creates propaganda, you can’t force a woman to have a child after rape, what about her/education, what about low income, life begins at conception, etc. But those conversations are discussing the symptom of a much greater problem in our culture; the fact that we’ve ended up rationalizing killing a human at its most vulnerable speaks to how far we’ve fallen as a society (both pro-life and pro-choice). This isn’t a conversation about scientific truths or individual responsibilities. This symptom stems from the final blow to our hearts: when Nietzsche announced that God is dead. And so the era of the rational materialist worldview (nothing exists beyond what is physical while rationalism is the theory that the basis of knowledge is reason, rather than experience or divine revelation.) began. The difference in each worldview is encapsulated in the pro-choice mantra: “My body my choice” vs. the pro-life mantra “This is my Body which will be given up for you.”
Let’s clarify a few things that modern people might have difficulty understanding in the context of a symbolic worldview (not an insult to anyone’s intellect.) First: What is a symbolic worldview and how does it differ from the current worldview (rational materialist)? Second: Let’s look at why this is not a “follow the science” type of conversation. Lastly: How did we get here and what has come from it?
THE SYMBOLIC WORLDVIEW
A symbolic worldview is basically rooted in our lived experiences in a spiritual reality in an attempt to move upward in a hierarchy of being and meaning. Symbols are not arbitrary, they are where “heaven”(source of spiritual meaning) and “earth”(source of physical expression) meet1. In this structure human beings act as mediators between ‘heaven’ and ‘earth’ revealing the truths represented in the symbols2. As an example: Let’s say you are laying down in a park and you see a face in the clouds. The rational materialist worldview assumes it’s a random meaningless occurrence. The symbolic worldview recognizes that the face results in an action; holding meaning. Our consciousness reacts to patterns and retracts meaning from those patterns. The revelation of these patterns are recorded through stories, allowing us to create a narrative, which we pass down to future generations. These symbols live within a hierarchy of meaning revealing truths at various levels. In this worldview, the narrative of God is inevitable whether you believe it or not (I will give examples of this in future posts). So you may ask: How does science live within this worldview?
SCIENCE IN THE SYMBOLIC
Science is a process with an accurate and quantifiable description of a phenomena at a certain level of reality because reality operates in a predictable pattern. A good representation of science is a recipe. Science doesn’t tell us why a recipe is important; it is a tool used to reproduce that phenomena. Science has to exist within a worldview and that’s exactly why in terms of the abortion argument we talk pass each other. As an example, let’s say an individual wanted to kill another individual and they created a recipe for poison. That situation exists in an already developed structure that informs us what is right or wrong; science does not answer that question for us. For example when stated “science states that life begins at conception” it has no bearing within a certain context, as a matter of fact, if you want abortion to be legal that statement is meaningless to you. The pro-choice argument lives with a materalistic worldview (to an extreme level), meaning that since the “life at conception” isn’t materialized in front of them it is non-existent, it’s meaningless to the pro-choicer because the material doesn’t exist until it leaves the womb (which, if we are being honest, is a terrifying concept). Another way to see it is to represent science as a hammer, a tool. A hammer can be used in a variety of ways; to help build something, or to kill somebody, and where that hammer lives will decide what it is predominately used for. If a culture is rooted in the notion of the god Thor the hammer is a tool manifested in the ideology of Thor, strength, protection, etc. If the hammer lives within the image of Mars, the hammer becomes a weapon for war and conquest. Currently, the hammer isn’t bound to anything, placing us as the ultimate arbiter, which is dangerous.
THE DESCENT FROM THE DIVINE
This is not an argument based on religious law, but to put it simply, our causal and effectual relationship with the Christian narrative. In ancient eastern Christianity the purpose of this life was to reach Theosis, a transformative process to reach a likeness or union with God (which is built into the very fragment of our being). That purpose always drove humans to build up towards the heavens meaning was given to everything, elevating human wisdom beyond the body, and focusing on building community for the good of the other. Just like “my body, my body choice” perfectly exemplifies pro-choicers, the essence that drives the pro-life ideology is nested in the story of the Last Supper when Christ uttered the words”This is My Body, which will be given up for you.” It is the exact opposite of the pro-choice mantra. This is not a coincidence and is the exact result of our denial of the narrative we live in; a shift from striving to the divine to self coronating ourselves.
Let’s take this step by step from the symbolic worldview and see how we are in this situation. Like mentioned before, our perceptions with certain patterns we see in the world affects how we interact and experience reality. Our perceptions and experiences don’t always lead us to do good, just like science, whatever our consciousness is rooted in will ultimately decide how we act. Let us map it out: You experience an event (ie seeing a face in the clouds), this event could be manifested from good or evil, (usually represented in art and stories as angels and demons.) and then you act on it, resulting in the narrative moving towards good/the divine or evil/self. Denial of this does not exempt you from it; your actions cause the manifestation of good or evil into the world, swinging the pendulum when one or another. One effect of moving away from the divine is the loss of meaning in our lives and slowly placing emphasis on the self, like I mentioned before.
Let’s move up this hierarchy of meaning by way of food. At the very bottom of this hierarchical structure is food as purely biological for the survival of the material body. As we move up the hierarchy we have the development of cuisine defining a particular culture due to methods of cooking and ingredients available to them. Through this cuisine dishes start developing meanings by the way of people’s experiences with the food, how they were harvested etc. Our relationships with each unique dish become symbolic as we begin to prepare food in honor of specific events or feasts and celebrations. And finally, at the very top it can be used in religious ritual or offered up in a sacrifice (the concept of the sacrifice only works because it holds meaning.) As you see in a very simple way that as things hold meaning our lives become more fruitful and we get to collaborate with the world in a very purposeful way.
Now let’s look at this through the issue of abortion but in reverse, we will start at the top and descend down. Every person is created in the image of likeness of God or in other words every person has a relationship with God giving us a purpose. “He created him, male and female He created them” the creation of identity with each other through male and female as well as the beginning of a relationship and community. So through multiplicity of identity we unite under one, hence the existence of families, tribes, villages, cities, states, countries,etc. During the Renaissance period from 14th to 16th century there was a shift in thought from communal to individualistic, evident in the art and writings of that time. This led to the separation (notice separation not union) of the English from the church and another separation during the Protestant Reformation and eventually led to the fall of monarchies from the Enlightenment and eventually the split of the US colonies from England. Notice that many of the major historical events following the Renaissance led to separation or collapse instead of unity or community.
This finally brings us to Friedrich Nietzsche in the 1880s where he declared (rightfully so) that God is dead. We have destroyed the Author of our lives and the very Being that united us through our identities. Next we arrive at modern times, where we filled the top of the hierarchy with ourselves leading us to become hyper individualistic. Just look at social media: selfies, self care, “you do you”. Everything is focused on the self; the lingering concept of community from our Christian past has pretty much faded away. Do you know your next door neighbor? When was the last time you went out of your way to lend a helping hand without someone DMing you for help? When have you created music, art, or anything for the purpose of bettering the community instead of self expression. Look at the constant media narratives of faulting others instead looking to improve yourself for the other. This is all the result of us getting rid of God at the top of the hierarchy and it is having the exact effect I mentioned when discussing science within this context. A majority of new age spiritual practices and cognitive tools (like science) are rooted in the self. This leads to us being the center of our own lives where the focus is pleasing ourselves. Leading to a loss in common values and a reduction in diversity of identities. So it is no surprise that the new holy sacrament of the self is abortion; touting the most oppropriate tagline in this age of individualism “my body, my choice”. Abortion is the highest form of individualism, sacrificing someone else for the pursuit of your own aspirations. The highest form of selfless love comes from giving one’s own life in the hope of saving another.
QUICK CONCLUSION
Hopefully you can see by following patterns within our lives the Christian narrative is inevitable; we’re exactly where we are supposed to be. When God is removed from the top of the hierarchy we descend down from goodness into the insatiable hunger of the self. This pattern will continue until the self ends up eating itself (collapse of individualism). This probably sounds insane to most modern ears and I realize I bit off a little bit more than I can chew. I also realize that there are many other factors that led us to this including the collapse of the feminine. My hope is that over time I can get into more detail about some of these concepts so that I can improve my understanding of the symbolic world to make articles like this clearer, but also improve your understanding of a different worldview.
References
- The Language of Creation Cosmic Symbolism In Genesis by Matthieu Pageau. Chapter 7 pp 25
2. The Language of Creation Cosmic Symbolism In Genesis by Matthieu Pageau. Chapter 14 pp 49
Holy VII 