The creativist, Post-Christian approach to life outlined here gives pride of place not to God but to the Mystery of things, part of which is Providence, which we interact with every minute of every day.
Firstly, today, I announce a palace revolt. God (They/Them) has now been replaced in my mind and respectfully retired along with other deities.
These deities continue to be important as symbols of different ways of thinking which I honour, but they are no longer fit for purpose. They also bring a lot of baggage which is cluttering and confusing and limits my freedom.
As my new guiding star I have installed Providence: that which keeps me going and, when I fall short, completes me.
Providence is limitless and the engine of ongoing creation - what some would call “all good.”
It comes out of the Mystery, the many unexplainable aspects of existence, the questions like meaning of life, what will become of us, and who overall calls the shots. These are things beyond any human to know, for we (though wonderful in our way) are too small, like bits or binary digits serving a great big computer.
We don’t know why we have Providence: it simply is.
I honour the Mystery for without it I would not be here, but trying to understand it is a waste of time - time which should be spent on other issues. Issues like the rise of complexity, the impact of AI and other new species, and the rampant ego, greed, fear and apathy corrupting all nations.
Secondly, I have decided that I am equal to everything else that exists, and therefore free. We are all different and that makes us interesting and helps us get things done. However, the mere fact of existing makes me no different from rabbits, blades of grass, and even – Putin’s toe! A truly revolutionary thought.
Because we are all equal, no one has a right to play the lord or lady over us and dominate or exploit. This applies especially to governments or corporations, which we allow to do things on our behalf.
Many things seek to detract from my freedom, but I retain the basic right to make choices on how to live and how to interpret the world.
These choices are crucial for they are the basis for our own distinctive contribution to ongoing creation.
Remembering that, while the world is full of all sorts of potential, it is we who, by our own will, choose what makes life worth living. We are all, including nature, active partners in creation.
Finally, and to this end, I make three commitments:
To truth, not just my perception of how things really are, but also the higher truth, or that which makes life worth living
To love and goodwill, recognizing that we are social beings and achieve nothing without positive and generous engagement with others
To active pursuit of the common good, for it is not enough to just have good intentions – we have to be activists as well, with courage and perseverance.
History shows that civilization and happiness are built on the back of these commitments. If we continue down the same path, however shakily, we should have a bright future. Yet none of this is easy.
Truth demands that we draw from Earth’s bounty only what we really need, and even then refrain from limiting the freedom and wellbeing of others.
Goodwill means sharing with us other in good times and bad, even to the point of making real sacrifices to give others a leg up. The crucifixion story showed how this could lead to extraordinary uplift and renewal, but at a huge cost.
Above all, we can never forget the constant occurrences of evil and suffering. Rightly we try to limit their presence in our lives, forgetting the mitigations offered by Providence and the fact that they ultimately lead to improvements.
We cannot do without such opposites, like yin and yang forever egging each other on. Together they are the force that make this world so special, maybe even unique.
Is there a bottom line or a finish line?
Maybe not, for the horizon is always receding. The best we can do is make the best of whatever is in our grasp, and work, wait and hope.
My aim into the future is to support people in need, whatever way I can but especially by using my gifts of communication to reduce the impact of enslaving ideas. For there is no better purpose in life than to help us all get our full measure of freedom.
Whether this happens and is effective is up to Providence. Everything is up to Providence.
A 75th birthday is a good opportunity to review past commitments and, if a change seems appropriate, to formally declare any new commitments. Like many government media releases, this statement does not contain much that is new but is rather an outline of things that have been the case for some time. It is an affirmation of my own special brand of Post-Christian creativism.
Three broad issues are covered here.
Firstly, there is my world-view or the structure of the world, in a spiritual sense, as I see it. Whereas conventional religion gives pre-eminence to God, however God might be understood, I now talk about the Mystery, that is, the many things that are inevitably beyond human comprehension (inevitably because we are too small to know or understand these things). Rather than trying to dive in and explore this Mystery I choose simply to acknowledge the overall effect it has on me. I’m like a doctor who doesn’t bother too much with diagnosing the causes of a complaint but as a matter of practicality focuses rather on the symptoms, for often that’s all that can be done. The one big observation I make about the Mystery is that it includes Providence – that which keeps us going and completes us. Our lives would literally be nothing without Providence.
Secondly, I turn my mind to the place of the human being in this cosmology. We are, it seems, active partners in the ongoing business of creation, empowered with the freedom to do our own bit as best we think fit. We have freedom in ourselves and in the world, for we are all essentially equal, and as equals we are not subject to anyone (though we may assign rights like government to various of our peers).
Thirdly, there is the question of what we do with this set of circumstances. For myself I make commitments to living with truth, love and goodwill, and active pursuit of the common good. My outlook leans to the positive, for even the most dire evil and suffering bring opportunities for good, however it is also balanced, for we live in a world full of not only harmony but also conflict and contrast – a set of realities that seems likely to be with us forever.