“In the beginning God…” So begins a story that leads us through the ages of Man’s redemption. The story first shades Truth in the shadow of narrative and symbol, and then pulls the shadow back by the Son of Righteousness, who is the Incarnate of that narrative and symbol—the Truth that was from the beginning, and is now and forever to come. Man’s Exodus occurs upon belief in the Truth; and Man’s life and testimony is wrought through their incarnation of the Truth, just as the Truth fashioned and formed flesh into the Son of Man. Those who incarnate the Truth may do so confidently, not faltered by contrariety of opinion, for the Truth transcends all. Indeed, all is held accountable, for none escape the Truth that brings all things into being. John Calvin writes, “There is within the human mind, and indeed by natural instinct, an awareness of divinity. This we take to be beyond controversy.” Even Cicero affirms, “What race of men or nation is there which does not have some untaught apprehension of the gods?”
Such an ‘untaught apprehension’ in the race of men should surface curiosity to the minds of the thoughtful, a curiosity which asks, “How does one explain such a ubiquitous phenomena?” From whence do these deep religious notions arise? Thomas Hobbes knew that “the seed of religion, is only in man”, and he believed that the seed of religion consists in what men fear, in what men imagine, and in man’s intrinsic belief in causality. But is religion only a matter of irrationality and fear? Is this not a reductionism to the ancient and sublime grandeur of the belief of communion between God and man?
Ludwig Feuerbach perceived the matter of religion, namely Christianity, quite differently. Christianity is not simply a matter of irrationality, but is rather a hermeneutic of Man. “Christianity set itself the goal of fulfilling man’s unattainable desires, but for that very reason ignored his attainable desires. By promising man eternal life, it deprived him of eternal life, by teaching him to trust God’s help it took away his trust in his own powers…Christianity gave man what his imagination desires, but for that very reason failed to give him what he truly desires.” Feuerbach believed that religion was a necessity for the development of mankind, because history is in an organic process of progress. Religion satisfied the basic needs of man within the hard, brutish reality of nature. “In short, religion has essentially a practical aim and foundation; the drive that gives rise to religion, its ultimate foundation, is the striving for happiness, and if this is an egoistic drive, it follows that the ultimate foundation of religion is egoism.” Feuerbach reinterpreted God into Man, with God being nothing more than three letters that signals Man’s essence. God is but a projection of the essence of Man. “We must replace the love of God by the love of man as the only true religion, the belief in God by the belief in man and his powers—by the belief that the fate of mankind depends not on a being outside it and above it, but on mankind itself…man’s only God is also man himself.”
Feuerbach’s theory developed into Marxian dialectical materialism. Materialism and naturalism claim that it is only by science that we know all truth, and it is the now current world-view that pretends to impartiality and neutrality in respect to itself, being a self-imposed arbiter that presides over the many supposed inferior views of world faiths and myth fables Is it possible to say such a view is neutral by it’s own appeal to a Universal Reason that is supposedly beyond all category of interpretation? Or is it hypocrite?
“In the beginning Man…” So begins a story that leads us through the ages of Man’s redemption. The story firsts shades Autonomous Reason in the shadow of narrative and symbol, and then pulls the shadow back by the Son of Enlightenment. Man’s Exodus occurs upon intellectual assent to Universal Reason, a Reason that transcends all interpretation and perspective.
