The Transcendental IE what is bigger and better than me and you and the universe
Why do people want there to be something bigger and better than the universe or any of the people in it?
# They like feeling there is.
# They want there to be a higher power that may save from evil and death.
# They want a higher source for morality otherwise you are at the mercy of whatever social or political power decides they want morality to be.
# They realise how small they are and that triggers the feeling of being overwhelmed by something huge.
The morality one is a very strong one. It's related to the notion that
morality is not very useful or real unless there is a God to sanction it.
Most arguments of that nature hover around the thought that “there is a real
serious need, not a want, a need, for a transcendent decree about what good is.
It may be referred to as a transcendent source of good. Transcendental
implies something better and more reliable than human beings. If it is left to
humans to decide then the word good or moral can mean anything literally. You
can call suicide morally good. You end up with no right to tell anybody their
idea of good or moral is wrong.”
Error 1, transcendent can be equal to human beings. Intelligence in a sense is
bigger than human beings but it is and it is not. Transcendental may only work
itself out in human beings without imposing anything or trying to be bigger or
being bigger.
Error 2, if human beings are left to decide morality that is not a problem as
long as deciding is about discovering. The two are compatible.
Error 3, even if morality is only a human creation then that means you can tell
others their idea of morality is wrong or right.
Religion assumes a God is your true and ultimate end for he allegedly made you from nothing out of his generous love. The other side of that is that evil means you are trying to replace God with something. If so then evil is a religious thing. As with God, it is aimed to transcend the mundane. Evil is not God so you have to find a way not to notice. This means it has to grow. You have to water it even if it means lying to yourself about how great and good you are.
Evil people have a confidence that nobody will touch them or their evil that is clearly magic-based.
A person who loves their wealth but not God definitely does not see wealth as some kind of all-good and all-powerful saviour so it is hard to see how they have a substitute for God. They do not pray to their money and offer it incense. Is the answer that they just want to shift the focus from living in their own heads to something bigger than them as long as it is a bit bigger anyway and makes some demands? It gives relief that is for sure. Nobody wants to be navel-gazing and staring in a mirror all the time. If so, nobody really needs any particular version of God. Anything will do. A pope may in fact love his title and honours and get meaning from that and lie that he gets it from God. Then you look and you think it is his faith in God that is working in his life. Wrong.
Why does religion patronise us by telling us that any need for something bigger is a cry for its version of a creator who is all-love and all-power? It is manipulative and cruel and ideological.
If religion wants to call evil a twisted search for God then let it.
And if there is a true God and you have faith in him, the act of faith can be your real focus not him so nobody knows if they truly are in a relationship with God or not. Many have vowed eternal love to another without realising that their faith and emotions connected to being with the person were the real loves not the person. It is a wonder that anybody realises. You can breath and do it for the breathing not the air.
The fact is that there is nothing needed only something that stops you wrecking your life by being too inward. Meditations don't put ice cubes in the whiskey. It is the case though that all reaching out for something above you no matter what it is, invests that thing with some kind of magical significance. That is why caution is so important. Discern if you are affected by superstitious thinking for it is going to harm you. Opening the door is harmful in the way that letting yourself be threatened is. And harm will come. You damage yourself by letting.
