Christian reading

Chapter 4. Atheistic philosophy

Philosophy is the atheistic counterpart of theology. Since Atheism is heterogeneous and combines a broad range of doctrines, atheistic philosophy has many subspecies. There is no need to review them all here. We will only consider some of them as reference points.

The main philosophical question

Philosophies are classified based on how they answer the fundamental question: "What is primary: spirit or matter"?

Idealism says that Spirit is primary. Materialism believes that matter is primary. These schools of thought are further subdivided into objective and subjective branches.

Objective idealism believes in the existence of a spiritual Source, independent of our material world. This concept is typical for theistic religions.

Subjective idealism denies the existence of a reality separate from the will and consciousness of the individual. This concept is found in Buddhism and other atheistic religions of a similar type.

Subjective materialism denies the spiritual component of reality and recognizes only matter, which, according to the classic Marxist definition, “is a philosophical category that points to the objective reality that is given to man in his senses, copied, photographed, and manifested in our sensations while existing independently of them” (Vladimir Lenin, Materialism and Empirio-criticism, chapter 2.4). This concept is characteristic of Naturalism.

Objective materialism sees reality as spiritualized matter. In contrast to subjective materialism, objective materialism acknowledges the existence of a spiritual reality beyond our senses. This concept is associated with Pantheism.

Atheism comprises three philosophical schools of thought that represent polar opposites: subjective idealism (Buddhism), subjective materialism (Naturalism), and objective materialism (Pantheism).

Dialectics

Modern materialism, mainly Naturalism, self-identifies as dialectical materialism. Dialectics in this context refers to the theory of the development of the material world.

Classical dialectics rests on three basic laws: the law of the unity and conflict of opposites, the law of transformation of quantitative changes into qualitative ones, and the law of negating the negation. Later, a few other non-fundamental laws and principles have been added to these three.

There have also been occasional attempts to revise the laws of dialectics for better order and easier application. For example, Albert Eisenstein's book Metadialectics proposes a variation of the seven basic laws, thus eliminating the need for the non-basic laws of dialectics.

The main purpose of dialectics is to provide a philosophical explanation for the origins and development of the universe in general and living organisms in particular (without any reference to God). It is also used as justification for the evolutionary theory.

Some philosophers have opposed dialectics, for example, Nicholas Hartmann and Karl Popper. But it is important for us to make a very interesting observation here: dialectics is very close to religious mysticism. It is no secret that “the law of the unity and conflict of opposites” is a close replica of the ancient Chinese magical dualism of "Yin and Yang". However, the actual problem may lie even deeper.

The "seven laws of metadialectics" are strikingly similar to the so-called "universal laws of the Cosmos", described by Lyudmila Veingerova and Dmitry Guriev in their esoteric book Recorded Dialogues with the Cosmic Mind. The seven “new” laws of metadialectics are completely analogous to the main and secondary laws of dialectics, so we can conclude that dialectics as such is also esoteric in nature.

Therefore, dialectics, whether old or new, has clearly religious underpinnings.

(to be continued)