"Man With 200 IQ Explains Hell & God" is the somewhat click-baity title of this YouTube video. It´s a shorter excerpt from a four hour (!) interview with Chris Langan, the creator of CTMU or the Cognitive-Theoretical Model of the Universe. I don´t claim to "understand" the CTMU, but it seems to be a metaphysical system (i.e. a philosophy) rather than a testable scientific hypothesis sensu stricto. Judging by the above clip, it´s not just a philosophy but also a theology. Which I suspected long ago. Note the angry reactions in the commentary section from Christians!
Langan says that God cannot abide imperfection, and hence must cast out all that is imperfect. But who can then be saved? Everyone and everything is imperfect compared to God! The most imperfect people are the atheists, who deny their own higher selves, presumably the thin thread that connects us to the divine. Langan says that Richard Dawkins will end up in a psychic hell of his own making after his death, and then simply dissolve, his scattered life force being re-used in other parts of the cosmos?! In the commentary section to another YouTube video, Langan seems to threaten his atheist opponents with hell (or perhaps "warn" them). Ahem, how is this really different from any fundamentalist or cultist?
Langan is "Christian" in the sense that he sees Jesus as the most pure example of the ideal of perfection. Not even Buddha was this perfect (although the CTMU doesn´t reject him either). But since nobody can become perfect, how is salvation attained? Reincarnation? The answer (if any) isn´t included in this interview...
The main take away: if you make theological claims, expect theological answers...or a rejection of your entire system based on the fact that theology is meaningless.
Interesting that the question of "who can be saved" or "who can be made perfect" was the theme of this Sunday's readings (5th Sunday in Ordinary Time-Year C or USCCB Lectionary #75).
ReplyDeleteIsaiah 6:1-2a, 3-8 where he has a vision of '"the Lord of Hosts" and bewails his unworthiness, in fact fears for his life. A Seraphim takes a burning ember from the altar and presses it against Isaiah's lips to purify them (he had said 'I am a man of unclean lips') and is told "See, your wickedness is removed, your sin is purged." Similarly the Gospel echoes this as Simon Peter, upon seeing the miracle of the load of fish they have caught at Jesus' instruction, asks Jesus to "depart from me for I am a sinful man."
And finally, the Pauline Epistle presents Paul's confession that he once had persecuted the Church, but now, by the grace of God, has been redeemed. 1 Cor 15:1-11.
The point being, we cannot reach across the divide that separates God and Man. (A presumption of course there is a God and it can be "reached!") And in Gurdjieff's Ray of Creation, the final gap between Si and Do, notes in the Octave of being(?), must be filled by the Absolute, in It's Mercy. Our incompleteness, our "sinning" can be transformed by an act of God into completeness and purity/holiness.
What the state of Holiness is I confess (haa haa) I do not know. How to approach the question, or petition the Lord to save us? Surely not by burnt offerings! We use incense rather than animal carcasses! The message of Christianity then: God, in His loving Mercy, has reached across the divide, exemplified by the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, to offer unity with him. Perhaps even you and I can comport with the Divine, sinners thiugh we may be! The end of the Isaiah story is; God asks "Whom can I send, Who will go for Us?" and Isaiah steps forth and says "Here I am, Send Me!"
If I may add in simplicity: Since the physicality of the Universe necessarily engenders suffering, it's almost as if God says "Hey, I started this mess, and yeah, it causes pain (dog eat dog, humans warring against humans) but I will also offer another way to live in me, because I do Care it hurts!"
DeleteYes, I get the impression that the mercy or grace is lacking from Langan´s system, although I haven´t really looked into it that deeply. Instead of grace, there is karma...
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