Subj : EUROPE                                                   [2]
To   : FRANK MASINGILL
From : TODD HENSON
Date : Wed Oct 25 2000 07:46 pm

        Eric Voegelin, in one of his volumes, remarks that "things
> do not happen in the astrophysical universe; the astrophysical
> universe together with all things in it happens in God."
> 
>         Let us agree that he is using the Platonic-Christian
> symbolism, "God" as the "Ground of Existence (Being), and that he
> wishes to be understood as assigning ultimate mystery and divinity
> to this ultimate reality so far as Man is concerned, again taking
> these words as with ALL language elements to be symbolism with
> beginnings in the minds of men at points in history, as "quality"
> and "quantity", e.g. begin with Cicero as far as known.   
> 
>         I am attempting to discover what it is with which you truly
> replace this symbol and related symbols and the differences in
> meaning thereby intended.   
> 
>         Thus, in that sentence quoted from Voegelin, with what word
> or phrase would you replace the last word?  Instead of "God" would
> it be "the inflated ego of man."  I'm guessing you DO have
> difficulty with a phrase like that although I'm not sure why.  Would
> the replacement be an abstract entity like "Progress" with the
> abstraction, despite Whitehead's warning, concretized to illustrate
> all that Man can accomplish provided Man gives up searches for any
> truth of existence beyond HIMSELF that serve only as distraction.
> This, after all, IS the center of our debate, is if not.  


Egads. I think you hit the nail squarely on the head. Especially with the
last comments to how 
he treats "Progress". It's like an abstraction that is a more comfortable
replacement for God, 
one that can be related to in easy, plain, numeric terms, rather than in
spiritual terms.

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