The Relevance of Cosmism - Part 2 of 12

The Bridging of Disciplines

Integrated disciplines

While many might like to think that science somehow remains aloof from the vagaries of politics, philosophy, and religion, the reality is that it can be almost impossible to separate these four, and is a simple matter to demonstrate as much. More often than not, Science, Philosophy, Politics, and Religion are inextricably entwined.

This extraordinary volume we call "Cosmism" models a fruitful interaction between the profound discoveries of the natural sciences and the venerable and living wisdoms of the world's major religions.

Complimentary disciplines

Bridging these four disciplines brings together distinguished contributors to the sciences, comparative philosophy, comparative mythology, the politics in science, and religious studies to address the most important current questions in these fields. They have much that compliments each other and many commonalities that overlap each other that are mutually enriching if we only allow it. There are some benefits to focusing on one of these disciplines while rejecting the others, but there are negative consequences as well.

At one time, science was simply regarded as a body of knowledge arrived at via measurement and observation, and therefore free from human bias and political chicanery. If only life was so simple. Communism, remember, liked to consider itself ‘scientific and religion free (the opium of the masses)’ but there was a problem. It didn’t work. So much for the science.

In reality, of course, scientific ‘facts’ are generally open to interpretation. One man’s science is another man’s religion, much as one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist. Subjectivity always creeps in. We find we cant separate them. Mainstream science in many ways has become both a political ideology and a religious cult.

Philosophy in Science

Those who regard philosophy as a ‘soft’ and unscientific discipline, in contrast to the ‘hard’ and scientific fields of mathematics and physics, have accepted a Big Lie. The ideas of mathematicians and physicists can be no more objective or certain than the philosophic ideas on which they depend. Philosophy is the discipline that tells us how to be objective and how to achieve certainty. Without a theory of knowledge, how would mathematicians or physicists know the relationship of their concepts and generalizations to reality? It is the inductive science of philosophy that teaches the ‘hard’ scientist how to be scientific.”

~ Leonard Peikoff in The Logical Leap by David Harriman

Regrettably, the inductive principle of natural philosophy has been dismissed in the ‘mob rule’ culture of science today. And modern philosophy may be the culprit. The corruption in philosophy seems to have spread from Immanuel Kant’s 18th century philosophy that led to ‘positivism,’ which limited the goal of science to merely describing regularities in the behavior of appearances.

Peikoff writes:

“When, thanks to Kant, the most advanced science departs from the proper method—for example, when physicists renounce causality in the subatomic realm and revert to the menial job of ‘saving appearances,’ or when they entirely detach theory from reality and wander around in an eleven-dimensional geometry of spacetime—the cultural consequences are devastating. People hear about such views and conclude: If this is rationality, who needs it? There must be something better.”

Stephen Hawking (correctly for once) declares in his latest book, “Philosophy is dead.” But so is modern physics, and for the same reason, although the corpse refuses to lie down. Kant’s influence has morphed into the oxymoronic “thought experiment.” Science has become surreal and illogical with the sainted Einstein as its exemplar and holy relic. A return to classical natural philosophy is urgently needed to restore sanity.

Once seen through the paradigm of Cosmism, we notice that cosmology is referred to everywhere. It is an overlap and a commonality in each of these disciplines. Cosmism is a bridge between Science and Philosophy, as it is between the other disciplines as well. And like the pieces of a puzzle, it takes all these disciplines working together to create a recognizable picture.

Science in Religion

The whole purpose of studying the Restored Gospel from a cosmological perspective is to allow us to easily and correctly distinguish what is spiritual (the fundamental truths) from what is temporal (the origins and meaning of symbolism). If we cannot easily and correctly differentiate between what is symbolic and what is literal in the scriptures and the teachings of the prophets, then we run the very real risk of reaching incorrect conclusions about their pronouncements.

For example, this is precisely what has happened to the interpretation of prophecy in recent times: In the apparent absence of a clear methodology for examining prophetic imagery, the whole enterprise has been hijacked by speculation and bad interpretation from those within and without our ranks. Yet surprisingly, we find that Joseph Smith gave us a concise and workable method for interpreting prophecy, based in cosmology, that nearly everyone seems to have overlooked.

That’s just one reason why we should have at least a passing acquaintance with cosmology. Another is the incontestable fact that our scriptures, the Pearl of Great Price being the best example, are chock full of cosmological imagery. How, then, can we fully understand our scriptures if we don’t understand cosmology?

As faithful, believing church members, we need to return to our cosmological roots. We should revisit the basic principles Joseph gave us in order to fully understand our own religion. He, in fact, wrote: “I also gave some instructions in the mysteries of the kingdom of God; such as the history of the planets [cosmology], Abraham’s writings upon the planetary systems [cosmology], etc.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 118)

There is yet another reason why we should study cosmology. The cosmological elements once seen in Earth’s ancient skies gave rise to a universal, sacred language of myth, tradition and religion the world over. This system of symbols and metaphors became the common denominator of all sacred thought and teaching in whatever ancient culture. Thus, any prophet could capitalize on these commonalities to convince prospective converts that he had the “truth.”

The Savior taught it that way, as did his apostles. We see Peter, for example, in the New Testament, rehearsing the cosmological history of the world from the Flood forward to both the Jews and the Gentiles about the change in Earth’s heavens, a key principle in their pagan belief system that enabled them to accept what Peter subsequently taught about Jesus. We see John, in his marvelous Apocalypse, doing the same by inserting Jesus the Christ into pagan traditions common to the Hellenistic culture of the day, making it easy for Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Persians and Jews to see the Savior in their own, particular cultural traditions.

Once a missionary, prophet or apostle had succeeded by this artifice in convincing the people he had the “truth,” he could then go on to teach the higher, spiritual concepts and precepts of the gospel – convert them, in other words. This made teaching the higher, spiritual truths much easier.

The common cosmic traditions of people everywhere became the universal language for conversion. It was a tool employed by virtually every prophet and apostle down through the ages. Even the Savior used it, calling himself “Alpha and Omega,” relating himself to the “I Am” of antiquity, the “Word of God” or claiming to be the cosmic “Messiah” and the “Son of Man”—all titles derived from sacred cosmology of the past.

Joseph Smith did something similar, only in reverse order. Unlike the ancients, our culture knew nothing of the past cosmological history of the heavens. Science had seen to that, and religion had followed suit. So, rather than starting with the ancient cosmological traditions, as his predecessor prophets had done, Joseph turned to repairing the tattered, soiled and misused remnant of Christian doctrine prevalent in his day. Only later, once he had convinced converts of his Christian roots, did he venture to re-institute cosmological tradition in modern temple worship, the universal theme of all temple worship anciently, as a vital and traditional part of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Restoring the “fullness of the gospel” required including the cosmological traditions and their respective rituals that were honored and repeated by all the prophets. Again, Joseph wrote: “I also gave some instructions in the mysteries of the kingdom of God; such as the history of the planets, Abraham’s writings upon the planetary systems, etc,” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 118, emphasis added.) This was done so that we can understand the arcane allusions and references of the prophets and apostles as they meant them to be understood, not as our emasculated, spiritualized and Christianized versions had them prior to Joseph Smith. Clarifying these symbolic and metaphorical usages was as much a part of restoring the truth as instituting the correct manner of baptism or the reality that God has a body of flesh and bone.

~Anthony E. Larson