"There's no going back..." I agree with Peter below....I'm actually not sure that we won't go back. It seems that Christianity has waxed and waned many times over the past 2k years, and we may just be emerging from one of the down cycles. Christianity has integrated many, many scientific breakthroughs which seemed to threaten its very foundations.
Or maybe you're right, and something has irrevocably changed. If so, as much as I admire Vervake, McGilchrist, and Peterson, I'm skeptical that their project will create a new "worldview" that can replace the Christian-Aristotelian frame. Their project is only available to the select few who have cross-cutting knowledge of evolution, cognitive psych, anthropology, philosophy, etc.
Very few people are in the "us" that you speak of. Even most secularists I know have very little understanding of how evolution works. It's both a black box to them and an article of faith. And evolution itself doesn't have the mythical element that's necessary for the emergence of a new worldview. Peterson, Vervaeke, and McGilchrist are wonderful at helping us understand the importance of myth....but they don't have an alternative myth to offer.
I'm sufficiently influenced by Girard that I'd think any new myth would almost certainly arise out of some public act of violence. And it's not at all clear to me that what would come next would be an improvement on the Christian/Aristotelian worldview.
Regarding: “There is no going back to what was lost. The Christian-Aristotelian worldview that dominated Western culture for a thousand years is no longer viable to us and never will be again.”
That is certainly one possibility. But demographics and population changes suggest that religious belief (particularly Christian, Islamic, and Jewish) may in fact play an increasing, not decreasing role, both in the West and globally. I have explored that in more detail here: https://peterofbasilea.substack.com/p/cab-crusaders
Separate from that, even if one assumes God is dead (I don’t, but for sake of argument), the underlying problem, which will never quite go away, is whether there is any absolute reference point, beyond our own subjectivity or inter-subjectivity, that gives objective significance to our science and our narratives. Without that, nihilism is always a whisper away.
"There's no going back..." I agree with Peter below....I'm actually not sure that we won't go back. It seems that Christianity has waxed and waned many times over the past 2k years, and we may just be emerging from one of the down cycles. Christianity has integrated many, many scientific breakthroughs which seemed to threaten its very foundations.
Or maybe you're right, and something has irrevocably changed. If so, as much as I admire Vervake, McGilchrist, and Peterson, I'm skeptical that their project will create a new "worldview" that can replace the Christian-Aristotelian frame. Their project is only available to the select few who have cross-cutting knowledge of evolution, cognitive psych, anthropology, philosophy, etc.
Very few people are in the "us" that you speak of. Even most secularists I know have very little understanding of how evolution works. It's both a black box to them and an article of faith. And evolution itself doesn't have the mythical element that's necessary for the emergence of a new worldview. Peterson, Vervaeke, and McGilchrist are wonderful at helping us understand the importance of myth....but they don't have an alternative myth to offer.
I'm sufficiently influenced by Girard that I'd think any new myth would almost certainly arise out of some public act of violence. And it's not at all clear to me that what would come next would be an improvement on the Christian/Aristotelian worldview.
Thanks for these reflections.
Regarding: “There is no going back to what was lost. The Christian-Aristotelian worldview that dominated Western culture for a thousand years is no longer viable to us and never will be again.”
That is certainly one possibility. But demographics and population changes suggest that religious belief (particularly Christian, Islamic, and Jewish) may in fact play an increasing, not decreasing role, both in the West and globally. I have explored that in more detail here: https://peterofbasilea.substack.com/p/cab-crusaders
Separate from that, even if one assumes God is dead (I don’t, but for sake of argument), the underlying problem, which will never quite go away, is whether there is any absolute reference point, beyond our own subjectivity or inter-subjectivity, that gives objective significance to our science and our narratives. Without that, nihilism is always a whisper away.