Eric Steinhart

Religious naturalists say all divine or sacred things are natural. A unifying framework is presented for religious naturalism. Nature has five religiously significant levels of organization. These are nature as a whole, the universe, solar system, earth, and body. Each level involves power, cyclicality, complexity, and evolution. These levels take their religious contents from the Zygon group, the World Pantheist Movement, the New Atheists, the New Stoics, and the Burners. Religious naturalists have also taken ideas from the Wicca, the Green Sisters, and the Evolutionary Christians. Rituals can be performed at each level. Linkages between all complex things and the cycles of nature entail a positive soteriology. No gods are involved in this religious naturalism.

The game of life is an excellent framework for metaphysical modeling. It can be used to study ontological categories like space, time, causality, persistence, substance, emergence, and supervenience. It is often said that there are many levels of existence in the game of life. Objects like the glider are said to exist on higher levels. Our goal here is to work out a precise formalization of the thesis that there are various levels of existence in the game of life. To formalize this thesis, we develop a set-theoretic construction of the glider. The method of this construction generalizes to other patterns in the game of life. And it can be extended to more realistic physical systems. The result is a highly general method for the set-theoretical construction of substances.

The Platonic way of life aims at transforming you into a deity. And while ancient Platonists recommended many contemplative practices for self-deification, they also recommended ascetic ways of life. Ancient Platonists pursued the he telestike techne, the craft of self-surpassing. Further, they recommended theurgical procedures for raising your self to the heights of the deities. But the old Platonic dream of self-deification evolved into the dreams of the modern transhumanists, and the ancient craft of self-surpassing evolved into practical transhumanism. Practical transhumanists apply the experimental method to the self. They update the craft of self-surpassing into the hacker methodology. The Platonic way of life is the way of self-hacking.

Much of contemporary atheism is stuck in Plato’s cave. This is also Nietzsche’s cave, which is filled with the shadows of God. And while twilight atheists don’t believe in God, they still believe in his shadows. They are cultural theists who endorse theistic if-then chains which bind valuable things to God. Twilight atheists agree with theists that if there is no God, then: there is no objective meaning to life; there is no objective morality; there is no cosmic meaning or purpose; there is no modal or mathematical objectivity; there is no life after death; and there are no deities and no things with any divine attributes. Twilight atheism is nihilism. Atheistic Platonists seek to overcome both theism and twilight atheism. We aim to construct new cultures which depend neither on theism nor on its nihilistic negation.

Platonic metaphysics aims to provide an ultimate account of the entire structure of being. This account cannot begin with any existing thing, but instead begins with the Platonic Zero, which is non-being. But non-being is pure negativity. Following Peirce and Heidegger, atheoplatonists say that non-being negates itself. By negating itself, the Zero generates the One, which is being-itself. Acting through the existential quantifier, the One is pure giving—it gives existence to all the beings. In the beginning is the One, and the One is the earth, and the One is in the earth. Buried in the earth, the One is the hidden root of the tree of beings. From the earth, all things emerge. Ancient Platonists and modern pagans build altars, and the One is the power in every altar. The One eliminates all logical negativities and maximizes all logical positivities. By maximizing logical positivity, it defines an unsurpassable structure of beings.

The transition from the Zero to the One points in the direction of increasing value. The One is the self-negation of non-being, and the negative of the negative is the positive. This positivity generates objective norms and standards, starting with the laws of logic. It generates an objective concept of intrinsic value: intrinsic value is distance from the One; but this distance is greater complexity. Intrinsic complexity is the amount of computational work needed to simulate an object. Every linear path through the world tree is a lineage, and value increases along all lineages. One of these lineages rises to include our universe. As the universes in this lineage increase in intrinsic value, they become internally organized by richer systems of axiological principles.

When any abstract form is animated by the One, it manifests a concrete image of itself. Every animated cosmic form manifests a concrete universe. Atheistic Platonism provides a new and non-dualistic way of thinking about the relation between the abstract and the concrete. Abstract cosmic forms are substrates on which concrete universes supervene. This supervenience involves adding a concrete relation, but no concrete things. Every cosmic form in the treasury manifests a concrete universe. The class of concrete universes is the great world tree. By affirming a plurality of concrete universes, atheistic Platonism supports a version of modal realism. For every class of cosmic forms, there exists some proposition which affirms their animation. The proposition which affirms the animation of the best class of cosmic forms is the Good. By orienting the power of the One towards the best, the Good is selectively responsible for the concreteness of all the universes in the world tree.

The One generates the forms, which are set-theoretic structures. Some of these satisfy the requirements for physicality. These are abstract universes; they are cosmic forms. The concept of a cosmic form is illustrated with five cosmic forms, running from simple to more complex. These are an empty universe, a linear universe, a simple computational universe, the cellular automaton game of life, and our universe. All possible universes have cosmic forms, and the class of cosmic forms is the modal library. Every cosmic form has some degree of physical detail. Detail stratifies the modal library into floors: cosmic forms with greater detail go on higher floors. But cosmic forms can also be ranked by value. Some forms are improvements of others, and the treasury is the collection of all cosmic forms which are generated entirely by improvement.

Eleven detailed cases of atheistic mystical experience are examined. Five themes emerge from these cases: structural insight, wholeness, extremity, ego dissolution, and valuable connection. I will use atheistic Platonism to interpret these five themes. Structural insight and wholeness correspond to that singular relational power that binds all things together into the wholeness of nature. This power is membership, and nature is the entire iterative hierarchy of classes. Mystical extremity is explained by the fact that the wholeness of nature is transcendental—it has the absolute infinity of a proper class. During ego dissolution, the mystic brain drops all its ontic encodings. It encodes only the existential quantifier in its orientation toward the Good. Valuable connection reveals that the singular relational power points from the One to the Good. Aligning with this orientation, the body of the atheistic mystic bears perfect witness to the Good.

Our sample lineage in the world tree rises from the empty universe to our universe. Along the way, universes emerge in which simpler parts self-organize into more complex wholes. Universes emerge in which self-organization is driven by thermodynamic principles. Self-regenerating systems emerge that contain parts with functional roles. Normativity emerges along with these roles: parts are obligated to perform their functions and prohibited from violating them. Self-regenerating systems evolve into living cells. Later universes contain increasingly complex forms of life that strive to obey increasingly sophisticated axiological laws. These laws are objective and necessary. Beyond our universe, this lineage rises infinitely toward the Good.

Ancient Platonists believed in reincarnation, along with karmic laws that transformed past lives into future lives. Since reincarnation involves natural laws rather than any deities, it can be further developed in an atheistic context. However, ancient reincarnation theories are both false and immoral. They need modification. Atheistic Platonists say our universe will be surpassed by many better universes. You will be reborn into your better counterparts in those better universes. While the ancient Platonists endorsed retributive karma, atheoplatonists embrace progressive karma. Your future bodies will rise through all the ranks of superhuman animals.

As the self-negation of non-being, the One is also the self-affirmation of being. It therefore generates an unsurpassable system of beings. Just as the One emerged from the emptiness of the abyss, so objects emerge from the One. These objects are structured by the simplest generative relation, namely, membership. Since the objects that participate in membership are classes, the One emanates rank after rank of ever more complex classes. The surpassable classes are the sets, and atheistic Platonists say the forms are set-theoretic structures. Acting through the quantifiers in that class theory than which none greater is logically possible, the One generates an unsurpassable totality of classes. Atheistic Platonists modify the Anselmian ontological argument for God to produce an ontological argument for this unsurpassable totality.

Just as ancient Platonism was a kind of ancient paganism, so atheistic Platonism is a kind of atheistic paganism. To illustrate the spiritual richness of atheoplatonism, it will be helpful to display its pagan aspects. We therefore cast a circle of reasoning into which we call the participants of a pagan atheology. We use Platonic concepts to make these calls. We invite these participants through sacrificial offerings of arguments. Our intention in ritual is to call into circle the Platonic world tree, a tree that has counterparts in many paganisms. Since the cardinal elements play basic roles in many paganisms, we call first to them. We call water, earth, air, light, and fire. From these elements, we call the world tree. From this world tree, we call holy sexed powers.

Many new psychedelic religious organizations have recently emerged in the United States. These psychedelic churches operate in a legal gray area, which provides job opportunities, not just for lawyers, but also for philosophers of religion. To gain legal permission to use psychedelics, these churches need philosophically well-developed doctrines. Philosophers of religion can help develop these psychedelic doctrines. Looking at the law from a philosophical perspective, I derive six criteria which these psychedelic doctrines should satisfy. As an illustration, I show how a modernized Platonism can satisfy these criteria. Just as bioethicists can help in the practice of medicine, so philosophers of religion can help with the legal proceedings of new psychedelic churches.

Yujin Nagasawa’s book, The Problem of Evil for Atheists, aims to show how theists, pantheists, axiarchists, and atheists all share a problem. On the one hand, they posit some cherished entity (God, nature, evolution, etc.). On the other hand, this cherished entity either causes or contains suffering, which is apparently incompatible with their cherishing. To solve their problem, these groups can and have turned to holiness. A holy entity can be cherished even if it causes or contains suffering. Hence, their shared solution revolves around a common core, which I link with John Hick’s Real. Nagasawa adds pantheism, axiarchism, and atheism to Hick’s pluralism. By doing this, he strips the Real of residual monotheistic features which might make it idolatrous. For those who oppose idolatry, Nagasawa opens up a vast new territory of religious opportunities.

Optimism (also sometimes called optimalism or axiarchism) says the best is productively responsible for the existence of all things. Despite its ancient Platonic pedigree, optimism has failed to flourish in recent analytic philosophy. Here I aim to support it by showing how it helps to solve problems in the foundations of logic, mathematics, and cosmology. I use reasoning from analytic metaphysics to justify the existence of the One, which points to the Good. Following Neoplatonism, I outline five optimal emanations: the One emanates the Best Logic, the Best Class Theory, the greatest model of that Best Class Theory, the Best World, and the greatest model of that Best World. I show how optimism helps to define the class of possible universes in a variant of Lewisian modal realism. While optimism is often thought to support monotheism, the optimism developed here is non-theistic. It is a kind of atheistic metaphysical Platonism. Nevertheless, it supports a polytheistic hierarchy of non-theistic deities.

According to the theurgical interpretation, humans use drugs to become more like the gods and goddesses of ancient paganisms. Both ancient Neoplatonists and recent transhumanists support theurgical interpretations of drugs. They say the deities are possible future superhuman animals, with superhuman bodies and powers. A drug used for some purpose is used to pursue some deity, that is, it is used by a human to gain some superhuman excellence of the deity. Nootropics are used to pursue Athena; steroids to pursue Zeus; amphetamines to pursue Hermes; and so on. Drugs are theurgical symbols of deities. Drugs raise human brains (and bodies) up towards divine states. But humans are not gods; hence drug use risks hubristic destruction. Nevertheless, when constrained by proper theological humility, theurgical drug use is justified by pagan religious arguments. At least in American law, such arguments may become legally persuasive.

The joyous cosmology portrays our universe, and nature itself, as a world of positive value and meaning. Historically, the concept of a joyous cosmology probably starts with Stoic amor fati. It reappears in Nietzsche’s joyful wisdom. The exact phrase originates with Alan Watts, who used it to describe his psychedelic worldview. Here I want to use the phrase to describe an ecstatic and spiritual vision of our universe, based on our best current science. The joyous cosmology is a kind of spiritual naturalism. Here I sketch the metaphysics and the science behind the joyous cosmology, and use that sketch to develop a fairly detailed account of amor natura, the agape love of (and for) nature. I give a naturalistic account of the ecstatic meaning of mystical experience.

Spirituality at least requires learning, accepting, and adapting to ultimate reality. Although psychedelic experiences are thought to facilitate these aspects of spirituality, those experiences are only related to ultimate reality by way of interpretations. Here I use naturalism to evaluate three interpretations. The first interpretation, which is religious, says psychedelic experiences reveal a world of non-natural spirits. For naturalists, this interpretation is false, and provides no genuine spiritual benefits. The second interpretation involves physicalistic naturalism. Although it has excellent scientific support, it probably cannot account for some important spiritual aspects of psychedelic experiences. The third interpretation involves Platonic naturalism. It has good scientific support, and accounts for all the spiritual aspects of psychedelic experiences. But I end with a word of caution: psychedelic spirituality demands metaphysical pluralism.

Atheistic modal realism asserts roughly that there are many concrete possible worlds and that the actual world is entirely godless. Here I will refine this position using the modal realism of David Lewis. For Lewis, all gods (including the Christian God) are contingent superhuman persons, who inhabit non-actual worlds. Although gods are concrete worldbound particulars, atheistic modal realism has room for impersonal absolutes and ultimates (which are not gods). Since no gods are actual, atheism is true. Yet there are infinitely many non-actual gods. Non-actual gods and worlds provide resources for analysing religious beliefs and practices. Lewisian theology provides a powerful new way for atheists to understand religion.

One of the most remarkable features of the current religious landscape in the West is the emergence of new Pagan religions. Here the author will use techniques from recent analytic philosophy of religion to try to clarify and understand the major themes in contemporary Paganisms. They will discuss Pagan concepts of nature, looking at nature as a network of animated agents. They will examine several Pagan theologies, and Pagan ways of relating to deities, such as theurgy. They will discuss Pagan practices like divination, visualization, and magic. And they will talk about Pagan ethics. Their discussions are based on extensive references to contemporary Pagan writings, from many different traditions. New Pagan religions, and new Pagan philosophies, have much to contribute to the religious future of the West, and to contemporary analytic philosophy of religion.