Hermes as The Guide of Souls

Hermes as The Guide of Souls and New Beginnings
Nancy Swift Furlotti

Sampling the beauty and the breadth and depth of this new website, Hermes comes to mind as the perfect embodiment of its energy and force behind it. He is that winged god who brings his caduceus, the staff entwined with two snakes, to bear on the unexplored opposites in our psyche, mediating and acting as messenger in the empty spaces that need light. The snakes represent poison and healing. As the Guide of Souls he conjures up the new creation. He is an androgynous god, representing the archetypal energy of challenge and change; the energizing force that sets off our curiosity and our imagination that entices us onto our inner journey of self-exploration.

How do we know this Hermes? He plays outside the boundaries, poking us to think beyond our safe ordered lives. He is of the underworld, born in a cave, comfortable traveling between the inner and outer of our lives. Hermes is the bridging element in between, the god of the middle and empty spaces, the crossroads where four-cornered herms are raised in his honor. He is the journeyman we run into on our path of life. Meeting and finding through luck or theft are related to his connection to happiness and fortune, accidental happenings. As the thief on the path, he is a skilled highwayman and flattering deceiver who prowls in the dark, as in one’s dreams or nightmares. Love and riches are two themes Hermes sings about. Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory, is a favorite along with her daughters, the Muses. He is connected to the Fates as well. Through them, the deep and eternal nature of life is remembered as the cosmic ground of all existence.

Through his prodding, thievery, and trickery Hermes guides the process of individuation. This is a Jungian term referring to our inner soul’s journey that is unique to each one of us. On this path, we move away from established collective dictates of how to be, how to act, how to feel and instead find our own way. It is a movement from persona to soul. Our personalities are a mix of opposites and multiplicities containing both masculine and feminine, for example. The goal of individuation is to become conscious of these many pairs of opposites, resulting in the experience of transcending the old and welcoming in the new attitude, new behavior, or new symbol that is born from within. This is the essence of change that occurs over and over again in our lives leading us towards wholeness and a greater sense of fulfillment.

For a man the soul is feminine, whereas for a woman the soul is masculine. Because of these counter-valences, we tend to project these opposing inner parts of ourselves onto our real life partners, resulting in the many conflicts and confusions we experience in our relationships. It is here the soup gets stirred. As the fire of Hermes turns up the flame, we are in for change. Woe to the person who ignores Hermes! If you fight the call or merely ignore it, the fire will blow out and you will be left in a regressed, inflexible life. If his beaconing is not heeded, the need for change can end up in symptoms of conflict and depression, anxiety, or somatic illnesses. This invisible god is quite determined, so it behooves us all to listen with our inner ear for his murmurings leading us to our soul and to the deep ground of our being.

Philosophical Research Society

The Philosophical Research Society is a nonprofit organization founded in 1934 for the purpose of providing resources for the study and research of the world’s wisdom literature. Rejecting doctrinal, political, or ecclesiastical investments, it provides a learning environment sheltered from any intention to coerce or convert. The goal of this institution is to enable the individual to develop a mature world view and philosophy of life in association with a diverse and stimulating community of inquiry, dedicated to understanding and appreciating their unique possibilities in the unfolding universal pattern.

Philisophical Research Society

One Word: Philosophy
At PRS, we start with a single word: Philosophy.

This one word comes from the ancient Greeks for whom phileo meant “love” and sophia meant “wisdom.”

As elementary and apparent as it may seem, this one word, this “love of wisdom,” raises two profound questions: what is love, and what is wisdom? With such inquiry, we are instantly confronted with the challenge of two great mysteries. The Greeks may have often spoken in diverse ways about the meaning of philosophy: greedy for wisdom, lusting after wisdom, pursuing wisdom as the way of personal glory… Yet much more did they insist in the loving of wisdom. In so doing, the term “love” meant giving one’s affectionate attention and unselfconscious care in the pursuit of wisdom.

Wisdom is insight into the nature of things, a fundamental acquaintance with Reality. All of the great insights of humankind left for us to study, which history has managed to preserve, are the priceless inheritance of every person. It is the clear goal of Philosophical Research Society and the University of Philosophical Research to provide global “lovers of wisdom” access to that treasure which is their birthright.

Thus this one word reveals our purpose and shapes our method. From this understanding we carefully draw our principles. They guide the administration of our organization:

● Inclusiveness — We look to include wisdom from its every source and to make it accessible to all who value it

● Non-Advocacy — We are not partisan nor do we endorse any one particular tradition or person.

● Freedom — We consider the quiet urgings of each heart to be the proper personal guide in the process of self-discovery. Each person is urged freely to compare and reference their natural knowing with the finest expressions of humanity’s deepest insights. We expect this process to create resonance which best leads each person on his or her unique path of learning and discovery.

● Quality Resources — To the greatest extent possible, we strive to have all of our resources distinguished by carefully referenced scholarship supported by direct experience and field work. We seek to continually refine and update our offerings as discoveries come to light and errors are uncovered.

● Community — Stimulating and good spirited interaction reflect the fact that we are a community of discovery, not just isolated individuals. Ours is the path of ecumenism and a journey of shared meanings. We are part of a movement toward World Culture in which all wisdom traditions and the highest expressions of our spiritual heritage are honored. We yearn for a planetary citizenship in which social justice and compassion aim toward a transformation of humankind.

● Education – PRS is dedicated to being a place for learning and for “drawing out” (as in the original sense of “educate”) the wisdom that lies within all traditions and all human beings.

Our Founder

2 Manly P. Hall (Manly)Manly P. Hall, the Philosophical Research Society’s first president, was a seeker and lover of wisdom, the very definition of a philosopher. He had the courage and the raw intellectual energy to look for wisdom in places most men had long since forgotten about, or never knew existed. He lived in an era when most Americans did not look toward other cultures and traditions, without looking down. Yet during such times, Manly P. Hall spoke, and wrote extensively, of the wisdom found in all ancient traditions. In an age when serious study of “other religions” was anathema to most, he found deep cross­cultural threads and revealed many interconnected roots of modern religious expression. Neither Guru nor Saint, he made no claim of perfection, far from it; but his work is exceedingly rare in its grand scope, detail and synthesis. He embraced the wisdom of every tradition, and, with a fluid command of their obscure and complex contents, worked to express their unifying truths. His legacy is over 200 printed volumes, 8000 lectures, a hand picked library which is one of the finest in the field, and a Society and University that continue in his spirit of universal exploration and learning.

Our President

3 Manly P Hall (O.Harris on Bench)The President of PRS is Obadiah S. Harris. He combines his skills as a community educator and administrator with study of the world’s wisdom traditions to continue the legacy and pursuits of the PRS into the present day. Dr. Harris received his Ph.D. in Educational Administration from the University of Michigan as a Stewart Mott Foundation Fellow. His background includes long service as Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Community Education at New Mexico State University, and as Associate Professor and Director of the Regional Center for Community Education at Arizona State University. Dr. Harris’s study and practice of the great Eastern and Western Wisdom Traditions has helped shape and direct his life.

See more at: http://prs.org/wpcms/#sthash.7BzoVMHD.dpuf

Lionel Corbett MD

Lionel CorbettLionel Corbett MD, University of Manchester, England; Diplomate in Psychological Medicine; Diplomate Jungian Analyst, C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago is a British-trained psychiatrist and Jungian analyst, Dr. Corbett is particularly interested in the synthesis of psychoanalytic and Jungian ideas. His primary dedication has been to the religious function of the psyche, especially in the way in which personal religious experience is relevant to individual psychology, and to the development of psychotherapy as a spiritual practice. He is the author of “The Religious Function of the Psyche,” and “Psyche and the Sacred: Spirituality Beyond Religion.”

See more at: http://www.uprs.edu/academics/faculty/lionel-corbett/#sthash.m5VX

Dr. Nicki J. Monti – Psyche Practitioner

DrNickiMonti2Dr. Nicki J. Monti is not your typical therapist. Dr. Nicki instantly gets to the core of presented issues, and immediately provides a clear path for genuine change. Her no-nonsense approach combines with extraordinary compassion and good humor to offer a clear, authoritative voice free of judgment and full of possibility. She quickly brings forward what others have somehow missed and then offers practical tools for truly productive resolution. She uses wit and her own experiences to reveal what’s undermining you, and to get you beyond being ‘stuck in your own story.’

Dr. Nicki conducts individual, group and corporate sessions. Her successful book series about being Stuck In The Story No More, her Television appearances, her articles, and podcasts have made her into a household name. Dr. Nicki has been seen on Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Millionaire Matchmaker, Love Handles and many other Reality Television shows where her compassion, honesty and genuine expertise shine an instant light on circumstances and offer actual change.

Psychotherapist & Author

Dr. Nicki changes lives. But that’s not what she’d say. She would tell you that she’s the catalyst, that her clients change their own lives. That her clients accept the difficult challenge of examining their belief systems and exposing change. It’s no wonder that Dr. Nicki is known as “The Thinking Person’s Doctor.”

Throughout her work, Dr. Nicki uses her extraordinary compassion, sense of fun and humor, and years of experience to bring light to the basis of her work: that everything we do from start to finish is about relationships – the relationship we have with ourselves and the relationship we have to others. How we play out those relationships decides how our life feels from moment to moment, from day to day, and from decade to decade.

Dr. Nicki learned through her own experiences that none of us need feel defeated by the experiences of our lives. Everything that happens gives to us more than it takes from us, if we know how to take what is given.

Whether working with her one-on-one, using her new book and workbook, or attending one of her ground breaking workshops, Dr. Nicki provides people with the tools they need to identify their defenses – solutions for coping with, or neutralizing, defensiveness and alternative ways to deal with specific defensive reactions.

Dr. Nicki’s credentials are impressive. But more impressive than her credentials is the woman herself. Dr. Nicki does not walk into a room unnoticed. Her life-altering work has impacted the lives of many people. She has been described as an in-your-face therapist, a description that makes her proud.

“Directness and truth-telling are two of my basic professional tools” says Dr. Nicki.

Dr. Nicki was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of traveling sales people. When she was seven she went away to boarding schools for 11 years, first to Ojai, then on to the East Coast. After finishing school, she spent a year in Europe before coming back to America.

At age 37, after working at many different jobs, and on the good advice of her goddaughter, Nicki went back to school to get her psychology credentials. She was sitting in an intake session and in a flash of truth realized: “This is it.” She knew that she had found her calling.

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin (B.A. in Communications), Sierra University (M.A. in Psychology), and Pacific Western University (Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology), Dr. Nicki received additional training at the highly esteemed Southern California Counseling Clinic and at the Sojourn Shelter for Abused Women and Children. She also has studied with such innovators as Hal Stone, creator of voice dialogue, and internationally recognized author and teacher of self-realization, W. Brugh Joy, M.D.

In 1987, Dr. Nicki began her private clinical practice, which includes lectures, workshops, and courses on a wide range of topics. She works with individuals, couples, and groups, specializing in interpersonal relationships and addictions (to drugs, food, money, people, sex, work).

In late 2002, Dr. Nicki released her long awaited book, “Stuck In The Story No More,” and companion workbook, “Stuck No More.” A unique, breakthrough approach to the examination of the devastating impact unconscious psychological defenses can have on individuals, “Stuck in the Story No More” shows how the crippling patterns of those defenses can be identified and broken. Her book includes a set of simple tools to help people understand and interrupt the defenses that hold them back from having the life they want. The book’s forward is by Margaret Cho, who attributes Dr. Nicki with saving her life.

Dr. Nicki, a CEU approved presenter, offers a variety of workshops, addressing a wide range of topics and issues, that help people improve their lives, emotionally, spiritually and logically.

Her current workshop series includes:

Genesis – focused on childhood developmental experiences

Metamorphosis – a six-month Psycho-Spiritual Integration Process

Revelations – a spiritually-based six month course that includes Shame Scene work, Dream work, Defense work, Shadow work and Ritual work

Psyche Introduction

Depth psychology is an all encompassing category that includes Freud’s psychoanalysis, Jung’s analytical psychology, and more recently humanistic-existential, and transpersonal psychology.

William James, MD (1842-1910) was a psychologist and philosopher who was considered to be the, “”Father of American Psychology””. He wrote,The Varieties of Religious Experience, and was an early researcher at Harvard University. He was influential on both Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and Carl Jung (1875-1961), whose psychologies of the unconscious emerged at the same time. Although they were both interested in the unconscious, their concepts were quite different from the beginning. While Freud believed it only contained repressed desires and emotions, Jung understood this as the personal unconscious and went further to describe the existence of the collective unconscious that is derived from ancestral memory and refers to the common experience of the human species. It is made up of archetypes and becomes apparent in the mythological images and motifs that can emerge in differing cultures independent of historical tradition or migration. It is the ground source of creativity and renewal. Jung advanced many recognizable concepts such as typology–introversion, extroversion, thinking, feeling, intuition, and sensation, complexes, individuation, the greater Self, synchronicity, and amplification for understanding dreams.

Humanistic psychology with its holistic, phenomenological approach, focusing on the human experience, emerged in the 1920 in response to the development of behaviorism. One of its founders was Carl Rogers who was influenced by Otto Rank. Abraham Maslow developed this further into the study of self-actualization as a basic human desire.

Existential psychology focuses on the philosophical fundamentals of one’s experience of life such as, the inevitability of death, one’s sense of freedom, responsibility, and life’s inherent isolation and meaninglessness. Viktor Frankl and Irvin D. Yalom were proponents of this psychology.

William James, Carl Jung, and Otto Rank were influences on the early development of transpersonal psychology. It was founded in the 1960 by Abraham Maslow, Stanislav Grof, and Anthony Sutich. It is regarded as the fourth wave of psychology. It is a mix of interest in eastern thought and practices, comparative religions, and the psychedelic experience. Its focus is on the spiritual dimension of psychology and transcendence.

Nancy Swift Furlotti

Brugh Joy: Shadow,Ego,Self

This piece from W. Brugh Joy, M.D. was written towards the end of his life in the fall of 2009.

“Unconditioned/Unconditional Love Transcends the Self and gives the Self the cohesiveness of a Center of Being that is Supernally Conscious of the vast and unpartitioned Whole, the Eternal Forces or the Holyland…the archetypal fixed that are universal, unchanging, concentrated in potency, that can, from time to time transcend the material forces of form and function. Within this Center of Self lie two other centers of Awareness. Although neither the Ego nor the Shadow are the same as the Awareness of the Self…they are intricately and intimately related to the Self and under its unfurling dynamic in Temporality. The Ego and Shadow are specialized and limited aspects of the Self and function primarily to engage the Three Pillars of Temporality…Mystery of Change….Mystery of Differences….Mystery of Creative Adaptation and unfoldment.

The Shadow is the Self’s reservoir of Unconsciously expressed aspects of the Self that operate to maintain the overall balance and intention of the Self in specific relationship to the Ego…of which the surface sense of self, the ego, is only part of the Ego. There is nothing in the Ego or the Shadow that determines whether or not the balancing forces of the Self are activated. The Self is the source and the implementer of both Ego and Shadow interaction. The Shadow must not integrate Ego. The Ego must not integrate Shadow. It is the Self…when both timing of maturation of developmental dynamics and the supporting forces of the Self are in alignment that will activate the dissolution of both the Ego and the Shadow into a full reflection of Itself.

There is a problem when the Ego decides it is going to integrate the Shadow and vice versa. Too soon a conscious realization of the Self’s Shadow by the Ego or the Shadow’s conscious realization of the Self’s Ego would disrupt either secondary center and rupture the primary integrity of the Self in Time and Place…..in other words…in Temporality.

The Shadow fulfills the wholeness of the Self….is modulated by the Self and only becomes a conscious part of self when the Self begins the Wholeing or Holy task of uniting Shadow and Ego ….a Soul Mystery of uncertain outcome. When the personality or ego begins to take charge of dreams and possesses the dynamics ….a mishandling of the Holy Forces occurs. Really…the ego is the witness to the Self/Ego/Shadow development.

Remember….The Self, The Ego, and The Shadow don’t really exist per se but appear as epiphenomena issuing out of interacting forces. The interacting forces express uniquely depending upon what primary combination of interacting forces are present in any given individual in any given place, and in any given time.

Out of nothing all of this has come…..into nothing all of this will go…Don’t be too concerned about the aberration of Light.

To be re-emphasized….The Ego is not the source of the Shadow and the Shadow is not the source of Ego. The Shadow does not have to be made conscious to the Ego to effect its Holy Mission. The Ego does not have to be conscious to the Shadow to effect its Holy Mission. Both Ego and Shadow are completely under the egis of the Self. The Shadow modulates…the Ego orients. The unconscious forces that make up the Ego and the Shadow are Transpersonal and Holy. They must not be appropriated by either the Ego or the Shadow and certainly not by the ego….the surface awareness.

Shadow formation is never a conscious process nor does it need to be made conscious. It functions best unconsciously….just as the forces of the Ego operate best unconsciously. The Shadow can live through an individual, a family, a clan, a tribe, a community, a nation, and all of Humanity as a function of the intrinsic nature of Temporality/Manifestation/Time/Space. It is a part of Divinity’s (Self’s) Homeostasis or the Holy Love mystery of Balance. It is innate to the Wholeness or Holiness of Self.

The Shadow, as a natural aspect of homeostasis, operates (erupts) from time to time in the life of the conscious self Ego or larger and larger group awareness as a surprise/shocking action, illness, accident, slips of tongue, nightmare dreams, and self-sabotaging, and as Evil or the Dark face of Divinity when the surface awareness is biased to positivity.

The Shadow operates in the unexpected miraculous and inspired action, healing, inexplicable knowing to avoid a potential destructive moment, truth saying without karma in conversation, spontaneous healing, restorational dreams, self-acceptance and self love, and finally as Self Realization of the Beauty of God when the surface awareness (Conscious Ego) is biased to negativity.

The Ego is not the primary center of Awareness….the Self is.

The Shadow is not the primary center of awareness…the Self is.

The ego is the reflecting witness.

The unfoldment of a life is driven by the unconscious dynamics between Self…the Shadow…and the Ego. What the ego is aware of is mostly socialization attitudes, biases, preferences, and filtered perceptions.

The Self is the only responsible agent for the entire mystery of one’s life. Free will of the Shadow or of the Ego is an illusion generated out of a limited awareness. When witnessing the Divine Play of one’s Life…best not to appropriate any of what is seen, revealed, or experienced as personal.

The Self, The Ego, and The Shadow operate in time and out of time. The ego operates almost exclusively in time. The Ego is the chief organ of Temporal Awareness.

The Self….the Deepest Divine Mystery…may or may not elect to become conscious to the Ego.

Suggesting that C.G.Jung’s overarching view point ….that the great task of individual consciousness is to become more and more conscious…might not be, in any way the mandate to humanity. To the contrary….the great task of individual consciousness is to realize that the greatest mystery lies in darkness, the unconsciousness, and the mystery of manifestation and the impossibility of consciousness to encompass unconsciousness! The most astonishing, awesome, mind boggling, staggering, and incomprehensively complex manifestations took place without any secondary consciousness and certainly not by the consciousness presumed by humankind.

The most fundamental Realization is that consciousness or light is an aberrant and fundamentally temporary phenomenon of darkness to handle motion and change. Light and consciousness are both mostly interferences and most rarely a witness and handmaiden to the action of Self. Ego Consciousness is the carrier of the Soul’s incarnation into a specific time and a specific place. It is an interference of wholeness because it is differentiating and discerning. The Shadow is the Ego’s counterpart reflecting the Ego’s unconscious complements and vice versa. Gestation is the great principle of Darkness.”…W. Brugh Joy, M.D.

Where Do We Come From?

The 7 Most Intriguing Philosophical Arguments for the Existence of God

Nietzsche said God is dead, but here are seven fascinating and provocative philosophical arguments for the existence of God.

This article originally appeared on io9.com, and is reprinted here with their permission.

Nietzsche is famous for saying that God is dead, but news of The Almighty’s demise may have been greatly exaggerated. Here are some of the most fascinating and provocative philosophical arguments for the existence of God.

To be clear, these are philosophical arguments. They’re neither rooted in religious scripture nor any kind of scientific observation or fact. Many of these arguments, some of which date back thousands of years, serve as interesting intellectual exercises, teasing apart what we think we know about the universe and our place within it from what we think we’re capable of knowing. Other arguments, like the last two listed, are attempts to reconcile questions that currently plague scientists and philosophers.
Now, none of these arguments make a definitive case for the existence of God, and many of them are (fairly) easily debunked or problematized (as I’ll try to show). But at the very least, they offer considerable food for thought.

Finally, by “God” or “god,” we’re not talking about any specific religious deity. As this list shows, the term can encompass everything from a perfect, omnipotent being to something that can be considered even a bit banal.

1) The very notion of an all-perfect being means God has to exist

This is the classic ontological, or a priori, argument. It was first articulated in 1070 by St. Anselm, who argued that because we have a conception of an all-perfect being — which he defined as “that than which nothing greater can be conceived” — it has to exist. In his essay “Proslogion,” St. Anselm conceived of God as a being who possesses all conceivable perfection. But if this being “existed” merely as an idea in our minds, then it would be less perfect than if it actually existed. So it wouldn’t be as great as a being who actually existed, something that would thus contradict our definition of God — a being who’s supposed to be all-perfect. Thus, God must exist.

Okay, admittedly, this sounds a bit weird by modern standards. Actually, it even sounded weird back then; Gaunilo of Marmoutiers ripped apart Anselm’s idea by asking people to conceive of an island “more excellent” than any other island, revealing the flaws in this type of argumentation. Today, we know that this type of a priori argument (i.e., pure deduction) is grossly limited, often tautological, and utterly fails to take empirical evidence into account.

But surprisingly, it was a position defended by none other than Rene Descartes. His take on the matter is a bit more illustrative; Descartes, in his “Fifth Meditation,” wrote that the conception of a perfect being who lacks existence is like imagining a triangle whose interior angles don’t sum to 180 degrees (he was big on the notion of innate ideas and the doctrine of clear and distinct perception). So, because we have the idea of a supremely perfect being, we have to conclude that a supremely perfect being exists; to Descarte, God’s existence was just as obvious, logical, and self-evident as the most basic mathematical truths.

2) Something must have caused the Universe to exist

Philosophers call this one the First-Cause Argument, or the Cosmological Argument, and early advocates of this line of reasoning included Plato, Aristotle, and St. Thomas Aquinas. It’s predicated on the assumption that every event must have a cause, and that cause in turn must have a cause, and on and on and on. Assuming there’s no end to this regression of causes, this succession of events would be infinite. But an infinite series of causes and events doesn’t make sense (a causal loop cannot exist, nor a causal chain of infinite length). There’s got to be something — some kind of first cause — that is itself uncaused. This would require some kind of “unconditioned” or “supreme” being — which the philosophers call God.

I’m sure you’ve already come up with your own objections to the First-Cause Argument, including the issue of a first-causer having to have its own cause. Also, infinity does in fact appear to be a fundamental quality of the universe. All this said, however, cosmologists are still struggling to understand the true nature of time and what “caused” the Big Bang to happen in the first place.

3) There has to be something rather than nothing

Called the Cosmological Argument from Contingency, this is a slightly different take on the First-Cause Argument. The German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz put it best when he wrote,

Why is there something rather than nothing? The sufficient reason … is found in a substance which … is a necessary being bearing the reason for its existence within itself.

Because it’s impossible for only contingent beings to exist, he argued, a necessary being must exist — a being we call God. Writing in “Monadology,” he wrote that “no fact can be real or existing and no statement true without a sufficient reason for its being so and not otherwise.”

More recently, the philosopher Richard Swinburne looked at the issue more inductively, writing,

There is quite a chance that if there is a God he will make something of the finitude and complexity of a universe. It is very unlikely that a universe would exist uncaused, but rather more likely that God would exist uncaused. The existence of the universe…can be made comprehensible if we suppose that it is brought about by God.

4) Something had to have designed the Universe

The Design Argument, or teleological argument, suggests we live in a Universe that surely had to be designed. The cosmos, goes the argument, exhibits orderliness and (apparent) purpose — for example, everything within the universe adheres to the laws of physics, and many things within it are correlated with one another in a way that appears purposeful. As William Paley argued, just as the existence of a watch indicates the presence of an intelligent mind, the existence of the universe and various phenomena within it indicates the presence of an even greater intelligence, namely God.
Needless to say, this line of argumentation was far more compelling prior to the advent of naturalism (the idea that everything can be explained without the benefit of supernatural intervention) and Darwinian evolution. Indeed, Darwin served as a kind of death knell to the Design Argument, at least as far as the biological realm is concerned. We know that the human eye — in all its apparent complexity and purpose — is not the product of a designer, but rather the painstaking result of variation and selection.
But the Design Argument isn’t entirely dead yet. The exquisite fine-tuning of the “biophilic universe” has lead some to conclude there is in fact a greater intelligence at work. To counter this line of reasoning, however, philosophers say we should simply defer to the anthropic principle, which is interesting because theists say the same thing!

5) Consciousness proves that immaterial entities exist

We still don’t have a working theory of consciousness, giving rise to the notorious Hard Problem. Indeed, subjective awareness, or qualia, is quite unlike anything we normally deal with in our otherwise material universe. The weirdness of consciousness, and our inability to understand it, has given rise to the notion of substance dualism, also known as Cartesian dualism, which describes two fundamental kinds of stuff: the mental and the material. Dualists say that material on its own is incapable of producing qualia — one’s capacity to have internal thoughts, subjective awareness, and feelings.

Theists have used substance dualism to make the claim for an independent “realm” of existence that’s distinct from the physical world. It’s a scenario similar to the one experience by Neo in “The Matrix”; his mental experiences occurred in a realm separate from the one that hosted his body. Theistic philosophers have taken this idea to the next level, using it to infer the existence of otherworldly or immaterial entities, including God. It’s a bit of a stretch, and an argument that could use a lot more evidence.

6) We’re living in a computer simulation run by hacker gods

God is in the eye of the beholder. Unlike Anselm’s take on God as something “that which nothing greater can be conceived,” gods can also consist of entities vastly beyond our comprehension, reach, and control. If the Simulation Hypothesis is true, and we’re the product of posthuman ancestors (or some unknown entity), we simply have no choice but to recognize them as gods. They’re running the show, and our collective (or even individual) behavior may be monitored — or even controlled — by them. These hacker gods would be akin the gnostic gods of yesteryear — powerful entities doing their own thing, and without our best interests in mind.

7) Aliens are our gods

We have yet to make contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence, but that doesn’t mean they’re not out there. A possible solution to the Fermi Paradox is the notion of directed panspermia — the idea that aliens spark life on other planets, like sending spores or probes to fertile planets, and then leave, or monitor and control the process covertly. By definition, therefore, they would be like gods to us.
This idea has been addressed many times in scifi, including the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” episode “The Chase”, in which a god-like species is responsible for all life in the Alpha Quadrant, or Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus,” in which an alien can be seen seeding the primordial Earth with life. Even Arthur C. Clarke’s “2001” is a take on this idea, with the monoliths instigating massive evolutionary leaps.