OpEdNews - Page 3 of Article: The ADPAS Categories

Doctrine and Dogma. Panentheistic. Goal: Live the Joyous Life. Tenrikyo derives its facts from phantasy-there is a mother/father God; the universe was created 900,099,999 years before the year 1838 (not as bad as 6 thousand years ago, mind you, but still wrong); human beings were created in Japan; the first man was made from a fish; the first woman was made from a snake; various animals were made into our organs; Tenrikyo's foundress, Miki Nakayama (yes, a woman), became the Shine of God the Parent on October 26, 1838, etc etc. But its values are derived from phantasy as well. What is the purpose of life? "To be happy. And life is wonderful!" They seek to create the Joyous Life here on earth. Does Tenrikyo, deriving its concept of reality from phantasy, have an idea of sin? It does, though in that its values are positive, this has a less destructive incarnation. There are "dusts of the mind" that get in the way of one's experience of joy and that one must brush away, but the goal is still happiness in this world (in general, everything that we call "superstition" would also fall under this category of cultural OCD for dogmatic idealists). Christians want to escape to heaven and have their enemies sent to hell. Buddhists want to escape to Nirvana and have their enemies reincarnate (in hell, as animals, as hungry ghosts, etc) where their suffering will either merely continue or actually increase. But those of Tenrikyo wish only to reincarnate as human beings in this world forever-and this fate they assign to all human beings. "And isn't it wonderful! Why would you ever want anything else? This world is a wonderful, beautiful place. Let's live together in joy forever!"

Other Examples: Polytheism in general, the majority of pagan mass movements in general (especially empiric pantheons like those of the Egyptians, the Greco-Romans, the Babylonians, etc), possibly Ayn Rand's ethics, conformity.

This structural pattern is exemplified by polytheism on the religious level (or really, more properly, religious pluralism in general7), national zealotry on the state level, the disagreeable person (or even someone with narcissistic personality disorder) on the individual level, and tissue having suffered nerve damage or scar tissue or even benign tumors on the cellular level.

Although these movements tend to be genuinely positive in orientation, in that the personal values of this structural pattern are taken to be objective and it is not tempered by actual knowledge, it can come to disregard the interests of others and take on a "I Win, Others Lose" format.

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Archetype: The Miser.

Watership Down corollary: Sandleford Warren, location on map: A1.

Architectural analogy: Take the 54 blocks in a Jenga set and try to build a tower straight up (with each level having only one block, for 54 levels in all). The vertical exposure represents transcendence (autonomy), and the lack of horizontal exposure represents a lack of facticity (pattern of noncommitment).

Pragmatic Idealism

Primary Example: Shamanism (those that know)

Phenomenalistic. Animistic/Animatistic. Goal: Affirm the will of life. Shamanism derives its facts from experience and its values from desire. What happens when you die? "Your spirit enters into the dreamtime-the great mystery-from which we, the shamans, can access you if need be. Or we can enter into the spirit realm ourselves through astral projection. We can sense the spirits of nature and can speak with the various forces of life. Eventually perhaps you will reincarnate as a human, or an animal if you so choose-both of which are wonderful-and when one reincarnates everyone in the village can tell that it is that person. We can see it. It is obvious." What is good and evil? "There are forces that oppose us and our people and we seek to either make friends with or fight off any forces that may threaten us. Power is power-and if it is used for us it is good, and if it is used against us it is evil. But ultimately everything is perfect, and part of our job is to help people understand this when they have forgotten."

"Now wait," you're saying, "Those assertions sound as outlandish as those of any of the other groups. Why is shamanism being listed as pragmatic rather than dogmatic?" The difference is, right or wrong, a shaman's beliefs are based on direct experience and an experimental model. When it comes to assessing epistemology, the question isn't so much "what do you believe?" as "why do you believe it?" If I ask you why you think something is the case, do you make reference back to experience and remain open to talking about it and updating your beliefs based on new evidence (a pragmatic epistemology), or do you hide behind faith (a dogmatic epistemology)?

Other Examples: Nietzsche, Spinoza, Hume, the Islamic Golden Age, the Renaissance, Taoism (Taoism may appear passive, and it may lack a sense of overcoming, but everything it teaches is to help the individual survive and live effectively-treat life and death the same so you can move through them like water), maybe Confucius and Aristotle (to the extent they understand their values to be subjective), the self-actualized individual (in Maslow's sense), innovation, in short: all movements that affirm life and self and seek to build something desirable out of the reality of this world, for which they expresses love rather than disdain.

This structural pattern is exemplified by shamanism on the religious level, the open and free society on the state level, the self-actualized individual on the individual level, and healthy tissue on the cellular level.

Aware of its own interests and tempered by genuine knowledge, this structural pattern is the most likely to be able to negotiate a "Win-Win," or at least a compromise, solution when conflicts of interest arise.

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