The Tao of Western Unbelief
The seminal distinction between the Eastern mind and the Western mind is that the Eastern mind assumes the essential oneness of all things - indeed, that there is no reality to "things" - and that any experience of individual human consciousness must be understood as somehow an aspect of this Universal, whereas the Western mind insists that the human consciousness has a real and separate existence over against the real and separate existence of an external reality. The quest of the Western mind is rooted in an instinct originating in the Image of God upon the human nature, which instinct may be fulfilled only in Christian doctrine. The Creator God stands in distinction over against a Creation that He has brought forth, and only in analogy to this Doctrine of Creation may the human mind find fulfillment of the instinct to hold the self as a distinct I over against a truly existing external reality. The Eastern mind suppresses this instinct altogether; the Western mind, corrupted by sin, seeks to find fulfillment of this instinct in the pretense of the autonomy of theoretical thought. Neither path honors God as God.
The appeal of the Eastern outlook in the Western world is the natural outcome of the persistent unbelief of Western man. Unbelief inclines the unbeliever Eastward. In unbelief the reality of human consciousness becomes a witness against the unbeliever, for a major difficulty immediately arising in the unbelieving mind is: what to do with human experience? The Eastern mind perceives the One and the Many, Good and Evil, Being and Becoming, and concludes that his perceptions are illusory and a hindrance to understanding the universal Tao because the multiplicity of human experience is inimical to the presumed simple unity of the Tao. The Western mind also seeks for a universal principle. But, Western man indulges that instinct, imparted by the Image of God impressed upon his nature, to assume that his perceptions substantially connect him to the truth of what is there in a surrounding external reality. As the Western mind confronts the perception of the One and the Many, Good and Evil, Being and Becoming, it subjects these to analysis in the hope of deriving an overarching principle of Unity. However, the only principle unifying all of life and thought is revealed to man in the Doctrine of Creation, and cannot be discovered via any process of analysis. A would-be autonomous process of analysis always, and must, finally arrive at an indeterminate, for it begins with an effective denial of the only possible principle of unification in the Doctrine of Creation. In other words, denial of Creation is the starting point of a pretended autonomous analysis of human experience, and therefore, such analysis never will lead back to Creation; having already abandoned Creation, pretended autonomous analysis can arrive only at an indeterminate. Whereas it is impossible, in the nature of the case, to distinguish one indeterminate from another, the ultimate outcome of would-be autonomous analysis may as well be regarded as The Indeterminate.
If all analysis, begun from whatever point, finally resolves into The Indeterminate, then everything is in some way an aspect of The Indeterminate. Thus The Indeterminate of Western analysis is indistinguishable from the Tao of Eastern Mysticism. The Eastern method of reconciling the conflicting contingencies of human experience is in the idea of Yin and Yang: Dark and Light, Evil and Good, which are thought to balance one another in the ultimate harmony of the Tao. In Eastern terms the ultimate unity of reality encompasses the total continuum of human experience, inclusive of Good and Evil. The Western instinct is to banish Evil from any rightful place in human life and to cast Good in a noble struggle against Evil so to banish it. However, apart from the Christian Doctrines of Creation and Sin, Good and Evil in human life and experience cannot be understood in such a way that one might "hold fast to that which is good and abstain from every form of evil" (I Thess 5:21-22), for in terms of would-be autonomous analysis Good and Evil resolve into mutually basic aspects of The Indeterminate. This is the Tao of Western unbelief.
We find the distinct Eastern flavor of unbelief expressed in Western culture at a number of points. For example, there is the Dark side and the Light side of The Force in the popular "Star Wars" motion pictures, which mirrors the Eastern Yin and Yang as mutually opposite aspects of the all-encompassing Tao. However, this Eastward dynamic in Western culture by no means began with "Star Wars." For over 150 years in America, and much longer in Europe, Western culture has observed an annual ritual celebration of evil, fear and death known as Halloween. Halloween has historical roots in the pagan religions of the ancient British Isles. That Post-Reformation Europe and America should become oblivious to October 31 as "Reformation Day," and instead should assimilate Halloween observance into the liturgical year, along side Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, is perhaps the clearest indication of the decline of Western culture and its consequent Easternization. Though Western instincts would tend to banish evil from any rightful place in life, in unbelief Western man cannot discern how to do this. Medical science affirms that sickness and death are characteristic of a normal human existence. Social scientists affirm that larceny and distemper are characteristic of a normal human psyche. To attempt to banish evil, fear and death is to struggle against that which we are told are normal states of human experience.
Regardless how corrupt a people may become in sin, they still are the creation of God, impressed with His image. So, evil is not befriended, however much it is normalized. People continue to abhor it and valiantly oppose it. But, in unbelief, there is no way to integrate hatred of evil and death into a comprehensive worldview. The crushing reality of evil in wickedness, pain, fear, and death is overwhelming and paralyzing if the full reality of it is taken for what it truly is by a people "having no hope and without God in the world" (Eph. 2:12). In order to continue in day-to-day life in some semblance of sanity, the unbeliever must make light of evil in a Yin and Yang cycle, as is expressed, for example, in the oft repeated sentiment that we need the bad that comes to us in life in order truly to appreciate the good. The only way to face evil squarely, in the full face of its horrible reality, is in the spirit of Christian truth. In a Christian mind and a Christian worldview Good is identified with God alone (Mk. 10:18), evil has entered the world as a result of our sin (Rom. 5:12) and has no rightful place in the normal order of things, death is an enemy (I Cor. 15:26) that was conquered by Christ (I Cor. 15:25), and will be completely banished in the end (Rev. 21:4). While the Western Taoists go about "whistling in the dark" with "Happy Halloween" on their lips, let the remnant in Christ instead proclaim that October 31 is better commemorated as "Reformation Day," and so let us yearn and work for a new Reformation of Western culture.
The appeal of the Eastern outlook in the Western world is the natural outcome of the persistent unbelief of Western man. Unbelief inclines the unbeliever Eastward. In unbelief the reality of human consciousness becomes a witness against the unbeliever, for a major difficulty immediately arising in the unbelieving mind is: what to do with human experience? The Eastern mind perceives the One and the Many, Good and Evil, Being and Becoming, and concludes that his perceptions are illusory and a hindrance to understanding the universal Tao because the multiplicity of human experience is inimical to the presumed simple unity of the Tao. The Western mind also seeks for a universal principle. But, Western man indulges that instinct, imparted by the Image of God impressed upon his nature, to assume that his perceptions substantially connect him to the truth of what is there in a surrounding external reality. As the Western mind confronts the perception of the One and the Many, Good and Evil, Being and Becoming, it subjects these to analysis in the hope of deriving an overarching principle of Unity. However, the only principle unifying all of life and thought is revealed to man in the Doctrine of Creation, and cannot be discovered via any process of analysis. A would-be autonomous process of analysis always, and must, finally arrive at an indeterminate, for it begins with an effective denial of the only possible principle of unification in the Doctrine of Creation. In other words, denial of Creation is the starting point of a pretended autonomous analysis of human experience, and therefore, such analysis never will lead back to Creation; having already abandoned Creation, pretended autonomous analysis can arrive only at an indeterminate. Whereas it is impossible, in the nature of the case, to distinguish one indeterminate from another, the ultimate outcome of would-be autonomous analysis may as well be regarded as The Indeterminate.
If all analysis, begun from whatever point, finally resolves into The Indeterminate, then everything is in some way an aspect of The Indeterminate. Thus The Indeterminate of Western analysis is indistinguishable from the Tao of Eastern Mysticism. The Eastern method of reconciling the conflicting contingencies of human experience is in the idea of Yin and Yang: Dark and Light, Evil and Good, which are thought to balance one another in the ultimate harmony of the Tao. In Eastern terms the ultimate unity of reality encompasses the total continuum of human experience, inclusive of Good and Evil. The Western instinct is to banish Evil from any rightful place in human life and to cast Good in a noble struggle against Evil so to banish it. However, apart from the Christian Doctrines of Creation and Sin, Good and Evil in human life and experience cannot be understood in such a way that one might "hold fast to that which is good and abstain from every form of evil" (I Thess 5:21-22), for in terms of would-be autonomous analysis Good and Evil resolve into mutually basic aspects of The Indeterminate. This is the Tao of Western unbelief.
We find the distinct Eastern flavor of unbelief expressed in Western culture at a number of points. For example, there is the Dark side and the Light side of The Force in the popular "Star Wars" motion pictures, which mirrors the Eastern Yin and Yang as mutually opposite aspects of the all-encompassing Tao. However, this Eastward dynamic in Western culture by no means began with "Star Wars." For over 150 years in America, and much longer in Europe, Western culture has observed an annual ritual celebration of evil, fear and death known as Halloween. Halloween has historical roots in the pagan religions of the ancient British Isles. That Post-Reformation Europe and America should become oblivious to October 31 as "Reformation Day," and instead should assimilate Halloween observance into the liturgical year, along side Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, is perhaps the clearest indication of the decline of Western culture and its consequent Easternization. Though Western instincts would tend to banish evil from any rightful place in life, in unbelief Western man cannot discern how to do this. Medical science affirms that sickness and death are characteristic of a normal human existence. Social scientists affirm that larceny and distemper are characteristic of a normal human psyche. To attempt to banish evil, fear and death is to struggle against that which we are told are normal states of human experience.
Regardless how corrupt a people may become in sin, they still are the creation of God, impressed with His image. So, evil is not befriended, however much it is normalized. People continue to abhor it and valiantly oppose it. But, in unbelief, there is no way to integrate hatred of evil and death into a comprehensive worldview. The crushing reality of evil in wickedness, pain, fear, and death is overwhelming and paralyzing if the full reality of it is taken for what it truly is by a people "having no hope and without God in the world" (Eph. 2:12). In order to continue in day-to-day life in some semblance of sanity, the unbeliever must make light of evil in a Yin and Yang cycle, as is expressed, for example, in the oft repeated sentiment that we need the bad that comes to us in life in order truly to appreciate the good. The only way to face evil squarely, in the full face of its horrible reality, is in the spirit of Christian truth. In a Christian mind and a Christian worldview Good is identified with God alone (Mk. 10:18), evil has entered the world as a result of our sin (Rom. 5:12) and has no rightful place in the normal order of things, death is an enemy (I Cor. 15:26) that was conquered by Christ (I Cor. 15:25), and will be completely banished in the end (Rev. 21:4). While the Western Taoists go about "whistling in the dark" with "Happy Halloween" on their lips, let the remnant in Christ instead proclaim that October 31 is better commemorated as "Reformation Day," and so let us yearn and work for a new Reformation of Western culture.
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