Religion and Dogma...An indepth study of Religion in the Making by Alfred Whithead
...Jesus Christ is portrayed through the eyes of his followers, who in fact can be considered the first followers of this religion, the disciples. We can attribute the division of time and the start of a new era to Jesus. His death was the marking event that put a clear distinction between two eras of rational religion. This leads our discussion into religious experience. The important way to describe a dogma in religion is the search for the truth of certain principles, which are set on metaphysical and historical beliefs. Religion, as mentioned above, is described as what an individual does with its solitariness. This description is fundamental for Whitehead to define three important concepts: “1.That of the value of an individual for itself. 2. That of the value of the diverse individuals of the world for each other. 3.That of the value of the objective world which is a community derivative from the interrelations of its component individuals, and also necessary for the existence of these individuals.” (Whitehead. p.59) These concepts stated by Whitehead are attributed to a specific moment in one’s life of self-consciousness. This starts with an individual’s self-evaluation in regards of him to the universe, others, and to himself. This is where the insight, mentioned with such importance in Religion in the Making, should come from, or should be experienced through. An intuition into the real world, a world of destructive and constructive realm and values is what follows that individual self-evaluation. It’s after this that another important claim is made, “Religion is world-loyalty.” (Whitehead, p.60) Through this, the spirit searches for the attainment of life by value and it’s merging individual claim with that claim of the objective universe. The spirit becomes one with the universe and absorbs all its properties to itself. These properties, which belong to one focal principal, are conditioned and dominated by religious experience, and the guidance of the individual by this principal with the general. The focal principle is the intuition of present moments, which are in reference to the ideal relevant to them. This is what Whitehead calls “revelation of character,” but, not like in other cases, this character is the “an apprehension of character permanently inherent in the nature of things,” (Whitehead, p61) Meaning that this apprehension of character is incorporated in the origin of things. Not through religious experience, but by the harmony of a universe and with the conformity of the character is that direct intuition in an individual occurs. For this to occur with every single individual is not that plausible, but that it somehow affects majority is plausible. Therefore, there will always be a certain diversity of individuals and a diverse approach to the universe, others, and themselves. This is one explanation for why evil is inherent in the world, but can be overcome. There is no religion, in the modern world that holds that there exists an intuition with a personal God. Christianity believes in the existence of a God, but it also states that the individual’s belief in it is merely on inference. Therefore the individual has no personal intuition about this entity, rather just belief in by inference. The safeguard of religion in the modern world can be said to be reason. If people will fascinated in the realm of emotion they can prove various contradictions, but not in a rational fashion, merely just on an emotional basis. Reason is the only coherent and safe mean of understanding insight without losing rationality. Christianity has been wise in the manner of having or refusing a direct vision of the figure of God. Many irrational religions, or cults, who are devoted to rituals and actually have figures of gods, are denied by reason, thus not being able to achieve rationality. The third underlying and most debated dogma in religion is God. The question concerning his existence, his validity, and his description, between many others have been a central focus of the modern world. Again there are three concepts mentioned by Whitehead concerning this dogma. In a shorter form, these concepts are based on three forms of renderings on this concept of God: “1. The Eastern Asiatic concept…2.The Semitic concept…3.The Pantheistic concept…” (Whitehead, p.68-69) One clear distinction that can be made between the concepts is that the Semitic and Eastern Asiatic concept, they are complete opposites. They are complete opposites because the Eastern Asiatic is the concept of an impersonal order to which the world conforms, while the Semitic concept believes that there is a definite personal entity that exists, and that is what we call world. The Pantheistic concept follows somewhat the Semitic concept, but it believes that the actual world apart from God is unreal and unconceivable. Christianity has not adopted any of these; in fact, it only relies on its metaphysical search and religious facts on which it depends most. Looking closely at either Jesus’ teachings, or Gospel writings, and Christian Churches the simple Semitic doctrine is considered a heresy, because the Christian God is a factor in the universe, not only omniscient. This emphatic assertion of immanence is shown by findings in Egypt. These scriptures are named “The Saying of Christ,” which say, “Cleave a wood, and I am there.” (Whitehead, p. 74) Through this saying one can understand that the doctrine of immanence is as important in the ancient world as it is now in the modern world, and plays a key part in the argument of this dogma. This leads us to the final dogma in Whitehead’s Religion in the Making, which is the quest of God. Seems like since the beginning and before Christianity people had lost God. Well, in the modern world not much has change. Indeed, the quest of God is an ongoing subject. Christians became subjected to a doctrine of fear, which somehow underlined the doctrine of God is love. This expressed in the Gospel Paul when he says, “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ;” as well as, “Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.”(Whitehead, p.75) People became horrified with the possibility of being in a terrifying situation as stated above by the Gospels of Paul. This fear of God w...