PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION

1. Just as the poet is the type of writer who most corresponds, in his metachemical fixation upon beauty, to fundamentalism, hyping the Devil as God, and therefore beauty as truth, so the dramatist is the type of writer who most corresponds, in his chemical fixation upon strength, to nonconformism, hyping woman as God, and therefore strength as truth.

2. Just as the novelist is the type of writer who most corresponds, in his physical fixation upon knowledge, to humanism, hyping man as God, and therefore knowledge as truth, so the philosopher is the type of writer who most corresponds, in his metaphysical fixation upon truth, to transcendentalism, declaring God to be that which is concerned with redemption of metaphysical ego in metaphysical soul and the attainment, in consequence, of Heaven.

3. At least, that is what this philosopher does, and does it because he knows the truth and is only too aware that truth is not an end-in-itself but only a means, necessarily divine, to a sublime end, commensurate with Heaven.

4. This philosopher does not look for God, for subhuman ego, outside the metaphysical self (unless, however, it be in terms of that secondary order of God which corresponds to the metaphysical not-self), but knows that God is immanent for those who, like himself, care to be metaphysical, whether aurally (in sensuality) or, preferably, breathily (in sensibility).

5. For metaphysics is of course an airy thing, nothing else, and therefore not something that covers a multitude of arcane subjects about which there would be little enough of air and, so far as its devotees were concerned, all too much cant and muddle-headedness!

6. Metaphysics is a mystery for such people only because they don't have the faintest idea what it's all about and are only too ready, in consequence, to identify it with just about anything obscure and arcane.

7. To know and understand metaphysics one must be 'up to' metaphysics, not unduly physical or chemical or, worse, metachemical. Otherwise that which pertains to truth will be obscured by knowledge or strength or, worse again, beauty, with predictably heretical consequences!

8. On that basis, anyone who puts undue confidence in poets or dramatists or novelists to reveal truth and be metaphysical ... is likely to be disappointed or, at best, misled. One doesn't consult a scientist about religion. Neither should one consult a poet about truth, a subject that is best left to philosophers, and then, preferably, to that philosopher most capable of grasping and revealing it.

9. For philosophers come in different shapes and sizes, different categories, and, unless I am grossly mistaken, it seems to me that there is a correlation between philosophy and religion, as between verses, a quasi-poetic mode of philosophy, and religious fundamentalism; as between dialogues, a quasi-theatrical mode of philosophy, and religious nonconformism; as between essays, a quasi-narrative mode of philosophy, and religious humanism; as between aphorisms, the properly philosophic mode of philosophy, and religious transcendentalism.

10. Thus even philosophy is subdivisible, like religion, into that which, being versistic (or of verses), is likely to approach truth through beauty; that which, being dialogistic (or of dialogues), is likely to approach truth through strength; that which, being essayistic (or of essays), is likely to approach truth through knowledge; and, last but hardly least, that which, being aphoristic (or of aphorisms), is most likely to approach truth truthfully, via metaphysics.

11. Those other philosophers, those versifiers and dialogists and essayists, are likely to fall as far short of truth, in their respective metachemical or chemical or physical fashions, as religious fundamentalists, nonconformists, and humanists, whose approach to God tends to involve the Devil, woman, or man, so that, in the end, God is what they want Him to be rather than what He really is or, alternatively, is that which can only be approached via some intermediary figure akin to their own limitations, be they fundamentalist, nonconformist, or humanist.

12. For such people, God is always transcendentally elsewhere, never with them personally, but someone to pray to, whether directly or indirectly, via someone else, i.e. an intermediary.

13. Only the Transcendentalist actually lives God - consciously in his metaphysical ego and unconsciously in his metaphysical will, the former primary (and of the self immanently) and the latter secondary (and of the not-self immanently or, more correctly, permanently).

14. And as he lives God, becoming indistinguishable from God, from that which corresponds to godliness, so he experiences the redemption of God - superconsciously in his metaphysical spirit and subconsciously in his metaphysical soul, the former secondary (in the not-self) and the latter primary (in the self).

15. He is the God-Son who achieves the Heaven-Soul, the Holy Soul of Heaven, via the God-Father and the Heaven-Spirit, the Holy Spirit of Heaven. Ego into will plus spirit equals soul, and it is soul which, in this metaphysical context, is his redemption as, primarily, God the Son.