The Ontological War

In a previous post I wrote “My opinion of the Catholic Church has plummeted over the last few years.”

In response, many will say, with justification, “we don’t care what your opinion is, we want to know facts, what’s true and what isn’t. Is the Catholic Church alienated or isn’t it?” But by looking at this question in these simplistic terms one fails to consider the important underlying ontological processes that are taking place.

Every degree of realself has its own ontological world: the socialself has its socialself world and the realself has the realself world, which is also reality. And each of these worlds, along with the countless ontological worlds between them, has its own beliefs, values, emotions, and “facts” that are, at least when looked at superficially, internally consistent and consistent with its degree of realself.

What all of this means is that there are socialself “facts,” increase realself “facts,” and decreasing realself “facts.” And for the people who are at these degrees of realself, their own “facts” seem true, right, self-evident, and the best to them.

Going back to the Roman Catholic Church and its alienation, the real question is not whether the church is ontologically alienated or not: it is.

Instead, one needs to realize that decreasing realself people are not conscious of their realselves and the realself world, and so many of them “rewrite reality” on the fly. Religious fundamentalists who say the world is only a few thousand years old are a good example of this rewriting of reality to satisfy one’s failed ontological state.

Keeping all of this in mind, it doesn’t do much good to explain to decreasing realself people why the RCC is alienated, because at their low degrees of realself they are unable to “see” it. Instead, what needs to be done is to make them aware that as they decrease their alienation from who they truly are they will also recognize that alienation when others try to force it upon them.