Metaphysical Humanism and the Laws of Being, part XXVI—The Law of Purpose

The abbey Church of St, Jouin de Marnes

detail of a capital

Photograph by the author

The Law of Purpose

We’ve now come to one of the oddest properties in the universe. It’s not just the tendency of things to organize themselves, but the actual desire to do so, that’s puzzling. And it'sn’t just life that organizes itself; matter, from the moment that the quantum state exists (from the perspective of the universe, that state has always existed, since universe has never existed without it in action) seeks out states in which attractions emerge, aggregates are formed, and structures are created. 

This action of creating congregated areas of dynamic order, which is called homeostasis, is a universal action. To say that this takes place within a “disordered” universe— and that the order emerges from a lack of order — is a mistaken impression. There is a fundamental order that exists before homeostasis begins; and homeostasis begins long before life takes advantage of it, because we can see ordered states emerging from quantum states from the atom on up to the galaxy. If we believe that there’s no desire or intention driving this action, it’s only because we don’t understand life from the perspective of the lowest levels of the universe – we can only see it from the perspective we’re on.

Metaphysical humanism presumes that the emergence of life, higher organisms, and, ultimately, the human psyche, is all part of an expression of a fundamental property of the universe, one that can't be separated from what it's in its essential nature. This hypothesis furthermore states that all of the actions inherent in human beings — all of the potentials, idiosyncrasies, abilities, and behaviors that we exhibit — are present in recognizable ways throughout the universe, and manifest in every level of matter. Little surprise, then, that we see the colonies of super-organisms displaying characteristics that recognizably reflect the intentional, desirous, and purposeful action of human beings. DNA, which isn'thing more in the end than a molecular crystalline structure, clearly displays intention, desire, and purpose, and continually recruits other alien molecular structures to assist it in its purposes; so we can see, once again, the same aggregate actions of community functioning on a molecular level. In this sense, atoms are communities formed from cooperating atomic and subatomic particles; molecules are communities formed from cooperating atoms.  All along the emergent line of relationship between particles, which begins at the quantum level, the law of intention directs the construction of congregated areas of dynamic order. And from this emerges what we call purpose.

The Law of Purpose states,  in its essence, things happen for a reason. 

In our ordinary lives, we use this platitude to reassure ourselves that otherwise baffling events have meaning; yet this facile  and simplistic statement, which on the surface of things exists only to make us feel better when crappy things happen, conceals a much more important philosophical principle.  Understood from its essential perspective, the Law of Purpose states that purpose, a reason for things to be as they're, is a fundamental law of the universe, in such a way that the entire universe is from its inception purposeful.

This is of course the exact opposite of what mechanistic rationalism states, which is that the universe is entirely random and mindless, and that there is no purpose behind it whatsoever. Metaphysical humanism, although it doesn't by default set man at the pinnacle of creation, maintains that there is a single grand purpose lying at the root of existence, and that human beings are a reflection of that purpose. In metaphysical humanism, although we understand the purpose to be grasped and iterated through human consciousness, we don't separate human beings from the rest of the universe as unique and exclusively endowed. We are, rather, an integrated part of the universe, expressing its purpose in equal measure with all of the rest of creation. This is, to be sure, a philosophical turning back of the clock to a more medieval mindset; yet it's also a more compassionately human mindset, because it presumes there is a reason for us to be, rather than no reason at all, and it presumes that our being is spiritually wedded to the rest of existence, rather than separate from it and entitled to destroy it at our leisure. 

Purpose can't be discerned or understood from the perspective of separation; it can only be understood from the perspective of unity.

May your heart be close to God, 

and God close to your heart.

Lee

Lee van Laer is a Senior Editor at Parabola Magazine.