People are quick to adopt a new label with which to identify, but they are not so quick, if at all willing, to adopt a new lifestyle change. Left-brained logic of the west has us convinced that anything that makes sense to the rational mind is simply true, and that the accompanying feeling of understanding is equivalent to a certain degree of enlightenment. This is an appeal to efficiency because validation of our emotions helps us feel as though we’re sane so we can function in the world. It’s a simple error in reasoning, however. What is true may always work when we are able and willing to see the light at the end of the tunnel. through the necessary amount of struggle, but what works is not always true – for in the latter case, we are burdened with deciding toward what our efforts might be aimed and, more crucially, judging the worthiness of that goal. It is about that value judgment that efficiency can have no say besides “because that’s how it works”, thus begging the question (another logical fallacy which assumes the very claim it is trying to prove).
“New Age Orthodoxy” is one of the latest trending and clearest examples of people’s fallacious moves from the secular to the pseudospiritual. This is a phenomenon which occurred during the peak of the covid hoax in which mostly-reasonable, yet secular citizens found consolation from the political realm within newly found Christian groups on the internet. Some of them may have had a genuinely piqued interest and seeked out actual churches and/or outlets for theological study, but for most, it was an escape from themselves while in isolation, no matter how “correct” they were about the events of the plandemic, BLM riots, staged school shootings, and the like.
The way it worked is that these new converts simply applied their existing left-brained sensibilities to Christian beliefs, tracing what are essentially the same assumptions about existence back to one source, but now, instead of bowing to the authority of the human intellect, they call that source God, Christ, scripture, divine reason, or the like, and the process of getting there “(the good kind of) faith”. They felt virtuous by making this minor linguistic shift just like a leftist feels when they change the definitions of words such as ‘racist’ and ‘sexist’ to include entire classes and demographics of people that they don’t like. They now find comfort being part of a community who has done the same – who simply speaks in a certain way despite having done no work whatsoever to come to understand reality anymore than they did when they held whatever authority they bowed to before as God. They also treat others the same, or worse, only now those others have changed. They have simply moved from one tribal circle to another, often ostracizing the previous group they identified with and making no effort to love and coexist with them – e.g. scientistic atheists. In fact, they usually become even more hostile in their dispositions toward others as they simply adopt the values of the group under the guise of safety. Once safety becomes the reason for outsourcing your authority over self, you become weaker, more reactive, and violent.
Orthodoxy is the particular denomination, because of its strict, unreformed adherence to scripture and tradition, “to which one’s logic must reduce” as stated by internet theologians such as Jay Dyer — in search of a coherent Christian framework — so this is where many new Christians tend to land. Perhaps it can be seen as the most “reasonable” origin for Christian belief, regardless of one’s level of devotion to practicing it or not. However, the assumption that some form of Christianity is the way still lies at the foundation of the reasoning, and that cannot be justified by Christianity’s own standards – it begs the question – so at the core of this rational position lies a simple error of reasoning. A good theory, belief system, way of life, etc. may only have a case of being fundamentally true if it can account for its own existence, through reasoning or otherwise. More importantly, as it has been said, “There are ten thousand ways to God.” Our purpose should be to make every thought and action a meditation that embodies spiritual will.
This New Age Orthodoxy is a human phenomenon like any other, demonstrating our natural tendency to find consolation in community during times of unrest, with the natural consequence of short-cutting true spiritual work. As I often say, life’s journey is taken alone, but not every trip must be. True spiritual work primarily happens in isolation, but also alongside others we cross paths with who are roughly in the same place whether or not they are even heading in the same direction – but the work itself is solitary and internal. Each leap to a higher level of consciousness is achieved through one’s own volition, consisting of a series of small, nuanced revelations. We join groups – religious or political movements, for example – to escape ourselves. As Carl Jung said, “One of the main functions of organized religion is to protect people from a direct experience of God.” This is also true of education, corporate life, pop culture, or anything remotely group-oriented which holds anything other than individual sanctity as its core focus. It is within our deepest selves, that we so often subconsciously avoid, where we can actually find Truth/God most directly. These new Christian converts may be in a slightly better place than they were a few years ago, but are they accessing Truth directly, within themselves?
No, they still aren’t even close.
Overthought Consulting 