3.1.2 |
ITS QUALITIES, IF CATENAL |
When speaking of "the supreme being" it is first
necessary to discuss some spatiotemporal aspects of this being. In
the last resort, this is the way to distinguish a spatiotemporal
primary thing
which is supreme from other primary things. Maybe,
some will argue that the supreme being, even if it is
spatiotemporal, need not be at one place, but could be omnipresent or
immanent in the whole of reality. If such a contention is to
make sense at all, then those who argue this must confuse the
notion of being supreme with the notion of supreme being. Any
primary thing in the world that is
ananic in a certain respect
is supreme in that respect, and thus partakes of supremeness.
But this having of a
primary predicate
which is neutral is quite
something else than being a part of something that is neutrally
catenal. Moreover, a neutral
predicate (whether or not supreme)
is not something spatiotemporal, nor does having a neutral
predicate make something spatiotemporal. We had therefore better
forget about an omnipresent or immanent, supreme being. It is
only the norm of neutrality itself, the supremeness of ananicity
and non-spatiotemporal supreme being which may be said to be
'omnipresent' in a more or less literary sense.
The principle of catenated neutrality
does not apply to the predicates of temporal auxiliary series. (See
F.3.1.5.) Therefore
it is not the case that the supreme being would only exist
at one supposedly 'neutral' moment in time. Yet, if we would
like to treat time as space, we could say that the present
moment is the neutral moment, and that the supreme being only
exists 'now'. Altho the supreme being does, then, have no past
and no future, it will in practise exist always (if existing at
all), for the catenization concerned shifts as time proceeds.
If we say that the supreme exists only one moment, it
simply cannot move. But even if we say that it exists always, it
does not move either, for the all-ananic remains at the tri-neutral point
forever. Rest is neutrality, and motion as
unneutrality is alien to the supreme being. Nonetheless, motion is
relative in practise and the all-ananic may actually change
position with respect to a nonuniversal system of reference,
that is, with respect to any other system. This is the case for
example, if the tri-neutral point is flexible and only based on
the location of the supreme being itself. (Compare the neutral
present point which would only be based on the flexible moment
of supreme existence.) Since the all-neutral being is at rest
with regard to the theoretical, universal frame of reference, it
could be called "extremely slow". This extremely positive form
of catenality is that of the slowness catena, however, and
the ananorm does not assign the
highest normative value to the
neutralities of catenas such as the slowness catena.
While the principle of neutrality does not apply to temporal
series of auxiliary predicates, it does not apply to normative
series of auxiliary predicates either. Insofar as goodness
and badness are purely normative or evaluative concepts, the
supreme being is all-good (or maximally good) by definition.
It is then the norm of neutrality which determines that
all-good stands for all-ananic, for (all-)goodness in
itself is still devoid of any substance. But good can also be used
in the factual sense of beneficent and bad in the sense of
maleficent. Goodness is, then, the quality of giving rise to
the increase of a
happiness-catenary value, and
badness the quality of giving rise to the decrease of that value. In that
case the all-ananic is neither good nor bad, because the
supreme being makes other beings neither happier nor unhappier.
Both change and causing change are unneutral and the supreme
being does not cause change, neither for the worse nor for the
better. Hence, the all-ananic has no destructive or creative
powers. It did not even create life, for instance --not even in
a symbolic fashion--, because the creation of life, where no
life has been terminated or terminates in the same period, would
signify an increase in the number of living beings. (This is
not to say that the coming into being of life could not be
nanaic for reasons not related to
the number of living beings.) The all-ananic did never destroy life either,
because the destruction of life would signify suffering and a decrease in
the number of living beings or the destruction of a natural balance.
These are positive and negative predicates the supreme being
does not have, and does not cause to have. So far as life is
concerned, the supreme being symbolizes the maintenance of the
neutrally good life and of the balance of life.
Every honor and dishonor is alien to the nature of the all-ananic:
it does not honor, nor dishonor; and it is not honored,
nor dishonored. If the all-ananic would assign a cultural or
social value at all to other things, then only the limit value
which is neither low nor high. Similarly, the supreme being
itself can only be treated in accordance with the assignment of
a value which is neither low nor high. We have clearly to
distinguish the fact that it has the highest ananormative
value from the fact that it would be treated in an exclusive way
as a being with the highest cultural or social status, that is,
from the fact that it would be honored. Since the supreme being
can solely be treated in a neutral way, it can neither be
honored nor dishonored. Also if the supreme being exists, there
is no person in the universe who honors or dishonors
'im or it.
Every purported veneration or worshiping of the supreme being is
really the veneration or worshiping of an inferior being, for
example, of an image of the supreme being, or of material
attributes, living beings, people or institutions associated
with that image.
What applies to honor and dishonor, applies to love and
hatred. No-one loves or hates the supreme being; it is the image
of the supreme being, or another inferior thing, which is loved
or hated. Conversely, the supreme being 'imself or itself loves
or hates no-one and nothing either. If catenal in this respect,
it is ananic with regard to all of us, and with regard to all
others.
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