Cosmenosis III

Sean Brooks asked me here whether I would agree with the philosophy of Cosmenosis as described in Poul Anderson's The Day Of Their Return. Before commenting afresh on this fictional philosophy, I searched the blog for "Cosmenosis" and the search result is here. (Scroll down.)

I will reread these earlier posts, then consider whether anything further needs to be said about Cosmenosis.

Addendum: I think that the earlier posts clarify where I would agree or disagree with Cosmenosis?

Cosmenosis

Tatiana Thane, a Cosmenosist, explains her views to Chunderban Desai:

Cosmenosis, an increasingly popular movement in the University of Virgil, is a philosophy rather than a religion;
not a revealed truth but a way towards insight or oneness, inspired by studying the composite intelligences of the Virgilian planet, Dido;
most Cosmenosists think that reality grows towards transcendence and that those who are higher have a duty to help raise those who are lower;
for example, the Elders, the ancient starfaring race whose ruins remain and who must have gone beyond rather than simply dying out;
Elders may have initiated Didonian evolution; 
they will return and there are rumors of a forerunner...

Cosmenosis II

Tatiana Thane says:

"'Cosmenosis - What'd be truly fantastic is no purpose, no evolution, in all of that yonder.'"
-Poul Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2010), p. 194.

This is very imprecise thinking: "...purpose..." and "...evolution..." are run together as if they were almost identical and "...purpose..." is placed first. Surely they are opposites? Evolution is what happens when initially unconscious organisms interact with their environments. Those that are able to survive longer breed more so that more members of the next generation inherit pro-survival characteristics. Over time, the species changes. If longer limbs aid survival, then average limb length increases. Pro-survival characteristics include sensitivity to environmental alterations. Such sensitivity increased until it became sensation, thus consciousness. Conscious beings can have purposes. Purpose could not have existed until after there had been a long enough period for the evolution of increasingly complex and sensitive organisms.

Ivar plausibly hypothesizes that, when a conscious species has become dependent for its survival on its technology, then it ceases to evolve greater intelligence. He has the evidence, which we have not, of many species very diverse but none noticeably more intelligent. Thus, an Elder Race guiding the evolution of the less evolved is at least possible but by no means probable.

Fictional Religions And Philosophies

Copied from here (and see combox):

In fictional works by Poul Anderson, we read about:

Cosmenosis
Gaeanity
the Cosmic religion
Jerusalem Catholicism
the Ythrian New Faith
Ishtarian religion
Veleda's myth
the Johannine Church

SM Stirling presents the Anglo-Indian religion of the Angrezi Raj, the debased cult of the Peacock Angel (see here and here), a Theosophical "Church Universal and Triumphant" and a Wicca that is more neo- than pagan (see combox here).

Robert Heinlein presents the Angels of the Lord, the Fosterite Church of the New Revelation (for both of these, see here) and a new Martian religion.

In at least two of these cases, Cosmenosis and Wicca, it is possible to get into discussing whether these are viable world-views. Do the Wiccan Gods literally exist in this alternative history of Stirling's? A "Son of God" is a divine agent. "The Sword of the Lady" would be also.

Religions In Two Future Histories

In Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History, the Cosmic religion remains in the background whereas, in Anderson's Technic History, we learn comparatively more about:

Mahayana Buddhism

Jerusalem Catholicism

Dennitzan Orthochristianity

Ivanhoan religions

Diomedean beliefs

the Ythrian Old and New Faiths

Merseian polytheism

the Wilwidh religion of "the God"

Djana's Christian-Wilwidh blend

Ikranankan demonism and polytheism

Cosmenosis

Didonian mysticism

eclectic Aenean millenarianism

probably more

The Psychotechnic History is like a draft of a future history. The Cosmic religion maybe prefigures Cosmenosis.

Cosmenosis

Poul Anderson, The Day Of Their Return IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2010).

I agree with Cosmenosis or at least with the following propositions:

reality grows and transcends its earlier stages - inorganic matter, organisms, consciousness, self-consciousness, contemplative consciousness;

the highest have a duty to help the development of the lower;

the Ancients were so widespread that it is unlikely that they became extinct;

it is at least possible that they advanced to a higher plane and will return;

rumors of a forerunner should be investigated but with critical skepticism, not with uncritical credulity.

However, I would add that the focus of spiritual practice should be present meditation, not a future hope. It is all too easy to go from "it is at least possible that they advanced to a higher level and will return" to "(it is at least possible that) they advanced...and will return" to "they advanced...and will return."

In terms of a political program, I would advocate enfranchisement of the entire population and an end to the hereditary principle both in parliament and in education. However, the Aeneans are traditionalists and, if consulted, for example in a referendum, might vote to preserve hereditary rights and distinctions. Desai thinks that Tatiana looks shocked when he raises the possibility of disempowering the gentry in favor of "...manhood suffrage..." (p. 125), not universal suffrage, but he himself wants to make minimal changes, maybe only strengthening trade links with the inner Empire.

By Cosmos

In her cell, the kidnapped Chee Lan recognizes:

"...space gear, by Cosmos!" (David Falkayn: Star Trader, p. 248)

She is being taken to another planet in the Korych system. But, meanwhile, I am more interested in her interjection. "By Cosmos..." is more characteristic of Poul Anderson's first, Psychotechnic, future history. However, words and phrases can be swapped around between timelines.

In the Psychotechnic History:

a Cosmic religion is part of the future historical background (see here);
it begins in 2130 (see here);
the phrase, "Cosmos knows..." is used (see here).

But there is no such religion in the Technic History where Chee lives although, later, there is a "Cosmenosis." The Technic History tells us considerably more about its Cosmenosis than the Psychotechnic History tells us about its Cosmic religion but I do not think that adherents of the former swear by Cosmos. However, only sf geeks can get interested in comparative religion between timelines.

Consensus Gentium

The Day Of Their Return.

Speaking of her hope that the Builders/Elders/Ancients will return, Tatiana Thane says:

"'I think, and I'm far from alone...'" (7, p. 130)

She hints at the invalid consensus gentium argument. A graduate student researching reincarnation once said to me, "If you accept opinions as evidence, then...," and followed this with a list of prominent believers in reincarnation. I do not accept opinions as evidence. If some psychological or social factor causes a belief and if this factor is universal, then the belief will be universal but not necessarily true.

Some factor on Aeneas is intensifying religiosity in diverse forms and, despite her denial, Tatiana's form is Cosmenosis which she rationalizes as "'...philosophy rather than religion.'" (p. 128) - although she then proceeds to state unfounded beliefs.

(Climate change deniers rightly point out that scientific truth is a matter of evidence, not of "consensus." However, many scientists compare their particular evidence-based findings and thus reach a consensus.)

Cosmos

A very long time ago, I read a fanzine article by Sandra Miesel about Poul Anderson's many future history series. I remember only two points. 

Miesel described the Technic History in which the Terran Empire rises and falls, a process that takes about a thousand years. (Without the hyperdrive, a single millennium would have been a very short time on an interstellar scale.)

Miesel referred to another future history series in which the characters swore by Cosmos. Is this the Psychotechnic History? The Chronology of the Future dates the beginnings of the Cosmic Religion to 2130 although we are told nothing about this religion. (By contrast, we learn something about Cosmenosis in the Technic History.)

Remembering the time spent wandering through space in the Traveler, in which he was born, Thorkild Erling reflects:

"...before Cosmos, I had loved every minute of it!"

-Poul Anderson, "Gypsy" IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 2 (Riverdale, NY, February 2018), pp. 255-270 AT p. 262.

When conversing with his wife, he exclaims:

"'...good Cosmos, Alanna!'"

-ibid., p. 263.

In another isolated community on another planet later in the Psychotechnic History, Masefield Ellen exclaims:

"'Oh - oh Cosmos, no!'"

-Poul Anderson, "Star Ship" IN Volume 2, pp. 273-306 AT p. 300.

(Small details like naming conventions and swear words indicate a common timeline.)

Sandra Miesel's sign-off italicized passage in Volume 2 concludes:

"The Cosmos and the life it sheltered held challenges both unpredictable and inexhaustible." (p. 307)

The capital initial suggests that maybe this "Cosmos" is not just the universe or the cosmos but the subject of the Cosmic religion. We will look out for any further references in Volume 3.

Meanwhile, we are free to imagine anything about the Cosmic religion! I suggest that the empirical universe and the object of numinous or mystical experience are a single reality differently perceived. See here.

Personal Views Of Religion

While discussing Poul Anderson's works, we contemplate various religious traditions, whether real, like Buddhism and Christianity, or fictional, like Gaeanity and Cosmenosis. Fictional religions even include the beliefs of aliens like the Ythrians. We also compare Anderson's sf and fantasy narratives with others, e.g., by Olaf Stapledon, CS Lewis and James Blish, that address religious issues.

As part of this process, we can each state what we ourselves believe. With this in mind, I here link to a post that I have just published on another blog.

This One

Poul Anderson captures slight differences in modes of speech. On Aeneas, Nords speak Anglic without the articles, "a" and "the," e.g.:

"'Do I have choice?'"

-Poul Anderson, The Day Of Their Return IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, February 2010), pp. 74-240 AT 7, p. 121.

"'I don't think "supernatural" is right word... I'd call Cosmenosis philosophy rather than religion.'" (p. 128)

- although I have found one instance of the indefinite article:

"'What are we? Sparks, cast up from a burnin' universe whose creation was meanin'less accident?'" (p. 129)

Aenean Riverfolk replace "a" with "one":

"'That was one coffin.'" (12, p. 169)

In the Psychotechnic History, Nomads sometimes replace "I" with "this one." Peregrine Joachim Henry says of himself:

"'This one has been sort of curious for the last few years...and he's been keeping his eyes open.'"

-The Peregrine, CHAPTER II, p. 9.

However, Joachim immediately reverts to the first person pronoun:

"'You might think I was a Cordy, the way I've been reconstructing the crime.'" (ibid.)

In spiritual practice, "this one" might be more appropriate than "I." Who or what is present in all experience and thus also in meditation? First, an individual subject of consciousness. Second, the universe conscious of itself through the individual. I usually call these the individual self and the universal self but "this one" and "the One" would be simpler. This one is not separate from the One which is much more than this one. This one exists by responding to others and must also respond to the One which is experienced as transcendent other. That other is personified but persons are self-conscious individuals, thus individual subjects, not the universal subject. 

Desai's Contributions

The Day Of Their Return.

Chunderban Desai:

summarizes the Terran Empire section of the Technic History to date in his conversation with Uldwyr;

introduces Aycharaych in his conversation with the latter;

introduces Aeneas in his conversation with Peter Jowett;

learns about Cosmenosis in his conversation with Tatiana Thane;

resolves the immediate crisis in his concluding conversation with Ivar Frederiksen and Tatiana Thane;

summarizes John K. Hord's cyclical theory of history in his conversation with Dominic Flandry in a later volume.

Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization is packed with characters appearing only once or twice but making significant contributions who should not be overshadowed by the Big Three.

Gaeanity IV

Orion Shall Rise, CHAPTER SIX.

See Gaeanity III.

"'...the Life Force may well cast us off entirely, as it cast off the dinosaurs, and spend the next few millions of years evolving a creature that is both sentient and sane.'" (p. 74)

Natural selection explains evolution without reference to a Life Force. An accident wiped out the dinosaurs. If conditions had continued to favor large reptiles with small brains, then no organisms would have been selected for manipulation and conceptualization. If mankind becomes extinct, then re-evolution of intelligence is not inevitable.

"'Our part is to serve the supreme organism of which we are a part. Ours is to revere life, while developing ourselves as human beings because that is to develop an aspect of Gaea.'" (pp. 74-75)

Gaeanity and Cosmenosis sound like planetary and cosmic versions of the same philosophy.

All life must be revered because it is part of the environment that sustains us. At last, human development is recognized although not as an end-in-itself.  

Aenean Religiosity II

The Day Of Their Return.

So where did all the religiousness come from on Aeneas? Chunderban Desai and Tatiana Thane discuss this issue. He thinks that the Aeneans are "'...a deeply religious people.'" (7, p. 127) Taken aback, she replies that the colony:

"'...began as a scientific base, remember, and in no age of piety.'" (ibid.)

Jowett had reminded Desai that human survival on Aeneas had required efficient management of large land areas. The Landfolk were a community distinct from the University and there were more religious believers among them. Hence, as we saw, Peter Berg grew up as a Christian in the outback. Church-going increased in reaction against Imperial decadence and against subsequent problems but Tatiana thinks that people do not find what they seek. Her fiance, Ivar Frederiksen, the heir to the Firstmanship of Ilion, seems to epitomize his people's quest: converted to Christianity when young but then disillusioned with it.

Desai concludes that the Aeneans are a people of faith - in the value of knowledge, the duty of survival, service, honour and tradition. Tatiana explains her Cosmenosis to him. She says that it is a philosophy, not a religion, but this does not prevent her from succumbing to the prevalent millenarianism.

Trichotomy: Three That Are Not One

Twice in the Prologue to Mirkheim, the text refers to what has been ordained by:

"...God, or destiny, or chance."

-Poul Anderson, Mirkheim IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, March 2011), pp. 1, 30 -

- a comprehensive phrase. I cannot think of a fourth option.

Destiny

The eldest of the seven Endless in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman. 

Chance

Fortuna, the Roman deity preferred by Andrea whom I visit above the Old Pier Bookshop. She is not to be prayed to, entreated or thanked but favours the brave.

God

Abrahamic

Indian

Abrahamic

Jewish

Christian

Muslim

Indian

Hindu

Sikh (Hindu-Muslim synthesis)

(This classification makes Sikhism look like the ultimate monotheism.)

Extra-Solar Monotheisms In The Technic History

"the God" of the Merseian Roidhunate

"God the Hunter" in the Ythrian New Faith

the Ivanhoan Consecrate religion

Interactions

Martin Schuster subverts the Consecrate religion with the Kabbalah.

Djana envisages a Merseian Christ.

Wodenites convert to Terrestrial religions.

Christianity and Cosmenosis on Aeneas.

Regarding Djana: even a single image in a single mind is an aspect of the religious history of Technic civilization.

Assessment

Hindu monotheists worship Vishnu, Shiva or the Goddess. Vedantist philosophy can be interpreted theistically or monistically. As a monist, I appreciate the myths of Vishnu's evolutionary incarnations.

As a twenty-first-centurian, I think that quantum mechanics, genetics and history are realms of Fortuna, not of Destiny.

The Sea Way

Compare:

the Cosmic religion in Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History

Cosmenosis in Anderson's Technic History

the Dao Kai/Sea Way in his The Fleet Of Stars, 8, which is -

more a philosophy than a religion (this has become a cliche although not a bad one);

a way of thinking, feeling and living;

behaviours rather than precepts;

organic;

founded on wholeness of life in oneness with the universe -

- and involves meditating under stars and under water.

OK. I could acknowledge the Sea Way while continuing to practice zazen.

All Hopes

The Day Of Their Return, 19.

Ivar lists the various "'...strong...particular reverences...'" (p. 220) in Aenean culture:

traditional religions

paganism

Cosmenosis

ancestor service

etc

 

"Ancestor service" is a new one. The plan outlined to Ivar by Jaan and the High Commander is that:

Orcans traveling around on newly arranged trade missions while fervently practicing their particular beliefs will inspire other Aeneans to redouble their own devotions;

meanwhile, Jaan's message does not contradict any of the various faiths;

"'Rather, the return of the Ancients fulfills all hopes, no matter what form they have taken.'" (ibid.)

The message has been designed to unite, not divide, Aeneans - at least initially. Ultimate cynical manipulation.

As a matter of fact, any secular political movement must, genuinely, not cynically, unite people despite their religious disagreements. Bad movements of necessity mimic good ones.

See also "The Divine Is With Us."

How A Philosophy Becomes A Religion

I understand that, in China, Taoist philosophy and Taoist religion are organized separately: different founders, different authoritative texts etc. Is Buddhism a religion or a philosophy? Both: philosophy, because its teaching is based on analysis of experience; religion, because it refers to the transcendent although it does not personify the latter.

Tatiana Thane explains her Cosmenosis to Chunderban Desai, calling it a philosophy rather than a religion but ending with an assertion that is mere religious hope.

Physical fact: an ancient space-faring race left relics on many planets.

Cosmenosist assertions:

reality perpetually grows and transcends itself;
the duty of the highest is to help raise the lower;
the Builders were too widespread to become extinct;
so they must have gone on to a higher level;
"'...on their chosen day they will return, for all our sakes.'"
-Poul Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2010), p. 130;
there are rumors of a forerunner.

The Ancients were the Chereionites. They will not return. The forerunner is a cruel deception by the last Chereionite - a deception on a scale unprecedented in human religions.

Religions

Two problems. I am incapacitated by a toothache - hopefully seeing dentist tomorrow. Secondly, this laptop gets nearer and nearer to its Ragnarok and, when it does stop working, there will be some delay while buying and starting to use a new one. There is still a lot more to post about The Day Of Their Return.

A few hopefully coherent thoughts:

I get a bit tired of the question whether a practice is or is not religious. If it looks like religion, then call it religion. The question comes up no less than three times, in relation to Cosmenosis, the Riverfolk and the Companions of the Arena. No doctrines are necessary. That is a historically recent development.

The Riverfolk chaplain (a religious term) says that their practice does not refer to gods or God but it does involve allness, unity, harmony, rites, symbols, contemplation, acknowledgment of fate, life and the transhuman. I call this monistic religion. In fact, I define religion as response to the highest transcendence, without necessarily personifying it, so the reference to the transhuman should clinch the matter if nothing else does. He says that they know that their symbols are symbols. So do any sophisticated practitioners of a religion.

Jains, Buddhists, Taoists and some Hindus deny a Creator (thus "God") and practice, variously, asceticism, yoga, magic, rituals, concentration, meditation and contemplation but not worship of the gods. They can hardly be described as not religious. The High Commander of the Companions defines religion as belief in the supernatural but I think that that is too narrow. There can be practice and experience without belief. The supernatural, if it exists, transcends the natural but there is transcendence (going beyond) in any case, e.g., human consciousness transcends animal consciousness which transcends unconsciousness.

I quoted two very different expressions of Aenean millennarianism, from Jao and Gabriel Stewart. Here is another from the ship's captain, Jao's mother:

"'You are the Firstling - our rightful leader that every Aenean can follow - to throw out those mind-stifling Terrans and make ready for the Advent that is promised - What can we do for you, lord?'"
-Poul Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2010), p. 175)

These different Aeneans express expectations. There is no need for any agreed set of doctrines. The captain does not mention the dead rising from the water or Ivar's son being more than human. But their common hope is focused on something transcendent.

Spirituality On Chereion

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, XX.

The Chereionites have concepts similar to Buddhism.

(i) Liannathan:

"'...the others have gone before us. We are those who have not yet reached the Goal; the bitter need of the universe for help still binds us.'" (p. 597)

This is a contradiction. Are the few remaining Chereionites still present because they have not yet reached the Goal or because, having reached it, they have opted to remain to help the universe? A being may be in either of these states but surely not in both simultaneously?

Two words of caution here: 

first, personally, I regard this aspect of Buddhism as mythological; 

secondly, we soon learn that Liannathan and the other Chereionites visible in a deserted city of their planet are not in any case really present but instead are holograms projected by Aycharaych.

However, regarding that second point, the ideas expressed by the hologram must be derived from Chereionite philosophy or spirituality. Further, the idea that "'...the others have gone before us...'" ties in with the later human Cosmenosis philosophy.

(ii) Aycharaych has access to the recorded likenesses of the Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, Hillel, Rumi and others. (Here I mention only the spiritually significant names.) These likenesses would have answered Fr. Axor's questions about the Universal Incarnation.

(iii) When Flandry has refused to help Aycharaych, the latter brings his fingers together as if in prayer. That is our last sight of this last Chereionite.