Philosophy

The philosophy of the Brightside Theogony.

There are specific motivations behind this philosophy. First, to bring reason to the experiences of the divine that many have had. The fact that many have had religious experiences is obvious. The challenge is to integrate it into a larger worldview. Second, to modernize the grand philosophical system of late antiquity neoplatonism. Neoplatonism, prior to Christian domination, was an elaborate philosophical system that constructively built upon the entire inheritance of Greek and Roman thought, as well as pieces from other places, such as Egypt and Southeast Asia. The goal is to do similarly, engaging in the nearly two-thousand years of dialogue since then to modernize and improve upon neoplatonism. Lastly, to reflect our intuitions regarding religion. We are radically pluralist regarding the existence of the gods and religious experiences and believe the gods to be genuinely real.

The Spheres
There has always already been chaos. Chaos, or nothing-in-particular, necessarily gives way to something-in-particular. This is affirmed in myths and philosophies all over the world. We will call the something-in-particular the world-sphere.

The world-sphere contains all that is real. We use the term "world-sphere" as a philosophical category and as illuminating imagery.

The world-sphere contains three categories: Divine, Intensive, and Actual.

The Divine sphere is generated first. The Divine is the field sitting on the border between Chaos and the Intensive sphere. It contains everything, all at once, but has yet to be actualized. In other words, the Divine is ideal or mental in nature, and not material. The Divine is polycentric in nature. As the Divine sphere generated, it expands, leaving behind a residue. From this residue comes Intensive sphere.

The Intensive sphere is generated next. Building off from the Divine sphere, the Intensive sphere is the field of differences in relation to each other. The Intensive full of life and monocentric in nature. The Intensive is always in contact with the Divine. The Intensive is becoming, or a process, and when the process is resolved, it generates the Actual.

The Actual sphere is physical and dead or static being, unable to be in motion on its own. It is constantly tilled by the Intensive, minimizing stagnation.

The Afterlife
The movement between life and death is inherent to reality. Smaller bits of life can come together to form larger, more complex life, like human life is made up of individual cells. When a complex bit of life dies, the smaller parts which remain alive go on with their own lives, and may eventually form another complex life-form. This is reincarnation.

The Triad
In order to make sense of reality, three principles are necessary: Being, Difference, and Unity. Being-Itself is Dionysus. Difference-Itself is Aphrodite. Unity-Itself is Artemis. Together, these three principles stand; remove one and they collapse. Without Difference, Being and Unity subsume everything into one Unified Being, as demonstrated by Parmenides. Without Unity, it is impossible for Being and Difference to be anything other than infinite fracturing. Without Being, you are left with nonexistent individuals. These three are necessarily differentiated, unified, and existent.