Enchantment and Morality

Atheism advocates a disenchanted world, but morality itself is a kind of enchantment. For instance, atheistic materialism disenchants humanity itself, saying that humas are just matter, like rocks or bacteria—there is no spirit, God, or divinity setting us apart from anything else (living or non-living) in the universe. But does the atheist say that rocks or bacteria should “work together for the good of all other rocks or bacteria” as a matter of morality? If not, then why should humans, whom the atheist insists, are mere matter themselves, do so? If the atheist says that humans are different than rocks or bacteria because they have free will, then he’s just re-enchanted the world and violated his own materialism, since free will is decidedly non-material (and not detectable scientifically). They dismiss spirit, God, miracles, and other products of religion as “superstition” and claim to be hard-nosed realists willing to confront the harsh reality of a disenchanted world, until the moment they realize that this would lead them straight where Nietzsche went—to a transvaluation of all values—at which point they pull back and re-enchant the world with talk of “moral duties” “human rights” and “the golden rule,” all of which goes against their entire materialist/disenchantment project. This, as I see it, is the ultimate problem of trying to ground morality in atheism.

Disrupting Higher Education with Assessment

As someone who believes there is quite a bit of corruption, sclerosis, and waste in higher education, I welcome the announcement of the creation of Austin University—a new institution dedicated to the pursuit of truth—but I also think it’s not going to be the disruptive force that higher education needs. The main reason colleges and universities (particularly the Ivies and their equivalents) have had such staying power, despite their well-documented dogmatism and decline in quality, is their signaling function. Currently, we have nothing comparable to a college degree that adequately communicates intelligence, conscientiousness, the ability to work with others, and flexibility across a wide range of dimensions (academic fields and modes of activity). So the disruption will come from an alternative signaling system that communicates what university degrees currently do. The ideal institution, then, would not be just another university with a mission statement that most of the others already have (Harvard’s motto is “veritas”), but one that assesses, measures, and communicates what a bachelor’s degree currently communicates, but at much lower cost in both time and money. I can foresee, for instance, a six month (rather than four year) “boot camp” for young people in which they are constantly evaluated on a range of exams and activities that, for six months, test what it currently takes colleges four years to test. Young people might brag someday about “tier 1 at boot camp” the same way they currently brag about a bachelor’s from Yale. I’d say the place to start, then, is to take standardized testing, use that as a core, and build from there.

The Virgin Birth, the Male Birth

Yet more evidence that the New Woke Orthodoxy is a religion that replaced the old Christian orthodoxy: they both require belief in immaculate conception miracles. Christianity had as one of its founding doctrines the idea that a virgin miraculously gave birth; the New Orthodoxy has as one of its central doctrines the idea that a man can miraculously give birth. Five centuries ago, if you had asked an independent observer who had never encountered Christianity which would be more miraculous, a virgin giving birth or a man giving birth, she likely would say the latter. The “rational optimists” who encourage us to abandon the old orthodoxy and embrace “rationality” are not themselves being rational. Those who took the Pinker/Dawkins/Ridley advice and “progressed beyond” Christianity only embraced a new irrationality that requires just as much faith to accept, but employs medieval methods of enforcement. A thousand years ago you could lose your job for refusing to believe in a virgin birth, now you can lose your job for failing to believe in a man birth. Is there any doubt that this is a regress to barbarism?