THE FEAR FACTOR: what we fear and why.

Since the origins of man we have struggled to find meaning. This is important to us. We may say life has no meaning, but we cannot live as there is no meaning, no purpose, no narrative greater than the story of our individual lives. Philosophers look for three things, because they feel three things exist that explain the life of our species. The purpose of life, the nature of progress and the identity of man are crucial to solving the meaning to life question. Man has sought God, not as a crutch or to explain lightening, but to provide us with information on why we exist. The explanations of nature are too shallow and incomplete to give us the answers we seek.

We have asked God, what makes man, the creature he is? What divides us from the rest of reality? Why are we not as the animals? Man is flesh as other creatures are, we are a body we can see and feel, but we are more than this flesh. The body of man does not define who we are. Dead or alive the body is much the same. The fact that we can conceive of the essence of man being transferred into animals, computers, robots or other human bodies, is a clear indicator we believe there is an essence, that transcends the parts we can see and feel.

All of nature is governed by natural law. We know our body will fall, if we step off a building. But we can dream of flying. We know the body ages and dies. Yet, we do not age. Dying is incomprehensible. Lop off what part of our body you will. That does not matter. We remain whole with our identity intact.

We do not demand society obey natural law, we do not even claim that the laws of man are derived from or represent anything in nature. Law is an artificial environment created by humans for humans. Humans believe there is a moral law not attached to nature and which supersedes all human law. Natural law governs nature, human law governs bodily action, but the moral law governs the essence of mankind. But there is no moral law in nature, and we cannot invent it, so where does it come from? Why do we feel compelled to recognize its authority?

Human civilizations progress. At least most do. Progress is somewhat similar to evolution. Mankind does not progress physically. We civilize as a progressive event. We progress socially and culturally while our bodies remain as before. We progress morally in the sense that civilization is inherently more in line with the moral law, than a primitive society. Progress could even be considered mankind moving away from natural law, through human-devised legal systems, to perfection guided by the moral law. This presupposes progress is ontological. Ontology is something most philosophers claim does not exist in nature. It would mean progress is a pulling not a pushing. This would mean that the purpose of man is to progress to a predefined identity. This of course is impossible in a universe composed solely of matter, energy, space and time (MEST).

But it is difficult to accept mankind does not have a purpose. Inventions are not responses to survival pressures; in fact, the least inventive societies are those that live closest to subsistence. What is more the purpose of man would be both individual, and social. We each have an individual purpose that is aligned with a universal purpose of man, or the idea of progress would not be possible. The individual who lives in a way that does not align with the path his community in on, is a misfit and often ostracized. We are an organism living on information, on a journey of the spirit and we are all part of the story we are learning.

What the end of the story is, no one is able to say. We cannot even define whom we are. It is easy to describe all animals and plants according to their unique physical characteristics. To do this with man is akin to blasphemy. We are not our bodies any more than a computer is its case.

We do not define a computer as a 4 x 15 x 13 case with a 18 oz keyboard and a two tone mouse.

Love persists because no one falls in love with a body. No one feels his or her lover is defined by the outer shell of a person. We love the soul not the physical structures and elements. Love remains as the body ages.

This suggests what part of the problem is. Purpose, identity and progress have nothing to do with material attributes. Phenomenology as a philosophy is satisfied dealing with material existence. It is blind to information. Humans are more about what we know and believe, than what can be seen, heard, felt, smelt or tasted.

A glance or an unkind word or a gesture of sympathy can tell us more about a person than his body.

The three issues mentioned above are connected. We progress towards an identity, and this gives us purpose.

It seems impossible to decipher the meaning of life without knowing what makes us human. Without knowing what defines us, how can we know if we are making progress? Surely a civilized man is closer to the intrinsic nature of man than the less civilized? We have progressed further; we have fulfilled our purpose to a greater degree. If progress does not serve to fulfill our purpose and if fulfilling our purpose does not bring us closer to our human identity, then what is the alternative? If this is not true, nothing makes sense. If there is no purpose, no progress, and no identity to achieve, we are lost. Not lost, as not being able to find a way but lost, in the sense we are floating in an ocean, which has covered all land for all time. There is no where to go.

Our society is full of divisions and polarizations. We do not need more. Is the division between advanced and primitive warranted? We have divided ourselves into conservative and liberal, into capitalists and communists, into believer and pagan and into left and right. There are people calling for change as regards to racial, gender, sexual and religious division. Many of these divisions are more decorative than useful. They seem significant but do not tell us much about those within the group. The truth is there is no place to draw a clear and distinct line between these supposed polar opposites. What is a religion merges into what is secular? Witches and Buddhist and even communists are difficult to place, given a religious versus secularist, axis.

Indeed, the imagery of two polar opposites divided by an infinity of grey, requires we plot all observed cases in the grey area. Extreme polarities generate longer and more spirited debates but eliminate the possibility of a resolution. Indeed, experience shows us that debate tends to push the participants further away from each other, towards a more polarized view.

Consider the animosity between those who favor Trump and those who support Biden. The arguments have little to do with either person. Few commentators think either man or party can or will solve any major social problem. Political leaders have become symbols of something deeper. Its almost as if debate has turned Jesus and Satan into tropes. Leaders are totems, symbolizing the spirit of the tribe.

The totems of the tribe symbolize the tribe. The totem represents in profile, the attributes the tribe values most. Trump is the image of the Alpha male. But if Trump is serves as the totem leader of the right, how does this accord with our purpose. Is Trump an approximation of what we think man ought to look like or act like?

If we are fighting a war of good and evil, we need to know where the line is. We need to know who is on the right side and what makes it the right side to be on. Or, is it more honest to ask which of the two options is the least wrong? If either side is right and if the other is objectively wrong, ought not the right side to have won by now? What if these polar opposites are separated by an infinity of grey, because the division is artificial? Has the right and left become divided by marketing, more than by substance? The enemy exists because the other side mandated them as the enemy. Or, does our purpose, and identity give us a progress that divides us in some way?

It does not really matter which side you are on; it seems to be on the right side. Regardless of your position, you are on the right side, and the enemy are those who oppose you.

Too many switch sides, for there to be anything fundamental about the left and right as they have been configured.

At the root of all this conflict is little more than a fear of the other.

In our fear of the other we have gradually lost faith in our destiny. We are defined by those whom we oppose. We are not part of the left, so we are on the right.

We fear or are made to fear, and this gives us our division. Only in faith can we find our identity, purpose and progress.

To end the fear, we must trust the people of faith. If we do not trust the people of faith, we must embrace the fear that grips so much of society?

To have faith in others there must be more than empty hope. 1 Pet. 3:15 tells us: But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

What is the answer we are to give? We have hope because we have faith. And the more certain our faith, the greater the faith.

Uncertainty is the mother of fear. Progress is the development of certainty. Civilization is not birthed in confusion. If we have a purpose, it would be to find faith and indeed to discover the answer we have for our faith.

What we fear is loss. Exposure to risk creates the threat of loss. This is experienced as fear. But if we can prevent loss, we remove all reason to fear. It is not the things of this world we fear losing as much as losing faith. Imagine a world in which all was against all, and every mans hand was turned against his brother.

A community of faith is predictable. We cannot have faith in tomorrow if there is doubt tomorrow will come. We cannot have faith in a randomized environment. Uncertainty creates risk and risk erodes faith.

If we do not own what we create, uncertainty is increased. A claim against what someone created is a liability. A liability is a claim against assets and represents risk. Liabilities create uncertainty and are a barrier to faith.

When we eliminate claims by others to what they did not create, liabilities are eliminated. Liabilities are external claims to assets. A liability creates a claim on your wealth. Liabilities mean you are exposed to a threat of loss. By turning your assets into equity, liabilities are liquidated. Threats of loss are ended. Where there is no fear and no threat of loss, there is faith.

A community of faith is formed when fear is eradicated. To eliminate liabilities and threats of loss the community must come together to liquidate all claims to assets. The community creates an Exchange to oversee the process.

Exchanges turn fear into faith by liquidating all sources of risk and threats of loss. All liabilities are liquidated. The process by which faith replaces fear and communities of fear become communities of faith, is called sanctification. Sanctification is a technical word describing a formal process by which a fear-filled community is turned into a community of faith.

Sanctification creates progress because it fulfills the inalienable purpose of man, which is to identify who we are, giving meaning to life.

Life does have meaning. It does have a purpose. Mankind does have an identity beyond what we see in the mirror. If we live in faith and remove the shadow of fear it is all revealed.

For more on how to sanctify your community and turn fear into faith, feel free to access more videos and other information on apriorian.com