Family
In Transcendent Reality, the family is the basic social unit, not the individual. Strong, functional, unified, two-parent families are to be supported and encouraged. It is from this basic social unit that future generations flow, and we want the young to receive the greatest care, protection, nurture and guidance so that future generations enter into adulthood as fully functional, capable and dedicated individuals ready, willing and able to contribute to the continuing advancement of the greater society under Transcendent Reality.
The Importance of Sociality in the Individual
We are each, when standing alone, barely capable of sustaining our self - our back exposed to predators, parasites attaching to us, no companion to groom us or watch our back. All our efforts are then devoted only to the immediate moment of survival, with no time to spare for the future. Our lot as such is that we would always be no more than an ordinary animal, foraging constantly for food and shelter. Forever we would be at the mercy of the elements and circumstance--in control of nothing, not even our own destiny, nor hope of ever gaining or becoming more.
Yet together, when working in alignment and common purpose, we are able to terrorize the predator, remove the parasites infesting us, produce all that we may need, for summer and winter-- in fact, more than we can consume. Thus cooperative, we can barter with our neighbors and set aside time to ponder our future-- and in that ability we hold the seed of hope for survival, continuance-in-kind, and prosperity. The degree of alignment of the individual with the greater common good is the sociality of the individual.
Transcendent Reality holds that the probability of a child developing the highest degree of sociality is greatest in the nuclear two-parent family, and that probability progressively weakens if that nuclear family is weakened during the child’s development into an adult.
Broken Families
A broken family may be a single-parent father and children, a single-parent mother and children, split families (some children with the mother and some with the father), mixed families (mother or father with children from another union), abandoned children with no parents, orphaned children, abandoned or orphaned children cared by surrogate parents, abandoned or orphaned children cared by institutions, and abandoned orphaned children on their own.
Statistically valid studies of families infer that children with both biological parents involved in child rearing have a decided advantage over the children of the single-parent family - especially those with a single-parent mother. Children with little or no parental involvement in their rearing are at great risk to perish early, be dysfunctional in social settings, be targeted by homosexuals and pedophiles, and be disruptive to social harmony.
The greater community of Transcendent Reality has an obligation to promote the cohesion and continuance of the nuclear family. Moreover, the greater community has an obligation to lend its hand to promote the welfare of the children of families irretrievably broken. Transcendent Reality holds that protection and nurturing of children within the Transcendent Reality community is a communal responsibility, as well as a family responsibility. Our children must be guarded from the incompetence of caregivers, and the predations of pedophiles and homosexuals lurking in social institutions. Whenever identified and verified, such individuals must be removed from any contact with children.
Social Parasites
In modern western societies today, the nuclear two-parent family is under severe attack from informal coalitions of homophiles, pedophiles, lawyers, militant women’s groups such as the so-called National Organization of Women, and ultra-liberal senators and congressmen buying into their anti-family agendas. The main target of these social parasites is to remove the father from having any influence in the nurture and protection of his family – or to so cripple the father’s influence as to effectively remove him as an obstacle to these parasites’ evil intentions,
The homophiles and pedophiles want access to the children in the family, to confuse them, use them and abuse them sexually. With the father out of the way, they are free to pursue their nefarious activities without fear of discovery or retaliation. Homophiles and pedophiles target youth organizations to gain proximity to the vulnerable young. They have infected formal religions and social institutions, including the Catholic church, the Boy Scouts of America, and actively seek greater access to military organizations.
Transcendent Reality opposes the hidden agendas of homophiles and pedophiles. We hold that homophiles and pedophiles must be removed from any position where contact or authority over children is likely to exist or occur.
Lawyers, almost en masse, are out to plunder the wealth and assets of the father. Most members of legislative branches of government are lawyers, especially sympathetic to laws promoting the divorce industry, and the plunder of the husband and father’s wealth. Family courts and the ranks of judges are populated with lawyers having little regard for the rights of fathers, and routinely deny them their parental authority over their children.
In one form or another, these parasitic lawyers have infected the legal system from top to bottom, but have especially targeted the family and juvenile court system. Legal codes enacted in many states actively encourages the dissolution of the nuclear two-parent family by promoting the idea that women are abused by men routinely as a matter of course, and that the welfare of children are better served by eliminating the father from parental authority, and greatly restricting the father’s access to his children.
Transcendent Reality opposes the wholesale assault on the nuclear two-parent family by legions of lawyers, legislatures, and judges. Transcendent Reality supports and encourages the strengthening of the two-parent nuclear family, and restoring the important and essential role of the father in nurturing and protecting his family from these predator parasites.
The welfare of children
The welfare of children is best served when both parents of a child maintain parental responsibilities toward the child, even if the parents can no longer abide together peaceably. In such cases of divorced or separated parents, one parent should not be favored over another, except for suckling infants, in which case the mother, if nursing the child with her own breast milk, should be the primary custodian until the child is weaned, or no longer cares for the mother’s nipple.
Unless one parent is found by trial or confession to be an unfit parent, both parents should otherwise share parenting responsibilities equally.
The grounds for charging a parent as unfit should be as follows:
1) Habitual neglect of the child such as to substantially deprive it of nurture or protection. (Mere absence from the home because of the exigencies of work or craft does not constitute neglect, so long as the absent parent provides substantially for the welfare of the child.)
2) Sexual predation of the parent towards the child, or
3) Deliberate or willful battery on the child by the parent such as to cause severe or disabling injury or result in permanent physical damage to the child. (Parents must be free to discipline their children, without undue state interference, including reasonable corporal punishment and confinement.)
All too frequently unfounded and untrue charges of abuse are made by one parent against the other in the emotionally charged atmosphere of a separation or divorce. Such allegations should not be given weight unless, and until, such charges have been proven true in a fair trial before an unbiased jury.
Family, Clan, Tribe and State
Transcendent Reality recognizes an evolution in human society as a progression from Family to Clan, Clans to Tribe, and Tribes to State. (See Social Evolution.)
In Transcendent Evolution a clan is a collection of related families operating as a social unit, a tribe is a primarily a collection of related clans and families operating as a social unit, and a state is a collection of families, clans and often related tribes within a geographic area operating under a central government.
Family. The individual members of a cohesive family unit have a “sense of loyalty” to the family as a whole that is transcendent to the individuals in the family – that is, in times of danger to the family, the welfare of the family takes precedence over the welfare of the individual. We name this transcendent family force merely as “family loyalty,” as it manifests itself strongly in all but the most dysfunctional families.
Clan. Individuals and families within a cohesive clan may have, in addition to “family loyalty,” a “common sense of identity” to the clan as a whole which is transcendent to the individuals and individual families within the clan – that is, in times of danger to the clan, the welfare of the clan takes precedence over the welfare of individuals or the welfare of the individual family within the clan. We name this transcendent clan force merely as “clan identity” as it is a fairly common for clans of related families to develop strong emotional bonds to one anther, especially when opposing threats from outside clans and families.
Not all groups of related families develop such cohesiveness and sense of common purpose such as to form a recognizable sense of clan identity. Strong clan identity generally forms at the expense of strong family identity – achieved primarily by prohibiting incestuous relations within a family, and encouraging inter-family marriages within the clan, particularly first-cousin, to blur the divisions between families, and blend the individual families into a larger, extended family. An extended family is defined here as a family plus any of the following: grandparents, uncles and aunts, and cousins.
Tribe. Individuals, families, and related clans may have, in addition to family loyalty and clan identity, a “sense of the greater tribal community” which is transcendent to the individuals, families, and clans comprising the tribe – that is, in times of danger to the tribe, the welfare of the tribe takes precedence over the welfare of the individual, the individual family, or the individual clan within the tribe. We name this transcendent tribal force “god” with a little “g.” It is from within tribal associations that we begin to observe the emergence of a “community soul,” and we call it “god.”
It is a less common for related clans to develop strong emotional bonds to one anther, except when opposing a common external enemy, typically threats from outside tribes, clans and families. Not all groups of related clans develop such cohesiveness and sense of common purpose such as to form a recognizable sense of tribal identity, When it does occur, the tribe has a life force – a “community soul” we call the "god" of the tribe. Strong tribal identity generally forms at the expense of strong family and clan identity – achieved primarily by prohibiting incestuous relations within a family, and discouraging intra-clan (first-cousin) marriages within the clan,. Instead the tribe promotes inter-clan marriages between less-related families and clans to blur the divisions between clans, and blend the individual clans into a larger, related tribe.
When the unity of the tribe is strong, the life force or god of the tribe is also strong, and individual members of the tribe will put the good of the tribe before their own good, or even their own life. When the unity of the tribe is weak, the life force or god of the tribe is also weak, because individual members of the tribe will put their own good before the good of the tribe, which can lead to the disappearance or death of the tribe as an entity.
State. Individuals, families, clans and tribes within a common geographical area may have in addition to family loyalty, clan identity, and tribal sense of community, a “sense of the greater social good” of the state, which is transcendent to the individuals, families, clans and tribes comprising the state – that is, in times of danger to the state, the welfare of the state takes precedence over the welfare of the individual, the individual family, the individual clan, or the individual tribe within the tribe. We name this transcendent state force “God” with a capital “G.” It is from within state associations that we begin to observe the emergence of a sense of the “greater social good” and we call it “God.”
States are very different social organizations from tribes, clans or families. It is less common for clans and tribes within a state’s geographic borders to be closely related, or develop strong emotional bonds to one anther, except when opposing a common external enemy, typically threats from outside the state, but often from tribes, clans and families within the state’s geographical boundaries fighting for independence, or vying with each other for control of the state government.
Not all groups of families, clans, and tribes within a common geographical area develop such cohesiveness and sense of common purpose such as to form a recognizable sense of the “greater social good” – i.e., state identity, When it does occur, the state’s life force – a “common sense of purpose – a sense of the “greater social good” is the state’s “soul” we call the "God" of the state. Strong state identity generally forms at the expense of strong family, clan, and tribal identity – achieved primarily by prohibiting incestuous relations within a family, discouraging intra-clan (first-cousin) marriages within the clan, and even extending the ban on cousin marriages to second or third degrees of sanguinity within a tribe. In addition, the state promotes inter-tribal marriages between unrelated families to blur the divisions between tribes and blend the individual tribes into a larger, related state.
When the unity of the state is strong, the life force or God of the state is also strong, and individual members of the state will put the greater social good of the state before their own good, or even their own life. When the unity of the state is weak, the life force or God of the state is also weak, because individual members of the state will put their own good before the greater social good of the state, which can lead to the disappearance or death of the state as an entity.
Collective Life forms
The concept of a collective life form is not strange to science or philosophy. Many biologists consider some jellyfish and some flatworms to be colony creatures. A colony creature is like a collective creature, except that its component individuals are glued together to provide a common means of locomotion, food processing, and defense. But if you cut a jellyfish or flatworm into small pieces, each piece can form a new jellyfish or flatworm. Many plants also have this capability.
A collective creature, in contrast to a colony creature, has members which are not glued together, but nevertheless act in unison and with a common purpose. Examples of collective creatures are many, and include ant nests, bee hives, wasp nests, wolf packs, wild-dog packs, porpoise pods, and so forth. The individual animal in these collectives is recognizably a separate entity, but each individual would have a difficult time surviving and propagating the species outside the collective boundaries.
Human beings are also social creatures which form elaborate social organizations. As such, these human social organizations fit the definition of a collective creature when the collective spirit is strong enough to propagate across generations, and is not dependent on the existence of any particular individual or member.
Of gods and Gods.
In Transcendent Reality, the cohesiveness and unity of purpose of a human group – its sense of the common or greater good, is a measurable quality, If it exists in a group at the tribal level of social evolution, we call it the god of the tribe. If it exists in a group at the state level of social evolution, then we call it the God of the state.
Transcendent reality chooses the terms god, and God, deliberately to represent the soul of the collective life form that is a tribe or a state because they more accurately reflect the true nature of the spiritual sense in religion. With this more accurate sense of meaning, in the both the secular and religious sense, gods and Gods are very real, and measurable to some degree.
Omniscience and omnipotence. And then what of claims of an omniscient and omnipotent God as claimed by many states and many religions? The idea of a single omniscient and omnipotent beings controlling human destiny is a relatively new concept. The gods of the ancients were more of “my god can beat up your god” type.
As to any existence in reality of an omnipotent or omniscient creature, we defer any answer – we have yet to encounter one. All investigation to date point to tribes and states cloaking their god or God with such claims in a social deception to intimidate their rivals and enemies – and to rally their own members in common cause. Even the leaders, chiefs, kings, and heads of state become caught up in this social deception so as to believe it – as when they call on their God to prevail against their rivals. When they succeed, the self-deception is complete. (See The Color of God, Truth, and Deceit)