Ernst Bergmann Thesis 4

 

Thesis 4

The German religion knows no dogmas, because it is a religion.

What are dogmas?

    Dogmas are statements of faith or religious doctrines in which assertions are made about God and divine things that are contrary to truth and reason and, precisely because reason calls them contrary to reason, can and should only be believed on faith.

    The value of such alleged truths of faith for the religious and moral consciousness of man was greater in earlier times, when man believed more easily in miraculous and supernatural processes, than it is today. The responsible man urges in all his actions the unconditional and honest knowledge of truth, and makes all his decisions dependent on the insight into what is and what he has recognized as true. This must also be the guiding principle of the religion which stands in the center of his soul life; otherwise he has a dead religion and one which has not grown alive in his heart. And having a dead religion is worse than having none at all. If one adopts beliefs from foreign religions, which make something logically absurd appear to be true, this hinders rather than promotes living religiously and morality. It is a mistake for man, if not already jaded, to spend the best part of his soul power on thinking about the philosophical and theological subtleties of dogmas, or miracles, instead of putting this soul power into the full and loud service of the religious experience. Dogmatics is conceptualism, not religion. The culture of understanding (rationalism) has nowhere flourished so much as in Christological dogmatics and scholasticism, in which understanding is deprived of its culture in the interest of faith. (What Bergmann states here, in brief, is that believing in, thinking and writing about miracles becomes a sidetrack, a vigorous hobby that would better be spent on building knowledge. Proving and ordering miracles becomes an exercise in concept building that replaces the religion)

    
    The German-religious does not claim that religion is knowledge. He knows exactly the limits of human knowledge and reverently stops at the great mysteries of the world and of human existence. But he does not tolerate a break between knowledge and faith and above all no faith contradicting our existing knowledge. He wants to be a whole and unbroken human being, in whose inner being intellect and feeling, reason and faith do not fight with each other, but live together in natural unity. In particular, he resolutely rejects any contempt and condemnation of human reason, as if it were sinful and anti-divine. That which makes man a man and distinguishes him from other beings is his intellect and his reason. Therefore, a religion that eliminates and prohibits the free use of the intellect and reason can no longer be the religion of man today. It would then be a religion without man.

    
    The way of the German religion to the divine is observational knowledge. Faith in the sense that something unprovable would have to be taken as proven does not exist in the German religion. It is a dogma-free religion. But there is faith in the sense of confidence in the victorious power of the divine in the world and in man. Therefore, we speak in the German religion of a high faith in man, which is based on the insightful knowledge of the facts of the world. Therefore, and only therefore, we can call the German religion also the German doctrine of faith. At its origin, however, it is, like all Indo-European religions, a religion of knowledge and not a religion of faith or dogmatism. Odin in the Germanic religion, one of the noblest God-figures there is, is a God of knowledge. He sacrificed an eye for an insight and knowledge (of the essence of the world), but not for a belief or a dogma. 

    

    A dogma is not even worth a single finger, let alone an eye. 

Editors Notes: Yet another awesome thesis. Bergmann covers all fundamentals, laying out clear distinction between what we call Asatru and other faiths. The idea that people have to accept supernatural claptrap to be a "real" religious practitioner is an entirely Abrahamic idea. Instead of making testable truth (knowledge) the deity, these people simply state "God is good", "nonbelievers go to hell", "god made us all equal", etc. as untestable facts. Accepting these supernatural ideas brainwashes the flock into being compliant and dedicated. As a strategy for group survival, it is effective, but ultimately fails for Germanic people, who are by nature inclined to observe and question everything.

Asatru know that there is a purpose for existence (to create beauty, to preserve nature, to find the rules of mathematics, to discover the unknown) - and live and reproduce accordingly. Atheists deny all meaning, in effect are nihilists. Nihilists are like homosexuals, unlikely to have a long run in Darwinian survival, and thus the weakest choice of belief. The next weakest choice, miracles and faith, can make groups fitter for survival by providing a higher focus than simply eating and sleeping. However, the belief in supernatural, and not just the belief, but the decision-making based on miraculous thinking, can be ultimately fatal in the end. One thinks of the Japanese faith in their Emperor, or more currently, faith in diversity. These miracle-based belief systems will not hold up over time. The Germanic belief system of celebrating the changing seasons and the eternal forces of life will hold up over time, as long as there are Germanic people to follow reason and knowledge.