[General] What does "totality" mean in the following context?

[Tdol]

History begins at the moment of the creation of the universe (in modern scientific jargon—the Big Bang.) I assume you don't mean to say that the Big Bang is a human invention.

It certainly does, but the descriptions timeline all come from human observation and measurement. I took it to mean more recent history than the history of time.

 

[rodgers white]

The answer lies in the previous sentence:

"God erred in his creation by releasing “the evil nature of the sensual.” God yielded to a “romantic” impulse by making beings, ourselves, who are moved by sex. And so “the romantic content of the world overcomes the rational form of thought, and thought cedes its place to unthinking purpose,” physical love. God left us amidst “spiritual and moral relativism.”

All positions held by humankind, whether moral or ethical, are relative to one another. There is no such thing as an absolute. I will say that maintaining that God erred is the acme of human arrogance. When Ilyin can tell me where all of this nothingness came from and why it is expanding into more nothingness (the 'red shift') I'll take him more seriously.

Thank you for your reply. But I still don't understand your sentence "I will say that maintaining that God erred is the acme of human arrogance." What do you mean? Could you illustrate a bit more?

 

[rodgers white]

Isn't it rather arrogant for nothing more than a tiny speck on a single planet in an infinite universe to claim that God erred?

Thank you. I see what you mean.

 

[rodgers white]

Could anyone give me an example to illustrate that we were left by God to live amidst “spiritual and moral relativism” in our life? Much appreciated if you can help.

 

[jutfrank]

Could anyone give me an example to illustrate that we were left by God to live amidst “spiritual and moral relativism” in our life? Much appreciated if you can help.

I'm not sure what kind of example you want. By spiritual and moral relativism, he means a lack of absolute truth. Without an absolute truth, what we find moral or immoral is relative to context. The text says "Ilyin found it immoral that a fact might be grasped in its historical setting."

 

[rodgers white]

I'm not sure what kind of example you want. By spiritual and moral relativism, he means a lack of absolute truth. Without an absolute truth, what we find moral or immoral is relative to context. The text says "Ilyin found it immoral that a fact might be grasped in its historical setting."

You mean that Ilyin thought that it was immoral that the fact (the world of empirical existence cannot be theologically justified.) might be understood in its historical setting(context). Is that right?

 

[jutfrank]

You mean that Ilyin thought that it was immoral that the fact (the world of empirical existence cannot be theologically justified.) might be understood in its historical setting(context). Is that right?

No. He says a fact, meaning any fact.

 

[rodgers white]

No. He says a fact, meaning any fact.

Got it.