Eschaton
I am guessing that it is high time we attended to the Eschaton. Up to now it has only been mentioned in passing as I continued to procrastinate on this eventuality. So here we go, finally. My hope is that after this much preparation, the eschaton will be seen as the natural and inevitable resolution of any immaterialist history. It will be the bottom line of any rationalist metaphysic, the capstone of any coherent metanarrative, the piece de resistance of the best possible world.
Nonetheless, I readily admit that this is an uphill battle. In the popular mind, eschatological doomsaying is the favored cliché for depicting fundamentalist irrationality and radicalism. This stark image is deeply entrenched in the modern mind. Could one imagine anything more likely to resist revision? You see how I try at least to win the sympathy vote.
Yet, the arguments are simple and direct. A story is not coherent if not complete. It is not complete without a proper end. Also an immaterial world has a maintenance issue. It will not be self-maintaining, not beyond its allotted time. Its allotted time is determined by the parameters of its teleological creation. In the immaterialist metaphysic it is the omega point that is the primary locus of the creative potency. The traditional Alpha of Genesis fame is only the tail, and it does not wag this dog.
It is not a matter of if, but of when. What is the best possible time for the end? Fortunately for any nervous Nellies out there, I am a millennialist. I maintain that a proper end only comes after a proper Millennium. We give ourselves a thousand years to get our house in order, and otherwise prepare for the spiritual denouement. This should be plenty of time. If anything, we are likely to exercise our prerogative to expedite things in the likely event of our spiritual impatience, as in, 'Let's get this show on the road!'
And what is the most expeditious timing for the Millennium? Here I will be a bit more adamant. Now is the time. My only point is: what are we waiting for? Quite a few people, of course, are waiting for a messianic event. Are we going to let a little thing like that stop us? I don't think so. But you might want to stay tuned.
5/26/02