Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 596 Man-Made Divinity

Unlike other religious sects, the scriptures of the God Worshipping Society are not all traditional European ones. Their scriptures have a lot of oriental influences.

Moreover, Guo Kang knew very well that in reality, it was not the organization that followed the doctrine, but the doctrine that followed the organization. The organization of the Purple Tent Khanate was much more advanced than that of the barbarians. Therefore, he was confident in absorbing Seris's experience.

"In the entire West, no one is more similar to the civilization of the Central Plains than us Romans." He said confidently: "If we can recognize the situation and determine the direction of our efforts, there will definitely be hope."

"That's true, but I don't know if it's too shocking here." Tuohuan was a little hesitant.

"Of course, this cannot be accomplished in one or two days. We have to do it step by step." Guo Kang said: "This ultimate goal is very far away, but as long as we determine the direction, we will reach the destination one day."

"The difference in direction is the most important. Is it humans who endow gods with divinity, or gods who endow humans with divinity? This question is the most basic difference between the Central Plains civilization and all other civilizations. We Romans should transform ourselves from Xia to barbarians, not from barbarians to Xia. We should always continue to move closer to the advanced civilization of the Central Plains."

"This statement... seems to have some problems." Tuo Huan asked doubtfully: "I know that the attitude of the people in the Central Plains towards gods is a little different, but they would not directly say that humans provide divinity to gods."

"Of course I won't say it directly." Guo Kang explained: "But have you ever thought about what divinity is?"

"Divinity... isn't it just divinity? What else could it be?" Tuo Huan didn't know how to answer for a moment: "This is a basic definition of theology, right? It should be talking about God's characteristics, or holiness or something? This should be the supreme concept. Can it be analyzed further?"

“Of course.” Guo Kang nodded. “Sacredness itself comes from human cognition. How to identify sacredness can of course be analyzed.”

"You are..." Tuo Huan was speechless for a moment: "Master Wang also said that you are the pillar of the next generation of the church. Your idea is too scary. If they knew, they would not only call you a heretic, but also an atheist."

"That's not a big deal. I know the situation in the church very well." Guo Kang told him, "It's not surprising that some discussions in the church are considered heresy by outsiders. Of course, the facts are definitely not like that."

"The core function of the church is to study theology and doctrine. As a center for theological research, there will definitely be many new ideas emerging, and the study and exploration of knowledge is much more in-depth than the outside world. These ideas are of course very novel to outsiders who don't know much about it."

"However, many times, people outside the church do not understand such profound knowledge, so they make random guesses or even take the words literally, thinking that these statements are so strange. Therefore, the less educated people are, the more they think that the church has many heresies, and that the fallacies they have come up with are the real ones."

"But as a specialized institution, the church is of course prepared and restrained. Although there seem to be some novel things, it's just because ordinary people don't know enough about them and are surprised by them. Our church has a large number of professionals, various self-reflection and mutual inspection processes, supervision and management by the court, and more importantly, the Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother are always watching. It is much more perfect than those unconventional religious people outside. So, this kind of questioning is actually meaningless."

"Oh, so that's it..." Tuohuan said half-understandingly.

"Let's get back to the topic itself." Guo Kang continued to explain: "The concept of divinity is not difficult to understand if you think about it seriously."

"Our human abilities are extremely limited. An ordinary person can only command five to ten people. Even if someone is extremely capable, it is impossible for him to personally contact everyone to manage a larger organization. Therefore, we need a way to complete management under such limitations and allow others, even those we have never met, to accept command and dispatch."

"So what is the most convenient way to achieve this function? At present, it is faith." He said: "This is why we need the concept of divinity."

"That is to say, we need gods to grant authority and religious scriptures to prove the legitimacy of the court. That's probably it..." Tuohuan thought for a moment and said, "This is easy to understand. This is how countries, big and small, basically operate."

"Yes, and there is actually something worth noting about faith itself, which is that human thinking is very practical. Regardless of the significance of religious organizations in grassroots management, even if it is religious doctrines themselves, if you want to convince people, you have to come up with something more 'practical'." Guo Kang continued.

"The church's scriptures are always filled with various miracles. Regardless of which sect, the priests always talk about the many benefits of faith and the terrible consequences of disbelief. Even though many of these statements are very vague and cannot be verified, they are indispensable. If they are not said in this way, people really won't believe it."

"Even the apostles of Brother Tian and the followers of the God Ancestor only chose to convert after they understood their virtues and witnessed the miracles, let alone ordinary people? Therefore, belief in God should be pure and unconditional in theory. But the church itself obviously knows what the actual situation is, but it is not easy to say it directly."

"To put it bluntly, the so-called divinity is a certain characteristic of God. People's worship is not unconditional and can be done to anyone. They will worship gods because of this unique characteristic." Guo Kang said, and asked: "Then what kind of characteristics do you think are the most useful?"

"Ah? That's too much." Tuohuan didn't react for a moment.

"Think about what I just said." Guo Kang reminded: "Humans live in groups, and establishing an organization is the most important thing for people. In this process, the most important thing is to establish the authority of the leader. So what kind of leader is the most authoritative and most easily respected by people?"

"Of course it's the one who has the strongest ability in this area and can lead everyone to get things done." Tuohuan replied.

"Yes. To put it simply, he needs to give the best choice and let everyone follow it." Guo Kang said, "Isn't that correct?"

Tuo Huan nodded.

"Look, we just said that the authority of a leader is the most important use of divinity. And as the purest source of divinity, God is of course the most authoritative and can provide support to others. So, this highest source of authority should of course have a most basic characteristic - He is always right." Guo Kang continued immediately.

"Because we have also said that even European religious beliefs are also based on practicality. This quality is necessary to make people trust Him, to empower others, and to let everyone use His authority to maintain the organization." He gave an example: "You see, all sects are the same in this regard."

“So, if you ask what divinity is, the answer is simple: divinity is always right.”

"Hey? How did you get around?" Tuohuan seemed to have not caught up yet.

"...I'll write it down later, you can take your time to read it." Guo Kang had no choice but to say: "For now, just focus on this conclusion."

"This conclusion itself is nothing special. It is a matter recognized by everyone." Tuo Huan admitted: "I remember that the Catholic Church also believed that because the Father is always right, the Bishop of Rome would not make mistakes when interpreting the scriptures because he is directly connected to the Father's will. I guess everyone thinks so."

"But you said at the beginning that divinity is given to God by humans. Why is that? Is it related to this conclusion?" he asked. "It is related." Guo Kang nodded: "Look, we have already concluded that divinity is always right. So, do you think this conclusion is meaningful to Heavenly Father?"

"what?"

"The Heavenly Father is above the world, and the concepts of the human world have no effect on Him. Concepts such as right and wrong apply to humans, not to the Heavenly Father - because human groups, in their constant labor and practice, will frequently encounter matters that require decision-making, and will constantly need correct guidance. As for the Heavenly Father, there is no need to worry about these things," said Guo Kang.

"As the only true God, Heavenly Father is loving and benevolent. He is impartial and will not interfere in the trivial matters of the world. It is because people ask Him for help that they create this concept and summarize the definitions of divinity and infallibility to help themselves establish organizations and live better."

“So, I said that although the word divinity is sacred, it is not unexplainable or untouchable. On the contrary, it is just a concept summed up by people in production labor; it is a tool used by humans themselves.” Guo Kang finally said: “As long as it can be used well, used to pursue righteousness and practice the great way, it is in line with the teachings of the Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother. The gods will also be pleased with this.”

"So, this statement is certainly not heresy. On the contrary, I think that only by deeply understanding these phenomena and concepts can we better understand human society and find the right path. This is what Heavenly Father encourages us to do."

"The Seris civilization was enlightened to this aspect much earlier than we are. They knew very early on that it was human needs that determined the existence of divinity. People attributed this concept to the sky, letting it act as an intermediary to gather all divinity and then grant it to the ruler. If the ruler is qualified, he will have a higher legitimacy; if he is unqualified, he will be regarded as 'losing virtue' and will be easily criticized and resisted because he has undermined the basis of his own legitimacy. The ruler went a step further and granted authority to officials at all levels in the court. The entire country started to operate in this way."

"This idea is the most stable and efficient so far. That's why I dare say that there is no problem in learning their ideas and even going a step further."

"Can we go one step further? Aren't you afraid that everyone will go crazy..." Tuohuan said in surprise.

"This is not a rare thing. The trend has already emerged. Let me give you an example." Guo Kang disagreed. After thinking for a while, he said, "We have said before that with the development of the times, people are more and more inclined to believe that man and heaven are one. I estimate that if this continues, under the concept of divinity, the positioning of heaven and man will also be combined into one."

"Under that circumstance, there would be no need for the Heavenly Father to step in and use His divinity as a guarantee to provide legitimacy to the power of the rulers on earth. The people as a whole group could directly grant authority to the rulers and use the people's permission as the source of legitimacy of their rule."

"But if this happens, the Seris-style emperor will probably no longer be needed." He thought for a moment and finally said, "Because the core power of the Central Plains-style emperor is not the ruling power, or even the military power, but the right to worship the 'Heaven'. If the Heaven is no longer in this chain of divine transmission, the position of the emperor will no longer be necessary."

"What will the country become then?" Tuohuan asked.

"It will become like our Rome." Guo Kang thought for a while and said, "The core power of the country has only two, one is the right of sacrifice, and the other is the military power. The right of sacrifice is actually a way to obtain legitimacy. If the transmission of legitimacy no longer passes through heaven, then it will not be a process of people giving to heaven, heaven giving to the emperor, and the emperor giving to the court. Instead, it should be like Rome, where people give to the citizens' assembly, and the citizens' assembly gives to the court."

"But military power will not be dismantled in this way. Therefore, it must remain centralized and important. In this case, the country's top administrator may be more like the head of Rome."

"However, Rome's religion was too scattered and its government institutions were very primitive, so there was nothing special about it. If it really developed, it would definitely be a different situation."

"That's not something I can come up with." Tuohuan shook his head. "I can only say that during the period of the Principate, the environment was similar to what you said, but in reality, the difference should be quite large. At that time, the Romans couldn't even unify their beliefs. Our ideas are something that came after the rise of the Church of God. So, there shouldn't be much comparison value."

"As for asking people to directly authorize the rulers, I don't think it's feasible. In theory, this is possible, but when it comes to actually governing, there must be a detour." He thought for a moment and pointed out another problem: "In theory, it is possible to achieve unity between heaven and man, and say that humans also have divinity. But can humans afford this kind of divinity?"

"Power and responsibility are equal. The reason why we have to take a detour and ask the Heavenly Father to come out as a mediator is because ordinary people cannot meet the corresponding requirements of divinity."

"You also said that the essence of divinity is 'no mistakes'. The so-called divine right of kings is to tell everyone that this ruler is chosen by the infallible Heavenly Father, so everyone should not think too much and just listen to him. In this way, the ruler has a basis for issuing orders. The question is, the Heavenly Father can never make mistakes, but can the people?"

"I think this is difficult. We have all studied Greek history and know all kinds of lessons from that time." He reminded: "It is impossible for the people not to make mistakes. In fact, the more people who can speak, the greater the probability of making mistakes. If they are allowed to authorize leaders, even in a formal manner, it will cause serious problems - if mistakes are made, who will be responsible?"

"If there is a middleman, the people will have someone to blame, and they can curse the thief and God for not having eyes, which is fierce but understandable. But if there is no middleman, who should they blame? They can't blame themselves."

"To be able to avoid making any mistakes, even in matters of national importance, is already at the level of an ancient sage king. If everyone has this ability, they can try to do this..."

"However, I remember that when Mr. Huang explained the Confucian classics to me, he said that Mencius' school insisted on the theory of human nature being good and believed that 'everyone can be Yao or Shun'. But other schools actually had different views. After the Warring States period, few people took it seriously."

"It can be seen that even within Confucianism, everyone feels that this is no longer a question of how far the goal is, but a question of whether it is theoretically possible." He scratched his head: "To be honest, I don't believe it either. After so many years of history, it is too optimistic to still insist on this idea."

"Moreover, some special situations may be even more embarrassing." Tuohuan gave another example: "Although we are now accusing the enemy countries of being barbarians, we have gradually recovered lost territory over the years, and we can no longer say these things to the people."

"We have long discovered that our biggest advantage over other countries is our generosity and kindness towards the people. The people, even those in other countries, know this to some extent. Therefore, every time the royal army goes out to fight, there are often people welcoming them with food and drink. We should make more use of this advantage. We can't just treat them as human beings and force them back to the other side."

"So, now, we generally say that the local nobles and powerful people are barbarian bandits who took advantage of the chaos to invade. As for the common people, we try not to investigate them in detail. We don't need to care where they came from or when they came. In short, we just say that they are the Roman survivors in the occupied areas."

"Our current enemies are basically barbarian monarchies, so this argument has never been a problem. However, if a city-state follows suit and adopts the popular authorization method as you said, what should we do? Either declare that their people are not human and therefore do not meet the authorization conditions; or insist that only a very small number of politicians have deceived the people and everyone is still a good person. Otherwise, we can only admit that this system is indeed not working, it is inherently flawed and prone to such accidents."

"So I think this step is a bit fanciful." He shook his head and said, "Theoretical things are prone to these strange problems. We still can't just look at the theory."

"Uh..." Guo Kang couldn't explain for a moment. After all, in his time, this problem still couldn't be solved.

Even if the enemies in a few places all hate you and want to kill you, you can't say that they are all bad guys. You can only repeat that the local people are deceived or coerced, and their nature is still good. It's the fault of a few bad guys. Even if few people on both sides believe it, you can only say this. I think there should be the reason for the theoretical loophole mentioned by Tuohuan.

It's very uncomfortable to be stuck like this. I feel like it's better to declare these guys barbarians and not human beings. After all, this is the wisdom of our ancestors, and it has been used many times over the past thousands of years - there is no way, sometimes, the things of our ancestors are just useful.

However, Tuohuan was quite supportive of his previous arguments. Therefore, at least at this stage of theoretical construction, there shouldn't be too many problems. Therefore, Guo Kang put it aside for the time being and stopped worrying about it.

(End of this chapter)