Hopeful Horizons - American Reformer

A 2024 Review of Consciousness, Culture, and the Renewal of American Ideals

Amidst the post-election atmosphere of cautious optimism, there’s another movement stirring—a quiet revolution in how we think about consciousness and its profound implications for society. This revolution is reshaping entrenched ideas of materialism, scientism, and the secular foundations that have dominated Western thought for decades. While political victories have helped stabilize a sense of American identity, a growing cultural and intellectual openness to non-materialistic worldviews is equally promising. Together, they present a unique opportunity to reclaim and reinforce the foundations of American ideals and religious knowledge.

Consciousness: The New Frontier

For decades, the scientific establishment has treated consciousness as a mere byproduct of brain activity—a puzzle to be solved within the confines of materialistic neuroscience. However, a recent surge in philosophical and scientific inquiry has begun to challenge this reductionism. Thinkers like Bernardo Kastrup and Philip Goff have revitalized idealism and panpsychism, suggesting that consciousness might not just be a feature of human brains but a fundamental aspect of reality itself. Even mainstream platforms like Scientific American have started to reconsider their dogmatic commitments to materialism. These discussions naturally open the door to reconsidering older and more traditional views of human persons that we are, in fact, ensouled beings that exist in a meaningful framework beyond the present world.

The recent resolution of a 25-year debate between David Chalmers and Christof Koch on the “hard problem” of consciousness underscores this shift. Their discussions highlight how consciousness resists neat explanations, suggesting that our understanding of the universe might require not just scientific tools but philosophical and, even, theological frameworks. This realization is slowly chipping away at the scientistic hubris that has alienated religious knowledge from public discourse.

Implications for American Society

The implications of this shift go beyond intellectual curiosity—they touch on the heart of American life. Education, medicine, politics, and culture stand to benefit from this reexamination of consciousness. What this entails is that consciousness impacts and shapes other areas of discourse that have otherwise been dominated by philosophical perspectives that are simply not consciousness-centric. And, consciousness, assuming it is at the center of reality, has implications for all aspects of life and a worldview. This includes but is not limited to the following areas of social, cultural, and political life and deserves our reflection. As things shift toward a more consciousness-centric view of the world, it entails not materialism and varying materialistic inclined views of the world but a world that is otherwise not dominated by scientistic approaches. Instead, it opens the door to a theistic frame and one that treats the world as properly an object of interdisciplinary study rather than one dominated by what many have once referred to as the object of the ‘hard’ sciences and rigorous empirical study alone. Rather the world is relevantly integrated and informed by a wide set of data at the intersection of the biological sciences, social sciences, in addition to history and philosophy, all operating as important informing sources of data about ‘our’ world.

Education: A consciousness-centric view of the world in contrast to say a material-centric view of the world dominated by scientism, would necessarily influence how it is that we conceive of education, and, in fact, it does! Several examples could be given about how it is that a consciousness-centric view of the world necessarily prompts questions about the nature, role, and purpose of education is shaped and already embedded in a set of values that include a moral frame on the world. For example, the revival of Great Books programs and classical education aligns with the renewed focus on consciousness and meaning in an important way. Along these lines, both movements see the world as more than an objectivist frame to be controlled and dominated through scientific means, but rather a world of subjective influences comprised of minds that interact. These approaches emphasize the holistic development of the individual, valuing not just technical proficiency but moral and intellectual depth. Consciousness studies remind us that education is not merely about scientific accuracy, objective determinations, or even ‘information’ transfer but about cultivating the whole person. In other words, wherein education has been dominated in many ways by materialism and its related worldview patterns, a more consciousness-centric worldview impacts the shape and form of education because we realize the nature and meaningful framework in which education exists is informed by a world for us and not simply a world technical proficiency and pragmatic success. Contrast this consciousness-centric education with an educational approach that has arguably been dominated by scientism with its emphasis on pure objectivist criteria for measuring success. Or, by way of pragmatism with its attending and overlapping emphasis on objectivist test-taking and the tendency to control education by way of a value-less education that meets the pure demands of a functioning system.
Medicine: Shifting from a materialist, reductive-based approach to health and medicine (so commonly associated with Western medicine) to a consciousness-centric view of health and medicine demands a reexamination of how it is we approach the subjects. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the limitations of blind trust in institutional medicine (especially one in its various platforms dominated by materialism), sparking a more critical public stance. Consciousness studies further this skepticism by challenging the reductionist view of the human person as a machine. A more integrated view—one that includes mental and spiritual health—could (and, arguably, should) revolutionize healthcare, emphasizing wellness over mere symptom management. In other words, where Western medicine has been dominated by a materialistic view of the world that sees biology as a set of mechanisms, triggers, pulleys, and the like, a more consciousness-centric view of the world shapes and impacts medicine in a different direction. As such, it is no surprise that new age gurus and Eastern thinkers have sounded the alarm to take more seriously not a mechanistic view of persons or a biologically reductionistic view of persons but a view that is more holistic, which a consciousness-centric view of persons requires. Along these lines, we realize that health is deeply impacted not just by how this local part of the brain operates or by some specific symptom, but a consciousness-centric view of persons and the world demands that symptoms themselves are already embedded in bigger patterns and cultures that exist within the body and are relevantly related to one’s psychological health. A consciousness-centric view of the world actually makes sense of this and forces us to think about the person, his or her parts, functioning as a smaller piece of one larger whole. And, the days of treating the symptoms directly or the parts that exhibit this or that malfunction alone and isolated from the whole system (including the conscious states of the person) are over. The older, more reductionist, mechanistic view of the world that is a leftover from a physical-centric view of the world (i.e., physicalism and the broader view of naturalism) is simply insufficient, and consciousness forces us to reconcile the fact that medicine really should not operate in such a vacuum. A more specific example includes the relationship that consciousness has to physical health by way of information studies, which we are seeing a growing interest.
Science and Religion: Consciousness studies prompt additional questions about the nature of science as well as religion and the intersection of the two. A consciousness-centric view of the world also forces us to see science as not simply the product of a naturalistically closed system of causes and effects, triggers and pulleys, but one that is already embedded in a much larger system within reality. As consciousness studies open the door to philosophical and theological insights, the longstanding divide between science and religion could narrow and seems to be narrowing as it were already. Relevantly related, consciousness begins to blur the lines between philosophy and science where science is not some strict empirical method that can be siphoned off from our knowledge through experience or through other philosophical means, but instead seems to be related in important ways. Religious leaders, once sidelined as irrelevant to public knowledge, might reclaim their role as vital contributors to discussions about meaning, ethics, and the human condition. Once we realize that this world is not just a closed system explained mechanistically but rather may be a world with consciousness at the center and foundational to explaining the operations within it, we realize quite quickly that religion too may be a source of knowledge and information that cannot be so sharply separated from science itself. Even the materialistic dominated news outlet Scientific American has started asking questions of science and the natural world in a way that forces us to take seriously philosophical discourse but also the role that God and religious knowledge play in our scientific inquiry. As it were, once we realize this world is a richer world of conscious beings along with one supreme consciousness, we must reckon with the facts that central, even foundational, to explaining the world and all that is within it requires that we think about it through the lens of religious knowledge and information. For the two are, it would appear, inextricably related.
Politics and Society: But, if all that is said already is true, then it follows that this will have some important implications for humans interacting at the level of governing orders, political values, and ways in which we relate socially. An obvious point to be made is that once we come to terms with consciousness, we are forced to ask broader questions about the nature of meaning, purpose, identity, and ways in which consciousness shapes these more basic worldview questions. Of course, distinct worldviews will impact how it is that we conceive of politics and social perceptions. The resurgence of consciousness as a central topic, arguably, dovetails with a broader cultural return to traditional values, especially as we return to older views of persons as ensouled beings (of which consciousness may point) and theism. It invites a rethinking of human dignity, rooted in the idea of the soul and the intrinsic worth of each individual. This also has profound implications for family, community, and governance, emphasizing responsibility and interconnectedness over individualism.

The Path Forward

To capitalize on these shifts, we must act strategically:

Reclaim Religious Knowledge: Religious leaders and institutions should seize this moment to reassert their relevance. By engaging with contemporary consciousness studies, they can offer fresh perspectives that resonate with both scientific and spiritual audiences.
Integrate Education: Schools and universities should embrace interdisciplinary approaches that include theology, philosophy, and the sciences. This integration can counter the secularism that has dominated American education since the 1960s.
Engage the Public: Institutions like Soul Science Ministries have a critical role to play. By fostering conversations at the intersection of science, religion, and philosophy, they can equip individuals to navigate these changes with confidence and clarity.

A Reason for Hope

In the wake of decades of cultural fragmentation, the growing interest in consciousness represents a unifying opportunity. It invites us to reconsider the metaphysical and cosmological questions that lie at the heart of human existence. Far from being irrelevant, these questions are central to reclaiming the American ideals of liberty, justice, and the pursuit of happiness.As we rebuild our society—politically, culturally, and intellectually—let us take heart in this convergence of science and spirituality. The soul is not dead, nor is the God who animates it. Together, they provide a foundation for hope, strength, and renewal. The future is bright, and as many have said with a touch of humor, “Nature is healing.” Let us seize this moment and lead with gratitude, courage, and vision.

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