Laws of the Universe
The normal development of any person, whether it is climbing to a summit or solving a problem, proceeds successfully when it follows the law of threeness.
All development is dialectical and connected with the transformation of energy: when there is a difference in potentials, hidden energy is realized on the external level. Wherever there are two potentials, two interacting opposites, energy is formed and development takes place.
However, if there are only two opposites but no essential element uniting them, conflict arises; the opposites begin to destroy each other and ultimately perish or degenerate. This is why the law of threeness is the law of being, the law of development. Everything in the Universe obeys this law. Incidentally, all three laws of dialectics are laws of threeness.
The law of the unity and struggle of opposites. There are two opposites and what unites them. There is one force, one potential, and another force, another potential; they enter into struggle, thereby forming energy, and there is something that unites them so that they develop by complementing rather than destroying each other.
The law of the transition of quantity into quality. There are two opposites extended through time. The law of the transition of quantity into quality means that yesterday turns into today. When the number of connections increases, the structure of matter changes, indicating a transition to a new quality.
We see two opposites: one is in the past, the other in the present. They are united by something in common, thanks to which the old is transformed into the new, while the new preserves within itself everything that was in the old and continues to develop. For example, children are the quintessence of what parents pass on to the future; here too, the law of the transition of quantity into quality operates: parental energy is transformed, changes, and becomes the energy of the children, while at the same time parents and children are united.
The law of the negation of the negation. The new must struggle with the old, and the old must struggle with the new—this is a natural and necessary process.
The law of the Universe is simultaneously the law of unity and separation, and here again we observe dialectics and threeness: there is complete unity, separation on the external level and unity on the internal level, and there is something that unites these two opposing processes.
The law of the negation of the negation states that the new differs qualitatively from the old on the external level and in form, which means that conflict inevitably arises between them. But if the new and the old are united, they interact with each other, and that is development. If there is no unity, the opposites conflict and compete. As a result, development stops, and everything may end in the mutual destruction of the opposites.
Understanding the law of threeness means understanding the laws of the Universe. The Creator is also essentially threefold, while the Universe is a portrait of God. To the extent that we can see the opposites and what unites them in every process, we can correctly understand what is happening in the world and what will happen to us.
I have said more than once that modern people do not know how to think correctly. Dialectics is absent from our reasoning; it consists in recognizing that good and evil are two sides of the same coin. When we think only in terms of good or only in terms of evil, development stops.
Today we are witnessing the gravest crisis of Western civilization, which is effectively engaged in self-destruction. Against a backdrop of economic prosperity, moral decay is taking place, families are breaking apart, and social institutions without which a normal society cannot exist are collapsing.
I think scientists are trying to make sense of all this, but over the past decades I have not seen a single truly profound view of these problems. Yet if they are not resolved, civilization will simply perish. To understand the current situation, we need to see the algorithm of the present civilization’s existence, realize why it is dying, and answer this question not with thousands of volumes but by identifying the fundamental principle.
The question of the causes of the impending death of modern civilization is fairly easy to answer. The crisis of civilization is a consequence of a worldview crisis. For normal existence, every living being must have an operational, tactical, and strategic plan.
A person who sets off into the mountains may be superbly equipped and feel perfectly well, but if they cannot see the summit, they will perish because they do not know where to go; eventually they will either fall into a crevasse or leave the route and disappear. Feeling excellent today does not guarantee survival tomorrow. If a person feels well, is well equipped, and knows the route they must follow, their future is protected. They will not fall into an abyss because they have mapped out the route and know where each danger lies: where there is a crevasse, where there is a dangerous slope—and this helps them survive.
If a person lacks strategic thinking, they may follow the route and ultimately deviate from the summit. They will remain alive but will never reach the summit. Therefore, to solve any problem, operational thinking must be combined with tactics and strategy.
What does Western civilization represent today? It is a civilization deprived of strategic thinking. The concept of “strategic thinking” includes such concepts as “religion,” “morality,” “the soul,” and “faith,” as well as an understanding of what will happen to us in the future and what our children should be like. Thus, strategic thinking primarily implies caring for children, their upbringing, and their morality—in a word, caring for their souls.
Having lost strategic thinking, civilization may survive for some time on politics, the economy, and what is called culture, but without strategy all these spheres of activity inevitably decline. As a result, people live for today; they are interested only in money, sensual pleasures—sex in particular—and, to some extent, power, but mainly in the pursuit of pleasure and comfort.
Such a way of life is characteristic of animals; a human being cannot exist this way for long, because indulging in pleasures and satisfying instincts causes dependence on them to grow ever stronger, and a person gradually descends to the level of an animal.
After that, the soul begins to decay, and eventually the pursuit of pleasure leads to our needs becoming unnatural. As has already been said, this is exactly how events unfolded in Sodom and Gomorrah, which are described in the Bible.
So why is modern civilization perishing? It is perishing because the religion underlying it is dying. Christian teaching is dialectical and threefold, whereas the interpretation of Christianity has been stripped of this threeness.
What is illness, what is life, and what is death? These are global questions of existence, and science, as a rule, has never been able to answer them; religion has always provided the answers. What does religion tell us about illness? Illness is sent by God for sins. In other words, illness is, roughly speaking, an enemy that harms a person and may lead to death, but this enemy is sent from above.
In the highest sense, this enemy is an instrument of the supreme Divine will, and since the Almighty loves people and cares for them, it follows that any illness, any problem, is like a surgeon’s scalpel: it causes pain but also saves. Threefold dialectical thinking implies that every problem and every conflict is an opportunity to understand, an opportunity to unite opposites rather than separate or destroy them.
Thus, Christianity displays a clear dialectic in which opposites are balanced: Jesus Christ says that one must forgive, while at the same time driving the merchants from the temple with a whip. There can be no aggression within, but it is permitted outwardly, because inwardly we are united, while outwardly we are divided. Jesus said that one should not cast pearls before swine. The meaning of this phrase is that one should care for those who are ready to be grateful and ready to change for the better. If a person does not want to change and responds to good with evil, help may come to them in the form of punishment. As the saying goes, a word for the wise, a stick for the fool.
Christ’s teaching is dialectical, but people at that time could not understand this, so they interpreted what Jesus said in a rather simplified way. Something was declared either good or bad, and this scheme of perceiving the world—not threefold but binary, dividing the entire world into good and evil that must be exterminated—is neither dialectical nor monotheistic. It is characteristic of primitive peoples and primitive in essence; it is the worldview of a pagan, whose meaning in life lies in the pursuit of pleasure.
For a pagan, the most important thing is the self, the human “I.” A pagan fears evil and worships good. They dream that the evil causing them problems will be destroyed and that everything around them will be illuminated by goodness. Therefore, according to the pagan worldview, there must be a paradise somewhere where happiness reigns and there are no problems. For a pagan, earthly life is hell, torment, and suffering, none of which will exist in paradise.
The pagan viewpoint migrated into monotheistic religions, where it should eventually be abandoned; if, on the contrary, it continues to grow stronger, this threatens a religious crisis, which is extremely dangerous.
Today we are witnessing the gravest crisis of the post-Christian world, and if we consider why religion is disappearing, the answer can be found quickly enough.
Modern religious thinking is completely devoid of dialectics; it clearly displays a pagan approach: in the world there is either good or evil; God is good, and the devil is evil. This viewpoint is applied to everything.
Take illness, for example. In Christianity and Judaism, illness is simultaneously evil and good.
It is evil for our body and our destiny, but good for our soul, because the soul is cleansed through suffering, when the body loses or restrains its animal instincts. The Bible also mentions that illness prevents people from sinning; if I am not mistaken, the Apostle Peter spoke about this. Thus, a correct understanding of what illness is did exist in Christianity.
Today we observe a clear distinction in religion: illness is evil, while health is good. Therefore, if illness is our enemy, it must be destroyed. Modern medicine essentially reasons in the same way, but since scientific views and concepts are based on religious ones, our spiritual upbringing makes itself felt. The religious code formed over millennia determines our consciousness, our feelings, and our way of thinking. Thus, religion says that there is good and evil, a good God and an evil devil, and our main task is to exterminate evil—then everyone will be happy.
This is a very dangerous and naïve delusion that leads to major problems. A person with this viewpoint sees illness only as evil, and modern medicine, viewing illness only as evil, fights it and tries to destroy it, failing to understand that illness is merely a defense and an indication that we have problems.
We must fight not the illness but the cause that generates it. This cause may be a lack of love in the soul, improper development, or an erroneous attitude toward the world, other people, and oneself. Thus, misunderstanding and an incorrect attitude toward the world generate problems, illnesses, and misfortunes; and no matter how much we try to eradicate illness or rid ourselves of problems, there will only be more of them, because we do not understand the causes of their occurrence.
S. N. Lazarev. “Human Health. The Meeting of Science and Religion”
