When his ship, The Beagle, docked in Southern Australia in 1831 on the way to the Galapagos Islands, Charles Darwin, one of the leading intellectual skeptics of his day, witnessed naked Aboriginal natives dancing themselves into delirium all night long. In his diary, Darwin wrote that he found this animistic display “a most rude, barbarous scene.”
Times have changed. This year 70,000 people have thronged to the annual countercultural Burning Man Festival in the Nevada desert. Leading hi-tech worthies like Google founders Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and chairman Eric Schmidt, and Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, along with celebrity visitors like Katy Perry (31), socialite Paris Hilton (35), and British actress and model Cara Delevingne (24) now find such “rude, barbarous scene[s]” totally normal and perfectly cool. These contemporary definers of popular culture have thrown off even the outward standards of public decency dear to Charles Darwin. Burning Man sets the agenda for popular culture. In acts of shameless self-expression, they abandon all inhibition and wander around naked in the desert doing ecstasy and acid, visiting the anonymous-sex-orgy dome (open 24/7), joining in fire dancing, yoga, and meditation. No one is allowed a hint of judgmentalism.
Indeed, the right to define one’s self-identity has become the ultimate moral touchstone. A sophisticated and clean version of the Burning Man philosophy came from Supreme Court Justice Kennedy: each person has “the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” Such a definition gives every individual the right to declare: “I am whatever I say I am and you must accept my assertion and behave accordingly, otherwise you are a bigot who is oppressing me.” Past ethical norms are obsolete. The new norms are on display at Burning Man in vivid Technicolor.
This temporary city in the desert is equipped with an airport, radio stations, daily newspapers, a postal service, an overnight courier service, taxicabs, a drive-in movie theater, bars, clubs, yoga classes, hair salons, pancake houses, and – no government. It claims to be an “annual utopian experiment in temporary community, dedicated to radical self-expression and radical self-reliance.”
It is founded on a decidedly Oneist ideology. The founder of Burning Man, Larry Harvey, a self-described atheist, says: “I do not believe in a supreme being but I believe that being is supreme.” It is like the title of a progressive spiritual book, by Gabrielle Bernstein, Nature Has Your Back. Burning Man seeks to create its own mythology since, as one spokesman says: “All mythologies were created by humans…no god rushed down from wherever to ‘give’ a human some special message. Therefore, what really matters at Burning Man is imagination.” The meaning of Burning Man seems to be impermanence (as the 70 foot “Man” being burned at the end of the week seems to suggest), a principle deeply entwined with Buddhism. Impermanence becomes for burners an annual reminder of the transience of life, the eternal return of Osiris. Jewish/Buddhist “gay” rabbi, Jay Michaelson, an avid burner, gives meaning to the burning of the “Man” when he states: “if religion creates boundaries, mysticism and spirituality efface them.” All boundaries, all binaries must be burned up.
Is such a utopian life possible except for one week in the desert? Alas, it is not even possible there. This year in “Black Rock City” a sad event happened. A band of burners attacked “White Ocean,” an upscale camp for the very rich who fly in on private jets, stay in luxurious air-conditioned RVs and are served elegant cuisine by full-time employees. In this utopia, the unthinkable happened. In the words of one luxury camper, “A band of hooligans raided our camp, stole from us, pulled and sliced all of our electrical lines leaving us with no refrigeration and wasting our food and glued our trailer doors shut, vandalized most of our camping infrastructure….This is evil. This should not happen at Burning Man…This is supposed to be about love, happiness, sharing, giving and appreciating.”
As the burners celebrate liberating impermanence, real sinful humans need help to sustain life. What can a Oneist world do with evil except live with it? If Nature is “supreme” or “has your back,” how trustworthy is it? Perhaps, after all, we need “a god rushing down” to “give us a special message”; a God who tells us that only Jesus can overcome evil by bearing the consequences of our evil on his back. That unique, perfectly just, loving man, is the real “burning man,” who was consumed by the fiery judgment against our sin, but was raised by the justifying, life-giving power of God the loving Creator of Nature. In him, we overcome evil and gain eternal life.
This revival of «entertainment paganism» (at least the older paganism had a desperate deadly seriousness about it) is not only to be found in the Nevada Desert in America.
Here in Switzerland, formerly a bastion of the Christian Faith, our very government promotes such a return to paganism.
The Opening Ceremony of the World’s Largest Tunnel Was a Bizarre Occult Ritual
Vigilant Citizen June 3 2016
http://vigilantcitizen.com/vigilantreport/opening-ceremony-worlds-largest-tunnel-bizarre-occult-ritual/
Blessings on your work and my best regards,
Jean-Marc Berthoud
Never knew about “Burning Man.” I do know that the “Philly naked bike ride,” which will likely feature more than one thousand people, riding “bare as they dare,” is scheduled for Saturday, and I got a notice from the Parents’ Television Council, who are trying to stop the sponsors of VH1″s “Dating Naked.” So your point is well-taken.
I confess that I do turn into “the devil’s Advocate” in these matters. Two hundred years ago many preachers no doubt said, or believed, “If God wanted us to fly, He would have given us wings.” Actually I have not been on an airplane flight since 2004. Is this a point of conformity to my Lord, Who never flew on a plane at all?
Amen.
Thank you for your careful analysis and discernment. I am so glad that there is a God who can save us from ourselves.
Thank you for writing on the “Burning Man”. This event truly represents the oneist position that permeates our culture. Please keep on pushing your message!
Romans 1:18-19 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Good insights. Funny how things just don’t work out perfectly in an idealist world. They keep trying to construct a mythology where Utopias are not authoritarian. Dennis Praeger said today that they deny reality.
Thank you for clarifying what was in my mind about “Burning Man”. I have had an online friend for many years who is a regular attendee and speaks at these “congregations” in the desert. It has always made me stop to pray for his soul and all those involved with him. God help them.
You guys keep up the great work! I have shared your website, books, and Only Two Religions DVD with friends and family and will continue to do so.
Makes one wonder if there is a place for some kind of witness out there on the playa
or if it would be casting pearls among the swine…
Poor old atheists. Their Woodstocks always become Altamonts.
Excellent article… points out vividly that a flawed being can’t ultimately be supreme. Thanks Josh!
Well, it’s kinda naive to think that we can change human nature/heart by changing their environment.
Is the burning of the human status related to any ancient pagan spirituality like labyrinth?
I’ve been unable to find a book on “Burning Man” written from a Christian point of view. All the books I’ve seen on this subject glorify the event instead of telling the truth about it.