Not to say we are not the surface of something pretty deep, but a spiritual absolute would be the essence of sentience, from which we rise, not an ideal of wisdom and judgement, from which we fell. More the light shining through the film, than the images on it.

The father figure lawgiver has been a useful social construct to instill respect for authority, but remember that democracy and republicanism originated in pantheistic societies. Which were how the Ancients analogized complex, multifaceted, multicultural society. To them, monotheism was monoculture. One people, one rule, one god.

Gnostic Christianity was using the parable of Jesus' resurrection to try breathing life into increasingly institutionalized classic religions of the day, which had themselves started out as parables of renewal and rebirth. The son reborn of the sky god and earth mother was the basis for the Trinity.

The Romans co-opted it to be the Catholic Church, as the the Empire solidified and remnants of the Republic were being forgotten. To use the premise of monotheism to cement the authority of the Ceasars.

When the West finally went back to less centralized political systems, it required the separation of church and state, culture and civics.

Though many movements today continue to insist their ideals are absolutes.