All Worldviews as Houses of Cards: A Primordic Diagnosis

Abstract

Primordics reframes religions, philosophies, and worldviews not as mirrors of truth but as houses of cards: fragile yet replicating architectures of tokens and expressions. Each house persists through indoctrination, shielding, and repair; each can collapse if a foundational expression is destabilized; and each may give rise to new houses when collapse releases tokens for recombination. This model explains not only the persistence of Christianity, scientism, or New Age syncretism, but also the defections, innovations, and fragmentations that shape intellectual history.

1. Expressions as Structural Units

In Primordics, tokens are reproducible markers (“God,” “soul,” “atom,” “law”), but they acquire meaning only through expressions—combinations of tokens that are authenticated or rejected within an indication frame.

“God exists” is an authenticated expression in Christianity but rejected in scientific materialism.
“Everything real is physical” is authenticated in materialist frames but rejected in theistic ones.
“Consciousness survives death as vibration” may be rejected by both Christianity and materialism, but authenticated within certain New Age systems.

Every worldview is thus a system of authenticated expressions, not a set of metaphysical absolutes.

2. The House of Cards Metaphor

A worldview can be pictured as a house of cards:

Load-bearing expressions (e.g., “God exists,” “matter is all there is”) form the foundation.
Derived expressions (rituals, scientific methods, ethical codes) stack on top.
Auxiliary reinforcements (apologetics, counter-arguments, reinterpretations) are extra cards designed to catch drift and prevent collapse.

When a load-bearing expression is destabilized—say, when a scientific claim undermines a literalist reading of scripture—the house can collapse for that adherent.

3. Indoctrination as Replication

Indoctrination (or socialization more broadly) is the process of rebuilding the same house in multiple lives. Even if one house collapses, the pattern persists because others still stand. This is why traditions and ideologies endure across centuries: not because their expressions are invulnerable, but because replication ensures there are always new houses being constructed.

4. Collapse and Remainder Bias

Collapse is common. Christians who cannot reconcile God-expressions with scientific ones often become atheists. Materialists who undergo destabilizing mystical experiences may convert to religious or syncretic worldviews.

The persistence of any worldview reflects a remainder bias: what we see as “Christianity,” “scientism,” or “Buddhism” today is not the universal set of all who encountered those systems, but the remainder of those whose houses have not yet collapsed. Former adherents are evidence of viability failures.

5. Shielding and Stratification

Worldviews employ shielding strategies to reinforce fragile foundations:

Christianity stratifies frames (“science explains how, God explains why”).
Scientism discredits rival expressions as unscientific.
Secular humanism grounds dignity in “reason” or “rights,” even when these tokens cannot be reduced to physics.

Shielding prevents collapse by quarantining expressions: restricting how and where certain tokens may be used.

6. Innovation After Collapse

Collapse does not always lead to abandonment. It can lead to innovation:

A collapsed Christian may salvage tokens like “God” and “spirit” but redefine them in ways incompatible with both Christianity and science.
The result is a new house of cards—for example, New Age systems that combine religious tokens with scientific or Eastern-philosophy tokens.
These new expressions are rejected by both parent systems but persist if they prove viable (replicable, resonant, generative).

New Age systems often collapse under “critical” scrutiny or internal contradiction—but this is not unique to them. All fledgling houses of cards are fragile: without sufficient reinforcement, shielding, or replication, they topple easily. Christianity, scientism, and humanism were once fledgling too.

Innovation, therefore, is drift made visible: tokens scattered in collapse are recombined into new patterns. If they achieve viability, they replicate; if not, they vanish.

7. All Houses Are Fragile

Christianity may collapse under scientific perturbation.
Scientism may collapse under experiences it cannot authenticate.
New Age systems may collapse under critical pressure as young, unreinforced structures.
Any worldview can be destabilized by encounters it cannot integrate.

No system is immune; every worldview is a house of cards. What differentiates them is not metaphysical truth but viability: the capacity to survive perturbation, recover after drift, and replicate across generations.

Conclusion

Primordics diagnoses all worldviews—religious, scientific, secular, or syncretic—as viability structures, fragile yet self-replicating houses of cards built from authenticated expressions. Collapse occurs when foundational expressions cannot be maintained, but collapse also releases tokens for recombination into new systems.

The persistence of a worldview is not evidence of its truth, but of its viability. Its collapse is not evidence of falsehood, but of structural limits under interference. What endures is the endless cycle of replication, collapse, and innovation—houses of cards built, toppled, and rebuilt again.