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EVOLVING CONTINENTS. Session Six SU SPRING 2008. YIPEE!. My biases and course goals. Biases: I have not hesitated to expose religious and scientific parochiality, or say how I was making up my own mind. Goals: to re-frame the questions and review a variety of Mindscapes.
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EVOLVING CONTINENTS Session Six SU SPRING 2008 Creation and Cosmos
YIPEE! Creation and Cosmos
My biases and course goals Biases: I have not hesitated to expose religious and scientific parochiality, or say how I was making up my own mind. Goals: to re-frame the questions and review a variety of Mindscapes. Creation and Cosmos
Five Mindscapes of STORY Sub-sets of Meta-narrative • Conflict—Record—Hand signals • Contrast—Chronicle—Telegraph • Consolidation—Account/Telephone • Conversation—Sketch—Cell Phone • Confirmation—Epic—I-Phone Adapted from John F. Haught and Ian Barbour Creation and Cosmos
Creation as COSMIC EPIC EPIC: the emergent Divine Matrix of interdisciplinary, multi-level assertions EPIC addresses all four issues between Science and Religion—beginnings, chance and determinism, evolution, and human nature Creation and Cosmos
Epic Model and God-talk? The EPIC model addresses all four necessary model-aspects: current data, coherence, scope and fertility. Homo Sapiens are viewed as God the “Creator’s Co-creators.” God and humans are becoming or “emergent.” Lutheran Theologian Phil Hefner Creation and Cosmos
Emergent God-talk “Who are you?” Moses asks in Exodus 3:14. “I will be what I will be…” God answers him. Creation and Cosmos
Divine Matrix (aka Cosmic EPIC) Definition of matrix: noun: an enclosure within which something originates or develops (from the Latin for womb) One Look Dictionary (online) Creation and Cosmos
Darrel, Don and Harry at the Oscars Creation and Cosmos
“Close but no cigar!” W.C. Fields Creation and Cosmos
Cumulo-nimbus Super cell Creation and Cosmos
Supernova Cosmic Fireball Cloud Creation and Cosmos
Hawking’s “Fire…” Issue "Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the question of why there should be a universe for the model to describe."Stephen Hawking Creation and Cosmos
Hawking’s “fire in the equation” Where’s the “bling bling?” Rapper B.G. Or “Bada Bling Bada Boom?” The Sopranos Creation and Cosmos
Prometheus Bringer of Fire Creation and Cosmos
Oppenheimer "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.“ July 1945 words at “The Bomb” site Creation and Cosmos
The Many and the One Voice Creation and Cosmos
The Chickadee Creation and Cosmos
John Hick John Hick argues a credible religious hypothesis must account for the fact, of which "we have become irreversibly aware in the present century, as the result of anthropological, sociological, and psychological studies and the work of philosophy of language,” that there is no one universal and invariable pattern for the interpretation of human experience, but rather a range of significantly different patterns or conceptual schemes "which have developed within the major cultural streams." And when considered in this light, a "pluralistic theory becomes inevitable" Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Online) Creation and Cosmos
Greatest Threat to Religion The single greatest threat to religion is the issue of “other religions,” not scientific discoveries (Freud, Marx and Darwin). The flashpoint between religions (dogmatic traditional-oriented) has ignited religious and socio-cultural wars worldwide. Creation and Cosmos
Darrel’s Daffy-nitions Pluralistic—property of many yet different Inclusivity—embracing all disparate units Diversity—owning variety or variant forms Multi-cultural—mixing of varied cultures Bio-diversity—having many life forms Matrix—all-purpose encompassing pattern Creation and Cosmos
Get “Plumped” Denial and religious imperialism have deepened the gap between religions. An Emergent Pluralism (plumped to use Isaiah Berlin’s word) offers an opportunity for a “re-frame.” Creation and Cosmos
Pluralistic and not relativistic Isaiah Berlin (died 1997) argued for Objective Pluralism—a case for “universal values” Creation and Cosmos
Medieval View of Nature/God 1. Fixed or Immutable 2. Teleological or Purpose-driven 3. Substance/Reality (what you see) 4. Anthropic/Hierarchical/”Planet-istic” 5. Dual (Spirit and Matter) 6. Kingdom Metaphor (Kingdom of God) Ian Barbour Religion and Science Creation and Cosmos
Newtonian View of Nature/God 1. Controlled/Natural Law 2. Determined (Limited re-arrangements) 3. Atomistic/Comprehended in particulars 4. Reductive/Bound to and by laws 5. Dualistic (Descartes—mind and body) 6. Machine Metaphor (Natura et Deus ex machina) Ian Barbour Religion and Science Creation and Cosmos
21st Century View of Nature/God 1. Emergent (evolving) giga-metaphor 2. Interplay of law and chance/Dynamic confluence 3. Interdependent/Intercultural domains 4. Organic/Holistic/Living Earth concept 5. Multi-level connectivities 6. Trans-communal (historico-conditioned deep conversations) Ian Barbour Religion and Science Creation and Cosmos
Ian Barbour, Encylcopedist Creation and Cosmos
A. N. Whitehead, Philosopher His process philosophy opposes any static view of the universe and our history. Creation and Cosmos
Alfred North Whitehead Whitehead sees God in cosmological terms as an "actual occasion" functioning within nature, reflective of "the eternal urge of desire" that works "strongly and quietly by love," to guide the course of things within the world into "the creative advance into novelty.” Stanford University Online Philosophy website Creation and Cosmos
Charles Hartshorne, Theologian He did his best work late in life! “When I passed my 80th birthday, I began saying longevity is my secret weapon.” Creation and Cosmos
Does EPIC meet MODEL criteria? • Data dependent—basis of all discovery • Coherence—consistent with other accepted theories • Capacity—comprehensive enough to meet current need • Fertile—sparks imagination and leads to other discoveries Creation and Cosmos
Christocentric Pluralism John Cobb advocated a theology that managed to be both Christo-centric and pluralistic in its approach to other faiths. He proclaimed that Christo-centrism is rooted in Sophia, or divine wisdom, which is the essence of God who is embodied in Christ. He asserted that it requires a Christ as the center of history, but not the whole of history… Wikipedia article Creation and Cosmos
Christocentric Pluralist Creation and Cosmos
Thoughts of Newton and Darwin Creation and Cosmos
TS Eliot We shall not cease from explorationAnd the end of all our exploringWill be to arrive where we startedAnd know the place for the first time. Creation and Cosmos
Biggest knock on Science …are the blind spots of the domain to the ethical implications of research and the moral dimensions of its technology? Science’s urgent challenge is to address its use and abuse by political and ideological agendas? Creation and Cosmos
Therefore…in my opinion We stand at the horizon peering into a future of extraordinary and robust opportunities for science and religion to work together for the benefit of the whole non-human and human cosmos and creation? Creation and Cosmos
Checkers, not Chess Creation and Cosmos
Emergent EPIC is post-Newtonian Creation and Cosmos
Newton’s Discipleship Creation and Cosmos
Stretch of Utah Highway Creation and Cosmos
The Wise-Fool “I think I’ll go home.” Creation and Cosmos
Thanks You are a fantastic bunch of students. Darrel, Don and Harry Creation and Cosmos
Following SLIDES: The next slides are supplementary to the whole course but especially the last session. Read on… Creation and Cosmos
Steven Weinberg Breakthrough in Big Bang’s earliest nano-moments—First Three Minutes: Creation and Cosmos
Paul Davies--Physicist Davies Collins Houghton Creation and Cosmos
NOT ALL-MEN’S CLUB Lecturer on genetic science: Celia Deane-Drummond (also has a doctorate in theology!) Creation and Cosmos
Harvey Cox November ’06 Interview But science as science cannot make decisions about how its findings should be applied -- that is not within the scientific method -- or which project to take on next. If it's going to cost $20 million, should you do it or should you not do it is a question, as science, it can't decide on. The thing that we (Gould and Cox) agreed on is that when religion and science both do their thing and don't step over the boundary and try to do what the other is doing, it can be a mutually enhancing process. Creation and Cosmos