Applying Relational Theology

These notes look at traditional and not-so-traditional faith issues through the perspective of Relational Theology. Relational Theology views the reality of the universe and God as a thoroughly interdependent. All of creation, human and non-human, along with God are interdependent in a dynamic process of growth. Relational or Process theology attempts to integrate this notion into how we live and express our faith. This theology arose from Whitehead's philosophy in the 20th century and is thoroughly rooted in evolution and consilience. This modern theology provides an interdependent basis that allows us to look at many faith traditions with 21st century eyes.

topics
What if Jesus were married?
Is Satan real?
Is sin original?
Is Jesus alive?
What if there are Martians?

  1. What Is Relational Theology?
    • what if there had been an ancient Martian civilization long before space flight
    • are we earthlings related to the Martians?
    • evolutionarily, yes!
    • everything we can observe in nature and understand through science originates at the Big Bang
    • from it came light
    • and through the uncertainity of quantum events, the stars, worlds, and moons coelesced and evolved from the subsequent star dust
    • upon this earth, biological life evolved in all of its randomly invoked diversity
    • and has been evolving since
    • moment by moment, year by year, millenium by millenium, eon by eon, the whole emerges from the parts, greater and more complex and increasingly aware
    • if Mars went through a similar process at one time, we would be related to the Martians from having evolved from the same star dust
    • thus so, is all of reality: thoroughly interrelated in a dynamic process of evolution
    • but where is God in this process?
    • the answer is beyond the domain of science, and we must reach into faith, reason, and revelation
    • did God speak, let there be light, and thus the Big Bang?
    • does God create through quantum events and darwinian random events?
    • is God within creation or outside of creation?
    • relational theology answers these and many more questions
  2. What If Jesus Were Married?
    1. Mary Magdalene and Jesus
      • the canonical gospels
        1. Apostle to the Apostles
        2. mentioned first in every listing of Jesus' female disciples [Mk 15:40-41, 47;16:1; Mt 27:55-56, 61; 28:1; Lk 8:2-3; 24:10]
        3. apparently a leader of a group of women who ministered to Jesus and provided to him out of their own means
        4. healed of 7 demons [Lk 8:2]
        5. witness to Jesus' death [Mk 15:40-41, 47; Mt 27:55-56,61; Lk 23:49, 55-56; Jn 19:25]
        6. witness to the empty tomb [Mk 16:1-6; Mt 28:1,6; Lk 24:1-3, 10; Jn 20:1-2]
        7. rec'd the news or appearance of the risen Christ to tell the disciples [Mk 16:6-7; Mt 28:5-9; Lk 24:4-10]
        8. the Risen Christ appeared first to Mary [Jn 20:11-18]
          • at first thought him to be the gardener
          • when he called her name she recognized him and called him teacher
          • Jesus forbade her to hold him
          • Jesus alerts her to his ascension
          • she reports to the other disciples
        9. she is probably not the woman who anoints Jesus
          • In Jn 12:1-11, it is Mary whose sister is Martha and brother is Lazarus
          • In Mt 26:6-13 and Mk 14:3-9, she is unnamed
      • the gnostic gospels
        • Gospel of Philip suggests an intimate relationship between Mary and Jesus
        • he loved Mary more than the disciples
        • he often kissed her
        • Gospel of Mary Magdalene
        • Jesus imparted gnosis to Mary that he did not share with the disciples
        • the disciples are portrayed as jealous
      • Grail lore
        1. it is a very old tradition that Jesus and Mary were married with children
        2. Joseph of Arimathea migrated to Britain with the Holy Grail
        3. in actuality the "holy grail" was Mary Magdelene and her children by Jesus
          • holy grail = san greal = sangreal = sang real = royal blood
        4. she is rumoured to buried in Glastonbury
        5. among Celtic folk it is generally accepted that Jesus and Mary were married
        6. there descendants are called the Desposyni and include the Merovingians
      • in the end, scholars cannot ascertain whether Jesus and Mary M. were married
    2. the Word made Flesh: the divinity of Jesus
      • throughout the NT Jesus is portrayed as divine
      • this developed into the faith tradition that Jesus was 100% divine and 100% human
      • John 1: Jesus is the incarnation of the pre-existent Christ
      • St. Paul: rarely speaks of Jesus' earthly life; strong emphasis on the risen Christ
      • Hebrews: the risen Christ is our high priest mediating with God for us
    3. if Jesus were married, would that abolish his divinity? NO! on the contrary, it invites us into divinity
    4. divinity in relational theology
      1. God is one power that we ingress into our becoming
      2. God's spirit, i.e., divinity flows through all of creation
      3. God is not only outside of us (i.e., creation) but also within us.
      4. God is utterly other, yet still within us
      5. each of us has the divine within
      6. but Jesus was divine ...
    5. Jesus as divine in relational theology:
      1. Jesus = God: consistently, perfectly responding positively to God's moment by moment call
      2. Jesus lived as God would have him live in each and every situation
      3. Jesus conforms thorougly to the will of God so that we see God clearly through him
      4. Jesus showed us that God's will was love, compassion, justice, kindness
      5. Jesus' becoming (via the power of his Jewish past, of God, and of himself) was perfect
      6. the resurrection is the vindication of Jesus' becoming
    6. the Incarnation
      • God is incarnated in all of creation
      • God can achieve nothing without the agency of the creation
      • Jesus was the PERFECT incarnation
    7. Divinity and marriage
      • if Jesus is the PERFECT incarnation of God and
      • if God came to us to be one of us, then
      • Jesus was very likely to have been married (but not necessarily)
      • to suggest that it is necessary for Jesus to be celebate to be God's Perfect Incarnation is to suggest that
        1. marriage, relationship, procreation is less than perfect
        2. being in relationship physically can be separate from relationship spiritually
      • being is relating in all of its aspects: physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally
      • no aspect is less than any other
      • God's divinity and spirit flows through all aspects and affects and is effected by all of them
      • if God came as Jesus, the Perfect Incarnation to show us how we can be, then it is more likely the Incarnate God would partake of all aspects of our lives, including sexually
    8. conclusions
      • if the Desposyni exist, they are no more divine than any of us.
      • all of creation "inherits" divinity
      • whether Jesus was married or not is finally about the one PERFECT incarnation
      • it is possible, the Divine has left this issue ambiguous intentionally to allow us freedom to decide what best enriches our faith
  3. Is Satan Real?
    1. The Supernatural Satan
      • Satan as the chief of a supernatural order of fallen creation
      • The Fall of Angels
        1. s. 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6
        2. Satan, King of the Fallen Angels -- a real "person"
          • His best trick is to convince us he does not exist
        3. Jesus Temptation in Matthew 4:1-10;
          also Mt 12:27; Lk 10:17-18; Rom 16;20; 2 Cor 11:14, 16; Rev 12:7-9; 20:2,10
        4. Satan = "adversary", "slanderer"
        5. also Abaddon, Apollyon, Lucifer, Devil, the Dragon
        6. Before the Fall: Lucifer and the highest of angels; the most powerful and beautiful (Isaiah 14:12ff)
          • an angel
          • immortal and ageless
          • spirit
          • indestructible, except by God
          • beautiful
          • NOT all-powerful
        7. Satan' Fall
          • cause: pride in his splendor and brightness and ambition Ezekial 28:17; 1 Timothy 3:6
          • exerted his will over God and rebelled before human creation
            NOTE: re. Satan as the Edenic serpent
          • Milton: God's announcement of Jesus and God's love for humans triggered the rebellion
            Satan did not want to be subject to Jesus
      • Fallen Angels
        1. Satan's cohorts in rebellion
        2. Condemned to Hell, no redemption
        3. For now, free to roam the earth
      • The Power of Demons
        1. Jesus, the Exorcist -- Mk 1:39; Lk6:18; Mt 4:24
        2. and the Disciples -- Lk 13:32; Mk 16:17, 18; Acts 8:7, etc.
        3. spirits
        4. numerous
        5. can control humans
        6. unclean
        7. recognize Jesus as supreme over them
        8. in conflict with Christians
        9. unbelievers susceptible to demon possession, invading humans with blindness, insanity, etc.
      • Christ, the Way to Victory
        1. s. the First Letter to John
        2. "one in the world" => Satan
        3. the purpose of the Incarnation is the destruction of the works of Satan
        4. Christ can discern Satan's intentions
        5. The crucifixion and resurrection triumphs over Satan -- Satan is already defeated
        6. We are born with a sinning nature prone to Satan, see origninal sin, below
        7. re-born in Christ we take on Christ's unsinning nature
        8. believers between two natures in conflict
      • how can a good God permit evil?
      • Is Satan as powerful as God?
      • If not why then doesn't God banish Satan right now?
    2. Satan and the Problem of Evil [Boyd]
      1. The Blueprint Worldview
        • God is the Creator of all that is and the sovereign Lord of history
        • God is omnipotent and omniscient
        • everything that happens must fit into God's plan
        • "God has his reasons"
        • "There's a purpose for everything"
        • "His ways are not our ways."
        • Augustine: "Nothing happens unless th Omnipotent wills it to happen."
        • even evil deeds must be allowed by God for a specific good purpose.
        • thus, encourage victims that what happened to them is God's will!
        • Calvin: "... all events are governed by God's secret plan"
        • God ordains all things or God simple allows evil events; but there is a specific divine reason for evil
        • How can the omnipotent and perfect goodness of God be reconciled with evil, such as:
          • the kidnapping of a child
          • the holocaust
          • ...
        • is there really a "higher harmony" in which evil fits into God's plan?
      2. The Warfare Worldview
        • God is not responsible for everything
        • God's creation can resist God's will
        • While God's general will for world history cannot fail, God's particular will for individuals can
        • Humans are free to choose against God.
        • the central motif of scripture is God warring against human and angelic opponents who can thwart God's will
        • Satan is the chief of this rebellion
        • God will someday defeat Satan, but in the meantime genuinely fights Satan
        • evil is not caused by God, but by the rebels
        • God does try to work good out of evil
        • God is omnipotent; but how can an all-powerful God be thwarted?
        • the answer is in the logic of love
        • for God to receive our love, God had to risk our hate
        • Satan really exists: certain evils can only be explained by the existence of Satan, e.g. "natural" disasters or natural evil
        • all evil derives from the will of free agents: hence "natural" evil is from Satan
        • six theses
          1. love must be freely chosen
          2. love entails risk for God
          3. to some extent we are morally responsibe for each other
          4. the power to influence for the bad is approximately the same as the power to influence for the good
          5. love, within limits, is irrevocable (i.e., God won't stop evil)
          6. our capacity to freely choose love is not endless (i.e., we are finite)
        • God sent the Son (Jesus) to defeat Satan and rescue humans through the power of the HS (hence the Trinity)
        • God does sometimes permit or cause suffering: to punish sin, to build our character, to contribute to a "greater good"
        • the agent of the evil deed is responsible for it, not God (unlike the blueprint worldview which would assign God the ultimate cause)
    3. All these "visions" of Satan are contrived to avoid dualism and still explain evil as supernatural
      • dualism is gnostic and orthodox Christianity avoids that like the plague!
      • dualism sees creation as a battleground between two equally powerful forces: the Good and the Bad
      • there is the Good God and the Bad God (Satan)
      • the outcome is not guaranteed
    4. an all-powerful, all-knowing God of love is incompatible with the power of evil
    5. celtic monism [Markale, chap 12]
      • "the dark and profound unity" existing between beings and things, between creatures and creator, between material and spirit
      • our visible world of appearances, the world of the living is exactly identical to the Other World, the world of the gods, heroes and the dead.
      • we are not imprisoned in matter
      • we blossom in matter, because the world is in a state of perpetual becoming
      • no metaphysical evil; evil is simply the imperfections or failure of individuals to strive for the highest
      • human life is a constant effort toward something higher
      • the world is divine and an instrument of perfection
      • morality is a series of rules to help guide us to the best possible solution
    6. The Logic of Love 
      God's logic of love, so profound and sublime
   underlies all of space and time:
For God is love, perfect and ever true,
   wanting our free and sure love too.

So the Divine imbrues into us free will
   unhindered, for good or ill,
   that uncoerced we may truly give
   our love to God, our cause to live.

Our Lover to covenant love with us chooses
   perfect power, and all-power refuses,
   perfect knowledge, and all-knowledge loses.

God from us must even hide
   that we may on unbelief decide,
   for not e'en the Divine reality can be sure
   but a matter of belief and Divine allure.

And, lo, free to love is free to hate.
   For our choice God'll ne'er frustrate;
   to give us love's flower
   is to give us evil's power.

      But our unhindered liberation
   empowers us with co-creation:
   The children of our minds, hearts, and hands
   -- for either good or ill -- expands
   God's cosmos and our reality
   with our invented artificiality.
   Will we see artificial minds
   -- new alien kinds?
   How will we re-invent
   ourselves and with what intent?

And, lo, from the Word, "It is good"
All of creation is saved, made free --
  So to be saved no need to plea,
  But rather to respond to this disciplehood.

O Love, You cannot arise from our defense
  Because, requiring such insane expense,
  You go against all rationale and sense:
Thus, God is Utterly Other,
  Altogether Another,
  By idols ne'er smother'd.

Thus, we are nourished in God's power of love.
So will we be a vulture or will we be a dove?
      ©2002, John A. Mills
      Published in Pathways To Faith; Natalie Nightingale, ed; Triumph House; Peterborough, UK
    7. Satan and relational theology [Suchocki]
      • evil
        1. God is THE Creator, calling the world into existence in every moment
        2. But God creates with the world, not independently of it.
        3. Reality is in a creative dance with God, emerging anew every moment taking its past and God's future into its becoming
        4. traditionally, evil is the destructiveness that seems to be built into reality
        5. Natural evil, so called is not accepted in Process:
          • natural disasters have "evil" effects
          • there is illness and death
          • all of life is mortal and must eventually die
          • this is all part of the natural process of becoming
          • "every creaturely becoming takes place in a myriad of other creaturely becomings."
          • there must be a measure of conflict given our interdependence and diversity
          • is part of the price of free will and indeed our existence.
        6. however, there is SIN
        7. sin is "missing the mark"; i.e., not ingressing God into our lives
        8. evil, then, results from our intentional rejection of God's lure
        9. rejecting God's future leads to a broken, violent, hateful future
        10. evil results from us using our free will not for God's agenda but for our agenda
        11. there is not a separate spirit that provokes us to evil
        12. it is our free will choice
        13. free will is also exercised by communities, not just individuals
        14. communities (churches, businesses, nations) can turn to evil ways
          • Religious fanaticism
          • corruption
          • totalitarism
        15. evil can then become systemic and systematically practiced
          • evil acts become embedded in the routine
          • racism is one case
          • routinely cheating is another
        16. evil therefore derives from our free will choices
      • Satan
        1. but there is NOT a war between Satan and God
        2. evil does NOT originate with a supernatural spirit
        3. rather Satan is the emergent effect of the web of relations resulting from systematic evil
        4. collective acts and communities have a spirit (a feel, a culture, a way about them)
        5. this spirit can be righteous or it can be evil
        6. Satan is the total emergent effect of all of the evil in Reality
        7. think interconnectedness, emergence, consilience
        8. God's Kingdom is the teleos of all of reality
          • all of reality is gestating the Kingdom of God
          • since the Crucifixion and Resurrection, reality has been in labor
          • labor is the struggle to bring in the Kingdom
        9. Satan is a metaphor for the interconnected evil throughout reality that resists the birth of the Kingdom
          • is like a problem with the pregnancy
          • the Kingdom of God can be aborted!
  4. Is Sin Original?
  5. Is Jesus Alive?
    1. Resurrection sightings
      • John 20-21
        • Mary M. talks with Jesus (20:11-17)
        • Jesus appears to the Disciples in the Upper Room (20:19-23)
        • And again to include Thomas (20:24-29)
        • Jesus seen by the Sea of Tiberias (21)
      • Mark (16:9-19)
        • NONE in the shorter ending (the more authentic)
        • to Mary M. (9-11)
        • to two travelers (12-13)
        • to the disciples, including Thomas (14-18)
        • Jesus ascends (19)
      • Matthew (28)
        • to Mary M. and friends (8-10)
        • meets disciples in Galilee (16-20)
      • Luke (24)
        • on the road to Emmaus (13-35)
        • at the Upper Room (36-43)
        • Jesus ascends (50-53)
      • Acts (1, 9)
        • stays with the Disciples for 40 days (1:3)
        • Jesus ascends (1:9)
        • appears to Paul on the Road to Damascus (9:3-4)
      • What was the Resurrected Jesus
        • appears in various forms (Mk 16:12)
        • suddenly appears even behind locked doors (Mt 28:9; Jn 20:19, 26; Lk 24:36)
        • not readily recognizable (Jn 20:15; Jn 21:4; Lk 24:16), but becomes recognizable with his own speaking and actions (Jn 20:16; 21:7; Lk 24:31)
        • cannot be touched - Mary (Jn 20:17)
        • can be touched - Thomas and the disciples (Jn 20:27; Lk 24:39)
        • open the disciples minds (Jn and Lk)
        • appears as a blinding light (Ac 9:3)
        • heard but not seen (Ac 9:7)
    2. What really happened?
      • We will never really know, but ...
      • Something wonderful happened: a process of creative transformation
      • Many scholars agree that the body was also transformed
      • Resurrectin results in a transfigured body
      • A disorganized group of "nobodies" came back together and launched a movement
      • No religion would promote a god who was executed
      • Yet the "scandal of the cross" was the leven that grew and grew.
    3. Is there Christianity without the bodily resurrection?
      • The bodily resurrection is God's sure and true promise that
        1. evil will be overcome
        2. humans in all their aspects, physicial and spiritual, are fundamentally good
        3. hope will prevail no matter what
        4. shalom is at hand
      • "bodily" is essential
        1. salvation/liberation in all aspects of our personhood
        2. nephesh: God is for all of our aspects
        3. we are saved not just spiritually, but physically too
        4. it isn't sufficient to be spiritually liberated, we must be bodily liberated too
        5. the physical creation is just as important as the spiritual creation
        6. spirit and body are the same thing: two aspects of creation
        7. just as religion and science are two gifts of God to understand creation
    4. Is resurrection reincarnation?
      • NO
      • reincarnation is the transmigration of souls from body to body
      • resurrection is the renewing and liberating of the body as well as the spirit
    5. The Resurrection and Relational Theology
      • rejects the crucifixion as God's required sacrifice for Original Sin
      • God saves us by revealing through Jesus Christ both God's nature and that which human nature is called to be
      • As God is perfect, so Jesus was perfect in his following of God
      • The cross is not vicarious sacrifice, but ...
      • the revelation that God is with us even in our deepest pain
      • Because it is morally evil to crucify, Jesus died because of our sin, not for it
      • God was made to suffer on the cross
      • Resurrection then is the creative transformation of sin in the world in body and spiritto conform with God.
      • Sin is not vanguished, it is transformed, changed for the good.
      • God doesn't cause evil, but God lures us to turn it to good.
      • sin does not have the last word; God does
      • Resurrection, then is not resusitation of dead matter
      • Resurrection is God's power to bring hope to hopeless situations, to make a way where there is no way
      • Jesus is resurrected in our present, bodily and spiritual lives when ...
        1. we are agents of creative transformation in our world
        2. we proclaim the gospel in the world
        3. we see hope where there is no hope in the world
      • Jesus' influence can be ingressed by us in each infinitasimal concresence
      • We can choose to embody Jesus
      • The biblical resurrection stories are narratives of the mighty power of Jesus' on-going influence and spirit in the lives of the disciples
      • Reality is a web of relationship spanning all of time and all of space
      • Our bodies and our spirits emerge out of that web
        • take note that at Quantum levels, reality is a web of events
        • matter emerges out of that web of events
        • therefore, we can ingress Jesus physically => resurrected Jesus emerges in oursleves if we choose
      • Our influence is the realest real
      • It is what is carried on the connective tissue of the web
      • Jesus' influence and therefore reality is powerful on the web to this very day
    6. Jesus is not just resurrected spiritually, but bodily in the sense that he continues to influence the physical world in self-sacrifice, compassion, altruism
  6. What if there are Martians?
    1. Minimal Requirements for Life: "the list of requirements include energy, mostly supplied by sunlight; carbon; liquid water; and a few other elements, notably N[itrogen], P[hosphorous], and S[ulfur] [p. 48]."
    2. Recent discoveries
      • Follow the water: Spirit and Opportunity
        1. Opportunity has found evidence of a free flowing ocean in Meridiani Planum
        2. The image at right, taken by Opportunity's microscopic imager, shows a geological region of the rock outcrop at Meridiani Planum, Mars dubbed "El Capitan." Light from the top is illuminating the region. Several images, each showing a different part of this region in good focus, were merged to produce this view. The area in this image is 1.5 centimeters (0.6 inches) across. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/US Geological Survey
        3. liquid water flowed on the surface of Mars in the past
        4. Mars must have had a thicker warmer atmosphere in the past
        5. Mars and Earth may have been comparable worlds
        6. "... one specimen [meteorite] known as ALH84001 is old, having formed on Mars about 4.5 Gyr ago under warm, reducing conditions. There are even indications that it contains Martian organic material. This rock formed during the time period when Mars is thought to have had a warm, wet climate capable of supporting life -- even if the fossil evidence in the meteorite remains debatable [p. 53]."
        7. potential origins of Martian life approached by analogy to Earth, since the two planets similar.
        8. Assume development of life is fundamental and reproducible process (biological determinism).
        9. focus on microfossils and stromatolites
        10. possible life on Earth and Mars have a common origin (Panspermia)
        11. only analyzing a Martian will we know for sure
      • Europa
        1. moon of Jupiter
        2. tidal flexing caused by gravity of Jupiter and other moons
        3. heat generated by the expansion/contraction of Europa's surface
        4. may melt part of the crust underneath the surface to form lakes and oceans
        5. on earth life thrives in oceans around hydrothermal vents
      • Search for Extraterristrial Intelligence
        1. The mission of the SETI Institute is to explore, understand and explain the origin, nature and prevalence of life in the universe.
        2. The SETI Institute is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to scientific research, education and public outreach.
        3. Founded in 1984
        4. the Institute today employs over 100 scientists, educators and support staff
        5. Research at the Institute is anchored by two centers, each directed by a renowned scientist who holds an endowed chair.
        6. Dr. Jill Tarter leads the Center for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Research as Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI
        7. Dr. Christopher Chyba holds the Carl Sagan Chair, and directs the Center for the Study of Life in the Universe.
      • Extra Solar planets
        1. There are many!
        2. Some examples are listed here
        3. 55 Cancri 2002
          • At last a planet has been confirmed with an orbit comparable to Jupiter's; a distance of 5.5 AU from the star, (Jupiter's is 5.2 AU). All other discovered extrasolar worlds orbit closer in to their parent stars. While not an exact analog ­ the 13 year orbit is slightly elliptical rather than round, and the world is 3.5 to 5 times the mass of Jupiter ­ it is nevertheless the closest astronomers have come to date in finding a system that resembles our own.
          • There are two other confirmed worlds in this system. The innermost gas giant was discovered in 1996 and has a 14.6-day orbit. The middle world orbits 55 Cancri in 44.3 days.
        4. The 47 Ursae Majoris System
          • Observations at Lick Observatory have identified two Jupiter-like planets orbiting the star 47 Ursae Majoris.
          • They have nearly the same mass ratio as our own Jupiter and Saturn and travel in nearly circular orbits at distances far beyond the distance that Mars orbits our Sun.
          • These similarities suggest that this system formed in a similar way as our own solar system and theorists suspect that low mass, Earth-like planets might exist around 47 Ursae Majoris in its habitable zone.
        5. Gliese 876 System
          • A second planet has been discovered orbiting Gliese 876, making it one of the most bizarre systems found to date.
          • The two planets are eternally locked in sync, with periods of 60 and 30 days.
          • Because of this 2-to-1 ratio, the inner planet goes around twice for each orbit of the outer one.
          • They gravitationally shepherd one other to maintain this synchrony.
    3. biological determinism
      • "biological determinism: given the right conditions, life inevitably will form after a sufficiently long time, and once life gets started, it will very probably progress toward intelligence [p. 15]."
      • "Strong determinism is captured by the oft-repeated phrase that life is written into the laws of physics. In other words, in a suitable chemical mixture under appropriate physical conditions, the laws of physics favor the production of molecules that are biologically relevant [p. 17-18]."
        • "Molecules like DNA and RNA can be considered a genetic databank, and reproduction viewed as the copying and propagation of information ... a gene is a set of instructions, e.g., for the assembly of a protein [p. 18]."
        • "The living cell thus resembles a digital computer in its logical architecture [p. 18]."
        • The more random, the more information, the more complex
        • The genome sequences on a DNA molecule are essentially random, and therefore have high information content and complexity.
        • From a physics and chemistry prospective, one sequence is as good as another -- hence non-deterministic.
        • "The laws of physics merely map input states into output states: they cannot add information on the way... Therefore, they cannot alone inject the complexity necessary for a structure like a random genome."
        • "The trick is to connect the building blocks together in the very, very specific sequences that represent biological relevance. That step is not explained by chemistry [p. 22]."
      • Weak determinism: "life emerges with a high degree of predictability, not because of the operation of explicitly biofriendly laws, but as a result of a general propensity for matter and energy to self-organize and self-complexify [p. 18]."
        • "... the key question confronting weak biological determinists ... what is the probability that a functioning replicator, possessing enough complexity to satisfy the [below] three conditions. will form by chance [p. 23]?"
          1. Not only must a replicator molecule form, it is also necessary for a significant subset of variations of the replicator to also be replicators,
          2. avoid Eigen's error catastrophe (copying fidelity falls too low).
          3. form by chance with a reasonable probability in a plausible prebiotic medium
      • Thus, assuming weak determinism, design becomes probable, if not necessary, by giving the propensity for life and improving the probabilities of complex molecules forming.
      • If God is love and life is an expression of love, then it is probable that the cosmos and the laws governing it, would be designed to foster life.
      • But God's love also gives life/the cosmos free will. Thus, to make life 100% deterministic would be a violation of this covenant.
      • Hence, weak determinism, that has built into it the possibly that life would not arise is consistent with that covenant.
    4. Cosmic Enjoyment
      • Process/Relational theology teaches that everything seeks to maximize its "joy"
      • Extends the idea of weak biological determinism to all of reality
      • from rocks to humans, everything experiences "joy"
      • "joy" is broadly defined to be the drive towards experience
      • to be, to actualize oneself, to act on others, to share in a wider community is to enjoy being an experiencing subject
      • everything, thus, has intrinsic value and an inner reality
      • the drive towards experience does not depend on being conscious
      • each thing enjoys at different degrees
      • the higher order, more complex, entities enjoy deeper than lower order forms
      • consciousness contributes to the ability to enjoy deeply
      • evolutionary development is drivien by the yearning to enjoy
        1. Darwinian evoluton supplies the mechanism
        2. Process supplies the motivation
        3. God is the ground of all possibilities, but is NOT all actualities
        4. The possible is actualized through creation
        5. the vector of evolution is towards more and more complex forms resulting from God's basic creative purpose => possibilities being actualized with greater and greater joy
        6. the complex forms build on the simpler forms
        7. complexity and enjoyment are positively correlated
        8. degree of enjoyment increases with the degree of harmony and intensity experienced
        9. the more harmony the more an entity is free of conflict and free to develop
        10. intensity of experience requires a variety of elements in an unity of experience
        11. the more complex an entity, the more elements it can feel
        12. hence intensity depends on complexity
        13. living forms are of the highest complexity
      • Therefore, God lures the creation on and on into novelty and more enjoyment by stimulating the emergence of living forms
        1. living forms have higher streams of experience
        2. can experience joy to a greater degree
      • therefore, life on other worlds are theologically highly possible.
    5. Martian Ecology
      • "Could humans play a role in restoring Mars to life, and restoring lift to Mars? If it is possible, should such a thing be done?" Terraforming or Arieforming
      • Is ecosynthesis on Mars ethical? How do we extend our principles of environmental ethics from Earth to Mars?
        e.g., A. Leopold's "Land Ethic": It's right if it preserves the integrity, stability, and beauty of it. preserve? develop?
      • Would a rich and diverse biosphere on Mars have more value than the current "dead" world?
      • We humans are part of the web of being
        • We have a role on Mars or any other planet
        • We need to be grounded in God's love (or we risk being abusive)
        • All of Creation, including "dead" Mars are part of the web of being
        • We who are self-conscious and capable of being other-centered, are obligated to "intrude" in love
        • If life is an expression of love with diversity, then would "resurrecting" Mars, if indeed its dead, would be a holy calling
        • If there is life on Mars, then our call is to join and partner with it, not dominate it.
    6. The Christ Event on Mars?
      • Peacocke [p. 103]
        1. "What can the cosmic significance possibly be of the localized, terrestrial event of the existence of the historical Jesus?"
        2. "Does not the mere possibility of extraterrestrial life render nonsensical all the superlative claims made by the Christian church about his significance?"
        3. Would aliens need it?
        4. "Jesus the Christ (the whole Christ event) has ... shown us what is possible for humanity. The actualization of this potentiality can properly be regarded as the consummation of the purposes of God already manifested incompletely in evolving humanity [p. 114]."
        5. "But because it [the Word] is .... a manifestation of this eternal and perennial mode of God's interaction in, with, and under the created order, what was revealed in Jesus the Christ could also, in principle, be manifest both in other human beings and indeed also on other planets, in any sentient, self-conscious, non-human persons ... inhabiting them that are capable of relating to God [p. 114]."
      • Life and Intelligence Far From Earth ...; McMullin [pp 151-173]
        1. "Independently, then, of the questions raised by ETI, the religions of the Book have always had to face the difficult issue of particularity. It was inherent in the very idea of God's choosing particular individuals through whom to communicate and a content of that communications that would mark off one human group in a way that seemed to privilege it in God's sight. Is salvation possible outside the chosen group [p. 161]?"
        2. Thomas Paine: Christians must believe that all the worlds must come to us, or ... All the worlds had a Christ
        3. When humans thought they were central to the cosmos, it was easier to believe the Incarnation
        4. "Since the Incarnation is central to Christian belief Puccetti [Roland Puccetti in Persons: A Study of Possible Moral Agents in the Universe] concludes that the discovery of this vast plurality of inhabited worlds undermines the Christian religion decisively [p. 166]."
        5. "Do these distant agents have a divided nature like ours? What sort of balance did their evolutionary ancestry leave them between reason and passion? How far does their intelligence carry them in an understanding of the sources and sanctions of morality [p. 168]?"
        6. "What manner of creature will these intelligent aliens be? How will they relate to their Creator? Will there be an analog of our very evident sinfulness [p. 169]?"
        7. "By taking on human nature, God raised up that nature; the life and death of God as man revealed the depth of the Creator's love for his human creatures, errant though they are [p. 171]."
        8. God has and will forever love us.
        9. Jesus died to change us, not God.
        10. Incarnation: God's love for us or expiation for human sin?
        11. If the Incarnation a response to human sin, what of ETI?
        12. Did ETI fall? If not, no need for an Incarnation
        13. If Christ's death on Earth a cosmically unique event and sufficient to restore the creation for all of the cosmos, then unnecessary elsewhere
        14. Does, then ETI, share in human nature to also be redeemed?
        15. But if the Incarnation, a revelation of God's goodness, then it is repeatable and by grace given to ETI
      • The Evolution of Intelligent Life on Earth and Possibly Elsewhere ...; George V. Coyne, S. J.
        1. Did God freely chose to redeem extraterrestrials?
        2. If God is good and compassionate, then "YES" (if we can speak for God!)
        3. We would expect a good God to save ETI
        4. God may have "saved them" in a variety of ways, not with just an Incarnation
        5. "Could Jesus Christ, fully a human being, exist on more than one planet at more than one time [p. 187]?"
      • Cosmotheology: Theological Implications of the New Universe; Steven J. Dick
        1. In 15th century it was asked, Whether Christ by dying on this earth could redeem the inhabitants of another world [p. 197].
        2. The standard answer was YES, because Christ couldn't die on another world.
    7. Martian Religion
      • No Other Name?: Pluralism
        Look at our own experience with "aliens"
        1. Raimundo Panikkar [pp. 152ff]
          • Roman Catholic priest, science, theology, philosophy
          • Mother Spanish Roman Catholic
          • Father Indian Hindu
        2. unity without harming diversity
        3. shared Mystery (the "fundamental religious fact"): present everywhere and in every religion
        4. understood only partially, never completely
        5. each belief sees only partially
        6. diversity of religions essential
        7. each one adds to our understanding of the Mystery
        8. "... the mystery within all religions is both more than and yet has its being within the diverse experiences and beliefs of the religions [p. 153]."
        9. no religion has a monopoly
        10. no religion is superior, including Christianity
        11. distinguish between universal Christ and particular Jesus
        12. Christ is a symbol for the totality of reality
        13. total reality: "cosmotheandric reality": intimate and complete unity between the divine and the profane
        14. God and humans [creation!] are in close constitutive collaboration for the building up of reality, unfolding of history, continuing creation -- co-creation
        15. God, the Father = apophatic dimension of the godhead: the creative silence beyond knowing
        16. Christ, the son = Logos, the external expression of the godhead
        17. God is the ground of divinity within all [ETI]
        18. Incarnation of Christ in Jesus is not final, normative, or definitive
        19. also Rama, Krishna, Isvara, Purusha, Tathagata
        20. No historical form can fully be Christ
        21. Jesus saving is not only in his historical presence, but in the cosmic Christ
        22. Christ can become real only through some particular, historical form
          therefore, occurs among ETI independently
        23. Jesus Is the Christ not= the Christ is Jesus
        24. "Christ-principle capable of self-realization in a plurality of Christ-events [p. 157]."
      • The Cosmic Christ
        1. Essence of Christ-event = universal
        2. Manifestation of Christ-event = particular
        3. traditionally Christ-event was restoration to Eden because of the Fall
        4. evolutionally, the Christ-event represents a crisis in evolutionary progress: from self-centeredness to other-centeredness
        5. The Universe is innately moral-capable
        6. re. Prime Directive: NO! Our role is not to not interfere (all evolutionary process is "interference"), but to do God's will when we encounter ETI; hence it is very important to know God in ETI.
      • Any encounter with ET must be mutual, open, and dialectic
      • See also On Evangelizing Mars: A Response To Jesus and life on Mars (unpublished)
    8. Martian as Savior
      • See also Religious Evolution: Technological or Mystical? A critique of SETI and the Religions of the Universe (unpublished)
      • ETI as savior in popular imagination
        • 2001: A Space Odyssey
        • The Day The Earth Stood Still
        • Independence Day
        • Contact: Ellie is modeled after Dr. Tarter
        • UFO Encounters (Close Encounters of the Third Kind)
      • ETI as savior in Cosmotheology; Theological Implications of the New Universe; Steven J. Dick
        • "... indeed, in some ways SETI may be seen as a religious quest. This is not a characterization that SETI proponents favor, but SETI is, after all, a search for a superior intelligence, or knowledge (omniscience?), for wisdom, and perhaps for power (omnipotence?) [p. 201]".
        • "... the point is that advanced extraterrestrial intelligence could possess many of the same characteristics now attributed to the supernatural God of the Judeo-Christian and Islamic Traditions. Such advanced intelligence could have fine tuned the physical constants, thus explaining the conundrum of the anthropic principle. in principle, it could even 'intervene in human history,' the touchstone principle of the Christian faith, not to mention of the UFO and alien abductee advocates [p. 204]."
      • Thesis of SETI and the Religions of the Universe; Jill Cornell Tarter
        • "How might the detection of ETI inform, disrupt, or consolidate religious belief systems [p. 144]?"
        • Assumption: given religious intolerance and the resulting destruction, a civilization advanced enough to contact us must have a single (if any) religion, universal and compatible with science & technology
        • Therefore, contact that is intentional with information on the ET's belief system would result in our mass conversion to this discovered, superior religion, or ...
        • contact that is not intentional (i.e., no information re. ET's belief system) would result in
          • either new infidels resulting in uniting religions to fight them,
          • or religions becoming more inclusive and so uniting
        • "This is not an appeal for extraterrestrial salvation, but an acknowledgment that a mediated paradigm shift is less likely to have negative consequences than if it is left in our inexperienced human hands [p. 148]."
      • Tarter's Implicit Assumptions
        • our world view increasingly circumscribed by science & technology
        • God (an invention of humans [p. 143]), therefore, is circumscribed by science & technology
        • universal religion is a program of science & technology
        • revealed religion is "made up" [p. 143]
        • revelation is superstitious or invented
        • as we advance evolutionarily, God is discovered through science & technology
        • evolutionary advance => technological advance
      • Flaws
        • "techno-alatry": technology will save us
          • idolatry: believing that a created thing or activity will save you
          • money & riches (mammon)
          • science will solve every problem
        • ETI/technology as savior
        • consider the Puritans:
          • more technological advanced than the American Indians
          • saw the American Indians as less than human
          • demonized their belief systems
          • American Indians overwhelmed with the technological advancements
          • mass conversion was attempted and generally failed
          • today liberal Christians are trying to recover American Indian spirituality
        • Our Relationship to the Universe; Lee Smolin, "But the object of our adoration will then be nothing outside and apart from the reality in which we live. For we will understand that an even greater possibility exists than that our world was created by a being that stands eternally outside of its creation. It is that the creative being, and the world itself are one and the same thing. And our understanding of our relation to it then begins with the realization that we are of it and that we, and all our knowledge, and all our wondering are also creations of it [p. 85]."

References

  1. Gregory A. Boyd; Satan and the Problem of Evil: Constructing a Trinitarian Warfare Theodicy; InterVarsity Press; ©2001.
  2. John Calvin; Institutes of the Christian Religion; translated by Henry Beveridge; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 1989.
  3. John B. Cobb, Jr and David Ray Giffin; Process Theology: an Introductory Exposition: Westminster Press, Phil. ©1976.
  4. Steven Dick, ed; Many Worlds: the New Universe, Extraterrestrial LIfe & the Theological Implications; ©2000, Templeton Foundation Press.
  5. Jean Markale; Montségur and the Mystery of the Cathars; translated by Jon Graham; Inner Traditions 2003.
  6. Robin Scroggs;Paul for a New Day; Fortress Press, Philadelphia; ©1977.
  7. Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki; What Is PROCESS Theology? A Conversation with Marjorie; ©2003
  8. Cathechism of the Catholic Church; Doubleday 1995.