Effectively Disagreeing:
Can the liberal, scientific worldview be spiritually nurturing?:
Session Notes
Opening Discussion
Where have you seen the Spirit move through science? technology?
Have you experienced a "spiritual high" with some scientific or natural phenomenon?
In what ways has science and technology "matched" your faith?
Conflicted with it?
A Short Trip Into the Philosophy of Science [Murphey]
Modern Science: Reductionism [pp. 12-18]
"[Galileo's] version of atomism hypothesized that all physical processes could be account of for in terms of the properties of the atoms, which he took to be size, shape, and rate of motion [p. 12]."
reductionism:
"the strategy of not only analyzing a thin into its parts,
but also of explaining the properties or behavior of the thing in terms of the properties and behavior of the parts [p. 12]."
the atomist-reductionist program continues to bear fruit
in modern physics: unification and reduction
Einstein, 1918:
"The supreme test of the physicist is to arrive at those universal elementary laws from which the cosmos can be built up by pure deduction."
eventually the reduction of chemistry to physics
and biology to chemistry and thence to physics
e.g., the Human Genome Project
Causation is "bottom up"
"the parts of an entity are one rung downward
in the hierarchy of complexity, and it is the parts that determine
the characteristics of the whole, not the other way around [p.13-14]."
Ultimate causation at the simplest level
Postmodern Science
analysis and reduction provide only a partial understanding of the universe
emergence
Emergent order:
appearance of properties and processes that are only describable at higher levels of complexity
novel properties resulting from the interaction of higher level components
not reducible to low level concepts
decoupling
universe hierarchically layered in a quasiautonomous domains
some changes at lower levels have no effect on higher levels
emergent laws relating to higher levels are as fundamental as lower level laws
top-down causation
some interactions at lower level cannot be predicted except by reference to higher level interactions
irreducible higher level variables have genuine causal impact
The Logic of Love
An underlying theology to discover spirituality in science/creation
God is Love
God loves us and wants us to love him/her.
In order for God to be sure we love the Divine,
God canNOT coerce us into love.
We must be able to freely choose or reject it.
Hence God gives us Free Will.
Thus, God ontologically chooses to be:
non-coercive
not all-powerful, but perfect in power
not all-knowing, but perfect in knowledge
Consequences:
We have to have the freedom not to believe, thus; God is hidden:
if God were obvious, only the "insane" would not believe
In order for createds to be able to love God,
they must also have the ability for love's antithesis:
hate, violence, ... evil;
if God stopped evil in its tracks, we could not love God.
We co-create with God: we must have the freedom to create, hence;
Artificial life, intelligence, consciousness
Cloning
etc.
Consilience [Wilson]
The Ionian Enchantment
the deep conviction that
"the world is orderly and can be explained by a small number of natural laws [p.4]."
so far this has been the direction of scientific discovery,
through areas remain unconsolidated (no Grand Unification Theory yet!)
Examples of unity: electromagnetism; evolution;
unification metaphysics
search for object reality over revelation to satisfy religious hunger
"... save the spirit, not by surrender but by liberation of the human mind [p 6]."
central tenet is the unification of knowledge
Consilience
interlocking of causal explanations across disciplines
An example:
given four disciplines: environmental policy, ethics, biology, and social science
rational inquiry in one informs reasoning in the others
but each has its own language and practitioners
with consilience, we can recognize environmental problems,
to the selection of moral solutions,
to the biological foundations of that reasoning,
and to a grasp of the social institutions needed to implement them.
consilience of the sciences and humanities is essential to solve the problems of society
very humanistic
but, raises up unity of creation, and thus unity of God
calls on us to more organic, holistic thinking
Process: Whitehead [Cobb and Griffith]
Process Philosophers: Alfred North Whitehead & Charles Hartshorne
Process
not everything is process;
e.g., principles of process and abstract forms
to be actual is to be process
creation is in process, growing, becoming, decaying
if the actual or fully real is beyond change, then creation is devalued
therefore, if to be real is to be in process, then to be in creation is divine
time -- one kind of process
temporal process is a "transition" from one actual entity to another
entities are instantaneous/infinitesimal:
Perishing immediately upon coming into being
time is not smooth, but succeeding events, like a motion picture
(hence, the possible notion of chronons:
my notion
wave and particle
quantum of time)
"actual occasion" or "occasions of experience"
enduring "individuals" are actually societies of these true individuals
time is a vector
Concrescence -- second kind of process
becoming - perishing
the eternal now
actual individual is atomic
Enjoyment (p. 16)
upon concrescence an actuality "enjoys" "subjective immediacy"
"enjoyment" is not necessarily pleasure or conscious
to be, to actualized, to act on others is to enjoy being an experiencing subject
every actuality "enjoys" its existence
all actualities "enjoy"
to experience is to enjoy
consciousness is not required to experience:
therefore rocks enjoy
consciousness illumes only a selective set of factors of experience
All actualities have an inner and outer reality
and are akin to all other actualities
Essential Relatedness
actualities are occasions of experience and do not endure
the soul -- stream of experience -- is composed of distinct
occasions of experience (p 19)
relations are primary
an actuality becomes individual out of the multiplicity of relations
present occasions is process of unifying its prehension
"prehension" and "feeling":
the present occasion "prehends" or "feels" the previous occasions
present occasion receives as inputs:
previous occasions (efficient causation)
self-creation (free will)
God's lure (initial aim)
God as potentialities or novelty
essential interdependent -- ontological
that an actuality is independent ontologically
derives from our belief that God is independent
and from our striving to be really real: our rebellion
Incarnation (p.22)
to prehend a past experience is to include it
an occasion incarnates partially the past occasion it prehends
as having been experienced
memory, e.g.
part of past's objectiveness and subjective reaction to it
past lure is incarnated in the present: objectively immortal
we influence each other by entering into each other (ecological view),
not as billiard balls bouncing off each other
the cause is incarnated in the effect
Creative Self-Determination -- self creation
what about autonomy or independence? final causation
process is partially self-creation
each present actuality determines how it will "immortalize" the past
free will and determination in equal parts
freedom constrained by the world
our enjoyment is a function of our environment and our free will
the boundary between individual and environment is fluid --
perishing and becoming
optimal environment is not a guarantee of
high quality --
given free will
God relates to us to optimize our enjoyment,
but does not guarantee it
Creative Self-Expression
the aim of an actuality is to enhance its enjoyment
half of creative aim: our self-creation -- private enjoyment
half of creative aim: pervade its environment -- self-expression -- sharing
therefore
absolute egoism is ruled out
concern for the future can be enhanced: function of morality
anticipates its self-expression will be well received
Novelty
God: primordial envisagement of pure possibility
an actuality can actualize an unactuated or new possibility
divine reality: ground of novelty
and changing and developing order
God-Relatedness
God: attractive possibility, lure, "initial aim",
urging to new height of joy
God: ground of novelty
p. 29: God lures or persuades -- does not control
p. 27: "And, far from sanctioning the status quo,
recognition of essential relatedness to this God implies a continual
creative transformation of that which is received from the past in the light of the divinely received call forward,
to actualize novel possibilities ..." [CHECK THIS]
Kenotic nature of nature [Murphy and Ellis]
ethics: the science of determining the good of humankind
definition of good actions, good human characteristics, good social organizations is the subject matter.
definitely intertwined in the social and human sciences [M/e, p. 118]:
theology/metaphysics ------> telos
ethics ------>
institutions
practices
virtues
social and human sciences -----> social and personal embodiment
hard-core of ethical theory [M/E, p119]:
Self-renunciation for the sake of the other
is humankind's highest good no matter the cost to one's self
Consequences:
renunciation involves detachment from material possessions
renounce our rights as rewards
choosing not to harm another when we have been harmed
nonviolence
acceptance of suffering
submission to God (Islam)
Can not be imposed
must be non-coercive
imposition of this ethic leads to inquisition, abuse, tyranny
kenotic doctrine of God <--> animal suffering <--> kenotic ethic
kenotic doctrine of God <--> quantum indeterminacy <--> kenotic ethic
kenotic doctrine of God <-->
existence, lawlikeness & anthropic character of the universe <--->
kenotic ethic
kenotic doctrine of God <--> kenotic ethic <--> social sciences
Confirmation from cosmology, physics, and biology:
Assumption: universe created to allow development of moral (intelligent) life, i.e.,
purpose of universe is to make possible an uncoerced, moral response to the Creator [p. 208ff]
lawlike character of the universe:
without order free will is meaningless, since cannot anticipate result
of a (im)moral response
anthropic universe and free will:
there must exist moral intelligence with free will; hence S.A.P.
undetermined actions must be permitted (to exercise free will)
provident universe:
the impartial operation of the laws of science offers to all,
irrespective of morals or beliefs, the bounty of nature.
Therefore, God is non-coercive.
hidden nature of ultimate reality:
God hides, since if God were obvious we would be coerced into moral belief.
If God were obvious, even the atheist would have to believe!
Kenosis in Biology
central feature of biological life is the recycling of materials
through many generations.
we are only lent the materials of our body to use for a while and then
to return them to nature
similarly for the stars
great chain of being
death, therefore, necessary
giving of one's life is, therefore, redemptive
QM and noncoerciveness [M/E, p.213f]
noncoercive divine action at the q level permitted;
God need not violate the laws of science to act (noninterventionist)
q indeterminacy allows revelation:
visions of ultimate reality to those open to them
at the q level within the human nervous system, the divine
can make itself known
Why the kenotic nature binding on us?
Resurrection [Wegter-McNelly]
the guarantee of the divinity and unity of Jesus with God
therefore,
Jesus's kenotic life is an example of God and binds us to it
"God's guarantee that the effectiveness of self-renunciation
and kenosis will ultimately prevail [M&E, p 193]."
by living as Jesus did, we are genuinely involving ourselves
in the ultimate character of reality
yet God's act in the resurrection is decidedly unkenotic:
absolute divine power over creation
therefore,
"He descended into Hell" from the Apostle's Creed
Jesus descended before he ascended
Jesus plundered Hell, freeing its inhabitants
Jesus's death is freeing:
do not accept death, rather engage death
Jesus's death rejects the power of domination:
do not just appear to suffer death, rather actually did and engaged death
Death and Resurrection is an axis that affirms the kenotic principle of
engaging death and transforming it into life
Consider holoprocess
the whole in everything
pan connection
utterly other within us
kenosis and plethora
An expanded ethic:
renouncing the separate self for the sake of the other self is the highest good,
no matter the cost to one's self
seeing the face of God in everyone and everything
finding and accepting the other in one's self
removing barriers among all createds
embracing all within ourselves
Kenosis is liberating; creation is liberating
What science offers to spirituality
Mystery
The Creation is in God's image
There's always something new!
Beauty and wonder
Promise for a better life, but ...
... we must make the choice.
The interconnection of all of creation
knowledge (consilience)
the biosphere (evolution)
emergence: the whole is greater than the parts
We are part of God's good creation, not alienated from it.