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... to restore theology to the mainstream of science
Toward natural religion project
This project is devoted to the construction of scientifically based religion.
Each of us is shaped by nature and nurture. Human nature unfolded through billions of years of evolution. (Darwin, Jones) It is relatively fixed and a subject of the life sciences. From the natural point of view, we are all one species intimately linked to all the other species of life on earth.
The defining feature of humanity is our ability to learn. Learning has enabled us to adapt culturally to the wide range of environments in which we now live.
From the beginning of recorded history, we have developed explanatory stories to make sense of our shared experience. Myths guide and inspire us, and enable us to live in an ultimately uncontrollable and mysterious universe. But if our myths help us they can also become entrenched and blind us to changing circumstances.
I grew up Roman Catholic Church and learnt to see religion as obeisance to an invisible divinity communicated through the Church. Slowly (over about 40 years) I began to see that this invisible being is in fact visible.
My new God is my environment: my community, my planet, the whole universe and every creature in it. No one can survive alone. Religious beliefs handed from generation to generation bind us into organic groups educated in the arts of survival. Religion is an essential element of human ecology. Reynolds & Tanner
Religion binds, but it also separates. The physical resources of the world are limited. This fact, together with variation and the propensity of life to reproduce exponentially, sets the stage for evolution by survival of the fit. Like plants and animals, strong religious organisms grow at the expense of the weak. The great religions of the world have exterminated or absorbed thousands of little religions in the course of their growth.
The Hebrew Lord God of the Catholic Old Testament supports the martial conquest of the Promised Land by his Chosen People Joshua, Miles p. 144. The gods of other conquerors were similarly pleased with the exploits of their people.
Most wars may be seen as holy wars. Dower, Armstrong. The divine mandate justifies the immense pain and loss inflicted by war. It is clear that if we are to eliminate war from the earth, we must become one organism bound by one religion. The basic motivation of this project is the search for such religious unity ('global ecumenism').
I have been trying to take theology along the route pioneered by physics, beginning with Newton's celestial mechanics. Moulton To be scientific, theology must be about something observable. Theology may become a science on the assumption that the visible universe is divine. My experience of life is my experience of God. Scientific theology may guide the development of a religion tailored to the realities of the world in the same way as science in general guides all our practical arts.
Such a religion, based on theology as a natural science, is naturally to be named natural religion.
Books
| Armstrong, Karen, Holy War: The Crusades amd their impact on today's world, Anchor Books (Random House) 2001 Jacket: 'In 1095, with the tomb of Jesus still in the hands of infidels and the Byzantine empire overrun by Muslim Turks, Pope Urban II summoned Christian warriors to take up the cross and their swords against the Turks and then recover the holy city of Jerusalem from Islam. It was to be the first of the Crusades, a holy war that would focus the power of the European kingdoms against a common enemy. The Crusades became the stuff of romantic legend, but in reality were a series of rabidly savage battles carried out in the name of Christian piety to advance the power of the Western Church. Their legacy of religious violence is felt today as the age old conflict of Christians, Muslims and Jews persists.' Amazon back |
| Darwin, Charles, and Greg Suriano (editor), The Origin of Species, Gramercy 1998 Introduction: 'In considering the Origin of Species, it is quite conceivable that a naturalist, reflecting on the mutual affinities of organic beings, on their embryological relations, their geographical distribution, geological succession, and other such facts, might come to the conclusion that each species has not been independently created, but has descended, like varieties, from other species.' (66) Amazon back |
| Dower, John W, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II, W W Norton/New Press 1999 Jacket: 'Embracing Defeat is an outstanding book, offering the most thorough treatment in any language of Japanese politics, society, and culture in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. John Dower leaves few questions unexplored as he probes deeply into the ways in which the Japanese struggled to come to terms with their nation's defeat. ... A worthy sequel to Dower's monumental history of the Pacific War, War without Mercy.' Amazon back |
| Job, The Book of Job in The Jerusalem Bible, Darton Longman and Todd 1966 Introduction: 'The Book of Job is the literary masterpiece of the [Biblical] Wisdom movement. ... The author of the Book of Job ... is without doubt an Israelite, brought up on the works of the prophets and the teachings of the sages. ... The writer puts the case of the good man who suffers. This is a paradox for the conservative view then prevalent that a man's actions are rewarded or punished here on earth.' (726, 727) Amazon back |
| Jones, Steve, Almost like a Whale: The Origin of Species Updated, Doubleday 1999 An Historical Sketch: 'The Origin of Species is, without doubt, the book of the millennium. ... [This book] is, as far as is possible, an attempt to rewrite the Origin of Species. I use its plan, developing as it does from farms to fossils, from beehives to islands, as a framework, but my own Grand Facts ... are set firmly in the late twentieth century. Almost Like a Whale tries to read Charles Darwin's mind with the benefit of scientific hindsight and to show how the theory of evolution unites biology as his millenium draws to an end.' (xix) Amazon back |
| Joshua, and Alexander Jones (editor), The Book of Joshua in The Jerusalem Bible, Darton Longman and Todd 1966 Introduction to Joshua: 'The Book ... falls into three parts: a. the conquest of the Promised Land, ch 1-12; b. the partition of the territory between the tribes, ch 13-21; c. the last days of Joshua ... . ... The Israelite invasion of Canaan may be placed within the last thirty years of the 13th century; (bce) ... .' (268) Amazon back |
| Klein, Richard G, The Human Career : Human Biological and Cultural Origins , University of Chicago Press 1999 Review: 'The Human Career describes one of the most spectacular changes to have occurred in our understanding of human evolution. The once-popular fresco showing a single file of marching hominids becoming ever more vertical, tall and hairless now appears to be a fiction. ... For most of the past four million years several species of hominids coexisted, sometimes in limited geographical areas. The eventual peopling of the planet with a single homogeneous species of hominid is shown to be exceptional on the geological timescale. ... If you could have only one book that deals with human evolution, this is definitely the one to choose. ' Jean-Jacques Hublins, Nature. 403:364 27 January 2000. Amazon back |
| Miles, Jack, God : A Biography, Vintage Books 1996 Jacket: 'Jack Miles's remarkable work examines the hero of the Old Testament ... from his first appearance as Creator to his last as Ancient of Days. ... We see God torn by conflicting urges. To his own sorrow, he is by turns destructive and creative, vain and modest, subtle and naive, ruthless and tender, lawful and lawless, powerful yet powerless, omniscient and blind.' Amazon back |
| Moulton, Forest Ray, An Introduction to Celestial Mechanics, Dover 1970 Jacket: 'An unrivalled text in the field of celestial mechanics, Moulton's theoretical work on the prediction and interpretation of celestial phenomena has not been superseded.' Amazon back |
| Reynolds, Vernon, and Ralph Tanner, The Social Ecology of Religion, Oxford University Press 1995 Jacket: 'No society exists in which religion does not play a significant part in the lives of ordinary people. Yet the functions of the world's diverse religions have never been fully described and analyzed, nor has the impact of adherence to those religions on the health and survival of the populations that practice them. ... this extraordinary text reveals how religions in all parts of the world meet the needs of ordinary people and frequently play an important part in helping them to manage their affairs.' Amazon back |
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