vol 1: About
page 10
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This site is part of the natural religion project The natural religion project A new theology A commentary on the Summa The theology company
The Plan
The working hypothesis here is that religion is the force that binds unrelated people into a peaceful society. The plan is to apply the methods of science to the study of religion, yielding scientific theology. Theology is the science corresponding to religion, that is the science of the binding and disintegration of human groups.
We begin with the bedrock of science, physics, which deals with relationships between the smallest particles and the universe as a whole. Physics confronts a set of problems that have bedevilled European thought since Ancient Greece: how can the universe be both one and many? moving and still? certain and uncertain? The modern physicists' answer to these questions has both extreme precision and 'strange beauty'. Johnson.
The heart of the plan is to expand physical ideas from the world of particles and forces to the human domain. This expansion relies on the fact that some properties of the world are invariant with respect to complexity. Subatomic particles are simple compared to vast ordered sets of particles like a person, a planet or a galaxy. Yet everything in the universe has something in common: everything is a part of the whole, interacting with other parts. The uniting element is communication.
Abstract thought is much assisted by making models. The notion of symmetry with respect to complexity is made concrete by constructing a model in which we can see it at work. The playground we have chosen is a transfinite nested network of communicating particles described under the heading model. Cantor.
Both the model and the world become clearer when we fit them together. We proceed step by step moving from physics to biology . To emphasize that model is bigger than any particular science we then look at in the context of cybernetics . From there we move to talk about the emergence of spirit from matter. The final step in this speculative process is to use the model as a foundation for theology.
This plan is in effect the file structure of the site. The dynamics are rather more sculptural. The site is evolving and will never be finished, but it will probably converge to some ideal which is not yet clear. So, apart from the historical texts, all is fluid. This is one of the beauties of web publication.
All this may seem a roundabout way to approach an ancient discipline like theology. The problem is that in the west, theology has been dominated by Christian thought for nearly two thousand years. There is very little non-Christian theological infrastructure around. To build a new theology and a new religion, it is necessary to build a new symbolic ecosystem for it to live in.
The output of religion is algorithms for living. Most of the algorithms we study are already deeply entrenched in human societies, but expressed in a multitude of different languages, customs and views of the world. The hope here is to build a consistent and transparent environment in which such algorithms can be expressed in a common language that embraces all the activities of life.
Algorithms are static structures that guide dynamic processes. Their advantage is that they are usually more succinct and intelligible than the dynamics they describe. Hulsman Christianity compresses all the constrains on life into the simple phrase love god, love your neighbour.
The root of the peaceful life seems to reside in tolerance. How far can tolerance go before the system breaks down? The fundamentalist temperament tends to hold us to the letter of the law. But when we look at the universe as a whole, we see that formal restrictions on behaviour operate with a very light rein. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the realm of quantum mechanics, where a given formal arrangement can lead to an infinity of different outcomes.
The same lightness, we believe, can operate in human affairs. We live in a universe of divine possibilities. The only constraint on our activities is that we do no harm. We must not destroy the infrastructure (physical, biological and spiritual) upon which our lives depend. With this proviso, the possibilities for human development are literally transfinite. Model
Further reading
Books
| Ashby, W Ross, An Introduction to Cybernetics, Methuen 1964 'This book is intended to provide [an introduction to cybernetics]. It starts from common-place and well understood concepts, and proceeds step by step to show how these concepts can be made exact, and how they can be developed until they lead into such subjects as feedback, stability, regulation, ultrastability, information, coding, noise and other cybernetic topics' Amazon back |
| Avis, Paul D L, The Methods of Modern Theology : the Dream of Reason , Marshall Pickering 1986 'The purpose of this book is to give an in depth critical introduction to the methods of modern theology.' [xi] Discusses Barth, Lonergan, Pannenberg, Rahner, Ritschl, Schleiermacher, Tennant and Tillich . Amazon back |
| Cantor, Georg, Contributions to the Founding of the Theory of Transfinite Numbers (Translated, with Introduction and Notes by Philip E B Jourdain), Dover 1955 Jacket: 'One of the greatest mathematical classics of all time, this work established a new field of mathematics which was to be of incalculable importance in topology, number theory, analysis, theory of functions, etc, as well as the entire field of modern logic.' Amazon back |
| Johnson, George, Strange Beauty: Murray Gell-Mann and the Revolution in Twentieth Century Physics, Knopf 1999 Jacket: '... Gell-Mann was quickly recognised as a child prodigy. Propelled by an intense boyhood curiosity and a love for nature, he entered Yale at fifteen. By age twenty-three he had ignited a revolution, laying bare in his groundbreaking work the strange beauty of the minute particle that constitute the ultimate components of physical reality.' Amazon back |
| Lonergan, Bernard J F, Method in Theology, University of Toronto Press for Lonergan Research Institute 1996 Introduction: A theology mediates between a cultural matrix and the signifcance and role of religion in that matrix. ... When the classicist notion of culture prevails, theology is conceived as a permanent achievement, and then one discourses on its nature. When culture is conceived empirically, theology is known to be an ongoing process, and then one writes on its method. Method ... is a framework for collaborative creativity.' Amazon back |
| McHarg, Ian L, Design with Nature, Doubleday/Natural History Press 1971 Introduction, Lewis Mumford: 'In establishing the necessity for conscious intention, for ethical evaluation, for orderly organisation, for deliberate esthetic expression in handling every part of the environment, McHarg's emphasis is not on either design or nature by itself, but on the preposition with, which implies human cooperation and biological partnership. 'back |
| Misner, Charles W, and Kip S Thorne, John Archibald Wheeler, Gravitation, Freeman 1973 Jacket: 'Einstein's description of gravitation as curvature of spacetime led directly to that greatest of all predictions of his theory, that the universe itself is dynamic. Physics still has far to go to come to terms with this amazing fact and what it means for man and his relation to the universe. John Archibald Wheeler. ... this is a book on Einstein's theory of gravity (general relativity).' Amazon back |
| Noble, David F, The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention, Penguin Books 1999 Introduction: 'It is the aim of this book to demonstrate that the present enchantment with things technological ... is rooted in religious myths and ancient imaginings. Althought today's technologists, in their sober pursuit of utility, power and profit, seem to set society's standard for rationality ... their true inspiration lies elsewhere, in an enduring, other-worldly quest for transcendence and salvation.' Amazon back |
| Papanek, Victor, Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change, Granada/Paladin 1992 Preface: 'In an environment that is screwed up visually, physically and chemically, the best and simplest thing that architects, industrial designers, planners etc., could do for humanity would be to stop working entirely. In all pollution, designers are implicated at least partially. But in this book, I take a more affirmative view: it seems to me that we can go beyond not working at all, and work positively. Design can and must become a way in which young people can participate in changing society.' 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 |
| Smart, Ninian, The World's Religions, Cambridge University Press 1992 Introduction: 'In undertaking a voyage into the world's religions, we should not define religion too narrowly. It is import for us to recognise secular ideologies as part of the story of human worldviews. ... Essentially this book is a history of ideas and practices that have moved human beings.' Amazon back |
Papers
| Hulsman, Jef, "Biodiversity of plankton by species oscillations and chaos", Nature, 402, 6760, 25 November 1999, page 407-410. Letters to Nature: 'In aquatic ecosystems the biodiversity puzzle is ... known as the 'paradox of the plankton'. Competition theory predicts that at equilibrium the number of coexisting species cannot exceed the number of limiting resources. ... Here we offer a solution to the plankton paradox. First, we show that resource competition models can generate oscillations and chaos when species compete for three or more resources. Second, we show that these oscillations and chaotic fluctuations in species abundances allow the coexistence of many species on a handful of resources.' . back |
| Newton, Philip, "A manual for planetary management", Nature, 400, 6743, 29 July 1999, page 399. Commentary: 'It is time for environmental scientists and policy-makers to speak the same language, and to target the achievable, not simply the desirable. A framework is emerging from the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme.. back |
| Smil, Vaclav, "Detonator of the population explosion", Nature, 400, 6743, 29 July 1999, page 415. 'Without ammonia there would be no inorganic fertilizers, and nearly half the world would go hungry. Of all the century's technological marvels, the Haber-Bosch process has made the most difference to our survival'. back |
Links
| New Scientist Planet Science back |
| The Nine Planets: A Multimedia Tour of the Solar System back |
| NASA Mission to Planet Earth back |
| Open Source Software Open Source Software A meeting point on the web for open source software development. back |
Click on an "Amazon" link in the booklist at the foot of the page to buy the book, see more details or search for similar items
Related sites:
Concordat Watch
Revealing Vatican attempts to propagate its religion by international treaty
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