vol VII: Notes
2013
Notes
[Sunday 28 April 2013 - Saturday 4 May 2013]
[Notebook: DB 75 Reconstruction]
[page 143]
Sunday 28 April 2013
Freedom sufficient space = {degree of freedom} to control one's life, ie perform all the actions required for fitness. Can call this fundamental freedom and add the freedom conferred by grace, eg the degrees of freedom opened up by exploiting fossil fuel, machine, design, technology and all the social protheses that have emerged from the 'natural' species. So I sit here in dry warm, sunny surroundings surrounded by a good supply of food, fuel and friendly cooperative people with whom I trade for a livelihood.
The fundamental route to human security is to allow ourselves only those technologies (and instances of technology) that no not significantly shift the equilibrium of the planet, as human development should be an orthogonal subspace of the whole planetary process, orthogonal to the non-human processes.
[page 144]
A New Theology - e-book.
1. The case for theology = navigational reference frame in the space of existence.
2. The history of theology - Bible/Iliad until now.
3. Galileo and the origin of science. The Papal Problem (Collins)
4. A new theology - mathematical theology.
5. Costs
6. Benefits Collins
I am seeking support for a project to create and publish a new theology. Much of the creation is done and the task now is to write it up, code it up and put it on a public server.
All these ideas sound so good, but where do I get the energy to do them? From them, converting theology from a hobby to a business for my old age. A freedom question, for it is basically action and energy that confer freedom by being the sources of entropy, ie fixed points [degrees of freedom, variables, dimensions, orthogonal spaces].
We understand fixed points dynamically by considering the 'null' function, f(a) = a, equivalent to the computer operation NOP, which is an action that does nothing, a characteristic of a periodic function. So we may see the fundamental symmetry as a repetition and the break of this symmetry as creation, a child different from the parent.
Each life is a path parametrized by time. Your birthday is independent of where you were born or where you are now.
[page 145]
Insofar as the Universe is closed it maps onto itself and this mapping has fixed points, the fundamental set of such points being the eigenvalues of quantum operators [that represent actual processes in the Universe].
Fixed point theory erases the ancient dichotomy between God and the world, fixed points becoming an integral part of the dynamics
Collins Papal Power 1997 Collins
Collins page 13: 'John Paul II has given a new lease of life to the papal monarchy.'
page 16: '. . . the papacy has been determined to bring theology under its control and the best way to achieve this is to maintain the staus quo.'
'Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian, 24 May 1990' [Ratzinger] Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
page 17: ' "Truth" according to Ratzinger, is the final arbiter, but it is "truth" as defined by the papal magisterium.'
page 18: '[Ratzinger's Instruction . . . effectively destroys theology as a discipline. No longer is the theologian judged by peers and the acceptance of the believing community. The papacy alone is the judge of orthodox truth.'
Lammenais: Des progres de la revolution . . .. Mirari vos Gregory XVI. Hugues Felicite Robert de Lammenais - Wikipedia, Gregory XVI
page 22: Pius IX Syllabus of Errors, 1 December 1834: '. . . Roman Pontiff could not and ought not "reconcile and adjust himself with progress,
[page 146]
liberalism and modern civilization." ' Pius IX
Collins page 24: Pius X Lamentabili: modernism is 'a synthesis of all heresies'. Pope Pius X
page 26: Solidatium Piarum
page 28: La Theologie Nouvelle
page 35: Pius VII 1800-1823: 'The revolutionary ideas of liberty, equality and the overthrow of monarchy were viewed as the antithesis of Christianity by the Papal government.'
page 64: Leo XIII (1878-1903) 'maintained that civil authority came from God and not from the people.' From God through the people.
page 66: 'Pius X's antiintellectualism was to result in the Catholic Church torning inward for the next six decades. . . . '
Anti-modernist oath . . . 'Orwell's 1984 in 1910'. Pius X, September 1, 1910
Monday 29 April 2013
Collins page 82: Declaration of Religious Liberty: 'The core of the declaration was that no human power can command conscience'. Get out of the internal forum. Nevertheless education guides conscience, as Catholic education frequently perverts it. Vatican IIpage 85: Papal Secretariat Cardinal Secretary of State - Wikipedia
Ivan Illich Ivan Illich - Wikipedia
[page 147]
Collins page 87: Humanae Vitae. Page 88: Economist: ' "This encyclical is not the fruit of papal infallibility bvut papal isolation".' Pope is de facto disconnected from the world, like his God.
page 94: Canisius von Liede: The Holy See at Work 1964.
page 98: Subsidiarity, Pius IX Quadragesimo Anno Pius XI: 15 May 1931
page 99: Community vs hierarchy.
page 100: 'The community oriented consultative vision of the Church that emerged from Vatican II has simply never been embodied in the Church structures. This is the most important issue on which the Catholic Church has failed in the last thirty years.' Community = network of shared experience ie science.
page 103: '. . . at the heart of the hierarchical and clerical lifestyle is a pervasive dysfunction that is slowly becoming more obvious.' (1997)
'dysfunctional and addictive families. . . . The dominant abuser determines everything that the family will do and think. Loyalty to him becomes the test of membership.'
page 106 Kung: Infallible? Kung
Tuesday 30 April 2013
There can be no real ecumenism without scientific theology, unified by the unity of reality.
Collins page 125: 'For the continued health of Catholicism new ways of dealing
[page 148]
with power and authority must be developed. ' Ie the RCC must stop thinking of itself as a 'chosen people' and open itself to the rest of the world.
The 'Chosen People' probem, - Roman Catholic Church, Israel, Saudi etc.
Collins cannot solve the Church's problems because he is a believer.
page 126: 'trado' hand over (for a price?): 'Catholics take tradition as a source and norm of faith.' They need a reality check, because so much tradition is untestable fantasy.
page 127: 'During Vatican I, Cardinal Filippo Guidini spoke of the bishops as witnesses of tradition. Pius XI angrily responded "Witness of tradition. There's only one; that's me." ' Butler, Council page 155.
page 128: evolution of tradition. The dynamic solution to Parmenides problem is encapsulated in general relativity, we change the knowledge in time with the changing world to maintain the constancy of the metric 'true'. Reference mollusc = soft (not infallible) knowledge. [knowledge is dynamic, not static, a dual of the moving world]
The 'infallible' RCC denies dynamics. instead page 129 'semper reformanda
When I was a child our catholicity was defined by the school uniform.page 135: ' . . . Matthew's Gospel was most probably written in
[page 149]
Antioch, which was the first city of the Roman Empire to become a Christian centre.
Energy ('physical grace') flows through us, increasing its entropy as it goes.
The resolution of general covariance in its physical embodiment is limited by the quantum mechanics of communication [a clue for quantum gravity].
'Chosen species' we are the only intelligent ones.
page 151: 'presidency of charity' Ignatius of Antioch. Ignatius of Antioch - Wikipedia
page 152: 'communio' - common protocol Communication protocol - Wikipedia
page 157: Patrick O'Farrell Church in Australia O'Farrell
page 166: Jerome Jerome - Wikipedia
page 169: Gelasius 'Duo quippe sunt ["For there are two powers, august emperor, by which the world is principally rules: the sacred authority of the pontiff and the regal power. Of these, the power of the priests is more important for they have to answer for the kings of men the divine tribunal.']
page 176: 'diaconia' service vs 'potestas' power. [servers are paid (perhaps in heavenly reward), whereas the slaves of power are forced.]
page 182: Boniface VIII Unam Sanctam 18 November 1302 '. . . we declare, state, define and pronounce that it is altogether necessary to salvation for every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.' Unam sanctam - Wikipedia
page 193: 'proposed constitution of the Catholic Church.' [Canon Law? Canon Law Society of America
page 196: Bianchi and Ruether: Democratic Church Bianchi & Ruether
[page 150]
Swidler and O'Brien A Catholic Bill of Rights O'Brien
Wednesday 1 May 2013
'Analysis' is a critical page in 'Synopsis' and has held me up for a while. Here we criticize the definition of continuity framed in terms of point set theory and propose the alternative, logical continuity (see page 129, 23 April 2013). Synopsisl
Today despair at 3 am has changed already to hope at 4 am.
Paul Collins is bound in the chains of tradition (if he does not submit, the Church will disable his priesthood) but the problem he raises cannot be solved within the Church without the transition to scientific theology. The time is right for this. The Roman Catholic curia have sacrificed all moral standing are are right for attack.
To The Pontifical Academy of Sciences. You have not replied to my letter. I am a baptized Catholic and therefore an in alienable stakeholder in the Church and a de facto contributor to your enterprise. An attack at the curial level (where the Academy probably resides) probably needs to have popular momentum to succeed. Nevertheless one must first stand up and count to attract mass in the first place, ie become a condensation nucleus, establishing a pattern conducive to the adhesion of further particles, a 'bosonic' state.
[The Letter:
The Theology Company,
Glenwarrin Mill,
511 Glenwarrin Road,
Elands, NSW,
Australia 2429ttco@tpg.com.au
Friday, 30 November, 2012
The President,
Prof Werner Arber,
The Pontifical Academy of Sciences,
Casina Pio IV,
00120 Vatican City.Dear Professor Arber
I read, among the goals of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences: ‘Fostering interaction between faith and reason and encouraging dialogue between science and spiritual, cultural, philosophical and religious values’.
I notice that Theology is not included among the disciplines mentioned on the Academy website, although Philosophy and History of Science (Epistemology) is.
Taken with the goals listed above, this suggests that the Academy does not consider theology to be a science based on experience, but rather a faith based discipline.
There seems to be nothing apart from ancient faith to prevent a scientific exploration of the hypothesis that the Universe itself is divine, so that all experience is experience of God and, as a consequence, theology can be an empirical science.
Saint Thomas Aquinas expressed Church doctrine when he concluded that sacra doctrina is a science (Summa theologiae I, 1, 2). In this article he noted quod duplex est scientiarum genus. Quaedam enim sunt, quae procedunt ex principiis notis lumine naturali intellectus, . . . Quaedam vero sunt quae procedunt ex principiis notis lumine superioris scientiae, . . . Et hoc modo sacra doctrina est scientia: qui procedit ex principiis notis lumine superioris scientiae, quae scilicet est scientia Dei et beatorum.
Around the time of Galilei, science underwent a second epistemological bifurcation. Aquinas, following Aristotle, saw science as the process of logically deducing true conclusions from a set of true principles, revealed or naturally known. From the time of Galileo, science began to incorporate empirical as well as logical methods. Galilei’s observations of the phases of Venus, for instance, supported the view that Venus circulated the Sun following an orbit that lay inside the orbit of Earth.
Today we see science as a mixture of hypothesis and observation. A scientific hypothesis is a set of principles from which we deduce observable consequences. The comparison of these consequences with observation strengthens or weakens our confidence in our hypotheses.
This two pronged approach has proven remarkable effective, as is obvious from the technological effectiveness of our scientific understanding of the world.
The second question of the Summa asks does God exist? Aquinas begins by arguing that the existence of God is not immediately obvious but can be demonstrated through the effects of God’s existence which include the existence of ourselves and our world. He then outlines the famous ‘five ways’ to to argue for the existence of God. Each of these arguments says in effect that although the world exists, it cannot explain its own existence, and we must therefore postulate a source outside the world which we traditionally call God.
These arguments have been subjected to extensive criticism over the last seven hundred years, but from the point of view of the Church as an institution, their logical and scientific strength is not so important: the Church sees the existence of God as a matter of faith.
From a scientific point of view, however, an article of faith is but an hypothesis. It is true that in order to test an hypothesis, researchers must have sufficient faith in their ideas and induce sufficient faith in funding agencies to raise the thousands, millions or billions of dollars necessary to test their ideas. In science, however, no amount of institutional inertia can maintain an hypothesis that is inconsistent with observation in the long term.
The Catholic Church holds that God is not the Universe but from a scientific point of view, the alternative, that God is the Universe, is, at least prima facie, equally valid. As Galilei wrote l'autorità dell'opinione di mille nelle scienze non val per una scintilla di ragione di un solo, even though an institution standing on two thousand years of faith may find the idea unthinkable.
To the best of my knowledge, the scientific rationale from distinguishing God from the Universe was first developed by Parmenides of Elea. Parmenides was concerned with a fundamental scientific question: how can we truly represent the moving world in static text? Parmeindes expressed his thoughts through the persona of a Goddess in a poem of which some fragments have survived.
The Goddess reveals to him both the unshaken heart of rounded reality and the notions of mortals in which there is no genuine trustworthiness. What Is, she says, is ungenerated and deathless, whole and uniform, and still and perfect. Parmenides idea was taken up by Plato, who separated reality into a heaven of invariant forms and the world of illusion which we experience. This general idea was taken up by Christianity, becoming the eternal world of God and the temporal world of human life in Earth.
Aristotle softened the Platonic dichotomy, bringing some of the forms down to earth but the idea of an invariant divinity sustaining the world has remained with us. At the dawn of mathematical science, Newton produced a system of the world the invariant features of whose dynamics were maintained by the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being.
Having established that God is distinct from the world, Aquinas continues: Cognito de aliquo an sit, inquirendum restat quomodo sit ut sciatur de eo quid sit. Sed quia de Deo scire no possumus quid sit, sed quid non sit, non possumus considerare de Deo quomodo sit, sed potius quomodo non sit . . . removendo ab eo quae ei non conveniunt, utpote compositionem, motum et alia huiusmodi. Quia necesse est id quod est primum ens, esse in actu, et nullo modeo in potentia.
It follows that God is omnino simplex, perfect, infinite, immutable and one. Aquinas takes over the doctrine of potentia and actus from Aristotle, who established the axiom that no potency could be actualized except by a an agent already in act. As a consequence, as Aristotle deduced, the first unmoved mover must be ‘pure act’.
At first glance, the God modelled by Aquinas using the theory developed by Aristotle could not be more different from the world we experience. Our world appears to be complex, imperfect, finite, changing and many. But as quantum mechanics, the psychology of sensation and the history of science have taught us, what we see depends very much on how we look.
Modern cosmology rests on two somewhat incompatible pillars, general relativity and quantum field theory. Hawking and Ellis found that Einstein’s equations and the observed expansion of the Universe predict that one fixed point of spacetime may be a structureless ‘initial singularity’. From a purely formal point of view, there is no reason not to establish a correspondence between the initial singularity and the classical model of God recorded by Aquinas.
Insofar as quantum mechanics is an accurate description of the processes that lie behind our world of experience, we may model the initial singularity as an isolated quantum system. Such a system is described by two axioms: physical states are represented by vectors in a complex Hilbert space; and the dynamics of quantum systems is encoded as operators on Hilbert space. The quantum mechanical description of an isolated system reads dψ/dt = Hψ where ψ is a state vector and H is the Hamiltonian or energy operator.
Aquinas, following Aristotle, writes Movere enim nihil aliud est quan educere aliquid de potentia in actum. Aquinas uses his definition, coupled with the axiom de potentia . . . non potest aliquid reduci in actum, nisi per aliquod ens in actu, to prove the exstence of the first unmoved mover which we call God.
Although Aristotle held that no potential could actualize itself, modern ideas of potential and actual (kinetic) energy put them on par with one another, as we see in such classical harmonic oscillators as the simple pendulum. In other words, motion in the Universe is not the motion from potential to actual described in Aristotle’s physics, but rather the motion from actual to actual, described in Aquinas’ article on the life of God (I, 18, 3, ad primum).
Mathematically, we may model motion in the Universe as the mapping of a set onto itself. In general, any continuous mapping of a complex compact set onto has a fixed point. Thus there may be no reason why a dynamic system of pure act may not have fixed points. Fixed point theorems thus formally answer Parmenides’ problem: fixed points are not distinct from dynamics, but part of it.
Classical theology places our Universe and ourselves outside God. If the Universe is divine, on the other hand, we have an inside view. The fact that the Universe appears complex rather than simple is a logical consequence of the fact that pure act maps onto itself.
The New testament introduced theology to the Trinity. Following Augustine and other ancient authors, Aquinas develops the psychological model of the Trinity which sees the Word of God as God’s image of itself. Formally, this model of the Trinity is very close to our contemporary quantum mechanical understanding of observation or measurement.
We may see fixed points as messages between dynamic systems. This idea is reinforced by quantum mechanics. An isolated quantum mechanical system is considered to be in perpetual motion. When such a system observes itself, we find fixed points corresponding to the eigenfunctions of the observable used for the observation.
Insofar as fixed points are parts of dynamics, they are distinct but connected. As quantum mechanics suggests, the actual dynamics of the Universe, represented mathematically as complex amplitudes, is invisible to us. What we do observe are the fixed points. Quantum mechanical fixed points are the eigenvalues of measurement operators. Although it has long been held that the Universe is continuous, from an empirical point of view it is everywhere quantized in units ranging from a single quantum of action through atoms, molecules, planets, stars galaxies up to the total system.
This is consistent with the mathematical theory of communication, discovered by Shannon. Shannon showed that messages could be transmitted without error in the presence of other messages (‘noise’) so long as the messages were encodes in a quantized form. One can see the theory in action here, where I am encoding the part of the content of my mind in digital form for transmission to you.
From the point of view of the hypothesis proposed here, creation and evolution are nothing other than the creation and annihilation of stationary points in the dynamics of the divine Universe. There is no reason to believe that such creation and annihilation are in any way contrary to the hypothesis that the divinity is pure actuality.
It is 45 years since I was asked to leave the Order of Preachers for questioning the 24 Theses of Pope Pius X. In that period I have developed the ideas presented here, and believe that they form a consistent whole well worth scientific consideration.
I am a baptised Catholic and so a stakeholder in the Church, and, at least in modern understanding, entitled to a voice. I am also Australian. Australia is about to begin a Royal Commission to hear evidence from all those young people who have been maltreated and silenced by religious institutions in this country, not least the Catholic Church.
The Church faces a period of extreme pain through the revelation of its crimes. Jesus berated the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of his time. He proposed a radical overhaul of his religion, which transformed Judaism into Christianity. Now two thousand years later, it seems to be time for another radical overhaul to turn Christianity into a natural religion based on evidence based understanding of the human condition. Not just Jesus was Divine, we all are.
There are two important practical advantages to my hypothesis, if it becomes established. First, if the Universe is divine, all our experience is experience of God and all our science is science of God. Theology can recover the place it lost when the Church failed to understand Galilei and his contemporaries. Since its inception, science has been engaged in a long battle with politically conservative forces which value the role of an entrenched elite over the truth. I hope you have sufficient academic freedom give these ideas a proper hearing, an, if possible, a detailed scientific refutation.
Second, the world is at bedevilled by religious divisions which lead the extremist elements of the various religions to violence. Many of the differences relate to interpretations of ancient texts which have very little to do with the modern human condition. By enabling theology to become a real science, we can expect the scientific foundations of the various religions to converge on a unified picture of the Universe as we have found with the other sciences. This in turn may be the foundation for the unification of religion based on a community of human experience of God.
I am looking forward to your reply,
Yours sincerely,
Jeffrey Nicholls
Managing Directory,
The Theology Company Pty Ltd,
ACN 097 887 075.
[page 151]
The world of objects is discontinuous, but motion appears to be continuous. This apparent dichotomy has plagued theorists from the beginning. Motion vs stillness, continuity vs discreteness. For modern science this problem is embodied in the relationship between quantum mechanics as a mathematical theory and the 'collapse of the wave function' believed to occur upon observation.
RELIGION = APPLIED THEOLOGYPOLITICS = APPLIED RELIGION
ECONOMICS = APPLIED POLITICS
DESIGN = APPLIED ECONOMICS
WORK = APPLIED DESIGN
CULTURE = APPLIED WORK (?)
From theology to culture.
CULTURE = {HUMAN ACTIONS} (?)
An abstract (pedagogical) instance of layering by application and control.
The way is through the effectiveness of mathematics revisited which (I think) provides the outline of a theory of creation to serve as an interface between the God of absolute simplicity a (perfect symmetry) and the complex world of events which we observe.
Creation 'out of nothing'. Creation out of [inside of] 'God'.
I enforce my views by 'marketing'. Depending on the intensity of my belief I adjust the iontensity of my marketing (pestering potential buyers)
[page 152]
Ordering in sport, eg tennis tournament (Lewis Carroll) Fitness, Energy, Competition.
It is scandalous that the Pontifical Acadmey does not embrace theology.
Op Ed: The Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
Creation - emanation - immananation.
A new theology = a new vision of God
I network of networks, part of networks.
All things commune through the physical layer.
Theology, the traditional theory of everything, got of to a pretty good scientific start in the hands of the Greeks from Parmenides to Aristotle, but it was subsequently stolen and stifled by the Christian Churches which, particularly the Roman Catholic Church, have assumed ownership of God and presume to dictate the nature, will and actions of their God. This has led to significant perversion of human mental states which, for purposes of fitness (happiness), must approximate a true image of reality.
The Theology Company: Our product - scientific theology.
Amis Russian Hide & Seek page 207: 'Save that brought by death, there is no true grief in love. All partings of
[page 153]
lovers are willed by both, and that will was present in the very impulse that brought them together,' Uncertainty / symmetry.
page 241: 'Nobody can bury the truth so deep that it can never be found, . . . The most that can be done is to persuade people that there is no point in looking for it.' [eg by erasing it].
Thursday 2 May 2013
Turning the Catholic / Christian churches around = reprogramming ∼ two billion human mental images of God from mysterious 'pure spirit' to our everyday partner in every action. The second part of already established in the omniscience, omnipotence and ubiquity of the standard model of God (to Synopsis/metanoia.)
The critical pressure is the pressure of time, the need to complete an operation 'in time'. In many cases an operation that is not completed (brought to a fixed end point) consumes capital without a corresponding yield (as eg when the goalie dives for the ball and misses). I feel time pressure continually and one can see the desire of mystics and other to escape from time into eternity, leaving all the time critical tasks (like feeding the babies and changing nappies) to the unspiritual underlings.
TIME = INTELLIGENCE (I)
I = f(t) - the faster you can solve a problem the
[page 154]
more intelligent one is thought to be. So we might measure the intelligence of the Universe by the rate at which is finds and computes eigenfunctions which is in turn a function of the energy of the relevant process. At the simplest level (0 intelligence) this relationship is purely linear = Et = constant.Proportionate being (relative to a recipient): a message the recipient can decode.
Friday 3 May 2013
Reik "Of Love and Lust Condor 028564775X Reik
Reik page xii: 'The small share of happiness attainable by man exists only insofar as he is able to cease to think of himself.' ?
Wain, Johnson page 110: '. . . Savage had to bear through life the cross of a constitutional inability to do what was expected of him. And Johnson had more than enough reason for suspecting the same kind of trouble in himself.' Wain
A novel = a model, as fiction with some points of contact with reality that some readers recognise in their own experience. A model joins some dots, making a continuum from a set of discrete experiences, ie quanta of action [anciently known as 'universals' we say 'symmetries']
The fundamental theological problem is to understand how 'actus purus' (modelled as a featureless continuum or mystical nothing + everything) can be consistent
[page 155]
with quantized actions, the events of life which are nested in time. large events comprising many small events, act = {act}.
Wain page 111: Johnson on Savage: 'The knowledge of life was indeed his chief attainment; and it is not without some satisfaction that I can produce the suffrage of Savage in favour of human nature, of which he never appeared to entertain such odious ideas as some, who perhaps had neither his judgement nor experience, had published either in ostentation of their sagacity, vindication of their crimes or gratification of their motive.'
The www has turned out to be a wonderful place for people to reveal their ignorance [and concealed psychological stresses (desires).
Ignorance is not bliss. It is a source of tension, why may be why many of us are afraid of the dark. We need continual input, like all other animals, gathering the information necessary to react where necessary or desirable, to changes in our environment, which includes the mental states of the people we interact with.
ENVIRONMENT = GOD (the way things are, both static and dynamic. The God of the Sea, Neptune, is the source of the input to the helmsman cybernetes. Neptune (mythology) - Wikipedia
The escape into the eternal, the space of permanent rest, as far as one can get from housework and domestic econ0my. The perfect excuse for the old men to sit around gossiping while the women do all the work. A false religious 'truth'.
[page 156]
Now to work on my car, which rust doth consume.
Natural theology places Christianity in a context where we can make sense of its rather peculiar beliefs, in the context of human social, political and technological evolutions.
Quantum mechanics is scale invariant, working isomorphically at each order of the Feynman diagram., the only constraint being the rate of successful communication in the diagrammatical network. Back to Veltman. Veltman
From the intellectual point of view, the root problem is the relationship between pure act and the complex world. Unconsciously, perhaps, the elite of this world gradually evolved the concept of monarch as a a result of tournaments of trial by battle, and the intelligentsia seeking preferment by justifying the behaviour of their Lords (like US government lawyers in the Bush and other eras) through ideas like the divine right of kings, which in no way hindered the king because there was no way his claims for divine inspiration could be tested short of battle. That this theology, although erroneous, has worked to well is explained by politics and power, but as the world gets smaller the fragmentation of God becomes a more severe problem. There is one God and we are standing in it.
We presume that Australian theology is 20 times older that Christianity. And the age of the planet and the Universe is millions of times older.
[page 157]
Mental change is slow. Forty years ago the idea of identifying God and the Universe was shocking. Now I am coming to terms with it and feel that it may initiate a paradigm change in theology with many political, social and religious consequences.
Wain page 123: 'The facts are sacred but comment is free.' The facts are divine.
page 148: 'we that live to please must please to live.'
Saturday 4 May 2013
Wain page 153: Johnson: ' "men more often require to be reminded than informed." '
Love, like everything else, is an act of God instanced in two people, or more generally, in any event.
Reading the often painful lives of people who have struggled to the top, I am often worried that the ease of my own life is an impediment to forcing the theological revolution of which I dream - non-performance through inanition. It is not in me to promote my work but rather to seek an audience by exhibiting a reasonable understanding of creation. The paragraph, nevertheless, is part promotion.
page 165: 'When Hester Thrale was widowed, years later, Johnson wrote to her: "I do not exhort you to reason yourself into tranquility. We must first labour.'
Law: regulating the probability of events within the 'dynamic
[page 158]
range' of humanity.
We all occupy a 'footprint' in the space of humanity orthogonal to one another until we begin to share a basis in communication (Zurek again). Wojciech Hubert Zurek
Wain page 167: 'As [Johnson] saw it, the Church to which he belonged had elaborated its doctrines and worked out its procedures through centuries of trial and error and debate, and had achieved a consensus on which the individual mind could repose.' Until it come into contact with other Churches with contrary views, and then it becomes necessary to invoke an uber-God to settle the differences between the lesser Gods. Abstractly, GOD = PERSONALITY = SOURCE.
Do I begin to feel my new theology?
Physical symbols (like written words) take different meanings in different layers of interpretation. The history of a bit, like the history of a penny moving from hand to hand.
page 178: 'It is arguable that the canal system by itself, did more to modernize western Europe than anything dreamed up by political theorists.' - horse 2 tonne on road, 50-100 te on water.
Any useful theology must be global, that is universal.
The essence of intelligent design is intelligent selection and the basic selective decision is it works vs it does not work.
