volume II: Synopsis
page 1: The source of this text
I am a conscious person contemplating my position in the Universe. I was brought up to understand my position in life according to the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church. Long ago, I lost confidence in this Church, and have ever since been seeking a new world view. Here it is (so far!). Catholic Church - Wikipedia
The Roman Catholic Church (RCC) is the principal institutional incarnation of the Christian religion. The RCC claims to be the sole channel of communication between humanity and an invisible God. The Church is a dogmatic institution. In the past it punished many dissenters with death, imprisonment and impoverishment. Nowadays the forces are more subtle, but one cannot advance in the hierarchy or make a living in the church without being a believer. Nor can its theologians advance opinions contrary to the corporate line. Catholic Church - Wikipedia
My mind was formed in this religious environment, and I took it all seriously enough to enter a religious order and train for the priesthood. Here I learnt the ancient theoretical underpinnings of the Church's understanding of the Universe in which it finds itself. Much of this was inconsistent with the scientific understanding of the world that was also in the air I breathed. Catholic Church - Wikipedia
Ultimately, I simply could not believe that a set of old texts (the Bible) and a vast corpus of ancient commentary upon these texts, could possibly be an adequate foundation for life in the mid-twentieth century.
I left the church into a theological wilderness, but gradually the agenda become clear. Theology and religion go together like science and technology. The vast improvements of the standards of living in the rich world mostly arise from the technological applications of science.
What was needed then, was a scientific theology. For theology to be scientific, God must be observable. The ancient distinction between God and the world must go. And with it the distinct roles of creator and created. My new working hypothesis became the phrase "the Universe is divine". Every experience of my life became a revelation of the divinity.
Science proceeds by imagining models of the world that can be put to observational test. If scientific theology is to proceed the same way, we need models of God, and tests for them. This synopsis is outlines some steps on a path toward this goal.
Here we imagine the Universe as a vast communication network. This network works at many levels, atoms talking to atoms, cells talking to cells, people talking to people. From an abstract point of view, we may think of a network as a set of memories and computers which read the memories and write to them. I am a memory, a fixed address in the human network. I listen and speak, read and write.
This website is part of my message to the human network, derived from all the input I have received from that network. In the course of reading this site, you will run across the work of the thousands of people who have helped me get to where I am.
(revised 3 April 2020)
