Religion, Philosophy, and other Oddities

By way of an autobiographical sketch...

2009-01-27T16:22:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I was blogging on the Archeology blog of a Swedish archeologist named Dr. Martin Rundkvist. Martin was curious about me and asked me to give a profile of myself for him to publish on his blog. Below you will find a link and the text of my story.

http://scienceblogs.com/aardvarchaeology/2008/11/sunday_confession_of_a_lapsed.php
I don't know where else to start than from the beginning. I was raised Roman Catholic and always felt drawn to do something to give back to humankind, to be great and benefit my fellow man in some way. Some might call that a "vocation" or a "calling" I suppose. As a Catholic boy the most obvious and highly encouraged manner of "ministry" is to enter the priesthood, especially in this day and age of priests' shortage. It would be in my twenties that after reading Camus and Sartre and others that I realized even atheists want to "do good", but when I was growing up I bought the demonizing portrayal of intellectuals and scientists promoted by some in my faith.

I mottled my way through school, always a little bored. I am from a small town and though my mother had a graduate degree and has done post graduate work since, I never really found anything to light that fire in me. Eventually, about my sophomore year of high school I started doing theatre; I found some enjoyment in it. I consequently met my wife while rehearsing for Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore that summer some 20 years ago. She turned me on to literature and art, her father was an English teacher. I began to read with fervor.

My undergraduate education was a bit of a floundering blunder as well. I had to take a semester off and work and regain my footing. I moved into a house with a couple of philosophy majors and that set me on the journey which eventually lead to monastic life and seminary, priesthood and back again to secular life, marriage and children.

I suppose you can say I've gone through stages in my development, but my path was not a typical one. Rather than being inspired by the life of some great saint, my inspiration for entering the Catholic monastic life actually came, in large part, from Siddharta by Hermann Hesse. I read the Pali Tipitaka and Bhagavad Gita as readily and willingly as I did the Bible. I found the writings of Sts. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila to be no more spiritual than those of Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac.

I was moved by the humanism of Karol Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II, to study personalism / phenomenology and pursue theological studies, but being the extremist that I am I had to "go to the sources". I decided after my undergraduate studies to enter seminary in Krakow, Poland and study under the professors of the Pontifical College founded by Wojtyla in his former See of Krakow. I entered a religious community that could make that happen for me, learned Polish and began those studies.

In my seminary studies in the monastery I had a great deal of time for study and reading and I eventually read myself out of Catholicism. By the time I had finished my seminary studies I already had a deep desire to leave and enter the Orthodox Church, which I felt embodied the Historical Christian Church and a more eastern mindset than Catholicism.

It didn't help that all this time I had contact with my wife who was desperately trying to get me to leave the monastery to marry her. I had left her behind as a good Catholic boy is told he must do to "serve" and "minister". I couldn't bring myself to leave though. I went ahead with ordinations despite my growing doubts that I was cut out for a life of celibacy and the Scholastic / Thomistic framework of Western Christian theology. My distaste for Catholicism grew more as a young priest. I was serving as many as fifteen masses a week, in ten different locales, teaching in a school, leading numerous youth and prayer groups and all with a growing distaste for some of the very basic tenets of the faith. I felt prostituted, as if the monastery I belonged to had pimped me out to the local and neighboring dioceses. I left after just thirteen months as an active priest.

My wife and I were received into the Orthodox Church where we were married shortly afterwards. We spent seven years in the Orthodox Church and baptized our children there. I even repeated seminary studies. I won't get into the gory details, but I was a square peg trying to fit into a very small round hole. My theology was obviously at odds with that of some of the more narrow-minded clergy and hierarchy, though I think you'd be hard pressed to find a great theological mind in the Orthodox Church who didn't have a very eclectic background and tastes, e.g. Metropolitan Kallistos Ware or Rev. Deacon Andrei Kureav. Ultimately though it was the ethnic xenophobia that many Orthodox have towards "converts" that led to my recent decision to join the Episcopal Church.

I have long had a desire to reconcile science / reason with theology / faith. With varying degrees of success I have managed to do so and keep my faith though sometimes I've come to the brink of losing it.

Recently, my studies have been in reconciling the sound theory of Evolution with the Biblical accounts of creation, which as far as the symbolism involved in the Scriptures hasn't really been much trouble at all. It seems to me that anyone who takes a six-day-creation viewpoint simply doesn't understand mythology and hasn't done enough non-biblical reading to grasp the heart of the story.

My most recent concerns present more of a challenge as I begin to look at the idea of Original Sin, which is key to the entire concept of a Christian soteriology or "Theory of Salvation". If man was not created in the beginning as one pair, man and woman, Adam and Eve, then who sinned that humankind needs salvation? If we believe that man evolved over tens of thousands of years, maybe more, from a lower and less advanced animal, how on earth can we believe that one of those first sentient beings was culpable enough for his own actions to be responsible for "damning" all his progeny? If I manage to pull through this one with my faith I'll let you know.

Human and non-human morality in the age of computer hardware and software

2009-01-09T06:17:00.000-08:00

Check out this BLOG page:

http://moralmachines.blogspot.com/2008/10/moral-machines-introduction.html?showComment=1231477500000#c7992213634984395663

This link is to the introduction to the book Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong by Wendall Wallach and Collin Allen. I found the reviews for this book intriguing and had to mention it in my own BLOG. I will surely have more to say about this later, but I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to mention this book and BLOG while it is still “hot” news. The book goes well beyond the Isaac Asimov sci-fi thriller I, Robot recently made into a film starring Will Smith. The book takes a philosophical approach to the matter and outlines the future of hardware and software and how moral decision will have to be made by “thinking” robots or perhaps better put how we will have to program robots to be moral.

The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago @ The Brooklyn Museum of Art

2009-01-08T10:28:00.000-08:00

Photos from the Brooklyn Museum of Art I recently visited. The piece is entitled, "The Dinner Party" and is by the artist Judy Chicago. The work features table settings for many of the women throughout history who have contributed to the movement for women's equality and rights. They are featured in the 4th floor exhibit of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art and established through the generosity of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation. You can follow a link to the museum's website for more information http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/dinner_party/

I did a little research including reading the artist's 1979 publication, The Dinner Party: A Symbol of Our Heritage, which details an explanation of the work and the actual production of it. The following are some of the basic elements of the pieces symbolism and creation.
The piece is nearly as large as the main floor of most people's homes. The work took 5 years to produce and the artist’s studio, for all intents and purposes, became a community studio with multitudes of people assisting in production and research. The china plates alone took 3 years to produce. Her team's schedule seems to have been china production and painting in the morning, needlework in the afternoon, and research in the evening.
One thing I found interesting from her "diary" of this time period was her decision to make and embroider the placemats, a decision which was not only pragmatic because of the difficulty associated with trying to embroider a 30 foot long table cloth in a circular pattern, but also symbolic. In the Middle Ages embroidery of emblems upon clothing and items was a sign of power, worn and used by church officials and rulers. These placemats would honor the female tradition of producing these symbols and also would themselves resemble the "fair linen" which is used to cover the plate during the Eucharist.
Judy said of the 39 guests, actual and mythological, which she invited:
"I've invited these women together to dinner in order that we might hear what they have to say and see the range of our heritage, a heritage we have not yet had an opportunity to know".
The 999 names on the table cloth were painstakingly researched and choices made based on the following conditions:
1) Did the women make substantial contribution to society?
2) Did they attempt to improve conditions for women?
3) Did their lives illuminate an aspect of women's experience or provide a model for the future?
The piece was moving and very rich with detail, beauty, and significance.

NYC what is it about you?

2009-01-08T10:16:00.000-08:00

Greetings all! First, a big hello to everyone thanks for the love. Nel and I are back home in Rockford, MI safe and sound after a blessed and fun-filled week in NY, NY. A big thanks to Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Dan w/o whom this little get away w/o the children would not have been possible. Thanks as well to Kim George and her generous husband Steve for hosting us and 3 other couples from Danell's Alma Mater, the College of Wooster, in their beautiful home in Brooklyn (Flatbush), NY. A special thanks to Dr. Max Dyksterhouse , M.D. a good friend from high school and beyond and his partner David for hosting us at their Upper Eastside apartment our last two nights in NY. You guys rock! We love you! Go Texas!We were able to see and do quite a bit, not least of which was enjoy the company of friends and share our experiences, joys, hopes, and plans. Catching up is always fun. New Years was a blast. I got a chance to do some walking in the borough of Brooklyn. I found a great Jamaican bakery off Flatbush at Glenwood (for reviews including my own see: http://www.yelp.com/biz/lords-bakery-brooklyn ). We loved their challah bread and I bought a couple loaves of white/wheat and a challah there each day we were in Brooklyn for toast... yum. We ordered in most nights (Chinese, Lebanese, Turkish). We went to MoMA as a group and saw the Marlene Dumas exhibit (http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/exhibitions.php?id=3994&ref=calendar ) and an exhibit of Joan Miro’s work (http://media.moma.org/subsites/2008/miro/ ) I have a special love for his work since I’ve had the pleasure of seeing some of his less known work done for the Discalced Carmelite Nuns in Lafayette, LA. We enjoyed other pieces by the likes of Jackson Pollack, Francis Bacon, even another piece of my favorite series, The Water Lilies, by Claude Monet.I ventured to the American Museum of Natural History at Central Park West and 81st to see the dinosaurs mostly. The AMNH (http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/fossils/ ) was the first museum to exhibit dinosaur eggs; one of their paleontologists uncovered them around the turn of the last century. They also dispelled the myth that Raptors were “egg thieves”, instead they showed conclusively that they were nurturing creatures which brooded over their own eggs; an interesting turn of events in the history of the dinosaur. I also have a big place in my heart for the anthropologist Margaret Mead, who worked among the people of the pacific and contributed to our understanding of these little understood cultures (http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/culture/pacific.html ). While I was at AMNH Nel and her friend Lynn went to the St. James theatre for the show, Gypsy, starring Patti LuPone (http://www.playbill.com/news/article/117360.html ). Apparently, Broadway shows are really feeling the economic downturn and many shows are closing early (http://www.usatoday.com/life/theater/news/2008-11-18-broadway-economy_N.htm).We ate at a sushi place our last evening in Brooklyn on Flatbush near Ave. J if I remember correctly. I wasn’t brave enough to try the sushi, well I had a couple vegetarian rolls (my Mid-west upbringing still holds me back from braving the whole raw fish thing even though as a chef I know it is perfectly save and a well beloved treat for many), but the noodle dish was very tasty. Afterwards we went to a "Funk Show" at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, which turned out to be a D.J. playing Urban Techno, but still very cool. We had an opportunity to see the Judy Chicago piece, The Dinner Party while there which was a delicious dessert for a full evening (http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/dinner_party/ ).The sites and sounds of the city were many and varied, but a couple of things really stood out. The restaurant David and Max brought us to, at the end of an alley with no sign; behind a tailor’s shop it seems to get its “name” from, extravagant and very New York. On the Lower Eastside, Curry Row and the inexpensive, but delicious Indian cuisine. We chose the Taj Mahal, since they were practically begging people to come in and eat (http://www.yelp.com/biz/taj-mahal-indian-restaurant-new-york-2#hrid:FDNwcwcr_vDbTxSBQQVQVQ/query:curry%20row ) I honestly loved it though the reviews were mixed I found it as good as the next and you couldn't beat the price. My all time favorite part of the trip was the Strand, a book store w/ cart after cart of $.48 and $1 books. I could have spent another hour there (http://theweblicist.com/wordpress/?p=128 ).
OH!!! I so forgot to mention that I saw Paul Giamatti walking down Broadway Ave. at like 43rd. He lives in Brooklyn Heights so he must have been on Broadway to see a show. He's looking a little scruffy w/ a couple week old beard, but still very cool. If I hadn't just lost Danell and consequently my 5th Ave. cannoli, which she was nibbling when she got lost in traffic, I totally would have said hello. Most recent thing I've seen him in was the HBO mini-series biography of John Adams, but I really like him in the Illusionist from 2006.
We got to go see the Letterman show being taped, January 5th. Kate Hudson was on as the guest and the musical guests were Glasvegas from Scotland. Dave was his usual self, the Ed Sullivan theatre was gorgeous, but the real kick in the seat was Paul Schaffer and the Late Show Band, more specifically I really liked Will Lee, the Bassist (http://www.willlee.com/home.php ). He had energy and style and when Paul retires in a few years I could really see him stepping into those itsy bitsy shoes, Paul is practically a “little person”, much shorter in person than he looks on TV. And Kate Hudson is smoking hot; she looks so much like her mother Goldie Hawn.

On the nature of evil: another conversation inspired by the status line of my Facebook page

2008-12-21T19:44:00.000-08:00

Michael is elated that Church has been cancelled and I can spend the day doing laundry instead! 8:52am - 21 Comments

Lorri Romesberg at 9:27am December 21
That is not very pious of you. I think our church is still on if you need another option.

Michael Thomas Merren at 9:31am December 21
UUs have churches? Kidding. I found a great quote about churches by Walker Percy check out my Profile page, hee hee!

Lorri Romesberg at 10:16am December 21
Once again a troublemaker:) It's the winter soltice. Us UU's can't miss a chance to celebrate that.

Michael Thomas Merren at 11:37am December 21
Right on, you all and the Druids, the Wiccan Witches and Warlocks and the Church of Satan. Hee Hee!

Michael Thomas Merren at 11:38am December 21
You know I pick on you only because secretly I wish I was a UU like you you!

Lorri Romesberg at 12:22pm December 21
They are doing a search for a called minister. You could come to the dark side.

Michael Thomas Merren at 12:26pm December 21
Many are called but few are chosen... besides I think it takes a special kind of someone to believe without expressing much by way of doctrine...

Lorri Romesberg at 12:31pm December 21
It is more of a question of do you decide what you believe or do you have someone tell you what you must believe.

Michael Thomas Merren at 12:38pm December 21
I get the whole a la carte faith thing, even the Roman Catholics are doing that now, i.e. Democrat John Kerry, pro-choice / anti-Rome, faithful Communion going, Mass attending... Or Joe Baptist who goes to church w/ his Lutheran friend, the Russian Orthodox Grandma who wants her Methodist grandson to go to Confession and Communion at Christmas, I ... Read Moreget that - that is America. BUT _How much of a tenant is there? What is the basis if there is no Scipture no Rit or Rite per se that is "standard" and obligitory.

Michael Thomas Merren at 1:04pm December 21
I take back the lack of rite or ritual part I just found a partial copy of Services of Religion and a couple hymns which look like rehashings of old Latin hymns. Interesting.

Lorri Romesberg at 2:06pm December 21
I guess I have a real problem with lying to clergy pretending that you believe in things that you don't believe in because you are supposed to believe in them or you are going to hell. I am not really into that kind hypocrisy.I also have a real problem believing that people who are raised in other cultures and other religions are condemned ... Read Morebecause of where they are born. Certainly doesn't that show you that there is perhaps some truth to be learned from other people around the world. If you are forced to believe in one doctrine, doesn't that limit your growth?That said UU's certainly were stronger in revolutionary times and have a rather long history. There is a certain pride of our ancestors; such as, Susan B. Anthony, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwim, etc. that does leave us in the past somewhat.

Michael Thomas Merren at 3:25pm December 21
Ralph Waldo Emerson and Harvard University were UU too, I think Harvard is Arian Christian now.

Michael Thomas Merren at 3:33pm December 21
I agree with you that anyone who thinks that just because you are born Hindu or Buddist you can't enter the Kingdom or you'll be damned is off the message for sure. Many a pope and pastor will burn in hell, if in fact anyone burns in hell, and many a Buddist or Muslim or African Spiritualist / Naturalist will be in Heaven, if you believe in that ... Read Morekind of an Anthropomorphic Paradisio.And by the way one should never lie to clergy and in my opinion clergy should never lie to the faithful, even if he thinks it might save his butt... if he can't believe it, he shouldn't teach it!

Michael Thomas Merren at 3:40pm December 21
I don't think I could probably be accused of believing in one doctrine. I found my way into Catholic Monasticism by reading Beatnik poetry and the Buddist Tippi Taka, Hermann Hesse's Sidhartha and the Bhagavagita. I studied my way out of Catholicism into Eastern Orthodoxy with a heavy leaning towards Gnostic Christology and in the end decided I be ... Read Morebetter served or serve in a church that would allow me to pursue evolutionary soteriology rather than Calvinist / Augustinian "Theology of the Fall". I am a happy heretic I suppose :) or a bad UU!

Lorri Romesberg at 4:21pm December 21
Since you follow no one doctrine either, perhaps you could be called a UU too. Many eventually succumb to dark side.I grew up Methodist and was often forced to pray for things that I didn't believe in (i.e. my salvation) and to profess faith in things that made no sense to me (i.e. the trinity). I certainly believe that there will be more ... Read Morebuddhists in heaven (if there is such a place) than clergy who preach intolerance of others. I certainly am not very well read on religious philosophy but I do know what brings peace to my soul.

Michael Thomas Merren at 4:59pm December 21
I don't know if I'd say I follow no doctrines, but I have a hard time circumscribing my faith with clearly defined religious definitions and currently find myself flittering in interdenominational limbo. I do find truth and comfort in the idea of a savior, I'm not sure what exactly what we need saving from since the creation story is a Babylonian ... Read Moremyth, maybe even predating Judaism. But I find in human nature a real inclination towards evil, one not easily overcome, this I believe is what we need a savior for, to heal that rift between, as Paul says, “the good which we desire to do and yet do not”.

Michael Thomas Merren at 5:00pm December 21
The dichotomist nature of man is probably best seen in the poem by Robert Frost:Some say the world will end in fire,Some say in ice.From what I've tasted of desireI hold with those who favor fire.But if it had to perish twice,I think I know enough of hateTo say that for destruction iceIs also greatAnd would suffice.

Lorri Romesberg at 6:21pm December 21
I guess that is certainly one of the pervasive differences in religious opinion. I think the majority of Unitarians would feel that people are basicly good but that they make bad choices for any number of reasons. I wonder how the idea of 1 out of every 100 people being a sociopath plays into that. Although I do believe that most sociopaths have childhoods that make that outcome make sense. Is that evil or merely a person's maladaptive way of coping with awful circumstances?

Michael Thomas Merren at 9:40pm December 21
I think I fall into the camp who feels there is a remote good in all of us, "created in the image and likeness of God" who we gleen from the scriptures and experience in the natural world as good (that is unless you look at floods, hurricanes, sunamis, cancer, drunk drivers...). But I've met enough of those sociopaths and even a few psychopaths I ... Read Morebelieve to know that sometimes good isn't all that we are. Tendencies to be immoderate, illicit, cheat... those can't all be environmental I don't think anyway.

Lorri Romesberg at 9:45pm December 21
No. Certainly there are many people who have horrible lives that are able to be caring, helpful, and wonderful people. Why do some go one way and some go another? I don't think that you can say that people are born evil, however, since many obviously have reason to be and yet choose not to be.

Michael Thomas Merren at 9:50pm December 21
I think we're on the same page... at least in the same library. Regardless of where evil comes from, if it indeed comes from anywhere other than through human agency, it surely isn't passed on like a genetic defect or a sexually transmitted disease like Western Christians since Augustine have propagated.

Lorri Romesberg at 10:08pm December 21
This is actually one of the reasons why I love the Harry Potter series. The idea that it is our choices that determine who we are even if we have the same abilities or background as another person. I read an essay by one local minister that described Harry Potter as "dangerous" fiction because both the good and evil characters had the same powers... Read More. Apparently the good characters should possess some completely different qualities from those who are evil. To me that argument completely missed the moral lesson. (See how you read famous philosophers and I read children's books.)

Michael Thomas Merren at 10:20pm December 21
I must admit I haven't read any of the Harry Potter books, but not for "moral" reasons. I have watched all the movies. I've never had a problem with fictional witches... which is the objection most reborn Christians seem to have w/ them. For that matter the C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien books are equally charged w/ "magic" and by their standards ... Read Morewould / should be banned. The equality of good and evil characters' powers arguements is a new one to me. Let's think about it. How does life really work? If we look at those around us, the good as well as the bad, we do all start w/ more or less the same talents. Some of us are given an opportunity to grow those, others aren't. Honestly, sometimes it seems those "evil" ones are given an unfair advantage or are given what they need to nourish their talents and develop them. From a moralist stand point I guess you would always hope that good would triumph over evil, but from what I've seen of the series that is the case. Again no objection!

The End of Food - Paul Roberts

2008-12-11T19:56:00.000-08:00

The End of Food - Paul Roberts
I've seen rave reviews for this book and read an article adapted from this book when it was yet forthcoming (Seed May / June 2008). This is a really important piece of non-fiction, something to consider borrowing from your local library or purchasing for your home library. Paul discusses "meat science", "carbon and water footprinting", rising hazards to health as humankind has to raise more livestock to meet consumption needs...

The following description was available on We-read an application of Facebook:

Paul Roberts, the best-selling author of The End of Oil, turns his attention to the modern food economy and finds that the system entrusted to meet our most basic need is failing.In this carefully researched, vivid narrative, Roberts lays out the stark economic realities behind modern food and shows how our system of making, marketing, and moving what we eat is growing less and less...more
Paul Roberts, the best-selling author of The End of Oil, turns his attention to the modern food economy and finds that the system entrusted to meet our most basic need is failing.In this carefully researched, vivid narrative, Roberts lays out the stark economic realities behind modern food and shows how our system of making, marketing, and moving what we eat is growing less and less compatible with the billions of consumers that system was built to serve.At the heart of The End of Food is a grim paradox: the rise of large-scale food production, though it generates more food more cheaply than at any time in history, has reached a point of dangerously diminishing returns. Our high-volume factory systems are creating new risks for food-borne illness, from E. coli to avian flu. Our high-yield crops and livestock generate grain, vegetables, and meat of declining nutritional quality. While nearly one billion people worldwide are overweight or obese, the same number of people—one in every seven of us—can't get enough to eat. In some of the hardest-hit regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa, the lack of a single nutrient, vitamin A, has left more than five million children permanently blind.Meanwhile, the shift to heavily mechanized, chemically intensive farming has so compromised soil and water that it's unclear how long such output can be maintained. And just as we've begun to understand the limits of our abundance, the burgeoning economies of Asia, with their rising middle classes, are adopting Western-style, meat-heavy diets, putting new demands on global food supplies.Comprehensive in scope and full of fresh insights, The End of Food presents a lucid, stark vision of the future. It is a call for us to make crucial decisions to help us survive the demise of food production as we know it.Paul Roberts is the author of The End of Oil, which was a finalist for the New York Public Library's Helen Bernstein Book Award in 2005. He has written about resource economics and politics for numerous publications, including the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Harper's Magazine, and Rolling Stone, and lectures frequently on business and environmental issues.

Lambros Malafouris

2008-11-28T11:34:00.000-08:00

http://journals.royalsociety.org/content/w820048200k0151g/fulltext.pdf?page=1
Here is a link to a free article on the ground breaking work of Dr. Lambros Malafouris.

This quote from: Between brains, bodies and things: tectonoetic awareness and the extended self Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B (2008 ) 363, 1993–2002 doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0014 sums the idea up nicely.
"This paper presents the possible outline of a framework that will enable the incorporation of material culture into the study of the human self. To this end, I introduce the notions of extended self and tectonoetic awareness. Focusing on the complex interactions between brains, bodies and things and drawing a number of different and usually unconnected threads of evidence from archaeology, philosophy and neuroscience together, I present a view of selfhood as an extended and distributed phenomenon that is enacted across the skin barrier and which thus comprises both neural and extra-neural resources. Finally, I use the example of a gold Mycenaean signet ring to explore how a piece of inanimate matter can be seen (sometimes) as a constitutive and efficacious part of the human self-system."

http://revminds.seedmagazine.com/revminds/member/lambros_malafouris/
Seed July/August 2008 ran a short piece on this author, which outlines his theory concerning the use of tools and the expression of the man in physical culture... as integral adjuncts of the human mind, tectonoetic awareness of the extended self.
As I understand it he is proposing that the idea that man is sole proprietor of agency in any given action is a fallacy. In his chapter of the work Material Agency: Towards a Non-anthropocentric Approach which he co-edited, he proposes the example of the relationship between the potter, the wheel, and the clay. According to him, and his research is thorough, the potter is reacting to the clay and the wheel as much as he is acting upon the clay by means of or in conjunction with the wheel. In this example, which of the said actors is the "agent" of the material change? We can't say in good conscience that the potter is the sole proprietor of agency upon the material. Neither can we say that the clay makes the pot or the wheel since neither of these materials has agency in and of itself. The wheel can no more make the clay into a pot than the pot can make itself into one, but the potter can not make a pot without the clay or the wheel. Additionally, it would be difficult to say that the pot it the same pot that the potter had envisioned when he sat to the wheel, if in fact he had any preconceived notion at all as to make he might desire to make.
In a program on the Discovery channel last night entitled, How Stuff Works, Aluminum, Series / Specials (2009) Practical Uses of Aluminum, I heard a crane operator describing the challenges of his job as follows:
“It’s not up, down, left, or right. You have to become the crane. It isn’t about action, it’s all about reaction!”
This example seems to fit into the example Malafouris gives quite readily. The crane operator is responsible for moving 60 ton pieces of aluminum, pressed into 40 foot long bars around at the end of a tether, by means of a heavy crane. His assertion that it is “all about reaction” makes a great deal of sense only when we remove the totality of agency from the human operator and place it, at least in part, in the crane and even in the aluminum bar itself. If the operator were to assert his agency and try to man-handle the aluminum with the crane the result would be disastrous.

Review of G. Lloyd Rediger's "Clergy Killers": Guidance for Pastors and Congregations Under Attack

2008-11-22T13:45:00.000-08:00

The cover and title of Lloyd Rediger’s of book is really quite shocking, but the behavior described inside is even more disturbing. Clergy killers, as described in the book are people who seek to destroy the credibility, reputation, and career of pastors. I was petrified by Rediger’s book initially, but towards the end I began to feel an appreciation for the work that I have felt towards very few books and authors over the years.
Rediger's clinical experience as a pastoral psychotherapist confirms what I saw only glimpses of with friends and acquaintances in pastorates across the country Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant alike.
The stuff in his book is horrific, but as I read his book I became aware that I, for all my academic background, was not prepared for ministry, not for dealing with the kind of pastoral nightmares portrayed in this text anyway. It reminded me of St. Basil’s clamoring about not being worthy of entering ministry. In fact, upon further recollection I remembered a place in St. John Chrysostom’s writings on the priesthood where St. Basil laments the seeming loss of his life-long colleague St. John Chrysostom after a squabble they had. Here Basil writes of the difficulties of dealing with Clergy Killers in his day without the aid of his good friend:
"If I happen to undergo calumny or mockery or any other kind of insult or menace which frequently occur, to whom shall I turn to for refuge, to whom shall I confide my distress, who will help me drive back my assailants and stop their assaults? Who will comfort me and prepare me to bear the ill-mannered conduct of others? There is no one since you stand aloof from this terrible strife and cannot even hear me cry... What shall I say to the outside world, how shall I defend their accusations?"
This book gave me the ability to look back over the years and see where perhaps secretive and insidious forces were at work to jeopardize my own ministry when in the Catholic Church and later to discourage me and dishearten me as I sought ordination in the Orthodox Church.
It even brought me to the realization that I have been on the flip side of the coin as well, though unintentionally. I recall individuals taking an interest in me, taking me out to dinner... plugging me for information about pastors I worked with or school administrators. I realized in reading this book that I had been duped and used as well as abused, it is so strange and rare to receive such insight from a book these days.
I feel better prepared to deal with the possibility of a genuinely malicious attack if and when I become a pastor again and believe that I am less likely to be used by clergy killers in the future because of a heightened awareness of their existence and purpose thanks to Rediger.

Andrej Kureav - An Orthodox Christian Approach to Evolution

2008-11-22T08:14:00.000-08:00

Fr. Kuraev writes with a balanced approach to the possibility of evolution as a scientific reality. As an Christian, especially in predominantly Evangelical/Puritan America, I feel the need to balance my belief in science with my faith in God, and as Kuraev sees it that isn't necessarily problematic.
I use to think that to be a good Christian, to be a good Clergyman I had to buy the fundamentalist view of a 6,000 year geo-history. But there is so much undeniable evidence to be found in science, archeology, geology... Hominids in Africa... the work of R. Leakey & D. Johanson and others. But I have felt for many years that honestly, as Fr. Kuraev points out, there is no reason why one can not believe that Darwin was on to something. Darwin may have missed the mark if he denied that God had his hand in the creation of these species which ultimately changed and adapted to their environments and needs, but that doesn’t discredit his science.
Like Fr. Kuraev I see these adaptations or evolution as part of God's plan. There is such complexity and such diversity in nature it is hard to imagine that these species didn't branch from a smaller number of organisms over the course of many years and according to the will of God.
Where science and religion are at odd is the point of origin and the driving force behind nature [see my early BLOG on the thoughts of P. Davies]. Some scientists hold that there is no God, that all that exists is the product of random biological adaptation... as Davies calls it "a fluke". This inability to see God in these complex organisms is less a disbelief in the Divine as a disbelieve in the God that modern Protestant and Catholic Theology sets forth as opposed to science and reason.
Fr. Kuraev in "Orthodoxy and Creationism" points out that regardless of what you believe about the origin of the world one must be aware at least of the sectarian nature of Creationism which is contrary to Orthodoxy.
These Creationists, no offense to any of you out there reading this, are not just arguing against an atheistic understanding of the process of evolution, but, more generally, against the very possibility of evolution itself. For them the pre-human world is no older than six literal days [just think of VP candidate Sara Palin]. The Earth is incapable of evolutionary development, even in response to a call from the creator. This position is not new… this yearning to reduce our understanding of matter to a notion of non-being. Only the spirit lives and acts, while the material world is nothing more than shackles for life of the spirit.
Basically Fr. Andrey is equating creationism with one of the many varied forms of dualism or Gnosticism present in the days of the Early Church. His claim is that Protestants with their firm attachment to the creation of the earth in 6 earthly days and everything all at once as St. Augustine taught, again based on a poor translation of Scripture (Sir. 18:1), leads the West further down the path of legalism and moralism.
Evangelical Protestant theology does not expect man to show serious spiritual creative activities whereas in Orthodox tradition and pre-medieval Latin tradition humankind is supposed to be active in the ontological creativity.
For Fr. Kuraev it is for this same reason and on the basis of these same systems of belief that Western Christianity has a Soteriology which disallows man a role to play in his own salvation and the world must be a static and dead thing. These are the views he claims to be sectarian in nature and unorthodox.
Fr. Michael Pomazansky [the premier Orthodox Dogmatic theologian of the 20th century] doesn’t seem to be opposed to the idea of evolution either. He sites some of the same creative elements of the Genesis account as Kuraev when he outlines the Orthodox perspective as opposed to the static system of Western Creationism in Orthodox Dogmatic Theology he writes:
"It was brought into being out of complete non-being; everything that is on earth was created from the elements of the earth, was 'brought forth' by the water and the earth at the command of God, except for the soul of man, which bears in itself the image and likeness of God".
Here he seems to allow for, if not endorse an evolutionary element instilled in creation by the Creator. He makes the proper allowance for continued creativity in the world by a plan of God for example, he doesn’t take a literal approach to the 6 days and simultaneous creation of the Creationist Theory, and he makes the point that God reserved the right to instill the soul in man to himself, but allowed his body to be brought forth from the elements of the earth by the water…

Paul Davies - On My Mind, Seed May/June 08' issue

2008-11-21T19:14:00.000-08:00

Davies poses himself the following question: "The problem of life's origin is one of the biggest mysteries in science. How did a haphazard mixture of chemicals spontaneously turn itself into the first living cell?"
This is a seemingly good starting point for coming to the conclusion, as I have, that even if you believe in an evolutionary tract there must have been a catalyst, a springboard or starting point.

Some believe, as I do, that there came a time at which something was instigated and a coordinated effort was made to bring order from the primordial chaos. Some speak of a proverbial "Unmoved Mover," as Thomas Aquinas did. Davies goes a different route, and takes the discussion in another direction.
He writes: "Scientists can't agree on whether the origin of life was a statistical fluke, unique in the universe, or the inevitable outcome of intrinsically bio-friendly laws of nature. The ramifications are momentous: If life is a fluke, we are probably alone in the universe. But if life arises with high probability in Earth-like conditions, then our galaxy should be teeming with it."
I would say indeed it should be and yet it doesn't seem to be, does it? So what conclusions can we draw from this information Dr. Davies provides us: 1) Either life on this planet wasn't a fluke or 2) The universe is teeming with space aliens. Which seems more likely? Honestly, I don't know how I feel about SETI and UFOs... What I glean from my understanding of the universe is that life as we know it is very, very possible "out there". Even in our own solar system there are some signs that maybe Mars once could have sustained some form of life.
But these matters are quite besides the point. As Davies points out further in the reading: "No planet is more Earth-like than Earth itself. If life arises so readily then it should have started from scratch many times over right here on our planet."
This is probably one of the single most interesting comments I have heard in this debate. No matter which side you take in the Creationism v. Evolutionism matter, or if you are somewhere in the middle like me, this is good stuff. I honestly had never thought of this. If life on this planet was a fluke, why hasn't that fluke created non-carbon based evolutionary chains or at least multiple strands of carbon-life or multiple evolutionary chains here on this planet where the conditions are or were at least for a time ideal for it.
Davies points out, "All life we've studied so far descends from a common beginning and shares many of the same features, such as the same complicated genetic code."
What conclusions can we draw from this information: 1) We can say for starters that the "one-source" tree of life Davies puts forward here seems likely and therefore the fluke was no fluke or we can jump to the conclusion that he puts forward next that 2) "Our planet could be harboring descendants from many independent genesis events... there could be 'alien' organisms right under our noses - or even in our noses [seriously, his words not mine]." His theory I guess is that this planet has been seeded by flukes like the one that began our evolutionary chain many times over, but we can't find any of those strands. Talk about missing links! We have only come in contact with the one common strand, the one to which "all known organisms on the planet" belong.
I think that Dr. Paul Davies, in the name of science, has gone well out of his way to promote an Atheistic agenda here. Any thoughts?

Does the Christian dogma of the Parousia serve a similar purpose as the Mahayuga for ancient Hindus and the Anakuklosis for Pythagoreans/Platonists?

2008-11-21T15:43:00.001-08:00

Michael thinks that the Christian dogma of the Parousia serves a similar purpose as the Mahayuga for ancient Hindus and the Anakuklosis for Pythagoreans/Platonists. 9:28pm
- 12 Comments

Lorri Romesberg at 10:23pm November 20
I was just thinking the same thing yesterday!

Michael Thomas Merren at 10:30pm November 20
Seriously, the whole need for closure on the human existence, time, world thing! Mahayuga talks about the cycle of life ending after 56,000 years x 3... the Paraousia doesn't set a definative when the end is coming, but definitely sets the how... its all about knowing that this too shall pass. Now when that is a matter of opinion am I right?

Rebecca Bratten Weiss at 11:01am November 21
I think whatever one opines the when to be, one will be wrong.I confess a faint Nietzschean suspicion re eternal recurrence...don't tell anyone.

Lorri Romesberg at 11:38am November 21
Cartainly science sets an end date to the Earth also. What is the reason for cross-cultural stories regarding the end of life? Is it comforting on some level or is our deepest fear? Certainly nirvana my only be reached by ridding ourselves of earthly attachments so that the end of life becomes irrelevant. (Now to wash off that popcorn smell.)

Rebecca Bratten Weiss at 11:51am November 21
I suppose it is comforting to some, sad to others - in any case, an inevitable result of being composed of matter.

Lorri Romesberg at 12:49pm November 21
Although the unique thing is that we are able to contemplate our own demise in the way that other animals are not.

Chastity Edlefson at 2:54pm November 21
Say what?

Michael Thomas Merren at 4:12pm November 21
Well, Rebecca I had you pegged as a closet Nietzschean eternal recurrent adherent! More aptly rather I had guessed you might be a closet Origenist "eternal world"-type w/ a tendency towards Apocatastasis and maybe even the "pre-existence" of souls... I'm kidding a little, wink, wink!

Michael Thomas Merren at 4:21pm November 21
I guess the gist of what I am suggesting here, by no means am I denying the Resurrection or the Parousia (Second Coming), I am merely suggesting in an Archbishop Spong, devil's advocate kind-of way, that it is a "convenient" Christian doctrine in light of the tendency in world religions since the dawn of man and the world over to put a "cap" on manThe Paraousia is the "ceiling", which tells us regardless of what we may believe this too will come to an end. I can see why in a religious culture like Hinduism or Buddism w/ a seemingly endless number of reincarnations possible that a "ceiling" would be installed in the process. In Christianity even minus the reincarnation element there must be a need for an end, defined in at least as much as it is rather than is not,to battle Millenialism and "last days" gloom. When early Christian predicted the end was coming soon and it didn't they just pushed the date of the end off to the as yet unannounced "parousia".'s existence. The Paraousia is the "ceiling", which tells us regardless of what we may believe this too will come to an end. I can see why in a religious culture like Hinduism or Buddism w/ a seemingly endless number of reincarnations possible that a "ceiling" would be installed in the process. In Christianity even minus the reincarnation element there must be a need for an end, defined in at least as much as it is rather than is not,to battle Millenialism and "last days" gloom. When early Christian predicted the end was coming soon and it didn't they just pushed the date of the end off to the as yet unannounced "parousia".

Lorri Romesberg at 4:49pm November 21
One could argue that Parousia is in fact true as evidenced by the universality of the belief.

Michael Thomas Merren at 4:54pm November 21
Believing doesn't "create" truth. Is the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy real because kids' believe he is? Popular belief can be indicative of the validity of a claim or cause, but it can not grant it proper status as such. The fact should proceed the belief. Never is the reality derived from the belief. Reality isn't Santa's Sleigh in "Elf" powered on belief...

Lorri Romesberg at 6:29pm November 21
Yes, you and those @#$% beavers! While we are on the subject, what is real? Are atoms real because we can prove them? How well did your high school chemistry experiments turn out or did you fudge the answers? I do think there is a deep human need to believe in the finiteness of Earthly life. Whether that comes from some underlying reality or the way people are wired remains to be seen. I am not sure that you can prove either.

Historical parallels, Yeats and diminishing returns

2008-11-21T15:13:00.000-08:00

A recent exchange between a friend and I on Facebook:

Rebecca is thinking about historical parallels - Yeats may have been right. 10:06pm
- 10 Comments

Michael Thomas Merren at 10:22pm November 3
Yeats was rarely right.

Benjamin Liebhaber at 10:25pm November 3
Yeats is awesome. My absolute favorite poem by him is "Sailing to Byzantium".
Michael W Andreola Jr at 10:30pm November 3
Right about what?
Benjamin Liebhaber at 10:34pm November 3
Shoot I just realized you were not talking about Yates! LOL my comment still stands.

Rebecca Bratten Weiss at 10:46pm November 3
I AM talking about Yeats - "The Second Coming" - historical cycles build up to a point of unity and harmony but inevitably deconstruct. fanciful figure of a gyre spinning out of control...a less "progressive" view than Hegel's, and I think in spite of all the poetic raving quite true to reality.

Benjamin Liebhaber at 11:05pm November 3
Wait is "Yeats" the same as "Yates"? What OH GEEZE. I just looked him up and they are the same person. I am slow today. But that is a great poem regardless. I am going to read "The Second Coming" soon.

Sean Christopher at 11:56pm November 3
Well, all I can say is that I'm grateful to have read Beowulf in (then) Ms. Bratten's class back when cause now I now how to prepare for Tuesday; -- Grendel/Obama, here I come!(Opinions expressed in this comment reflect only those of the commenter, and not necessarily those of the poster.)

Michael Thomas Merren at 5:24am November 4
I can embrace the image of the spinning top (gyre), but I like to think of the gradual determination of a society in terms of the principle of diminished returns i.e. In economics, diminishing returns is also called diminishing marginal returns or the law of diminishing returns. According to this relationship, in a production system with fixed and ... Read Morevariable inputs (say factory size and labor), beyond some point, each additional unit of variable input yields less and less output. Eventually the cost of producing one more unit of output costs more and more in variable inputs and the system no longer remains viable. This concept is also known as the law of increasing relative cost, or law of increasing opportunity cost. Although ostensibly a purely economic concept, diminishing marginal returns also implies a technological relationship. Diminishing marginal returns states that a firm's short run marginal cost curve will eventually increase.I also appreciate the application of this princi

Michael Thomas Merren at 5:59am November 4
-ple in advanced genetic manipulation as portrayed in the gradual extinction of the race of evolved pre-human life forms called the Asgard in the sci-fi series Stargate SG1 who used cloning as their sole means of reproduction until such a time as the outputs came at a greater cost than the elemental inputs with a diminished end product actually ... Read Morelacking physical viability and ending in the premature death of the subjects.I see the analogy Yeats proposes as a little incongruous since the end of an age, or society usually takes hundreds of years, a gradual spiraling out of control, much more gradual perhaps than the gyre would seem to imply. I do think that we can look at the relative short history of the United States and maybe British Colonialism as compared to the seemingly endless centuries of Roman or Byzantine Rule as a progression of the speed of determination of the circumference of the circle of the gyre’s spin prior to deceleration and the denigration of path of spin.

Rebecca Bratten Weiss at 9:29am November 4
Well, I imagine the spinning gyre seems slow to us because we are locked in time or something - but you're right, it is a sloppy metaphor to describe a phenomenon - diminished returns is more precise if less poetic...and definitely apropos.Technology does speed up the spin...One could point to the elevation of Octavian as Emperor as the real ... Read Morebeginning of the fall of Rome - even though it took 500 years after that. The centralization of power in a single man who was given god-like status, and who also heavily added to Roman legislation, and who essentially replaced religion (such as it was) with Government...It is interesting to note that Christ was born during his reign, too...from that day on the gods left politics.