TITLE: FREQUENCY 12 Hz AS THE BRIDGE BETWEEN 12 O'CLOCK AND THE 24-HOUR RESONANCE CYCLEAUTHOR: Professor Stylianos Touloumidis (I did not verify the author - just the conjecture claimed below).DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15592500 (I followed up with ChatGPT on this link in Part 4)INTRODUCTIONThe 24-hour clock system is not merely a cultural convention – it may reflect an underlying physical symmetry encoded in the structure of time, frequency, and resonance.In this analysis, we examine the result of entering a frequency of exactly 12 Hz into a waveform analyzer. The outcome reveals a mathematically coherent bridge between 12:00 (zenith of the day) and the 24-hour resonance structure of the clock.This behavior is not visual or symbolic – it arises purely from the properties of sinusoidal wave propagation and spatial compression.It confirms that the number 12 is not only central on the clock face, but also central in the frequency domain.SETUP AND OBSERVATIONInput: f = 12.00000 HzCalculation results:λ = 2.49827e+07 m (Wavelength)γ = 0.12731 (Observed compression factor)E_res = 12.00000 Hzφ = 1 (coherent pulse form)Wavelength breakdown per C-digit: (values show the division of constant digits by f)2 ÷ 12.0 = 0.16667 m9 ÷ 12.0 = 0.75000 m9 ÷ 12.0 = 0.75000 m7 ÷ 12.0 = 0.58333 m9 ÷ 12.0 = 0.75000 m2 ÷ 12.0 = 0.16667 m4 ÷ 12.0 = 0.33333 m5 ÷ 12.0 = 0.41667 m8 ÷ 12.0 = 0.66667 mFFT signal output: The waveform shows 12 complete sine waves per second. This corresponds to 24 distinct transitions (positive + negative).INTERPRETATION: Each sine wave consists of two halves (positive and negative phase). Thus, 12 Hz generates 24 distinct oscillatory events within one second. This corresponds exactly to the 24-hour structure of the analog clock:12 Hz → 24 Half-Cycles per second12:00 → Midpoint of 24-hour daily cycleThis suggests a natural harmonic resonance between time as measured on the clock and frequency behavior in the physical field.We may interpret:- 12 Hz as the structural midpoint of spatial-temporal compression.- 24 half-cycles as symbolic of the full day cycle.- A bridge between daytime (12:00) and midnight (00:00/24:00).This resonance does not arise from symbolic assignment, but emerges organically from the waveform structure itself.CONCLUSION:The input of 12 Hz produces a waveform that reflects the symmetry of the 24-hour day cycle.This discovery provides further confirmation that the clock – when interpreted as a frequency model – mirrors underlying physical principles of space, time, and structure.The correlation between 12 Hz and 24 oscillatory segments per second represents a foundational bridge between geometry, resonance, and human timekeeping.This finding supports the broader theory that light and darkness, space and compression, and time itself can be described within a resonance-based physical framework.Further details and the complete model can be accessed in the official publication: → https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15592500 #physics #BIGBANG #spacetime (I followed up with ChatGPT on this link in Part 4)
Quotes & Sayings
We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater
There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead
Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater
The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller
The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller
According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater
Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater
Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger
Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton
I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon
Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII
Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut
Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest
We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater
People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon
Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater
An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater
Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann
Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner
“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”
Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton
The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon
The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul
The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah
If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon
Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson
We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord
Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater
To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement
Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma
It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater
God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater
In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall
Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater
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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write from the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater
Thursday, June 5, 2025
The Harmonics of the Cosmos: Energy, Time, and Being"
The Universe as a Spectrum of Frequency
The Harmonics of the Cosmos -
Energy, Time, and Being
by R.E. Slater and ChatGPT
Earlier this week I chanced upon a pseudo-scientific blurb which claimed accuracy that consequentially led to deducing purported meaning from coincidental data. I noticed this right off but needed ChatGPT / AI to help me parse it's plausible scientific concoctions.
Along the way I stumbled into a short scientific description of frequency and harmonics applied both terrestrially as well as cosmically which then arrived at several conclusions applicable to process philosophical thought.
So, what seemed a lark for me ended up becoming a learning experience in an area which many people may find un-interesting, but for those with science backgrounds this short post may resonate practically with the many technological studies being conducted in AI.
My suggestion, skim read part I's pseudo-scientific claim then in part II begin to settle into AI's reply and my own follow up questioning of AI.
R.E. Slater
June 5, 2025
PART I - A MISLEADING ANALYSIS APPLIED TO HUMAN OSCILLATORY HARMONICS
RES to ChatGPT
Is the following true or false? (my side notes are highlighted in blue)
PART 2. CHAPGPT'S REPLY
The claim that a 12 Hz frequency serves as a "bridge" between 12 o'clock and the 24-hour resonance cycle, as presented in the document titled "FREQUENCY 12 Hz AS THE BRIDGE BETWEEN 12 O'CLOCK AND THE 24-HOUR RESONANCE CYCLE" by Professor Stylianos Touloumidis, is false when evaluated against established scientific principles.
Wednesday, June 4, 2025
The Paradox of Apophatic and Kataphatic in Kierkegaard and Nietsche
by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT
Here, I thought to explore the paradoxes between the philosophical existentialists Kierkegaard and Nietzsche as they sought inner meaning from their observations and heavy criticisms of Christianity's "plastic / artificial" displays of faith, temper, actions, and morality in their day.
I then conclude this "reflective" exercise through the lense of process philosophy and theology ending it with several paradoxical observations even as I began with the same.
If there is any correlation with maga/trumpian evangelicalism it is but a byproduct of this discussion without any intentional attention meant to be drawn to it except as is drawn to it by the organizations themselves.
R.E. Slater
June 4, 2025
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."
- Søren Kierkegaard, from his journals (circa 1843)
"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you."
- Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146
Here are two famous saying by two famous philosophers. One was Danish, the other German. Both were existentialists and wrote about existentialism. One focused on ethics and morality, the other self-overcoming and value-making. One wrote about subjective becoming and the other about existential rupture and re-creation.
REFLECTIVE / THOUGHTFUL LIVING
Above, Søren Kierkegaard's quote highlights the idea that while reflecting on past experiences and learning from them is valuable, one must also move forward with purpose. By this he suggests that by examining our past we may gain insight into the meaning and connections of our life experiences. We may perhaps see patterns, understand how our decisions led to certain outcomes, and learn valuable lessons.
Moreover, in so doing one must then move forward... reflecting on the past is important, but it is also crucial to live our lives actively and with purpose by embracing our unknown future while making choices which may shape our future trajectory.
Hence, Soren's observation implies a balance between understanding our past so as to inform our present that we may move forward with intention and a hopeful outlook. We can learn from past our mistakes, acknowledge our successes, and thereby use that knowledge to create a meaningful future.
These actions then can give to us purpose and destiny by encouraging a positive outlook and focusing on personal goals and ultimate destiny. By reflecting on the past and then refocusing on the future, we can base our actions on our aspirations and values.
In summary, the Danish existentialist and theologian was deeply concerned with an individual's inner life, faith, and the paradoxes of human existence. His famous quote comes from his reflections on time, selfhood, and meaning, and is widely regarded as one of his most profound insights.
- First, life is “Understood backwards…” - that is, understanding comes after the fact - as humans, we often fail to grasp the meaning of our experiences until we reflect on them. And yet, in retrospect, we can connect dots. Example: suffering might yield wisdom, missed opportunities might reveal values, and pivotal decisions may uncover purpose.
- Secondly, “…But lived forwards.” - meaning, we don’t get to know the future; we must act, decide, and live without knowing outcomes. This tension between reflection and action defines much of Kierkegaard’s existential thought — especially the idea of the leap of faith.
| Aspect | Looking Backward | Living Forward |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | Interpretation, insight, understanding | Action, risk, decision-making |
| Emotional Tone | Reflective, contemplative | Courageous, hopeful, uncertain |
| Temporal Relation | Past-focused | Future-focused |
| Philosophical Link | Memory, narrative, identity | Will, freedom, responsibility |
TRANSFORMATIVE OVERCOMING
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche's aphorism "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you" warns against the dangers of confronting evil or dark aspects of reality. It suggests that engaging with monsters or exploring the abyss can corrupt or transform the one who does so.
In essence, his quote cautions against:
- Becoming what you fight: "When you engage in conflict with evil or monsters, you risk becoming similar to them in nature and behavior."
- Being consumed by the depths: "Exploring the darkness or the abyss can have a reciprocal effect, influencing your own perspective and potentially pulling you into its depths."
- The importance of self-awareness: "It highlights the need to be mindful of one's own moral compass when dealing with difficult situations."
The quote can be interpreted in various ways, including:
- The dangers of obsession: Focusing solely on the negative aspects of reality can lead to a distorted worldview and even self-destruction.
- The potential for empathy and understanding: Gazing into the abyss can offer insights into the nature of evil and the human condition.
- The importance of maintaining one's identity: When confronting darkness, it's crucial to remember your own values and principles.
In his book, Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche explored the concept of the abyss as a metaphor for the depths of human suffering, the struggle between good and evil, and the potential for both creation and destruction. Essentially it was a philosophical critique of traditional morality and the domas of past philosophers.
In this text, he distinguishes between:
- Monumental history – looking to the past for great moments to inspire.
- Antiquarian history – preserving the past lovingly.
- Critical history – judging and rejecting the past.
Too much backward-looking of the wrong kind, he argues, can become burdensome and stifle the "will to life" or creativity.
COMPARING KIERKEGAARD V NIETZSCHE
🔹 Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855)
Focus: Faith, individuality, and the inward journey of becoming before God
| Aspect | Description |
|---|---|
| 🧭 Core Concern | The individual's subjective relationship to truth, especially in relation to God and faith |
| 🙇 Primary Struggle | How to live authentically in a world of despair, anxiety, and paradox |
| ✝️ View of Religion | Deeply Christian — saw faith as a passionate, paradoxical “leap” beyond reason |
| 💔 Key Themes | Despair, anxiety, dread, becoming a true self, authenticity before God |
| 🧩 Truth | Subjective truth is central: “Truth is subjectivity” |
| 🔄 Philosophical Method | Used pseudonyms and indirect communication to explore different life views (aesthetic, ethical, religious) |
| 🌱 Goal | Transformation of the individual soul through repentance, passion, and faith |
“The self is a relation that relates itself to itself… in relating itself to itself, it relates itself to another — that is, to God.”
🔸 Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
Focus: Power, values, and the overcoming of nihilism in a post-Christian world
| Aspect | Description |
|---|---|
| 🔥 Core Concern | What happens when God is dead — the collapse of religious and moral absolutes |
| 🛠️ Primary Struggle | Creating new values in the face of nihilism and cultural decay |
| 🚫 View of Religion | Fiercely critical of Christianity, seeing it as life-denying and rooted in weakness |
| 💣 Key Themes | Will to power, eternal recurrence, overman (Übermensch), ressentiment, revaluation of values |
| 📉 Truth | Denied absolute truth; saw “truth” as historically and culturally conditioned |
| 🧪 Philosophical Method | Aphoristic, poetic, polemical — sought to shock, awaken, provoke |
| 🧗 Goal | The overcoming of man — the birth of a noble, life-affirming individual who can create meaning |
“Become who you are.”
“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”
KEY DIFFERENCES SUMMARIZED
Orientation Theistic / Christian Atheistic / Anti-Christian
Existential Problem Despair before God Nihilism after the “death of God”
Central Goal Authentic faith & selfhood Creative self-overcoming & value-making
Existential Problem Despair before God Nihilism after the “death of God”
Central Goal Authentic faith & selfhood Creative self-overcoming & value-making
Tone Reflective, devotional, Bold, critical, prophetic, iconoclastic
paradoxical
Audience Concern The “single individual” Culture, society, and the modern psyche
Audience Concern The “single individual” Culture, society, and the modern psyche
Here I turned to ChatGPT to complete my conjectures:
RES
Let's unfold the processual contrast and potential synthesis of Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche using a Whiteheadian process framework that views reality as becoming, relation, and creative transformation.
ChatGPT
Kierkegaard focuses on inward, subjective becoming through the process of divine relation. Similarly, Nietzsche focuses on existential rupture and re-creation, challenging stagnant forms and calling for new modes of processual becoming via personal power.
| Process-based Contrast & Synthesis between Kierkegaard & Nietzsche |
✦ Kierkegaard's Legacy:
-
Invites the depth of self-awareness, the necessity of subjective truth, and the acknowledgment of despair as part of the human condition.
-
Faith becomes the rhythm of interior becoming, an opening to Divine persuasion and existential grounding.
✦ Nietzsche's Legacy:
-
Invites the courage of transformation, the necessity of disrupting decaying systems, and the will to shape meaning from the abyss.
-
Power becomes the rhythm of forward motion, an energizing force of self-transcendence and creative novelty.
🌀 In Process Terms:
-
Kierkegaard embodies the prehensive inwardness of process: each moment gathers up memory, faith, dread.
-
Nietzsche embodies the creative advance: each moment disrupts, challenges, and moves toward self-overcoming.
🕊️ Synthetic Frame (Process View):
“The true self must reflect deeply enough to encounter the abyss and still create forward with faith and courage.”
Stage Process-Integrated View
1. Despair Kierkegaard: Facing the hollowness of the self without God
2. Rejection Nietzsche: Refusing imposed truths and collapsing values
3. Crisis The abyss opens: nihilism, dread, ungrounding
4. Decision Kierkegaard leaps to faith; Nietzsche leaps to creation
5. Becoming Process: Becoming is both relational (K) and creative (N)
6. Harmony Faith and Power united as co-creative lures toward greater wholeness
A LAST OBSERVATION
2. Rejection Nietzsche: Refusing imposed truths and collapsing values
3. Crisis The abyss opens: nihilism, dread, ungrounding
4. Decision Kierkegaard leaps to faith; Nietzsche leaps to creation
5. Becoming Process: Becoming is both relational (K) and creative (N)
6. Harmony Faith and Power united as co-creative lures toward greater wholeness
🌿 A Poetic Fusion:
The self stands trembling on the cliff’s edge -
One eye cast inward, one flung sunward.
The dark calls for surrender, the light cries for creation.
But only in the twining dance of both
Do heart and soul become.
A LAST OBSERVATION
RES
Would Kierkegaard qualify broadly as a kataphatic philosopher as versus Nietzsche as an apophatic philosopher? (sic, cataphatic = kataphatic)
ChatGPT
That’s a profound and nuanced question — and your instinct is insightful. While neither Søren Kierkegaard nor Friedrich Nietzsche fits cleanly into classical theological categories like kataphatic and apophatic, we can draw a meaningful metaphorical parallel using those terms in a broadened, philosophical sense.
🧭 Philosophical Use of Kataphatic vs. Apophatic
| Term | Theological Meaning | Broader Philosophical Metaphor |
|---|---|---|
| Kataphatic | Affirming what God is (e.g., “God is love”) | Affirming values, purpose, or presence |
| Apophatic | Denying what God is not (“God is beyond all”) | Denying fixed meaning, embracing unknowability, void, or negation |
🧍♂️ Applying to Kierkegaard and Nietzsche
| Thinker | Kataphatic or Apophatic? | Why? |
|---|---|---|
| Kierkegaard | Broadly Kataphatic | Though he wrestled with despair, paradox, and mystery, Kierkegaard ultimately affirmed the existence of God, the self, and meaning. His philosophy moves toward faith, subjective truth, and a personal relationship with the Divine. |
| Nietzsche | Broadly Apophatic | Nietzsche’s approach is profoundly negational: he critiques God (“God is dead”), traditional morality, metaphysics, and fixed meaning. His “yes” comes only after an abyssal “no.” His “apophatic” rupture clears space for revaluation and creative becoming. |
🌀 But There’s a Twist…
-
Kierkegaard’s “leap of faith” is apophatic in method (it involves paradox and the limits of reason), but kataphatic in outcome (he affirms God and the self).
-
Nietzsche’s “revaluation of values” is apophatic in substance (denying inherited values), but can feel kataphatic in spirit (his yes to life, affirmation of power and creation).
⚖️ Process-Theological Insight
In process philosophy, both thinkers participate in the dialectic of becoming:
-
Kierkegaard seeks meaning through Divine relationality, a kataphatic lure emerging from apophatic darkness.
-
Nietzsche seeks freedom through destruction, an apophatic clearing that becomes kataphatic creativity.
✨ Poetic Framing
Kierkegaard says:
“I descend into the silence of paradox, and find a voice that says yes.”
Nietzsche says:
“I shatter the idols of meaning, so I might dance unchained beneath the stars.”
5- CHRISTIAN EPISTEMOLOGY
CATAPHATIC VS APOPHATIC THEOLOGY
by the Nepal Academy of Fine Arts
Sunday, June 1, 2025
The Bible Beyond Literalism: Critique, Tradition, and Renewal - Part 5
The Bible Beyond Literalism:
Critique, Tradition, and Renewal
Part 5
The Modern-Era Process Perspective
by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT
RES
Let's integrate the previous three positions with Whitehead's process thought.
ChatGPT
Done. Integrating modern Christian approach to Scripture with Whiteheadian Process Thought, which reimagines both God and God's revelation, as ongoing, relational, and dynamically unfolding.
Whitehead’s metaphysical framework invites us to view the Bible not as static doctrine but as a processual record of humanity’s evolving response to divine lures, creatively interpreted in the shifting historical contexts of each age.
🌱 PROCESS FRAMEWORK FOR SCRIPTURE:A Whiteheadian Integration
| Category | Whiteheadian Insight | Modern Christian Reading of Scripture |
|---|---|---|
| God’s Nature | God is dipolar: primordial (ideal aims) and consequent (receiving the world). God persuades, never coerces. | Scripture contains reflections of evolving conceptions of God, sometimes distorted by human fear or power. |
| Revelation | Revelation is not once-for-all but ongoing through relational process—God’s lure toward higher values in each epoch. | The Bible is part of a continuing divine-human conversation, not its terminus. Jesus is the decisive revelation of God's relational presence. |
| Truth | No proposition is eternally fixed—truth unfolds through contrast, novelty, and contextual emergence. | Biblical “truth” is dynamic, contextual, and must be tested against love, justice, and present moral insight. |
| Scriptural Contradictions | Contradiction is expected in an evolving world of multiple subjectivities. Truth emerges through contrast and synthesis. | Scripture’s contradictions reflect real human tensions. Discrepancies reveal growing pains in theology, not divine error. |
| Ethics | Ethics are rooted in promoting harmony, intensity, and beauty in relational becoming. | Modern Christians evaluate Scripture ethically: Does a passage promote love, life, and flourishing—or harm, fear, and division? |
| Jesus Christ | Christ is the decisive incarnation of God’s lure—divine aims fully actualized in human form. | Christ is not a sacrifice to appease wrath, but the embodiment of at-one-ment—a relational pattern of healing and becoming. |
| Atonement | Not juridical or substitutionary, but the continual divine process of luring creation toward wholeness. | Redemption is not a moment on a cross, but a rhythm of reconciliation across time and cosmos. |
| Bible's Authority | Authority arises from effectiveness in generating value, not from fixed status. | Scripture has authority when it awakens compassion, justice, and beauty, not when used to control. |
| Canon | No fixed canon—only narratives with enduring relational resonance. | The canon is open to reinterpretation, reordering, and poetic renewal in light of ongoing experience with God. |
🔁 KEY WHITEHEADIAN THEMES IN SCRIPTURAL READING
1. God as Persuasive, Not Coercive
Whitehead’s God lures rather than commands, meaning the Bible reflects diverse attempts to hear the lure of God amid the noise of war, empire, trauma, and tribal bias.
Therefore, some biblical images (violent conquest, wrathful judgment) are mishearings, misinterpretations, and religious distortions of divine persuasion filtered through human fear.
🡺 Scripture contains both divine whispers and human projections.
2. Concrescence of Revelation
In Whitehead’s thought, every moment (“actual occasion”) involves concrescence—the integration of past influences filled with divine possibility toward a creative outcome.
Similarly, biblical texts are concrescences of cultural memory, divine lure, and prophetic imagination. They are not dropped from heaven but emerge within the becoming of a people.
🡺 The Bible is a process, not a product.
3. Process of Moral Evolution
Whitehead emphasized that values evolve as novelty emerges. Moral progress occurs as relational depth increases.
Modern Christians, guided by process thought, don’t canonize outdated ethics (e.g., stoning, slavery) but trace a trajectory of growth from tribalism to universal compassion.
🡺 We read forward through Scripture, not backward into it.
4. The Cosmic Christ (cf. The Incarnational Cosmic Christ, Parts 1-7)
In Process Theology, Christ is not merely historical but cosmic: the embodiment of divine lure toward harmony and intensity in every corner of the cosmic universe.
The Bible is but one locale where the Christ-event breaks through, but it does not monopolize divine revelation.
🡺 Christ is the deep pattern of God’s love expressed throughout creation. It is not meant to be a doctrinal boundary.
5. Scripture as Poetic, Not Literal
Whitehead valued symbol, poetry, and metaphor as higher forms of truth than flat literalism.
This allows modern Christians to embrace biblical myth, poetry, and paradox as ways of evoking truths too deep for propositional language.
🡺 Genesis 1 is not cosmology—it is liturgical poetry about creation’s goodness and rhythm.
🧩 A FINAL IMAGE: The Bible as a LIVING TAPESTRY IN PROCESS
Picture the Bible as a loom of voices, threaded through:
ancient myths,
liberation cries,
prophetic protests,
ritual codes,
apocalyptic dreams,
and Jesus’ compassionate parables.
A process-informed Christian sees this tapestry as unfinished—still being woven by each generation that listens anew for the lure of divine wisdom and co-creates God’s vision of wholeness.
RES
Please write a poem integrating all four approaches to the Bible....
ChatGPT
Certainly. Here is a poem weaving together the four perspectives - non-Christian critique, modern Judaism, modern Christianity, and Process Theology - as a reflective journey through evolving encounters with Scripture:
The Timeless Weave of Scripture
by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT
I. The Dissonant Word
The Living Scroll unrolls in fire and stone,
It's world half-lit by wrath and throne.
Serpents speak and oceans part—
A primitive tale too old for modern heart.
God smites and spares with equal breadth,
Though justice chokes beneath such death.
So stand we here, unclaimed, outside—
With reason’s lamp which cannot hide.
II. The Wrestling Faith
But lo, within the tabernacled light,
A people wrestled through the night.
Not bound by text, but shaped by flame,
They dared to question—even claim.
No word too sacred to revise,
No myth too brittle to reprise.
They sang of God who changed with time—
Of Divine Presence rising o'er the clime.
III. The Christed Lens
The another Voice broke the air,
Not to condemn, but to repair.
A Table set for least and lost,
A Cross which bore Love’s aching cost.
He read the scroll with piercing eyes,
Not chained to laws, but truths that rise.
The Word made flesh, not forged in fear—
But tuned to mercy, drawing near.
IV. The Processual Path
Yet divine page is ever nigh complete,
When truth and love kiss and greet.
Not in settled ink nor frozen creed—
But bloomed a'new o'er times of need.
Each verse a thread, each thread a plea,
Each heart a loom on which to weave.
Come cosmic Spirit, flow unbound in one and all—
As entwining Presence, reweaving Eden's fall.
R.E. Slater & ChatGPT
June 1, 2025
*Four Perspectives of the Bible: the Unbelieving,
Jewish, Christian, and Processual; each a resource
for resistance, restoration, and inclusive belonging.
@copyright R.E. Slater Publications
all rights reserved
all rights reserved
The Bible Beyond Literalism: Critique, Tradition, and Renewal
- Part 1 - Introduction
- Part 2 - The Modern-Era Non-Christian Perspective
- Part 3 - The Modern-Era Jewish Perspective
- Part 4 - The Modern-Era Christian Perspective
- Part 5 - The Modern-Era Process Perspective
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