Human Evolution. How Does it Fit with the Recent Discovery of the genus, "Homo Naledi?"

Growing up as a conservative evangelical Christian I had been taught to consider the story of human evolution as spurious to the Word of God. Over the decades I have reconsidered all the arguments for special creation and against evolutionary creation and now deem my earlier education misdirected. That I may now rightly hold to progressive creationism (as opposed to immediate creationism) and consider it "divinely supernatural and special."

That the Creator God of the universe had supernaturally decreed creation's possibility using the operands of randomness and chaos and be ruled by the teleological principle of life as "always tilting towards biologic struggle and survival" regardless of the (toxic) eco-environments this struggle might occur within. As example, oxygen was a deadly toxin to evolutionary life at one time. As such, at all times the equation of "life" will be tilted towards the principles of creative "freedom" within a weak entropic system (which posits ultimate chaos) against a strong entropic system (which posits ultimate determinism) thus allowing for an evolutionary progression whereby the Sovereign Creator may have fellowship of a kind with His creation.

This then is the scientific teleology of evolution by the decree of its Creator God as proceeding from His very being and essence of love. A chaotic system always tilted towards life of some form. To the Christian, this teleology might take its ultimate form in a chaotic cosmic/natural system driving towards biotic enrichment, thriving biotas, and creative imagining. This may also be known as the Christian hope, which is a kind of theological eschatalogy coupled with Jesus' rule (I prefer the idea of divine participation) of love and goodwill with mankind and creation itself. Thus, evoloution's teleology can unfold toward the Christian hope of loving fellowship between, within, without, and everywhere about, all things (what the process theologian might know as panentheism's complex of driving relationships).

Once realizing this, I have lately, in recent years, worked towards describing how this progressive evolutionary creation may exist both on a doctrinal level as well as on a scientific one without going beyond the bounds of modern science (excepting, of course, that I write of it from a theologic and not an agnostic, or a/theistic, viewpoint).

And so, in today's posting, I wish to further explore the idea of human evolution through its taxonomical graphs and charts of recent discoveries of the 2.8 million year old homo naledi (star) species. A remarkable discovery found in an ancient graveyard deep underground by a nimble anthropological team of spelunking women who made this phenomenal discovery happen.

Question 1. Why is the chimpanzee closer to the homo genus than the gorilla? And where do orangutans fit in to this zoological chart?

The homo genus has been characterised exclusively as a genus of "bipedal apes" commonly known as "homo erectus" from which the word "humans" derive but differing from the chimpanzee (pan group) which half walks using both legs and all four limbs to travel. The larger family of apes from which humans have descended, such as the gorilla, or orangutan, primarily use all four limbs to travel while occassionally utilizing bi-pedal motion much less of the time than the chimpanzee genus.

Though all come from the superfamily of hominoidea - as can be seen from the taxonomical charts pictured above - as the species continued to evolve it became separated by zoological classifications from tree dwelling apes (gibbons), to partially tree-dwelling apes (orangutans), to ground/tree dwelling apes (gorillas), to ground/tree dwelling semi-bipedal apes (bonobos, chimpanzees), to exclusively ground dwelling bipedal apes (man).

The chart consequently shows how the chimpanzee genus is further removed from the gorilla genus and is more closely linked to the human genus. This is also supported by evolutionary genetic studies. As a result, the common chimpanzee and the bonobo (pygmy or dwarf chimp) of the genus Pan are the closest living evolutionary relatives to humans, sharing a common ancestry with humans from about four to seven million years ago."

At the perspective of a time-scale, this elapsed period of time also evidences the divergence of humans from chimpanzees. More specifically, the final separation of the Homo genus from the Pan genus is approxiamately 2.8 million years old thus showing us of the importance of the recent "Homo Naledi" cave discovery in August of 2015 in South Africa's Star Cave system.

What does this mean theologically?

In evolutionary terms it is pretty plain how human creation evolved from anthropological studies of the ape. And in theological terms, the passages in Genesis provide an ancient (Hebrew) tribal explanation to creation in non-evolutionary terms as this anthropology was unknown then. However, many well-meaning, Christians have attempted to show a 1:1 correlation between Genesis 1 with either progressive or immediate "theistic evolution" which would be an interpretive error both from a cultural standpoint as well as from a scientific one. At this time ancient man, such as the Semetic and Hebraic tribes, had no knowledge of either science or evolution. Moreover, the implication by theologians of insinuating human guidance by divine authorship supra-intending over a culture's era-specific ignorance is also a conjectural error to the surmise of textual formation.

The take away? Rather than getting hung up on a literal reading or correlation of the Genesis creation stories we may be confident that creation derives from a Creator who crafted an unusually complex method of creation by using all the ingredients of evolution to obtain the current results we are biologically familiar with. And that its testimony in Genesis is simply a literary account by the ancients using mythological description to describe this very same event in their own lay terms and knowledge of their day.

What does this mean? That God is neither denied nor mocked. That He is still Creator-Redeemer and shown to be intimately involved with His creation from whatever direction it came. Similarly, the bible is brought back down to reality, it is no longer made a mystical nor irrelevant collection of ancient manuscripts, and that we might rightly "divide / interpret" it more attuned or appropriately to its times and cultures. Which also means that this same Creator-Redeemer God then is active in our societies and cosmos today as much as He was beforetimes. We have lost nothing except our mistaken impulses to defend or mock our Creator. He needs no defense because He is. And any mockery but shows our deep shallowness to the everyday realities about us.

Too, we must now come to understand that evolution is always occurring - both in our present day as well as in the future beyond us. That it is a process which never stops. That underneath life itself is the continuing titanic struggle of biologic life to always exist despite the (toxic) eco-environments now present or occurring in the future.

This is the marvel of God's creation and the cosmic/biologic equation He has set in place so that at any present moment we, as homo sapiens (human beings), might have fellowship with our Creator-Redeemer, or any derivations of ourselves in ages future. But as humans, we cannot assume we are in exclusive communication with our Creator alone. Even the Psalmists and Prophets have written of the mountains and valleys, seas and skies, trees and fields, and all the living things on earth, as having a "form of communication" with its Creator. That it "delights" in His fellowship, "dances," "sings for joy," and "claps its hands" in response to His Almighty voice. Nay, we are not alone in our praise and dependence upon our Creator God who loves His creation and draws us toward Him into divine fellowship with one-and-all.

And though I do not encourage any form of "supernatural mystical communication" with the trees and mountains, birds and bees, still we find in the poetry and essays of human journals the deep realization that all things are connected and in communication with itself and its Creator God. What I might describe as a form of (process) panpsychism; but again, without getting all crazy and mystical about this observation. As we walk creation's fields and meadows, swim its streams and dive below its waters, we sense God's almighty hand of authorship in its templed majesties and shrouded veils of glory. The godfathers of ecology, John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, and Aldo Leopold, each in their own way reveled in this divine communion connecting humanity's existence even to the original American Indians who sensed the same in their animistic Spirit stories of creational connectedness and sacred fellowship.

Conclusion

To read Genesis then is to read it NOT in an evolutionary context but as (i) an ancient composition set within a paleo-creational understanding of a Creator-God named for His creational activity and perceived by the ancient's supernaturally curious wonder of life's many complex spheres of divine / human / creational interactions; (ii) that into creation's holy charters came creational indeterminacy and sentient freewill struggling between goodness and evil, order and disorder, each redefining the other in terms of fellowship and holiness; (iii) an immediate communion and fellowship with the Creator God and what it may mean for creation and mankind; (iv) that within this communion of struggle, of obedience, and willfulness, both creation and humanity came to be pitted against its God, each other, and themselves; (v) which is then described in terms of "life and death, light and darkness" within the hallowed altars of holy communion; (vi) that with death came the promise of God to be not only "Creator" but "Redeemer" - not only to mankind but to His holy creation as well; and finally, (vii) this holy redemption would come by grace and mercy, forgiveness and resurrection. This then is the fuller story of Genesis when read apart from its more popular classical or literal understanding rejecting evolution. It was what the ancients saw then of God's promise and what we need to see now in our dilemma between science, anthropology, and faith.

To this marvel of God's complex creation we may only bow our heads and utter, "Thank you O blessed Redeemer for your promise of life in the midst of death. Praise you for your wisdom and goodness and grace. For the majesty of your name and the councils of your justice when all things will be made new, and good, and holy, once more. Amen."

R.E. Slater

September 13, 2015
edited September 26, 2015; March 17, 2020

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Hominini

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hominini

Not to be confused with Hominoidea, Hominidae, Homininae, or Hominina.

The Hominini is a tribe of the subfamily Homininae; it comprises three subtribes: Hominina, with its one genus Homo; Australopithecina, comprising several extinct genera (see taxobox); and Panina, with its one genus Pan, the chimpanzees (see the evolutionary tree below).[3][4] Members of the human clade, that is, the Hominini, including Homo and those species of theaustralopithecines that arose after the split from the chimpanzees, are called hominins; cf. Hominidae; terms "hominids" and hominins).

The subtribe Hominina is the "human" branch; that is, it contains the genus Homo exclusively. Researchers proposed the taxon Hominini on the basis that the least similar species of atrichotomy should be separated from the other two. The common chimpanzee and the bonobo of the genus Pan are the closest living evolutionary relatives to humans, sharing a common ancestor with humans about four to seven million years ago.[5] Research by Mary-Claire King in 1973 found 99% identical DNA between human beings and chimpanzees;[6] later research modified that finding to about 94% commonality, with some of the difference occurring in noncoding DNA.[7]

Sahelanthropus tchadensis is an extinct hominid species that lived 7 million years ago, very close to the time of the chimpanzee–human divergence. It is unclear whether or not it may be classed as hominin—that is, whether it rose after the split from the chimpanzees, or not.

A source of confusion in determining the exact age of the Pan–Homo split is evidence of a complex speciation process rather than a clean split between the two lineages. Different chromosomes appear to have split at different times, possibly over as much as a 4-million-year period, indicating a long and drawn out speciation process with large-scale hybridization events between the two emerging lineages as late as 6.3 to 5.4 million years ago according to Patterson et al. (2006).[8] The assumption of late hybridization was in particular based on the similarity of the X chromosome in humans and chimpanzees, suggesting a divergence as late as some 4 million years ago. This conclusion was rejected as unwarranted by Wakeley (2008), who suggested alternative explanations, including selection pressure on the X chromosome in the populations ancestral to the chimpanzee–human last common ancestor (CHLCA).[9]

All the extinct genera listed in the taxobox are ancestral to, or offshoots of, Homo. Few fossil specimens on the Pan side of the split have been found—the first discovery of a fossil chimpanzee was published in 2005;[10] it was from Kenya's East African Rift Valley and dated to between 545 thousand years, radiometric, (kyr) and 284 kyr (via argon–argon dating). However, both Orrorin and Sahelanthropus existed around the time of the split, and so may be ancestral to both Pan and Homo.

In the proposal of Mann and Weiss (1996),[11] the tribe Hominini includes Pan as well as Homo, but within separate subtribes. Homo and (by inference) all bipedal apes are referred to the subtribe Hominina, while Pan is assigned to the subtribe Panina. Wood (2010) discusses the different views of this taxonomy.[12]

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Lee R. Berger, a professor of human evolution studies at the University of

the Witwatersrand  in Johannesburg, unveiled a previously unidentified species

of the early human lineage — Homo naledi. By REUTERS on Publish Date

Homo Naledi, New Species in Human Lineage, Is Found in South African Cave

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/11/science/south-africa-fossils-new-species-human-ancestor-homo-naledi.html?_r=0

by John Noble Wildord

September 10, 2015

Acting on a tip from spelunkers two years ago, scientists in South Africadiscovered what the cavers had only dimly glimpsed through a crack in a limestone wall deep in the Rising Star Cave: lots and lots of old bones.

The remains covered the earthen floor beyond the narrow opening. This was, the scientists concluded, a large, dark chamber for the dead of a previously unidentified species of the early human lineage — Homo naledi.

The new hominin species was announced on Thursday by an international team of more than 60 scientists led by Lee R. Berger, an American paleoanthropologist who is a professor of human evolution studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. The species name, H. naledi, refers to the cave where the bones lay undisturbed for so long; “naledi” means “star” in the local Sesotho language.

In two papers published this week in the open-access journal eLife, the researchers said that the more than 1,550 fossil elements documenting the discovery constituted the largest sample for any hominin species in a single African site, and one of the largest anywhere in the world. Further, the scientists said, that sample is probably a small fraction of the fossils yet to be recovered from the chamber. So far the team has recovered parts of at least 15 individuals.

“With almost every bone in the body represented multiple times, Homo naledi is already practically the best-known fossil member of our lineage,” Dr. Berger said.

The finding, like so many others in science, was the result of pure luck followed by considerable effort.

Two local cavers, Rick Hunter and Steven Tucker, found the narrow entrance to the chamber, measuring no more than seven and a half inches wide. They were skinny enough to squeeze through, and in the light of their headlamps they saw the bones all around them. When they showed the fossil pictures to Pedro Boshoff, a caver who is also a geologist, he alerted Dr. Berger, who organized an investigation.

"Just getting into the chamber and bringing out samples proved to be a huge challenge.

The narrow opening was the only way in." - Lee Burger

Paul Dirks, a geologist at James Cook University in Australia, who was lead author of the journal paper describing the chamber, said the investigators first had a steep climb up a stone block called the Dragon’s Back and then a drop down to the entrance passage — all of this in the total absence of natural light.

For the two extended investigations of the chamber in 2013 and 2014, Dr. Berger rounded up the international team of scientists and then recruited six excavating scientists through notices on social media. One special requirement: They had to be slender enough to crawl through that crack in the wall.

One of the six, who were all women and were called “underground astronauts,” was Marina Elliott of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. She said the collection and removal of the fossils involved “some of the most difficult and dangerous conditions ever encountered in the search for human origins.”

Photo by the New York Times

Besides introducing a new member of the prehuman family, the discovery suggests that some early hominins intentionally deposited bodies of their dead in a remote and largely inaccessible cave chamber, a behavior previously considered limited to modern humans. Some of the scientists referred to the practice as a ritualized treatment of their dead, but by “ritual” they said they meant a deliberate and repeated practice, not necessarily a kind of religious rite.

Pieces of a skeleton of Homo naledi, a newly discovered human species.

CreditJohn Hawks/University of Wisconsin-Madison, via European Pressphoto Agency

“It’s very, very fascinating,” said Ian Tattersall, an authority on human evolution at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, who was not involved in the research.

“No question there’s at least one new species here,” he added, “but there may be debate over the Homo designation, though the species is quite different from anything else we have seen.”

A colleague of Dr. Tattersall’s at the museum, Eric Delson, who is a professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York, was also impressed, saying, “Berger does it again!”

Dr. Delson was referring to Dr. Berger’s previous headline discovery, published in 2010, also involving cave deposits near Johannesburg. He found many fewer fossils that time, but enough to conclude that he was looking at a new species, which he named Australopithecus sediba. Geologists said the individuals lived 1.78 million to 1.95 million years ago, when australopithecines and early species of Homo were contemporaries.

Lee R. Berger, leader of a research team, in the Rising Star Cave near Johannesburg,

where over 1,550 fossil elements were found. CreditNaashon Zalk for The New York Times

* * * * * * * * * * *

* * * * * * * * * * *

An expert all-women team of anthropologists dared the suffocating passages
of the South African Star Cave system. Kudos!

A Mighty Girl

https://www.facebook.com/amightygirl/photos/a.360833590619627.72897.316489315054055/901760099860304/?type=1&fref=nf&pnref=story

September 11, 2015

The discovery of a new hominin species is making headlines around the world this week but what many people don't realize is that the excavation team that uncovered this historic find was made up of six daring women scientists! The fossils were found at the bottom of a cave system in South Africa; one of the scientists, Marina Elliott, said that their collection and removal involved "some of the most difficult and dangerous conditions ever encountered in the search for human origins.” Thanks to the dedication of these six women, people everywhere will have the opportunity to gain new insight into the development of our species.

Palaeoanthropologist Lee Berger learned about the fossils in Rising Star Cave in October 2013 -- as well as their location, at the bottom of a 36 foot long shaft that gets as narrow as 7 inches across. He put up an ad on Facebook seeking scientists with a background in archaeology or paleontology, but with a catch: “the person must be skinny and preferably small. They must not be claustrophobic, they must be fit, they should have some caving experience, climbing experience would be a bonus.” He remembers thinking that “maybe there were three or four people in the world who would fit that criteria”, but within days he had 60 qualified applicants from around the world. He narrowed those down to six: Marina Elliott from Canada, Elen Feuerriegel from Australia, and K. Lindsay Eaves, Alia Gurtov, Hannah Morris, and Becca Peixotto from the United States.

Elliott, who was finishing a Ph.D. at Simon Fraser University when she saw the ad, was first on the scene. “I was predisposed to extreme environments,” she says. “Telling me that I’d have to do climbing, that it would be underground, and that it would be strange and potentially dangerous… it appealed.” Even still, she vividly recalls her first sight of the chute: “It’s a long crack, punctuated by shark-teeth protrusions. I remember looking down and thinking: I’m not sure I made the right decision." Given the difficulty and potential danger of the climb, Berger nicknamed the team “underground astronauts.”

During the 21-day excavation of the Rising Star cave, the team had to work carefully: “There was so much material and it was friable and delicate,” Elliott says. “And every day, we realized that we were pulling out another 40 or 60 fragments of this thing that was going to be incredible.” She and her five caving teammates excavated a nearly unheard of collection of hominin fossils: 1,550 fragments from at least 15 skeletons, representing a mix of male and female individuals. In the words of Ed Yong of The Atlantic, “To find one complete skeleton of a new hominin would be hitting the paleoanthropological jackpot. To find 15, and perhaps more, is like nuking the jackpot from orbit.”

Debate about Homo naledi’s age and importance in human prehistory, as well as the intriguing possibility that the bones are in the cave as a form of burial ritual, will be ongoing for years, but no one doubts that it represents an extraordinary find. Elliott has remained on the ground in South Africa where she is now directing the field operation and leading expeditions into other caves, eager to discover what else is out there. As she says, “We’re just scratching the surface."

You can read more about the all-female team of “underground astronauts” and this historic find on The Atlantic at http://theatln.tc/1Fzdsxh

To learn about more trailblazing women of science from around the world, we highly recommend the new book "Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science -- And The World," for teen and adult readers, ages 13 and up, at http://www.amightygirl.com/headstrong-52-women

To introduce children to one of the world’s first paleontologists, Mary Anning, we recommend "Mary Anning and The Sea Dragon" for ages 5 to 8 (http://www.amightygirl.com/mary-anning-and-the-sea-dragon), “Stone Girl, Bone Girl” for ages 4 to 8 (http://www.amightygirl.com/stone-girl) and “The Fossil Girl” for ages 5 to 9 (http://www.amightygirl.com/the-fossil-girl)

For a wonderful book about six remarkable women whose curiosity about nature fueled a passion to steadfastly overcome obstacles to careers in traditionally men-only occupations, we recommend "Girls Who Looked Under Rocks: The Lives of Six Pioneering Naturalists" for ages 10 and up at http://www.amightygirl.com/girls-who-looked-under-rocks

If your kids would like to try an excavation of their own, check out the Crystal Mining Kit for ages 5 to 10 (http://www.amightygirl.com/crystal-mining-kit), the Treasures of the Earth Excavation Set for ages 5 to 9 (http://www.amightygirl.com/treasures-of-the-earth), and Smithsonian’s Diggin’ Up Dinos: T-Rex Kit for ages 7 to 12 (http://www.amightygirl.com/diggin-up-dinos-t-rex).

For more of our favorite science toys for igniting your children's curiosity about the natural world, visit our "Science Toys" section at http://www.amightygirl.com/toys/toys-games/science-math

And, if you have a Mighty Girl in your life who won't let any anyone tell her she can't do something because she's a girl, check out the "Though She Be But Little She Is Fierce" t-shirt -- available in a variety of styles and colors for all ages at http://www.amightygirl.com/fierce-t-shirt.

Welcoming Refugees into Your Country

Why Now is The Church's Moment &

It Will Take All of Us Not to Miss It

#WeWelcomeRefugees

5 Ways To Stand Up & Be The Church in

The World’s Worst Refugee Crisis Since World War II

http://www.aholyexperience.com/2015/09/5-ways-to-stand-up-be-the-church-in-the-worlds-worst-refugee-crisis-since-world-war-ii/

by A HOLY EXPERIENCE

September 5, 2015

1. Be Moved

AFP/Getty Images

• QUICK FACTS TO UNDERSTAND THE CRISIS: –> One Stop to Understand it All

• THE WORLD IS IN THE WORST REFUGEE CRISIS SINCE WORLD WAR II.

• AND SYRIA’S CIVIL WAR AND THE RISING OF ISIS IS THE WORST HUMANITARIAN DISASTER OF OUR TIME.

• THE NUMBER OF INNOCENT CIVILIANS SUFFERING: MORE THAN 11 MILLION PEOPLE ARE DISPLACED.

• HALF OF THOSE 11 MILLION REFUGEES ARE UNDER THE AGE OF 18. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN. THEY ARE ALL OF OUR CHILDREN.

• WHY ARE THEY COMING? –> You Must Read this.

They are risking everything, — because these families consider themselves dead already..

Right now Syrians consider themselves dead.

Maybe not physically, but psychologically and socially [a Syrian] is a destroyed human being, he’s reached the point of death.” –> Experience the risk of desperate journey for yourself

–> Tweet a photo of yourself holding a sign saying “Refugees Welcome” and tag your government and or your government representative #refugeecrisis; #refugeeswelcomehere

2. Each One … Do Just One Thing:

Daniel Etter/The New York Times

Mauricio Lima/The New York Times

CHOOSE ONE OF THESE ORGANIZATIONS:

DO FOR ONE WHAT YOU WANT TO DO FOR ALL

–> Mennonite Central Committee

–> World Relief (donate to provide backpacks for resettled children here)

–> World Vision

–> Samaritan’s Purse

–> Doctors Without Borders: Has three rescue ships in the Mediterranean, on Tuesday alone they rescued 1,658 people

–> UNICEF

–> Hand in Hand for Syria: Working within Syrian borders to provide aid. Donations are made via British currency but these are easily converted from US donations during the transaction.

SUPPORT GRASSROOTS EFFORTS

–> Migrant Offshore Aid Station:

Watch how One Family Is Saving the Lives of Thousands of Migrants — Help them?

(More of their unforgettable story here: American Family Use Assets To Save Refugees Headed For Europe)

–> International Rescue Committee

–> Lending a Hand in Hungary for refugees (volunteers bring food, clothing, and emotional support to refugees)

–>Refugees Welcome (for UK and Europe)

3. PURCHASE SPECIFIC NEEDED ITEMS

Bernadett Szabo/Reuters

Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

If you’d like to help Syrian refugees stranded on the Greek Island of Lesvos,

see the list below, and mail to:

Hellenic Postal Office of Mythymna

℅ The Captain’s Table

Molyvos 81108, Lesvos, Greece

ITEMS TO SEND for SYRIAN REFUGEES on GREEK ISLAND OF LESVOS:

• Sneakers, gym shoes for men, women and children (all sizes) are a HIGH PRIORITY
• Sweatpants of all sizes.
• Briefs/underwear for men, women and children (all sizes)
• Men’s trousers (small, medium and large) and shoes
• Baby powder milk
• Any non-perishables like nut butters or other long-lasting foods.
• Diapers
• Feminine products
• Sleeping bags
• Plastic to cover the floor/for shade
• Tents/tarpaulin
• Mats (camping or yoga mats)
• Hats and caps for sunshade (adults and children/light colours because of the sun)
• Electric Plug for multiple devices (european voltage)

4. SIGN A PETITION CALLING FOR ACTION

Vassil Donev/EPA

Valdrin Xhemaj/EPA)

Sign the Petition to the White House to Help

Petition Canadian government to welcome the refugees

Petition to the UK to welcome asylum seekers

Petition for Australia to create asylum seeker policies

5. SPONSOR A REFUGEE

picture alliance / dpa

Petros Giannakouris/Associated Press

Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images

–> Americans, sign home to a Christian refugee family fleeing from ISIS 

–> Canadians, sponsor a Syrian refugee family to come to Canada through Missionary Christian Alliance

Canadians, sponsor a Syrian refugee family to come to Canada through MCC

–> Americans, Use this US map to find an agency near you and offer to support a newly arrived refugee family. There are 9 Voluntary Agencies in the US that sponsor refugees to come the the United States and build their own local networks to resettle refugees — where is one close to you?

–>Help someone in Germany cover costs in opening up their homes to more than 800,000 refugees

–> Americans, help RefugeeOne meet needs of refugees already settled who may have seasonal needs, etc.

Rebecca Trotter - The Genuis and Challenge of Christianity

The Genuis and Challenge of Christianity

http://theupsidedownworld.com/2014/04/02/the-genuis-and-challenge-of-christianity/

by Rebecca Trotter

April 24, 2014

Comments

The genius of Christianity is that it demands you give mental agreement to all sorts of things you don’t actually agree with. Love your enemies. Every man is your neighbor. You’ll be judged by how well you showed love to the least attractive, least moral, least appealing, most repulsive people you meet. Don’t judge. All those beatitudes about the meek and the suffering and the pure of heart.

We don’t believe any of that stuff. We say we do, but we don’t really. Yet if we want to call ourselves Christians, we must affirm that we agree with these teachings of Jesus. Which creates mental dissonance. How we handle this gap between what we actually believe and what we profess to believe determines how successful we can become as Christians.

The typical way to handle cognitive dissonance is to go into denial. You continue following your gut level support of cultural norms and personal preference and just call that love. If the people you love complain that you’re actually hurting them, you dismiss it as their problem, their flaw or their lack of understanding. Some people are so committed to their denial, that they will devote a lot of time and energy to creating and promoting high-minded ideals about human nature, God’s ways and church philosophy all in service of ignoring and justifying the suffering of others.

These people will often become very involved in tertiary issues which do not have a great deal of bearing on Jesus’ teachings. Maybe they attend a lot of church or go on missions trips or memorize and quote scripture a lot. Maybe they sign lots of petitions and pass on scary stories about bad people. Maybe the adopt a strict moral code that guides where they shop, what sort of entertainment they consume and where to draw the boundaries between themselves and others.

Some people in ministry do almost nothing but help others find ways to think of themselves as Christians despite disagreeing with everything Jesus ever said.

Except the part where Jesus got angry and turned over tables and when he told that skanky woman to stop sinning. Those are often beloved parts of Jesus’ story for a Christian in denial. Not for the meaning Jesus was conveying with them. Just because they already agree with being angry and confrontational and telling sinners to knock it off.

It scares me to think of how many Christians go their whole lives practicing the faith this way. And I think it all comes from a fear of being wrong. We can’t admit we are wrong because we equate being wrong with being shamed. So we can go our whole lives, being wrong as wrong can be, and never really open ourselves up to learning all the mysteries contained in Jesus’ ridiculous, outrageous teachings. That none of us actually agree with.

The way of the Christian is to avoid retreating into denial. We may know in our head, at some level, that what Jesus says is true. But in truth, what Jesus taught is the end goal of following him. When we have been trained and tested, we will see, understand and agree with Jesus’ teachings. But we have to be trained and tested before we can get to that point.

If we are ever to be corrected, we must be willing to try, test and challenge Jesus’ teachings. Sometimes this starts by simply admitting, “this teaching is the most ridiculous, absurd, self-evidently wrong thing I’ve ever heard.” God already knows that’s what we think. He’s never been particularly impressed with our attempts at denying it. But he has shown himself more than willing to meet us right where we are. And he’s promised never to put us to shame. It’s perfectly fine to admit you don’t agree with him. Just follow up, like a man once did with Jesus, “I believe, please help me with my unbelief”.

The Story of Pets in Our Lives

Chip husking corn with the girls

Today's blog will be a light-hearted affair drawn from Scientific America's September issue. Over the year's it seems that I've cared for almost every animal available at a pet store, except for the exotic, cold-blooded kind. In my youth we lived on a farm and had lots of hunting dogs and barnyard cats which I would play with by the hour. My own dog was a collie I named "Pal" who was both my friend and playmate until he died at the start of my sophomore year in high school. It broke my heart.

When married, my wife and I had no kids for a long while and to help blunt the trauma of this experience I bought a miniature Shetland Collie from a litter of seven, tied an oversized red ribbon around its neck, and surprised her one Christmas morning. We affectionately named our small doggie "Bear." My wife was thrilled with the snuggly puppy and for many years he filled the gap in our hearts where kids could not. We found ourselves content serving together in lay ministry to college/carreer and single adults, at work, going to graduate school, and simply enjoying life as always with friends, family, travels, and what not.

And then, a most unexpected thing happened. We had a son who became our miracle child in many ways. We had learned years earlier from an infertility specialist that we would never have kids in life. But, per God's grand surprises in life, not only did we have a son but two years later we also had a daughter to care for. Since then, both have moved out, gone to college, were married last fall, and have begun their own lives. Our daughter lives in town nearby while our son lives on the far side of the state whom we occasionally get to visit one way or the other.

We grew up as a close family, went to family parties together, camped, and played sports together. I even had the great privilege to coach both our kids in a number of different sports all the way up into their high school years. And through those years, we raised a number of different critters. From "pinchy" hermit crabs to several varieties of tropical fish, hamsters, parakeets, ducks, chickens, and even a stray cat (which now lives my daughter). We also had a couple of miniature dachshunds - you know, the "Toy Story" kind - to love and care for.

Moreover, each pet has had its own story in our lives. The fish kept us busy cleaning the large tanks and changing their water as they swam about without a care in the world. Our hamsters liked to prattle about in the wee hours of the night running round-and-round on their spinning wheels while keeping us light-sleepers up. The stray cat was soon discovered days later in my daughter's room stashed away where we wouldn't discover it (the urine gave it away; plus by allergies!). And the bright parakeets sang gaily in the mornings, chirped at suppertime, and were finally abandoned to a dear friend with a house better fitted for the distraction.

Another adventure was the caretake of baby chickens so cute when little. My daughter liked the silky kinds but she also had an eye for the unusual. Anyway, those "baby peeps" soon grew up and required a 2-story coop fully roofed, vented, and heated, which we built one long weekend from scrap lumber, wire, paint and roofing shingles. Early on we learned not to let our chickens run loose in the backyard where the hawks soon found innocent prey to feast upon. Afterwards, we were more careful to "watched over" our flock (sans a departed brother or sister) when they ran "free" outside. And, of course, we had one very pretty chicken dubbed "the dragon" or "monster." He was a bantam rooster with sharp talons and a short temper. He didn't like being fussed over and preferred to be left alone. Consequently it became my responsibility to "handle" it in the evenings because it was so "scary." But then again, dear dad was consigned all those "icky" jobs - from killing spiders to picking up poop - as our family grew up.

Since we live in Michigan the weather is very cold and snowy... even in the fall. So when coming home one night from work my daughter said her "fighting bantam rooster" was still outside in the cold dark. That she was too scared to catch it. And even her big, tall, boyfriend was "chicken."

"Horrors!"I thought. "It had been rainy and snowing all day and it must be near dead." So out into the weather I went. No coat. No gloves. Just me searching for a bedraggled "fighter" whom I found roosted up on one of the fence lines shivering in the dark. I carefully picked him up and he went completely limp in my cold, wet hands. I quickly took it back and tucked him away in the coop we had built underneath a warming lamp and there kept careful watch on it all through the night. By morning our little fighter had revived a little and eventually won his life back to return to his ornery ways.

On another day, a much sadder one, my heart was broken again when our daughter returned from her middle school trip out East to hug and hold her dachshund she had missed so greatly. But she never had the chance. As we were carrying her luggage upstairs to her bedroom I noticed dear "Chipper" racing carefree around the front yard unleashed. I also noticed from out the window a young woman walking her dog on the street. Immediately I dropped everything and raced down the stairs. But I wasn't fast enough as Chip had launched himself into the street to confront the big dog. In doing so a very large van ran over him and squashed his lower back and body. The pain and yowls were horrible to listen to and nothing could be done but put him down. So instead of our daughter hugging her dog she rode in the back seat in tears holding his broken body in her lap as I drove us to the Pet ER Clinic on the far side of town. The drive seemed to last for an eternity. Once there, we said goodbye through more tears and heavy hearts, as Chip was put to sleep to go where all good doggies go up to doggy heaven. That was a particularly hard day.

Today, my wife and I are alone again with our memories, jobs, and daily routines. We have a new dachshund named "Jackson" ("Jack" for short) who is no longer young when purchased long years ago as a replacement for Chip. He's my wife's dog and deigns to ignore me most days as I pick up his poop from the yard (or sometimes the house), feed him, take him to the vet for his shoots, the groomer for his baths, and buy the occasional doggy toy and dental bone for him. Still, he adores my wife, unlike Chip, and my collie Pal, who loved me. The story of the pets in our lives has been a story of life made all the fuller when we open up our hearts to new experiences, events, and lessons.

Peace,

R.E. Slater

Edited September 3, 2015

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What Your Pet Reveals about You

Is there a typical cat person or snake owner? The jury is still out

By Karen Schrock Simring | Sep 1, 2015

Most of us think our pets say a lot about who we are. Why else would we proudly proclaim our loyalty on T-shirts and in online profile pictures? Yet few scientists have rigorously investigated whether our choice of pet reveals anything about our personality, beliefs or lifestyle. Scientific American MIND rounded up the smattering of available research and highlighted some of the more interesting findings in the infographic that starts below and continues on the next pages. Some information comes from peer-reviewed studies, but the bulk of the data derives from huge market surveys undertaken by interested parties in the pet industry, such as the American Veterinary Medical Association, which tracks pet populations, owner demographics and expenditures to follow how pet ownership in the U.S. changes over time. As you will see, these surveys reveal interesting things about people and the pets they love.

And Now a Few Words from Pet Owners

Scientific American MIND recently asked its readers to weigh in on their own pet predilections. More than 2,000 people responded to the online survey, and some results differed quite a bit from the data shown on the preceding pages. This is not surprising. Big surveys of many thousands of pet owners will show, for instance, that dog owners (on average) are somewhat more extroverted than cat owners (on average), but the individual differences within each group are greater than the differences between them. Thus, there are plenty of boisterous cat owners and reserved dog owners. In addition, many people have more than one type of pet and cannot be strictly labeled as partial to one particular creature.

Our survey drives home the fact—supported by several studies—that our animal companions are integral to how we see ourselves. For instance, men who like being seen as tough may get a tough-looking dog to help them project that image. Some people are proud rabbit or poodle owners because having those pets is a family tradition. Other folks might keep less popular critters, such as spiders or snakes, because they feel these animals are misunderstood, much like themselves.

Below, at the left, we provide some intriguing findings from readers who admire or have more than one type of pet and some data on how owners of specific animals describe themselves. At the right is a sampling of the hundreds of passionate responses we got to the question: What makes you a dog person, a cat person, neither or both? Visit our Web site (www.ScientificAmerican.com/Mind/pet-survey) for more survey results.