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

-----

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

Saturday, May 22, 2021

Index - Religion in Spiritual Crisis: Charles Taylor



Index to Religion in Spiritual Crisis
by Charles Taylor

How to re-establish report with faith and non-faith communities alike. How faith is challenged and how it might respond positively in Jesus by words and works of love, and with understanding. This is the story of Christianity in the 21st century of secular postmodernity. - re slater


CHARLES TAYLOR STUDY, A SECULAR AGE

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Wednesday, April 14, 2021



Friday, July 16, 2021


Tuesday, June 21, 2021

Tuesday, June 28, 2021

Tuesday, July 5, 2021

Tuesday, July 12, 2021

Tuesday, July 19, 2021


OTHER ECHOING COMMENTARIES

Wednesday, July 7, 2021


Wednesday, July 7, 2021






    
  Amazon link                                    Amazon link











Friday, May 21, 2021

A COLLECTION OF STEPHEN HAWKING POEMS & QUOTES BY HIS ADMIRERS




"If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph
of human reason - for then we would know the mind of God."

- Stephen Hawking

*Stephen Hawking (b. 1942), British scientist. A Brief History of Time, ch. 11 (1988),
closing words, referring to the question, "Why it is that we and the universe exist."




"Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make
sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist."

- Stephen Hawking




Spark Of Life Tanka For Stephen Hawking

looking up
from "A Brief History of Time"
to the stars...
I recite his speech,
each word a spark of life

Chenou Liu




Singularity, A Poem After Stephen Hawking
by Marie Howe, In Hindi/Urdu Translation by Ravi Kopra


kya tum kabhi jaan paao gay
k kya yuksaaneeat thay hum kabhi?

itnay dos k kisi ko bhi bistray ki zarrorat na thee
kaanay peenay ki, daoulat ki zarrorat na thee -

koi bhi school k gusalhanay main chuppa hua na tha
aur na hi tha vo akela apnay ghar main

daraaz kholta hua
jahaan vo rakhta hai bemaari ki goliaaN

har atom jo mera vo tera hai. Yaad hai iski?
Koi pralirti na thee tab. Lo na thay tab
koi test nahin tha tab k jaan lay hum
kya haathi shok main paD jaata hai
apnay bachay ki maut par, ya kya

coral reef ko dard mehsoos hota hai. Gandh bharay saagar
angrezi, farsi ya french main kabhi boltay nahin hain

kya hoga agar hum samaj gayay kaya thay hum kabhi -
jab hum sab sagar thay and us se pehlay
zameen aasmaan thee, pashu shakti thee
pathar paani thay, taaray aakash thay
aur akaash kahin na tha

bilkul nahin, kuch bhi na tha

-to be continued


----- translated -----


Singularity
by Marie Howe

(after Stephen Hawking)

Do you sometimes want to wake up to the singularity
we once were?

so compact nobody
needed a bed, or food or money—

nobody hiding in the school bathroom
or home alone

pulling open the drawer
where the pills are kept.

For every atom belonging to me as good
Belongs to you. Remember?
There was no Nature.No
them. No tests
to determine if the elephant
grieves her calfor if

the coral reef feels pain.Trashed
oceans don't speak English or Farsi or French;

would that we could wake up to what we were
— when we were oceanand before that
to when sky was earth, and animal was energy, and rock was
liquid and stars were space and space was not

at all — nothing

before we came to believe humans were so important
before this awful loneliness.

Can molecules recall it?
what once was?before anything happened?

No I, no We, no one. No was
No verb, no noun
only a tiny tiny dot brimming with

is is is is is

All everything home

Ravi Kopra




A Collection of Stephen Hawking Poems
by His Admirers







STEPHEN HAWKING QUOTES & SAYINGS
So the next time someone complains that you have made a mistake, tell them that may be a good thing. Because without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist.
- Stephen Hawking


---


It is all right to make mistakes;
nothing is perfect
because with perfection
we would not exist.

- Stephen Hawking


Stephen Hawking quote: Quiet people have the loudest minds.


Quiet people have the loudest minds.

- Stephen Hawking


---


The thing about smart people is that they
seem like crazy people to dumb people.

- Stephen Hawking


---


However difficult life may seem,
there is always something you can do and succeed at.

- Stephen Hawking




Its a crazy world out there. Be curious.

- Stephen Hawking


---

It is my view that the simplest explanation is there is no God. No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realization. There is probably no heaven, and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that, I am extremely grateful.
- Stephen Hawking


---

One, remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. Three, if you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and don't throw it away.
- Stephen Hawking


---





I don't fear God- I fear His believers.

- Stephen Hawking


---


What I have learned from life is to make the most of what you have got.

- Stephen Hawking


---


The more you learn, the more you know.
The more you know, the more you forget.
The more you forget, the less you know.
So why bother to learn.

- Stephen Hawking


El cuarto artículo es S. W. Hawking, «Breakdown of predictability in gravitational
collapse,» Physical Review D 14: 2460 (1976), doi: 10.1103/PhysRevD.14.2460.



Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge.

- Stephen Hawking


---


The universe doesn't allow perfection.

- Stephen Hawking


---


The past, like the future,
is indefinite
and exists only as
a spectrum of possibilities.

- Stephen Hawking




When the going gets tough, the tough take a coffee break.

- Stephen Hawking


---

I’m not religious in the normal sense. I believe the universe is governed by the laws of science. The laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws.
- Stephen Hawking


---


I am just a child who has never grown up.
I still keep asking these
'how' and 'why' questions.
Occasionally, I find an answer.

- Stephen Hawking



The idea that we are alone in the universe seems to me completely implausible and arrogant, considering the number of planets and stars that we know exist, it's extremely unlikely that we are the only form of evolved life.
- Stephen Hawking


---

We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.
- Stephen Hawking


---

We are only the temporary custodians of the particles which we are made of. They will go on to lead a future existence in the enormous universe that made them.
- Stephen Hawking






Quantum Mechanics: 100 Instructional Videos






Fermi Lab, Dr. Don Lincoln

Bio

Dr. Don Lincoln is a senior scientist doing research at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) and adjunct professor of physics at the University of Notre Dame. Born in 1964, he received his Ph.D. from Rice University. After postdoctoral appointments at the University of Michigan and Fermilab, he became a member of the Fermilab scientific staff in 1999.

His research has spanned many of the topics of modern particle physics, from better characterizing the known laws of physics, to looking for new and previously unknown phenomena. He currently analyzes data gathered by the Large Hadron Collider. 

He has coauthored over 1,000 scientific papers and supervised many students. His noteworthy scientific accomplishments involve being a co-discoverer of the top quark and the Higgs boson. He has written several books for non-scientists about particle physics. He has made many science videos for the Fermilab YouTube channel and two long video classes with the Great Courses Company. He has also written for many popular science outlets, including Scientific American, the NOVA website, LiveScience and CNN. 

He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was the recipient of the 2013 Outreach Prize from the European Physical Society and the 2017 Gemant Award from the American Institute of Physics for his efforts in communicating science to the public.


* * * * * * * *

By way of recommendation I was watching several of Dr. Lincoln's videos the other day and found each one quite helpful in thinking through how everyday quantum mechanics might be made more publically accessible because of his gift to take a difficult subject and make it more practically available for those of us who are self-learning. Hence, I posted here all of Dr. Lincoln's current videos to date with links to his home page and YouTube Channel. - R.E. Slater, May 21, 2021

* * * * * * * *

 

"If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason - for then we would know the mind of God." - Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking (b. 1942), British scientist. A Brief History of Time, ch. 11 (1988). Closing words, referring to the question, "Why it is that we and the universe exist."


* * * * * * * *


Fermilab scientist Don Lincoln takes you
into the weird world of particle physics.


1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99