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

Friday, March 3, 2023

In the Days Before Genesis - Part 1, by R.E. Slater

The dinosaurs have long since died out millions and millions and millions of years ago.
In the Pleistocene Age is where mammals are developing and thriving.


In the Days Before Genesis
Part 1

by R.E. Slater

I am conveying in pictures what I have attempted to convey in writing over the last two posts.

The topic?

What was it like before the "Days of Genesis" in the Christian Bible?

  • Post 1 speaks to these timelines.
  • Post 2 the last great Ice Age.
  • And today, in Post 3, we'll take a much farther step back BEFORE the evolution of humanity and their cultural developments down to around 12,000 BCE.

At this time period begins the transition FROM the Stone Age and into the earliest beginnings of the Anthropocene Age of Man (from 12,000 BCE to today).

Let's begin...


The Cenozoic Age

The Earth is 4.6 Billion years old. The last Dinosaur Age ended around 65 Million Years Ago. From the era of the dinosaurs to now there was a lot of change which we cannot discuss.

Instead, let us start with the last of the Great Ice Ages of the planet beginning around 1.8 million years ago (the most recent of which occurred from 25,000 BCE to 19,000 BCE).

During this time the genome of humanity begins around 2+ million years ago as the species of homoninin moved slowly away from its genetic ancestors. Here are some charts to help visualize these ancient time periods:


The Last 5 Million Years

Hominin evolution in millions of years


Commonly known as the Stone Age, the Pleistocene Era from 2 million years ago to around 12,000 BCE is subdivided into four ages with their corresponding rock units:

  • The Gelasian (2.6 million to 1.8 million years ago)
  • The Calabrian (1.8 million to 774,000 years ago)
  • The Chibanian (774,000 to 129,000 years ago)
  • And Stage 4 (129,000 to 11,700 years ago)

 

Humanity 100,000 Years Ago - Life In The Paleolithic
by Stefan Milo   |   July 7, 2021

100,000 years ago was an incredibly interesting time in our story. Artwork by Ettore Mazza: https://www.instagram.com/ettore.mazza/

Prehistory (The Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages)
BEGINNINGS Ep. 1
by Made in History   |   November 7, 2021

Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins c. 3.3 million years ago and the invention of writing systems. The use of symbols, marks, and images appears very early among humans, but the earliest known writing systems appeared c. 5000 years ago and it took thousands of years for writing systems to be widely adopted. In some human cultures, writing systems were not used until the nineteenth century and, in a few, are not even used until the present. The end of prehistory therefore came at very different dates in different places, and the term is less often used in discussing societies where prehistory ended relatively recently. 

 

The Last Great Ice Age - The Pleistocene Era

The Pleistocene Era is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations.
Before a change was finally confirmed in 2009 by the International Union of Geological Sciences, the cutoff of the Pleistocene and the preceding Pliocene was regarded as being 1.806 million years Before the Present (BP). Publications from earlier years may use either definition of the period.
The end of the Pleistocene corresponds with the end of the last glacial period and also with the end of the Paleolithic age used in archaeology.

The Pleistocene & Holocene Epochs
[Early Man & his Geologic Environment]
 by GEO GIRL | May 23, 2021

This video covers major events that occurred in the Holocene (the current epoch). Major glacial and interglacial cycles occurred in the Pleistocene and after the LGM, climate shifted back into a cooling regime called the Younger Dryas. The possible causes of the Younger Dryas include obstruction of ocean circulation and comet impacts. The impact hypothesis has also been proposed as a possible cause of the megafauna extinctions that occurred around this time. Large mammals, such as mammoths, mastodons, saber tooth cats, American elephants, giant armadillos, giant ground sloths, and short faced bears went extinct during this extinction event. Why? 2 hypotheses: the human-hunting hypothesis (humans hunted these animals to extinction) and the climate hypothesis (the rapid switch to cooling and possible comet impacts & wildfires caused the extinctions). After the Younger Dryas, things warmed back up and temperature remained relatively constant until ~1950 when the Anthropocene began.

Modern Man's Earlier Ancestors

Stone Age Depictions

Eurasion Homo Sapiens of Southern Europe, 50,000 BCE

Stone Age Beasts around 50,000 BCES


Comparison of Stone Age Predators

Comparison of Panthera gombaszoegensis

comparison of canis mosbachensis

comparison of ursus deningeri


The Transition Period from the (Paleo) Stone Age
to the "Modern" Age of Human & World Development


The Stone Age (World History)
September 12, 2013

An introduction to the Stone Age for World History students, comparing and contrasting the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic periods using cave art, Venus figurines, and the Çatalhöyük community.




Conclusion

And here is where we will end... having just beginning to touch on the pages of the bible... let's say from 2,400 BCE to around 95 AD - that is, from Genesis to Revelation.

All of Earth's rich history has come and gone and is continuing to this day of which mankind has seen but a sliver of it... and modern man a sliver of a sliver of a sliver of a sliver of his own history.

Such is the age of the earth and the days before the pages of Genesis.

R.E. Slater
March 3, 2023



Entry of a cave
The entrance to Tunel Wielki cave. (Miron Bogacki/University of Warsaw)

500,000-Year-Old Signs of Extinct Human Species
Found in Poland Cave

HUMANS  28 February 2023  byMICHELLE STARR

Prehistoric stone tools found in a cave in Poland 50 years ago were recentlyidentified as some of the oldest ever discovered in the region.

The tools from the Tunel Wielki cave in Małopolska are between 450,000 and 550,000 years old. This dating may allow scientists to learn more about the humans who made them, and their migration and habitation in Central Europe across prehistory.

For example, the timeframe likely means that the tools were made by extinct human species Homo heidelbergensis, usually considered the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans (us). And it means the region was inhabited by humans at a time that Central Europe's harsh climate would have required significant physical and cultural adjustment.

"This is an extremely interesting aspect of analyses for us," archaeologist Małgorzata Kot of the University of Warsaw in Poland explained to Science in Poland back in October 2022 when the research was released.

"We can examine the limits of the possibilities of survival of Homo heidelbergensis, and thus observe how he adapted to these adverse conditions."

Tunel Wielki cave was excavated in the 1960s, with archaeologists returning again to the site in 2016. Layers of material were dated to the Holocone, dating back to around 11,700 years ago, and the Middle Paleolithic, stretching as far as 40,000 years ago.

But archaeologist Claudio Berto of the University of Warsaw thought the dating was at odds with what he was observing. Animal bones recovered from the site, he concluded, were almost certainly older than 40,000 years.

So, in 2018, Kot and her team returned to the cave. They reopened and extended one of the trenches, carefully examining the different layers of material accumulated over the years, and collecting more bone material to analyze.

They found that the upper layers did indeed contain the bones of animals that lived in the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene. But the bottom layer was distinctly older. It contained the bones of several species that lived half a million years ago: the European jaguar, Panthera gombaszoegensis; the Mosbach wolf, ancestor to modern gray wolves, Canis mosbachensis; and Deninger's bear, Ursus deningeri.

The layer that yielded the bones also contained evidence of flint knapping, including flint flakes, the "blanks" from which other tools can be shaped, and the cores from which they are struck. There were also some finished tools, such as knives.

"Since these items come from the same layer as the bones, it means that their age is very similar," Kot explained. "This assumption was confirmed by excavations carried out in the cave in 2018. They confirmed the arrangement of layers described by researchers half a century ago. We also discovered more production waste and animal bones."

Previously, she added, there were only two known sites in Poland with tools from around the same time period: Trzebnica and Rusko. But the Tunel Wielki cave artifacts are different. Several archaeological sites in the area show evidence of ancient human habitation – but they are all open-air sites.

To find artifacts dating from that time in a cave is, according to Kot, very unexpected.

"We were surprised that half a million years ago people in this area stayed in caves, because those were not the best places to camp," she noted.

"Moisture and low temperature would discourage that. On the other hand, a cave is a natural shelter. It is a closed space that gives a sense of security. We found traces that may indicate that the people who stayed there used fire, which probably helped tame these dark and moist places."

Also of interest was the technique used to knap the flint found in the cave. This technique is the simplest used by ancient humans, and, at the time the tools were created, rarely used as a primary mode; usually, it was only used on poor-quality materials, or when flint was in short supply.

Only one other site, Isernia La Pineta in Italy, was using the technique as the primary one. The Tunel Wielki flint was not poor quality, nor was it scarce, being locally obtained. This was also the case for Isernia La Pineta; finding a second site with the same characteristics might help archaeologists work out the reason these ancient humans used that specific technique.

The team hopes to return to the cave to search for bones of Homo heidelbergensis.

The research was published in Scientific Reports.

A version of this article was first published in October 2022.


Healing the Earth and One Another



Healing the Earth and One Another

by R.E. Slater


I've been utilizing Whiteheadian process philosophy for the last several years to develop both a theology of God and a theology of nature. One might be deemed a "supernatural theology" and the other a "natural theology." The former might also be described as a Process-based theology of faith and religion (in my case, Christianity) and the latter might be describes as a Process-based theology of all facets of creation. This latter theology is where I would like to start today....

When developing a natural theology, it is important to examine several items:


I. Is the philosophical foundation current, credible, and contemporary?

  • My answer here is yes, when embracing Whitehead's organic process philosophy as a metaphysic, a cosmology, an ontology, an epistemology, and as an ethic. These have been discussed in their parts and their whole over the years on this site.
  • And no, if embracing non-relational, non-experiential, and non-panpsychic philosophers which are inorganic, isolating, objectifiers of the world constructs, reductionistic, mechanistic, and inarticulate when conversing with metamodernism's sciences, disciplines, literatures, and philosophies.
  • Process philosophy is an Integral and Integrating philosophy by which is meant that all previous philosophies are but elemental constructs of the whole and unworthy to expand or relativize such as all forms of Platonism, Scholasticism, Enlightenment philosophies, and etc.

Which is why it seems the most helpful, the most pertinent, and the most reasonable to state unequivocally that Whiteheadian organic process philosophy is the most current, credible, and contemporary of all the metaphysical philosophies at this date.

Whiteheadian Process Philosophy is also in its nascent phase meaning that many antecedent metaphysical constructs such as Alain Badiou's "Being and Event," Lucan, Deleuze, even Zizek, may be folded into Whiteheadian thought to help expand its reach and deepen it's perspectives in ways most helpful to metamodern societal directions in the arts, sciences, ecological economies, religion, and all other academias and disciplines.


II. Can the relational convection be affecting & integrating?

Another fundament element is a metaphysics currency with how the cosmos (sic, the universe) works in all its parts. From the quantum realms to the more visible realms of earth, water, air, fire, and spirit (this last, for me, refers to that panpsychic quality of a living, dynamic cosmogeny; and secondly, where a credible supernatural theology may be developed).

People like Charles Hartshorne, David Ray Griffin, and John Cobb, among others, took Whiteheadian thought and explored what it could mean for the natural sciences and theologies. It's latest iteration of concentrated effort is that of developing the mindset of building ecological civilizations resting upon processual ideations, the sciences, socio-political economies of scale, and the variable adaptations of these ideas across all spectrums of societal beliefs and organization.

"Saving the Planet" is an exemplary form of building ecological societies but without the necessary component of addressing relational cooperation, coordination, communication; or recognizing how all living biotic systems work in causal relational tandem with one another; then the mere objective to restore the earth will not work.

  • Process-based ecological restoration means doing two things very well.... That is, we must learn to both "save the planet" and to "heal fractured societies."
  • Processual reconciliation, redemptive activities, and repentant attitudes to the inequalities humanity has allowed to persist are part of the regenerative ethics of building ecological civilizations.
  • Civilizations which are moving towards benevolence, equality, and the redress of man living in a dynamic, and organic, relational to creation and each other.
  • No other philosophical metaphysic can work so well as the present one in healing both land, water, air and hearts.

Peace,

R.E. Slater
March 3, 2023



PROCESSUAL ECO-CIV REFERENCES


beyond the titles shown below










* * * * * *


ADDITIONAL REFERENCE TITLES SPEAKING TO
PROCESSUAL CIVILIZATIONS PAST & PRESENT


[Here are illustrations of creational thinking observing process-in-action
without knowing anything about Whiteheadian metaphysics]




10 Inspirational Guides to Healing the Planet


Physician Kinari Webb’s valiant debut, Guardians of the Trees, addresses the links between climate change and health care head-on. She recalls the trip she made as a college student to Borneo, where she was struck by the intense need for medical care in the country’s remote villages. Not long after graduating from Yale’s medical school, Webb returned to Borneo, in hopes of helping mitigate the costly health care that led many to turn to illegal logging. Working with international and local teams, she eventually founded two nonprofits “designed to improve people’s health as the key to saving [the] rain forest.” After a near-fatal sting by a box jellyfish in July 2011, Webb was forced to scale back her hands-on humanitarian efforts, but her devotion to fighting for the health of the world and its people remains unflagging, as evidenced in her galvanizing and hopeful story.

Humanity is just beginning to awaken a series of interconnected crises that threaten our very survival as a species. These are the destabilization of our climate, the loss of much of the biodiversity on our planet, and colonialism and racism. What’s remarkable, though, is that by addressing these issues simultaneously, profound impacts can be achieved—hopefully enough to bring about a thriving future for all living beings.

Working alongside rainforest communities to improve their well-being and reverse the loss of rainforest has taught me that I can no more separate my own health from the health of the planet, than I can separate my own well-being from that of another human being’s. This was so vividly made clear to me in the first year I spent in Borneo, when I learned that people were often forced to cut down giant rainforest trees to access health care. In order to secure short-term survival, they were destroying an ecosystem they loved and saw as essential for their own and the planet’s long-term health.

At this critical juncture for humanity, I believe these 10 books can help us to believe change is possible, and to re-learn the critical importance of interconnection that most Indigenous and traditional communities have not forgotten. But this work of healing on a personal, community, and global level is not just intellectual, it is somatic, spiritual, and emotional I’ve found these books helpful in those realms, too.

1. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

I found nearly every page of this delightful essay collection incredibly helpful in elucidating the wisdom of Indigenous science and daring to envision a world based on an Indigenous gift economy. I also appreciated the way Kimmerer, a botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, interweaves her personal intergenerational healing with community and global healing to be very resonant. I think the links between them are true for all of us, and even more so for those who have experienced the most harm.  

2. The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams

Naturalist and primatologist Goodall shares her experiences of hard-won hope in Tanzania and elsewhere—which are often based in listening to the wisdom of local communities so that they can thrive and thereby protect the forest and the chimpanzees.

3. The Overstory by Richard Powers

Nine trees serve as the protagonists of this beautiful novel, with the mighty redwood taking center stage. Most of the human characters, while flawed, are still heartening The underlying theme is for us all to find that inner burning light of inspiration, hold onto it, and begin to act in support of our planet. Ultimately, Powers elicits hope that we can begin again.  

4. Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard

This is a phenomenal tale of perseverance, resilience, and humility. A forester in British Columbia, Simard discusses the magic of the mycorrhizal network and the interconnectivity of trees and forest, explaining how trees talk to each other. It is an awe-inspiring example of how little we really know about our natural surroundings. 

5. All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson

An important work of intersectional environmentalism, the essays in this collection reveal how racism and environmental destruction go hand-in-hand: both have roots in the same destructive belief that we are truly divided and separated, when, in fact, our collective ability to thrive is intertwined and interdependent. 

6. Chasing Mercury by September Williams

This brilliant love story explores how mercury poisoning and other aspects of environmental justice are inextricably linked to social justice, and features remarkable individuals (many real-life ones are interwoven with Williams’s fictional characters) who give all they’ve got for love of the earth, and each other. 

7. The Land Is Not Empty: Following Jesus in Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery by Sarah Augustine

This is an incredibly powerful call to action—particularly for Christians—about combating one of the root evils on our planet: the Doctrine of Discovery. A papal bull written in the 1400s that designated land as “empty” unless owned by a Christian monarch, the Doctrine of Discovery is the basis of modern-day land rights and fails to recognize collective Indigenous ownership of land. It’s still cited when extractive industries take Indigenous land, but Augustine has clear ideas about how to put an end to that.

8. My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem

Menakem, a therapist, contends that everyone is harmed by racism, and that the trauma manifests in our unconscious physical responses. Luckily, there are ways to change these responses, and he offers impactful somatic exercises we can all use to heal from intergenerational, systemic, and personal wounds.

9. The Divide: Global Inequality from Conquest to Free Markets by Jason Hickel

Hickel provides a brilliant overview of the destructive nature of colonialism and its consequences for the planet, showing how poverty was and is created by systems that benefit the global North. 

10. Lightning Flowers: My Journey to Uncover the Cost of Saving a Life by Katherine Standefer

Standefer, who was implanted with a cardiac defibrillator after being diagnosed with a rare heart condition, pens a poetic and moving memoir about illness, the failings of the American healthcare system, reductionist medicine, and how connected we all are with the natural world. With wires made from metals extracted from the earth forming a tangled knot in her heart (and threatening her very survival), Standefer sees humans and the planet as literally intertwined.