In Honor of Those Who Suffered in the Past, Work for Peace NOW!

by Shane Claiborne

"One of my favorite Veterans (other than my dad of course) is Charlie Liteky.

In 1968 Charlie Liteky was given the highest award in the US, the Medal of Honor by President Lyndon Johnson. In the movie, "Forrest Gump", they dub over Charlie to put Tom Hanks in as he is given the award.

What is not as well known is that in 1986 Charlie joined some of the most decorated veterans in the US as they returned their Medals of Honor and renounced all war.

Charlie and I got to be in Iraq together in 2003 with the Iraq Peace Team.

One of the things he taught me is that veterans often know the horrors of war better than anyone. We can see it in the suicide rate (one a day for soldiers, 22 a day for veterans) and in the rate of homelessness and addiction of vets (there are 50,000 homeless veterans).

When we fight for peace, we are fighting for them. We honor the men and women in uniform by trying to put an end to war. In Iraq, I remember Charlie holding a sign while we were there that said:
"I hate war as only a Veteran can."

It reminded me of the words of Ernest Hemingway: "Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. Ask the infantry and ask the dead."

Let's commit ourselves today, as many folks celebrate "Veterans Day" -- to honor the infantry and the dead by committing to build a world without war.

In the name of the Prince of Peace. Amen."

by Shane Claiborne

--

My response:
May we all remember that the best honor we can do for those who suffered in wars of the past is to work for peace NOW. Vote for candidates who will stop funding Islamic rebels, stop supporting undemocratic governments, stop sending our young adults into quagmires where every side is doing wrong.

For instance, why are we supporting the Islamic government of Afghanistan which supports Sharia Law? Just this week, Afghans stoned a young woman to death again! Most government leaders there oppress women, support punishment of Afghans who reject Islam.

Let's start a new movement in support of Martin Luther King's ideals. Be a peacemaker, not a warmaker.

And give and help those veterans who are still suffering from the past.

http://civilianpublicservice.org/storycontinues/hotline

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Part #3: Is God Omnipotent?

Continuing--

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?

Then he is not omnipotent.

Rather shockingly, philosopher Charles Hartshorne writes that's correct.

Hartshorne explains in his books such as Omnipotence and other Theological Mistakes, this severe misunderstanding by most Christians and Muslims is the cause of many tragic problems in theism.

The omnipotence doctrine is emphasized by Roman Catholic, Reformed, and Islamic theologies and is traceable all the back to many Greek philosophers who thought of perfection as totally unmoved, not changing, not even experiencing, not suffering, etc.

In contrast, Hartshorne suggests that becoming is better than being! Relational changing is more perfect than immutability.

According to the view of philosophers such as Hartshorne, God is goodness in process, is in relationship with everything that exists.

God is transcendent, but also is immanent, is growing, advancing in relationship to the cosmos, matter and energy, and finite conscious beings such as humans.

Absolute power, absolute immutability can't live in relationship.

But the real God is relational, strongly opposes evil and works against it in all of its many forms. God suffers with all in existence who suffer; God empathizes deeply, remembers and never forgets.

But even though God is completely goodness in becoming, God can’t force the whole cosmos to become good. Force by its very nature isn't relational but rather power used against others. That's why even God can't make any particular group of mass murderers like ISIS on a tiny sphere in the Milky Way to stop massacring.

God can't change the universe or any conscious beings in it--Except by persuasion.

How does that happen? How has that happened?

God influences existence toward truth, justice, and goodness through interaction with each conscious species and influences the rest of natural world through gradual development.

God “persuades” the universe toward the good, the true, the just, the beautiful.

In Hartshorne’s view of reality, what he calls panentheism, (also termed process philosophy), there is no room for an omnipotent/sovereign determiner like in traditional Christian and Islamic theology, where God is a meticulous foreordainer/controller who plans every flood, mass starvation, black plague, genetic defect, disease, rape, and slaughter. There is no omnipotent god who causes every slight mistake, such as an individual typing the wrong key on a computer or dropping a can.

Traditional creedal thinkers emphasize God is so omnipotent that not even a molecule moves but God moves it. According to Martin Luther, God works evil in most humans! Humans are the axe that God wields in life:-(

Not so! argues Hartshorne.

In drastic contrast, Hartshorne emphasizes that God is relational with existence in a vaguely similar way that a human is in relation to the cells of his body. A human can influence his body by good food, exercise, meditation, but he can’t make a particular cell do exactly what he wants.

But Christian, Muslim, and Hindu leaders and the Greek philosopher Epicurus ask, “Then why call him God?”

And modern cynics ask, “Of what good is such an unpowerful god?

While panentheism sounds good to many concerned humans that God doesn’t do accidents, tragedies, and horrific massacres,
there is a HUGE HOWEVER--

But then God doesn’t do miracles either—no sudden resurrections, no cancers cured, no paralyzed individuals suddenly up walking and leaping, no help from God for us to do well on a university final exam or job interview, or our team score a seemingly impossible last second touchdown in the Super Bowl....

Again, as Epicurus, asked, "Then why call him God?"

People who dismiss Hartshorne’s (and Whitehead’s, Cobb’s, Williams’) view of God, ask, what good is a deity who isn’t all powerful, who can’t or won’t perform miracles for us?

The process philosophers respond that it is true that a God who is becoming, who is in process, who is primarily relational, a God who isn’t in absolute control of everything doesn’t provide the absolute security of Augustine’s, or Aquinas’, or Calvin’s God that millions of humans want.

However, keep in mind, that then God also doesn’t ever appear to be demonic and horrific.

There is no God who foreordained billions of conscious beings to eternal damnation for his own glory.

No God who majors in hurricanes, cancers, and all actions of evil like the John Pipers and Munammads of humanity worship.
--

Besides, where is the evidence of the God of omnipotence?

Where’s is the evidence for any miracles?

Any evidence that God caused the tsunami that slaughtered over 250,000 Asians in only a few hours?

Where is the evidence that God was on either/or any number of sides in the Great War or the Vietnam War or now in the Syrian Civil War?

But most spiritual and religious people in history and now, much prefer the traditional understanding of God--full of all of the omnis, the ultimate security.

They think God (incomprehensible, to the rest of us, of course) has picked them alone—their elect group, nation, religion—especially and only!

All other humans aren't IN. Mostly, the chosen ones think of everyone else as foreordained reprobates, workers of iniquity, enemies of God to be opposed and defeated. The philosopher Erice Hoffer explains this outlook so well in his book, The True Believer.

To be continued--

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Part #2: Toward a Skeptical Worldview of Hope—God as Becoming

Being and/or Becoming, that is the question…
(to misquote the Bard).

What is the term “God” at a basic level but the Good with an additional exclaimed, “OH!”

Who is/was/will-be/does/becomes?

Before launching into the second part of this series on God, which will deal with philosophers’ reasoning about God such as that of Professor Charles Hartshorne’s analytical speculation on the nature of Ultimate Reality, here's a few introductory notes.
(IF you don’t want to be bored with the important introduction, skip DOWN to SECTION #2: CHARLES HARTSHORNE.)

INTRODUCTION

I suppose it goes without saying (but I will type it;-) that we finite educated primates have taken on a seemingly impossible task, sort of like one human swallowing the wide ocean whole--hook, line, and sinker;-)

We who only have a lifespan of about 70-80 years in developed countries show observation, ingenuity, creativity, and complicated thinking. But usually it also includes much hubris.

Think of various religious spokespersons now who claim the founders of their religion knew in detail what God was doing before the Big Bang, yet they excuse their founding leaders for horrific ethics-- burning people at the stake, enslaving millions, and so forth--claiming that the thinkers were only believing, behaving and doing like most other humans in their time period! The prime example, of course, is the intellectual Reformed religion and its founders John Calvin, John Knox, Martin Luther, and Hudrych Zwingli.

Who are we to think that we can understand and explain Reality, let alone Ultimate Reality? Heck, the existence of Homo sapiens has only occurred in the last second of the finite existence of one minuscule planet in a very small solar system on the edge of one of billions of galaxies. Let’s not even speculate on the multi-verse.

“Humans are good at a lot of things, but putting time in perspective is not one of them. It’s not our fault—the spans of time in human history, and even more so in natural history, are so vast compared to the span of our life and recent history that it’s almost impossible to get a handle on it. If the Earth formed at midnight and the present moment is the next midnight, 24 hours later, modern humans have been around since 11:59:59pm—1 second. And if human history itself spans 24 hours from one midnight to the next, 14 minutes represents the time since Christ.”
Tim Urban
TIME By Wait But Why
http://28oa9i1t08037ue3m1l0i861.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Time-G-e1419172691756.png

Human insight and understanding are on a long trajectory from basic self and natural awareness of early humans to the present when scientists understand enough of astronomy, complex math, an innovative technology to send a probe all the way to the dwarf planet Pluto, a journey which took almost 10 years.

“The New Horizons mission has taken what we thought we knew about Pluto and turned it upside down,” said Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “It's why we explore -- to satisfy our innate curiosity and answer deeper questions about how we got here and what lies beyond the next horizon."
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/four-months-after-pluto-flyby-nasa-s-new-horizons-yields-wealth-of-discovery

FAR BEYOND THAT—is the comprehending and understanding of the ultimate nature of existence.
What happens in the essence of reality?
What took place before the Big Bang of the universe?
What will happen after humans become extinct?
After our cosmos ceases to exist?

Or for that matter who can explain exhaustively the nature of the Cosmos right now? Cosmologists are working on the seemingly infinite task. We don’t yet understand dark matter or dark energy and so much else.

But humans are in a process of becoming. As mentioned before, think how far Homo sapiens have come since they first discovered fire, math, abstract thought, and reasoned speculation.

Since we humans are a self-aware, conscious, rational, ethical species, even though we understand so little, we need to think about meaning and purpose in order not to lapse back into only instinctive responses in our brief journey of living. Every day, every moment we make choices--

Let us THINK!

A skeptic...is a person who questions everything, including her own conclusions, all the time. She craves knowledge and understanding, so she loves bumping into people and ideas that challenge her assumptions. A skeptic views disagreements as opportunities to refine her knowledge and understand more today than she did last night.
Paul Mahan
https://medium.com/@ungewissen/religious-people-are-wrong-about-skeptics-1f502ebffe83

--
“speculation (n.)
late 14c., "intelligent contemplation, consideration; act of looking," from Old French speculacion "close observation, rapt attention," and directly from Late Latin speculationem (nominative speculatio) "contemplation, observation," noun of action from Latin speculatus, past participle of speculari "observe," from specere "to look at, view" (see scope (n.1)).
Online Etymology Dictionary

skeptic: related to skeptesthai "to reflect, look, view"
Skeptic does not mean him who doubts, but him who investigates or researches as opposed to him who asserts and thinks that he has found. [Miguel de Unamuno, "Essays and Soliloquies," 1924]
“The extended sense of "one with a doubting attitude" first recorded 1610s.”

“Meaning "pursuit of the truth by means of thinking" is from mid-15c. Disparaging sense of "mere conjecture" is recorded from 1570s.”
OED
--

SECTION 2: CHARLES HARTSHORNE

First, the essential nut of God without even the shell:

Second, Charles Hartshorne answers Epicurus' striking questions with his own complex philosophy of God reduced to a poster:

And that's only the beginning:-)

TO BE CONTINUED--




In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

The Wonder of the Transcendent Good

If we as humans reject the horrific unethical beliefs of many Muslims, Christians, and Hindus (Part #1 The Horror of God Belief), and we already have rejected delusions and fanciful mythological stories of religions in general as various thoughtful theists have done since Plato...
HOW
do we go about thinking of Ultimate Reality
(usually and traditionally termed “God”)?

Ah, the God question.

WHY?

Nothing like trying to solve the nature of existence, billions of years of cosmic history, why the Big Bang happened, and why is it possible (to paraphrase Einstein) that mere primates came to self-aware consciousness
and the ability for creativity, reason,
science, aesthetics,
and compassion.

The how is often answered by cosmologists speculating about multi-verses and quantum events. Fascinating stuff. As for humanity’s sometime action of altruism, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins speculates that ethical ideal might have come about by a “misfiring” of evolution.

However open agnostics such as the astronomer Chris Impey of the University of Arizona-Tucson raise very good questions about the unusual anomaly of Homo sapiens in the midst of what appears to be an unconscious, thoughtless, amoral cosmos.

Astronomer Impey: “If the universe contained nothing more than forces operating on inanimate matter, it would not
be very interesting."

"The presence of sentient life-forms like us
(and perhaps unlike us) is the zest, or
the special ingredient, that gives cosmic
history dramatic tension."

"We’re made
of tiny subatomic particles and are part
of a vast space-time arena, yet
we hold both extremes
in our heads.”
How It Ends? By Chris Impey

Yes, the amazing ability of conscious primates to hold the concept of the macrocosm to the microcosm within each of our heads, to create new things which never existed, to have a sense of ought which often thwarts what is biologically advantageous….

So if we humans want to move beyond our personal feelings and inner intuition in regard to God, we need to look to brilliant philosophical thinkers.

While atheist thinkers have posited that everything is due to cosmic
Chance (Jacques Monad, Stephen Jay Gould) or
Necessity/Determinism (Sam Harris, Jerry Coyne),
in striking contrast mathematician/philosopher
Alfred Lord Whitehead
and philosopher Charles Hartshorne
think that Meaning and Creativity and the Good
are at the center
and beginning of
everything.

Consciousness, reason, ethics, aesthetics are somehow inherent
in the essential essence of the cosmos,
not meaningless anomalies like atheists claim.

Since Charles Hartshorne comes from a Quaker background, attended Haverford Quaker College
and is the most recent brilliant theistic thinker,
let’s first take a look at him
and his concepts and philosophy
which he terms,
panentheism.

Earliest Spiral Galaxy

For Hartshorne, the future is OPEN. Creativity, possibility are there. God and all conscious life have real alternative choices to create.

For instance,
"When Scrooge, in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, asks the Ghost of Christmas Future whether he is seeing the shadows of the things that “will be” or the shadows of the things that “may be only,” he is expressing in a precise way Hartshorne’s analysis of future tense statements."

"If the shadows are of the things that “will be,” then all hope is lost, but if they are the shadows of the things that “may be only” then Scrooge can change his ways and make for himself a different future."

"A hallmark of Hartshorne’s neoclassical theism is that the universe is a joint creative product of (a) the lesser creators that are the creatures, localized in space and time, and (b) the eminent creator which is God whose influence extends to every creature that ever has or that ever will exist."

By Donald Wayne Viney, Pittsburg State University

http://www.iep.utm.edu/hart-d-t/


"Charles Hartshorne, (born June 5, 1897, Kittanning, Pennsylvania, U.S.—died October 10, 2000, Austin, Texas), American philosopher, theologian, and educator known as the most influential proponent of a “process philosophy,” which considers God a participant in cosmic evolution."

"The descendant of Quakers and son of an Episcopalian minister, Hartshorne attended Haverford College before serving as a medical orderly in World War I. He completed his undergraduate education at Harvard University...earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1923. Hartshorne studied in Germany (1923–25), where he met Martin Heidegger and Edmund Husserl."

"He returned to lecture at Harvard (1925–28), after which he taught philosophy at the University of Chicago (1928–55) and at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia (1955–62). He then taught...philosophy at the University of Texas--Austin...He also served as president of the American Philosophical Association and the Metaphysical Society of America."

http://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Hartshorne


*Side Note: Of course, some thoughtful people come to the conclusion there is no Ultimate Source/Essence. Nontheist and atheistic Quakers, Christian nontheists, religious atheists—all claim that there is no Essence, no Transcendence. Only matter and energy reign. It appears that they use religious language to describe their feelings and subjective preferences, nothing more. If you would like to read about nontheism, check back in to some of my posts on that subject.

To be continued--

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

The Horror of God Belief

Sometimes, days are from Hell. This week seems to be the case.

Christians and Muslims are saying some basically obscene things about God.

Think about this blasphemous statement:"But it is going exactly the way God planned it."

WHAT?!

God planned for millions of little children to be raped, abused, murdered...

God planned for the countless slaughters going on now around the world, for the beheading, burning, torturing, raping...

God planned the Jewish Holocaust and the other 4 million non-Jews who died in the Concentration Camps...

The Great War, 10 million dead in the trenches alone...

The U.S.and English Civil Wars...

The Taiping Rebellion...

The 30 Years War...

The Black Death...

The Crusades...

The prophet Muhammad at 50 years of age marrying a 9-year-old girl and beheading 500-900 Jewish young men...


Oh but life "is going exactly the way God planned it."

God planned the tsunami that slaughtered 250,000 Asians in only a few hours a few years ago?

God planned the killing of the little Jewish infant by a Palestinian terrorist in Jerusalem several months ago?

God planned every cancer?

God planned every infant born with anencephaly?

God planned every elderly person suffering from severe alzheimer's?


TO HELL WITH THIS VIEW OF THINKING.





Hoping for the Light in this religious world of darkness,

Daniel Wilcox

The Tragic Naming of a Baby for Terror, "Knife of Jerusalem" by his Palestinian Parents

How can humans, no matter what nationality, what religion, stoop so low as to name their new born infant "Knife of Jerusalem" in honor of the intentional murderers of other humans they live only a few kilometers from?

59 Israelis have been attacked savagely by knife-wielding Palestinians in the last month.

12 Israelis have been murdered, 19 seriously wounded. Palestinians have also thrown 377 molotov coctails and rammed Israeli civilians with their cars. Also horrific and evil.

But to come up close to a 13-year-old Israeli teen riding his bike and slash him with a knife, critically injuring him!

And then for a Palestinian mother and father to name their infant in honor of such horror, such evil?

His father Shebika states, “Allah has given me a new baby, and I’ve named him ‘Knife of Jerusalem’ after the intifada of the knives...
in support of the blood of the martyrs…
Giving him this name was the least I could do, even if many people don’t like it...Allah willing,
the third intifada will not stop.”

The infant's mother added, “in solidarity with our people in the West Bank. This is the least we can do for them.”


Where is the humanity of these two new parents?! Why are Palestinians turning so cruel, so heartless, so murderous?

Where is their empathy? Their compassion? Their humanity? Their common decency?


Yes, I know Palestinians are persecuted, abused, stolen from, lied to, and murdered. They suffer so much, too.

But their responding by murdering innocent Israelis with savage knife attacks isn't the way to respond.

Responding to evil with evil is NEVER right, or good, or Godly.

(We'll deal with the Israelis later, who are also guilty of murder, terrorism, injustice, theft, etc.)

And for attacking innocent humans, murdering some of them, leaving others in critical condition or at least hospitalized--

FOR THAT the knife attackers are praised by the leaders of Palestinians,
Fatah and HAMAS and other Palestinian organizations.

What has happened to us that we as a species are so callous that we would name a baby in honor of murderers?

Muslim Sheikh Muhammad Salakh preaches, “Restrain the victim while others attack him with axes and butcher knives. Do not fear what will be said about you. Oh men of the West Bank, next time, attack in a group of three, four, or five. Attack them in groups. Cut them into body parts.”

The "Ocean of Darkness" seems unrelenting...


Keep your lights shining,

Daniel Wilcox

Bringing Hope, Joy, and Success to 4 Foster Kids and More

Don't miss this heart-warming story in American Girl Magazine! Finally, in the midst of so much tragic and absurd world news, here's what only two individuals can do to bring hope, joy, and success to those in need.

"My daddy and I are very different, but we’re a lot alike, too. We both love animals. We like to help others. And we were both in foster care as kids. Foster care is a system set up to care for kids when their own parents can’t. Six years ago, my brother Makai and I were in foster care for three months. During that time, we lived with three different sets of foster parents. Then we got adopted.

When Makai and I were first adopted, everything we had was stuffed into trash bags, one for each of us.

My daddy and I do lots of things together, like caring for the animals on our little farm. We have ducks, chickens, goats, and two dogs. We also work to help kids who are in foster care today.

When Makai and I were first adopted, everything we had was stuffed into trash bags, one for each of us. That made my daddy feel really bad. When he was a kid in foster care and moving from place to place, he also carried the few things he owned in a trash bag. He says it made him feel like he wasn’t worth much. He thinks kids should be treated better than that.

So my daddy started a charity to help kids in foster care feel better about themselves. We provide nice new bags and backpacks for kids to travel with as they move around."

Read the rest at
http://www.americangirl.com/explore/articles/see-how-one-family-is-making-a-difference/

American Girl, November/December 2015



In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox