God: A Guide for the Perplexed by Keith Ward

Here's an intriguing interview with Keith Ward by Dale Tuggy about existence and philosophy, God and humans.

Dr. Ward is one of the most dynamic, lucid thinkers of this generation. He was,
before retirement, a professor at the University of Oxford, a fellow of the British
Academy, a philosopher, theologian,
and church leader.

Tuggy, a professor of philosophy at the State University
of New York, asks Keith Ward a number of controversial and deep questions.
There is no chatter or filler like in some podcasts.

Dr. Ward's book, God: A Guide for the Perplexed, is controversial, amazing, so deep, open in attitude, sprinkled with dry humor (a necessity when dealing with philosophy, religion, and politics), and a volume to read and re-read.

I disagree with some of Ward's views and am my self no longer of the Christian religion, but this interview is worth a listen: http://trinities.org/blog/podcast-109-dr-keith-ward-on-christ-and-the-cosmos-part-1/

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Review of the Seminal Work, The Ancestor’s Tale by Richard Dawkins

Rate this fascinating wunderkind of a book at least 15 on a 10 point scale! Tale's narrative stretched my brain across a few billion years of earth’s biological history.

And the large volume is almost never dry, but is endlessly fascinating with many biological details from underwater air-breathing spiders (the diving bell spider) to strange plants to the mystifying arrival of human consciousness.

It took me a long while to finish this opus, and sometimes Dawkins left me behind, my brains confused by the more technical parts of biology. But then in those difficult sections he often seems aware of this and so gives powerful, sometimes, humorous metaphors and description to help us non-scientists out.

In the field of evolutionary biology, Dawkins is ever so creative and playful when discussing complex difficult topics. I especially like his use of the Canterbury/Chaucer literary motif to ground his epic story of Life’s evolution. He’s the kind of professor/writer whose presentations induce students to fall in love with a subject.

The book raises theological, spiritual, and philosophical questions minus any superficial harangues, (unfortunately characteristic of his anti-religious book, The God Delusion).

When it comes to biology and evolution, Richard Dawkins is a scholar and expert—his writing deep, brilliant, and lucid. The Ancestor's Tale vastly expanded my knowledge and understanding of Life, evolution, biology and all its many forms.

Now if I could only find a scholar who speaks so clearly, humorously, vividly, knowledgeably about meta issues. Well, there is one powerful contender—Keith Ward, former professor at Oxford. He is the author of God: A Guide for the Perplexed, an amazing book on the history of religion, transcendence, theology, philosophy, ethics, spirituality and more!

And to a lesser degree Hans Kung, the German Roman Catholic theologian who wrote the opus Does God Exist, a 2,000 year journey through human philosophy. But because of Kung's dry convoluted prose, his tome lacks the clarity and lucidity a truly great book needs.

Lastly, with a huge truckload of caution, readers may want to consider David Bentley Hart, an Eastern Orthodox theologian and philosopher, but while Hart writes well on Christian history and thought, he seems to obsess on maligning and belittling those with whom he disagrees.

Anybody else read The Ancestor’s Tale recently?

Any other great tomes?

Other comments?


In the Light of Compassion, Mercy, Justice and Peace,

Daniel Wilcox


"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness… And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."

Howard Zinn

DROWNING US ALL

Giving equal weight to every verse in the Bible drowns us all. Treating the Bible like a flat legal book leads to death for others and for oneself.

Doing so is to become like the condemned man cast overboard with heavy weights on his ankles, destined to asphyxiate in the depths of the raging sea. A raging sea which has created despair and intolerance and killed millions in human history. Christians wielding the sword and the whip and the torture chamber.

Drawing of the 30 Years War (between Roman Catholic and Reformed Christians)


For instance, which of these verses is true?

Psalms 137:9 “How blessed will be the one who grabs your babies and smashes them on a rock!”
VERSUS
Matthew 19:14 But Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me and do not try to stop them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

Current Christian leaders often base their despairing/twisted/aberrant theology on relatively obscure/minor verses in the Hebrew Bible and a few confusing verses in the New Testament.

The writer of 2nd Peter could have been referring to such baffling verses when he wrote,
“There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist…”
2 Peter 3:16b

The leaders then proceed to misinterpret key biblical verses like John 3:16 because the latter contradict their own version of Christianity.

Then even worse, the Christians leaders claim that all human infants at conception and birth are "sinful," "in essence, evil," and "totally depraved."

That’s the bad news.

Here’s the Good News:

“We need to read the Bible over the whole of its range, and exercise judgment and discrimination to discover what teachings are sublated, and why...the Bible resolves none of our perplexities...What it does is to challenge our thinking about these matters, leading us to see matters from different perspectives, and to explore them ourselves.

This generates an important insight into the nature of Biblical revelation.
The Bible gives no systematic doctrine...
What then does the Bible DO?”

“[The Bible] upsets our preconceived ideas, puts in question our over-neat systems of doctrine, presents paradoxes and conflicting viewpoints (compare the stark pessimism of Ecclesiastes with the easy optimism of some of the Psalms).”

“But above all, it turns our mind to God, in reverence and praise rather than in comprehension and explanation. What it reveals is mystery beyond human comprehension…”

“[The Bible] is more like a great work of art, opening the human mind to transcendence, than like a textbook…”

Dr. Keith Ward, philosophy professor, retired Regius Professor of Divinity, Oxford U.,
From his book, What the Bible Really Teaches
Also has written many other books of philosophy, ethics, and the relationship
between spirituality, transcendence, theism, and science including God: A Guide for the Perplexed.

I’ll say an "Amen" to that.

When we read the Bible, if understood through loving concern
like Jesus displayed/lived/taught, we have the opportunity to ask the BIG Questions,

To step 'beyond' our brief selves...

To step outside our limited finite ego, our twisted culture and society,
and encounter the Divine.

BUT tragically, we can also, if wrongly understanding
the words of Scripture,
meet the ethically demonic--

like Christian Nazi Germany did
as 17th century Christian France and Germany did...

like the 19th century U.S. Civil War, where millions
of Christians persecuted, slaughtered, and destroyed
in the name of Christ and God,
etc..

Millions of Christians have done so, descending into twisted thinking and horrific actions--persecutions, attacks, and crusades.

Much of Christian history is a deathful bloody sea because Christians wrongly interpreted Scripture!




Instead, seek the Good, the True, and the Loving.

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox