New Search for Ultimate Reality

NCRcafe New Search for Ultimate Reality
Marie Schickel Rottschaefer is the facilitator.
Its goal is to give a brief overview of developments that have relevance
for us in the early 21st century, particularly in seeking solutions
for pressing people and planet problems.
Discussion Number Fifteen November 2007

A PERSONAL FAITH PERSPECTIVE

CONTINGENT BEING DERIVED FROM ORIGINAL BEING

How To Transform “Right” Into “Responsibility”

The new thinking regarding a post-Axial Age faith does not preclude belief or faith of another type. Now I am speaking from a purely personal faith perspective. Such a turn-around from a faith based on a claim to divine right to a declaration of human responsibility by no means rules out belief in an Original Being from which our contingent being flows and functions. Instead, this transformation, i.e. moving from a perceived right (persons assuming power without that power being appropriately given) to a developed, humanity-laden and responsible faith promotes a course of action that, hopefully, improves positive global consequences, replacing dysfunction with function. Recall from Discussion #14 that all assumed truths that derive from claims implying contact with the divine must be subjected to inquiry, i.e. scientific- philosophical evaluation. This is step number one to understanding the transformation.

Search Within And Beyond The Big Bang

I regard a post Axial Age faith as a genuine faith that commits to a search for life’s meaning, not to the invention of life’s meaning. This search for knowledge (justified true belief), when successful, supplants ordinary belief, i.e. knowledge replaces opinion not sufficiently substantiated -- be it religious faith or any kind of belief. A post Axial Age faith is a faith that searches beyond the big bang, the evolution of our universe, “supernaturalism” and the merely naturalistic accounts proposed by some religious naturalists’ thinking. It is a faith that humbly acknowledges our contingent being as intimately connected to the Origin of our being. This Original Being is personal and gives us our personhood through all the evolutionary processes that play out.

Scientific-Philosophical Evaluation of Faith And Morality

All the Axial Age religions and other religions I have not mentioned seem to have two prevailing components: faith or belief and right conduct or moral behavior that is directed towards the goals of personal wholeness and social coherence. But just as all assumed truths that derive from claims to contact with the divine must be subjected to inquiry, i.e. scientific- philosophical evaluation, so too must the principles of moral agency. Happily, philosophers of science and researchers in other disciplines are pursuing work in this area. Our evolutionary history equips us with the means necessary to understand and adjust our behavior to the circumstances in which we live so that we can survive and thrive. Our task as Homo sapiens in the early twenty-first century requires each of us to implement a scientific-philosophical evaluation leading -- it is to be hoped -- to an en masse remediation of our current crises. This is our only chance of having an acceptable future for people and planet.

New Search For Ultimate Reality Embraces Present Reality

In our search for present reality we embrace Ultimate Reality -- the Original Being – the Origin of our being, because we are a part of this Reality. We come to understand our pursuit more and more. This search for present reality advances a confidence in responsible action, supporting evolution as it unfolds. This search furthers life and its underpinnings. This search is patient in a state of unknowing, being faithful, hopeful, caring, awaiting but promoting life’s meaning by allowing life to divulge itself. Staying in touch with our own being (respecting ourselves) and acknowledging the Origin of our being sustains us as we proceed together in our search. This great NEW SEARCH now tips us back towards our evolutionary assignment -- not towards extinction and planetary destruction!

Ten Years To Get It Together And Get It Right

That Al Gore and the International Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize is a recent striking worldwide recognition that our planet is in a state of horrific dysfunction that forces us to move to well-functioning and to a transformed future. At the risk of being unrelenting, I insist that a scientific-philosophical evaluation leading to en masse remediation of the entire planet is our only hope of having our desired future. To accomplish this remediation we need a taxonomy of comprehensive human knowledge to get it right. A task of grand proportion for the scholars and other experts is to set humanity’s undertaking in motion. We hang in the balance with about ten years to achieve a positive outcome. See “Our future hanging in the balance” by Al Gore The Oregonian Oct. 13, 2007. (Google algore.com. Al Gore is chairman of the Alliance for Climate Protection and the author most recently, of “The Assault on Reason.”)

“Humanity’s knowledge goes digital” (The Sunday Oregonian Oct. 21, 2007) is a recent press piece regarding an advance in the technology of accessing human knowledge that I read about shortly after expressing the need for a taxonomy. This forward movement of the World Digital Library (Web site www.worlddigitallibrary.org) will undoubtedly facilitate exponentially the implementation of a taxonomy of human knowledge. This will allow for a great diversity of creativity that can produce modules for skill building relevant to all the tasks necessary for the mitigation of the global crisis and the transformation required for people and planet.

Since we have ten years or less to “get it together,” we haven’t a moment to lose. We must support the social justice and environmental movement fully in whatever way our individual assets inspire us to collaborate with others and do so without duplication of effort. For example, Stephen Zunes “Proposed Mideast arms package a dangerous deal” National Catholic Reporter 10/19/07 shows the irrationality of the Bush administration’s plans to escalate the regional arms race and the lack of top bipartisan opposition to it. Groups such as Focus the Nation and others know the categorical necessity of green democracy to help prevent the world from moving in a downward spiral to a cataclysmic end point.

Belief Beyond Our Cosmos

Nevertheless in the pursuit of this transformation, the choice to believe or not believe in an Original Being remains. For me, it is more rational to believe than not to believe because I am convinced that a contingent being like myself came from Being, not from non-being. And we, all of us living creatures, (and non-living creatures) are contingent beings! The question of whether to believe in a Supreme Being or not has been a part of philosophical discussion for ages, as we know. Thus this new faith that I speak of is a belief immersed in the mode of pursuing justified true belief or knowledge of our place in this cosmos and that allows us to consider possibilities beyond this cosmos. This new faith enables humans of whatever persuasion, though having no knowledge beyond the cosmos, to believe in and hope in a Supreme Being that is beyond any of the ideas deriving from the universe in which we live.

ON A FURTHER PERSONAL NOTE

New Search for Ultimate Reality has been going for about a year. I have decided to relinquish being a facilitator because most people at our table seem to prefer the individual posts mode of discussion rather than a communitarian and facilitator mode. However, I hope to continue to submit posts, still calling the project New Search for Ultimate Reality. But this discussion concludes New Search Volume One (October 2006 - November 2007).

Thank you for your interest and valued contributions. I am scheduled for knee surgery, both knees, and extended orthopedic rehabilitation. Therefore, if all goes well, I hope to return with New Search in June 2008. Happy holidays. Marie.