Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization
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RIDDLE and MYSTERY a Tapestry of Faith Program for Children 6Th Grade
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children 6th Grade BY RICHARD S. KIMBALL © Copyright 2010 Unitarian Universalist Association. This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at www.uua.org/re/tapestry 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABOUT THE AUTHORS ......................................................................................................................................................................... 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ......................................................................................................................................................................... 3 THE PROGRAM ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 4 SESSION 1: THE BIG QUESTIONS ..................................................................................................................................................... 15 SESSION 2: RELIGION TO THE RESCUE .......................................................................................................................................... 35 SESSION 3: LOOKING TOWARD TOMORROW ............................................................................................................................... 54 SESSION 4: THINKING OF GOD ......................................................................................................................................................... 74 SESSION -
Articles Toward an Ecological Civilization: The
Articles Toward an Ecological Civilization: The Science, Ethics, and Politics of Eco-Poiesis* ARRAN GARE Arran Gare is associate professor (Reader) in Philosophy and Cultural In- quiry, Swinburne University, and founder of the Joseph Needham Centre for Complex Processes Research. He is the author of Postmodernism and the Environmental Crisis (London: Routledge, 1995) and Nihilism Inc.: Envi- ronmental Destruction and the Metaphysics of Sustainability (Sydney: Eco- Logical Press, 1996). He is a founding editor of the online journal Cosmos and History. E-mail: <[email protected]>. ABSTRACT: Chinese environmentalists have called for an ecological civilization. To promote this, ecology is defended as the core science embodying process meta- physics, and it is argued that as such ecology can serve as the foundation of such a civilization. Integrating hierarchy theory and Peircian semiotics into this science, it is shown how “community” and “communities of communities,” in which com- munities are defined by their organization to promote the common good of their components, have to be recognized as central concepts not only of ecology, but of life itself. This perspective is used to defend Lovelock’s “Gaia” hypothesis and the call of Prugh, Costanza, and Daly for strong democracy. An ethics and political philosophy is sketched based on “eco-poiesis” or “home-making,” which is equated with augmenting the life of communities, both human and non-human. The Austro-French ecological Marxist, André Gorz, began the first chapter of his book Paths to Paradise by noting: Times of crisis are also times of great freedom. Our world is out of joint; societies are disintegrating, our lifelong hopes and values are crumbling. -
Evolutionary Religion! the Rev
Evolutionary Religion! The Rev. Dr. J. Carl Gregg 9 February 2014 Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick, Maryland frederickuu.org! A tradition has arisen in many progressive congregations of having a worship service near Charles Darwin’s birthday (February 12) with an annual focus on the ways that evolution impacts, influences, and informs the practice of religion in the twenty-first century. A related tradition around Darwin’s birthday is an annual surge in “Religion versus Science” stories across all forms of media. For the most part, these “Religion versus Science” debates produce more heat than light. The most prominent example I’ve seen this year is the debate this past Tuesday at the Creation Museum in Kentucky between Ken Ham, a Biblical literalist and young-Earth Creationist, versus Bill Nye “the Science Guy.” At this point I have seen so many similar debates that I could not muster any interest in this one. But don’t get me wrong, the challenge of integrating scientific evolution with traditional religion is a tremendously important intellectual challenge, but it was the great challenge of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century. Here in the early twenty-first century, we find ourselves living more than 150 years after the publication in 1859 of Darwin’s landmark book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. In the words of one snarky blog post, “According to a [2012] Gallup poll, 46% of Americans believe in Creationism, 32% of Americans believe in God-guided evolution, and 15% of Americans are actually right:” (I warned you this particular blogger was sarcastic.) Briefly on that middle category of “God-guided evolution,” it all depends on what you mean by the word “God,” and I’ve preached previously on the subject of “Do We Need a Moratorium on the Word ‘God,’” but I need to set those concerns aside for today. -
Proquest Dissertations
INTEGRATION-WITH-CREATION: NEW SPIRITUAL DIMENSIONS OF ECOLOGICAL STEWARDSHIP FOR CATHOLIC EDUCATION By Davileen Margaret Radigan A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Theology of University of St. Michael's College and the Department of Theology of the Toronto School of Theology in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Ministry Awarded by the University of St. Michael's College Toronto 2010 Davileen M. Radigan Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Vote reference ISBN: 978-0-494-68843-4 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-68843-4 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. -
Michael: the Future Is Calling Us to Greatness Is the Main Program That I Have Been Delivering Throughout 2014, Along the Route of the Great March for Climate Action
Michael: The Future is Calling Us to Greatness is the main program that I have been delivering throughout 2014, along the route of the Great March for Climate Action. It’s the main evening program that I’ve been delivering. Great March for Climate Action began in Los Angeles on March 1 and ended on November 1 in Washington, DC. Connie and I spoke at about a hundred churches and colleges along that route, mostly churches. It was about fifty people, full-time, that did the whole three-thousand mile stretch. Other joined in major cities. These people were suffering in some of this. I ended up speaking in several of the rallies along the route. This was the major thing that Connie and I both did throughout 2014. It was a great honor to march with this sign, Climate Change is the Moral Issue with Ed Fallon who is right there, walking with the walking stick next to me, and the woman on the left of me in this picture, the one in the purple was Mayor Miriam. She walked every mile and she was seventy- one years old. That’s what gave structure to this. The Future is Calling Us to Greatness: Right Relationship to Reality in the 21st Century and Beyond. The other title that I sometimes used or supplemented it with was the Reality is Lord: A Scientific View of God and Why This Matters on a Rapidly Warming Planet. I will use the words god and reality interchangeably. I’ll make the case why it’s not only legitimate to do that, but why it’s important for religious people to do that. -
Quine and Whitehead: Ontology and Methodology 3
McHENRY I QUINE AND WHITEHEAD: ONTOLOGY AND METHODOLOGY 3 philosophical scene as of late (e.g., deconstructionism, postmodem relativism), the and Whitehead: Ontology and gulf that separates Whitehead and analytical philosophy is not as great as it used to Quine 'be.3 Before I begin to explore the affinities, as well as some contrasts, between Methodology . Quine and Whitehead, a word of caution is in order. It is well known that Quine wrote his doctoral dissertation, "The Logic of Sequences: A Generalization of LeemonMcHenry Principia Mathematica," under Whitehead's direction.4 Quine also took two of Whitehead's seminars at Harvard,"Science and the Modem World" and "Cosmol I LEEMON McHENRY reaches philosophy at Loyola Marymount University, Los ogies Ancient and Modem," but he says that he "responded little to these courses" Angeles, CA 90045, E-mail: [email protected] and "took refuge in his relatively mathematical material on 'extensive abstrac tion. "'s Despite Quine's statement that he "retained a vivid sense of being in the presence of the great," he does not acknowledge any philosophical influence from · Introduction . the ph!losoph!es o!'W.V . Qu�e an d Whitehead. Rather, Camap and Russell are cited as the inspirations of Quine's The very idea· of a basis for comparing . , mcluding Qume himself. early development. A.N. Whitehead may be surprising to most philosophe� . philosophy two completely Both produced systems of thought that have taken m When Quine overlapped with Whitehead at Harvard, Whitehead was deeply at the forefron: of c�ntemp� involved in working out the details of his metaphysics of process--a philosophic different directions. -
JEMH Vol4 No1 Sept
ARTICLE SPECIAL THEME ISSUE ARTICLE Privatization of Knowledge and the Creation of Biomedical Conflicts of Interest Leemon B. McHenry Department of Philosophy, California State University, Northridge Jon N. Jureidini Discipline of Psychiatry, University of Adelaide, South Australia rather than to what is meaningful, so that fi ndings that are Abstract likely to be clinical and meaningful are rejected because they fail to reach statistical signifi cance whereas others that appear Scientifi c and ethical misconduct have increased at an clinically trivial are accepted (Ziliak and McCloskey, 2007). Th e alarming rate as a result of the privatization of knowledge. disenchantment with the psychoanalytic paradigm of psychiatry What began as an eff ort to stimulate entrepreneurship led to a massive investment in psychopharmacology and other and increase discovery in biomedical research by physical interventions. A concession now to the limited benefi t strengthening the ties between industry and academics that psychopharmacology off ers would come at great cost to the has led to an erosion of confi dence in the reporting of profession. A vested interest in protecting the new paradigm of research results. Inherent tensions between profi t-directed neurological models of psychiatric disorders reaches beyond the inquiry and knowledge-directed inquiry are instantiated quest for a secure scientifi c foundation. in psychopharmacology, especially in the co-option of academic activity to corporate objectives. The eff ects of To the vulnerability created by personal bias and questionable these tensions are visible in research agendas, publication methodology we must add the dangers of pervasive fi nancial practices, postgraduate education, academic-industry confl icts of interest, of which we investigate the root cause in this partnerships and product promotion. -
Law, Process Philosophy and Ecological Civilization Arran Gare 1
Law, Process Philosophy and Ecological Civilization Arran Gare 1 1. Introduction The call by Chinese environmentalists for an ecological civilization to supersede industrial civilization, subsequently embraced by the Chinese government and now being promoted throughout the world, makes new demands on legal systems, national and international. If governments are going to prevent ecological destruction then law will be essential to this. The Chinese themselves have recognized grave deficiencies in their legal institutions. They are reassessing these and looking to Western traditions for guidance. Yet law as it has developed in the West, particularly in Anglophone countries, which has crystallized as the tradition of ‘liberal legalism’, is in a state of crisis. Rather than being taken as a cause for despair at the legal traditions of East and West, this challenge could be taken as an opportunity to fundamentally rethink the basis of the law and its role in society and civilization. To overcome the deficiencies in the theory and practice of law in so-called ‘liberal democracies’ I will argue here that it will be necessary to revive and develop the philosophies of law associated with the ‘Radical Enlightenment’. This is the tradition of thought that identified freedom and liberty with ‘autonomy’; that is, people giving themselves their own laws rather than having laws imposed upon them. To revive this tradition it is necessary to entertain a far broader perspective on the place of law in society than has been customary among legal theorists. It is necessary to understand the emergence and evolution of law from the beginnings of civilization. -
Drugs, Money and Misleading Evidence
Books & arts tallying up the inequalities. She recruited colleagues to gather much more data. The culmination was a landmark 1999 study on gender bias in MIT’s school of science (see go.nature.com/2ngyiyd), which reverber- ated across US higher education and forced many administrators to confront entrenched discrimination. Yet Hopkins would rather have spent that time doing science, she relates. The third story comes from Jane Willenbring, a geoscientist who in 2016 filed a formal com- plaint accusing her PhD adviser, David March- ant, of routinely abusing her during fieldwork in Antarctica years before. Marchant, who has denied the allegations, was sacked from his post at Boston University in April 2019 after an inves- tigation. Picture a Scientist brings Willenbring together with Adam Lewis, who was also a grad- uate student during that Antarctic field season and witnessed many of the events. Their conver- sations are a stark reminder of how quickly and how shockingly the filters that should govern work interactions can drop off, especially in UPRISING, LLC Biologist Nancy Hopkins campaigned for equal treatment at work for female scientists. remote environments. Lewis tells Willenbring he didn’t realize at the time that she had been as they admit on camera. scientists. Its two other protagonists are white bothered, because she did not show it. “A ton The iceberg analogy for sexual harassment is women with their own compelling stories. of feathers is still a ton,” she says. apt. It holds that only a fraction of harassment — Biologist Nancy Hopkins was shocked In stark contrast, the film shows us obvious things such as sexual assault and sex- when Francis Crick once put his hands on Willenbring, now at the Scripps Institution of ual coercion — rises into public consciousness her breasts as she worked in the laboratory. -
Catherine A. Wright
In the Darkness Grows the Green: The Promise of a New Cosmological Horizon of Meaning Within a Critical Inquiry of Human Suffering and the Cross by Catherine A. Wright A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Regis College and the Theology Department of the Toronto School of Theology in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology awarded by the University of St. Michael's College © Copyright by Catherine A. Wright 2015 In The Darkness Grows the Green: The Promise of a New Cosmological Horizon of Meaning Within a Critical Inquiry of Human Suffering and the Cross Catherine A. Wright Doctor of Philosophy in Theology Regis College and the University of St. Michael’s College 2015 Abstract Humans have been called “mud of the earth,”i organic stardust animated by the Ruah of our Creator,ii and microcosms of the macrocosm.iii Since we now understand in captivating detail how humanity has emerged from the cosmos, then we must awaken to how humanity is “of the earth” in all the magnificence and brokenness that this entails. This thesis will demonstrate that there are no easy answers nor complete theological systems to derive satisfying answers to the mystery of human suffering. Rather, this thesis will uncover aspects of sacred revelation offered in and through creation that could mould distinct biospiritual human imaginations and cultivate the Earth literacy required to construct an ecological theological anthropology (ETA). It is this ecocentric interpretive framework that could serve as vital sustenance and a vision of hope for transformation when suffering befalls us. -
VALUES and WORLDVIEWS for an ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION by Herman Greene
VALUES AND WORLDVIEWS FOR AN ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION By Herman Greene Editor’s Note: This talk was given at the conference on “Alternative Futures: Pathways Toward Ecological Civilization” hosted by Toward Ecological Civilization, Claremont, CA, October 28-29, 2016 To talk about values and worldviews for an ecological civilization in one presentation is a tall order. I’ll take this on by speaking to you about some elements of this that are most important to me. I want to begin by saying I have been greatly influenced by the work of Thomas Berry. There are very different understandings of what an ecological civilization would be. In sustainability some talk about the approaches of the three Sachs: Frist, Wolfgang Sachs of the Wuppertal Institute in Germany – He has written books like Planetary Dialectics and Fair Future. He is a critic of both conventional development and conventional sustainable development. Second, Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University –He is a trained macroeconomist, was an important adviser to Russia and other former states of the Soviet Union on privatization and the development of market economies after the end of the Cold War. He now is the leader of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and is perhaps the most prominent leader in conventional sustainable development. He advocates applying all of the capacities of the industrial economy to eradicate poverty and realize justice and sustainability. Third, Goldman Sachs – Goldman Sachs, of course, is not an individual. It is a global investment bank and represents conventional development, capital markets, and globalization. Thomas Berry is of the Wolfgang Sachs variety or maybe better one could say that Wolfgang Sachs is of the Thomas Berry variety. -
The American Philosophical Association EASTERN DIVISION ONE HUNDRED TENTH ANNUAL MEETING PROGRAM
The American Philosophical Association EASTERN DIVISION ONE HUNDRED TENTH ANNUAL MEETING PROGRAM BALTIMORE MARRIOTT WATERFRONT BALTIMORE, MARYLAND DECEMBER 27 – 30, 2013 Important Notices for Meeting Attendees SESSION LOCATIONS Please note: the locations of all individual sessions will be included in the paper program that you will receive when you pick up your registration materials at the meeting. To save on printing costs, the program will be available only online prior to the meeting; with the exception of plenary sessions, the online version does not include session locations. In addition, locations for sessions on the first evening (December 27) will be posted in the registration area. IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT REGISTRATION Please note: it costs $40 less to register in advance than to register at the meeting. The advance registration rates are the same as last year, but the additional cost of registering at the meeting has increased. Online advance registration at www.apaonline.org is available until December 26. 1 Friday Evening, December 27: 6:30–9:30 p.m. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING 1:00–6:00 p.m. REGISTRATION 3:00–10:00 p.m., registration desk (third floor) PLACEMENT INFORMATION Interviewers and candidates: 3:00–10:00 p.m., Dover A and B (third floor) Interview tables: Harborside Ballroom, Salons A, B, and C (fourth floor) FRIDAY EVENING, 6:30–9:30 P.M. MAIN PROGRAM SESSIONS I-A. Symposium: Ancient and Medieval Philosophy of Language THIS SESSION HAS BEEN CANCELLED. I-B. Symposium: German Idealism: Recent Revivals and Contemporary Relevance Chair: Jamie Lindsay (City University of New York–Graduate Center) Speakers: Robert Brandom (University of Pittsburgh) Axel Honneth (Columbia University) Commentator: Sally Sedgwick (University of Illinois–Chicago) I-C.