theology – Page 9 – Phi-The-Sci: Equilateral Musings

Creativity in Nature

Recently, I have been reading “A Purpose for Everything” by Charles Birch. He is a geneticist, and importantly (to me), he is a proponent of process philosophy / process theology. I have been reading his book very slowly. Hey, I’m a pediatric gastroenterologist with a busy schedule! Anyway, P. 38 (Twenty-Third Publishing version) made anContinue reading “Creativity in Nature”

Listening to Francis Collins

I was able to attend an on-line meeting of the American Scientific Affiliation this weekend. The ASA is a wonderful organization for Christians who work in the sciences. I have been a member for many years. Francis Collins was the guest speaker, and I think about 30+ people attended. On a personal note, I sentContinue reading “Listening to Francis Collins”

Panexperientialism

Ahh, now to the most difficult of the three “p“s of Naturalismppp — panexperientialism. It is actually not that difficult, but it kind of runs into the realm of woo spirituality / New Age thinking if taken into silly realms. Panexperientialism basically means that every entity has “experience”. Lots of thoughts here, but let usContinue reading “Panexperientialism”

Panentheism

In my continuation of explaining the 3 “p“s of natural theology, the second p of Naturalismppp is panentheism. This term is often mistaken for “pantheism.” There is nothing wrong with a word like pantheism. It simply means God or gods are in every natural thing. “Panentheism”, on the other hand, simply means all are inContinue reading “Panentheism”

Prehension

In order to understand the concept of God in the world without the need of the supernatural, the term Naturalismppp has been developed by Griffin. Three philosophical ideas (the three “p“s) with theological overlap can describe God in such a setting — prehension, panentheism, and panexperientialism. It is completely reasonable to believe in supernatural eventsContinue reading “Prehension”

Morality

Morality — I put the idea right up there with consciousness in terms of items we don’t understand. Many religious people are immoral as seen in world history. Some of the most moral people I have ever met are atheists. War, murder, eating animals, tax evasion, not helping the poor, etc.: I would think thatContinue reading “Morality”

Dr. Oord excommunicated

Dr. Oord was my dissertation advisor, and this is a very sad story about how his denomination treated him for supporting LGBTQ+ people. I’ve known Dr. Oord for several years. He is a giant of 21st century Christian theology. He is kind. He is unbelievably intelligent in both theology and philosophy. He believes that theContinue reading “Dr. Oord excommunicated”