Further Recommended
Paul Davies, MIND OF GOD, Simon & Schuster cl992 by Orion Productions.
[An excellent approach to the concept of God from the
mind of a physicist]
John Shelby Spong,
RESCUING THE BIBLE FROM FUNDAMENTALISM,
Harper Collins, cl991
[An Episcopal Bishop talks about
interpreting scripture in symbolism rather than literalism. ]
C G. Jung, MODERN MAN IN SEARCH OF A SOUL, c1933
[
World famous psychiatrist Carl Jung, known for his contribution of personality
types, discusses the sorry state of mans spiritual nature in the modern world
As meaningful today as it was in the thirties; maybe even more so. ]
David Leeming,
MYTHOLOGY, Newsweek Books, cl976
[ An excellent treatment of approaching mythology for the
symbolic truth and universal motifs. ]
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Food
For Thought:
From the mind of Paul Davies, Physicist
Whitehead
proposed that physical reality is a network linking what he termed "actual
occasions," these being more than mere events, for they are, invested with
a freedom and internal experience that are lacking in the mechanistic view of
the world. Central to Whitehead's philosophy is that God is responsible for
ordering the world, not through direct action, but by providing various
potentialities, which the physical universe is than free to actualize. In this
way God does not compromise the essential openness and indeterminism of the
universe, but is nevertheless in a position, to encourage a trend toward good.
Traces of this subtle and indirect influence may be discerned in the
progressive nature of biological evolution, for example; and, the tendency for
the universe to self organize into a richer variety of even more complex forms.
Whitehead
thus replaces the monarchical image of God as omnipotent creator and ruler to
that of a "Participator" in the creative process. He is no longer
self sufficient and unchanging, but influences, and is influenced by, the-
unfolding reality of the physical universe. On the other hand, God is not
thereby completely embedded in the stream of time. His basic character and
purpose remain unchanging and eternal. In this way, timelessness and
temporality are folded into a single entity.
Some people
claim that a "dipolar" God can combine necessity and contingency. Achieving this, however, means giving up any hope, that God might
be as simple in his Divine Perfection as Aquinas supposed. Kieth Ward, for example, has proposed a complex model for
God's Nature, some parts which might be necessary, others contingent. Such a
God, though necessarily existent, is nevertheless changed by His creation, and
by His own creative action, which includes an element of openness and freedom.
(Paul
Davies, MIND OF GOD, Simon & Schuster, cl992, p183)