Okay, God, I apologize. In the past, I have occasionally argued that you don’t intervene in worldly events. I have even suggested that you cannot intervene to fix things down here.
I was wrong. I must have been. Because Dan Rather writes in his Facebook blog, “I end each of my days with a silent prayer for my country… I hope against hope as I slip off to sleep that our rapid descent into governmental chaos has hit a nadir -- only to awaken to a new set of incoherent tweets or explosive headlines. I pray again that our Constitutional government, the great gift of our Founding Fathers, will provide a safety net to catch us before everything we hold dear is no more…”
If a famous news anchor like Dan Rather believes you can do something about the state of the world, who am I to disagree?
May I draw to your attention…?
Dan Rather focuses his prayer mostly on the events in Washington. I too hope you’ll intervene there. But I realize that about 50 per cent of Americans don’t share his prayer. They see the minefields around their president as proof of a massive conspiracy by the Washington elite and the mainstream media.
I’ll happily leave you to figure out how to handle those contradictory expectations.
I’d rather ask you to do something about some situations that no one sees any good in.
Like the trash floating around our oceans. One recent study says the pieces of plastic in the water now outnumber the fish.
And while I’m on the subject of water, could you do something about flooding? Our lake is higher than it has been in 50 years. Docks and paths are under water. Homes have been evacuated. Roads washed out.
Storms get stronger. Hurricanes, typhoons, tornadoes – the damage gets worse each time. If it isn’t El Nino, it’s La Nina. Or a Ninja current of some kind, generously distributing Japanese nuclear radiation all around the Pacific.
But the places where they could use some rainstorms don’t get any. Millions are dying of starvation in Somalia, Eritrea, South Sudan…. With all the agricultural advances of our “green revolution,” surely there’s no need for people to keep dying from lack of food.
Corporate injustice
Hey, even in our supposedly affluent industrial world, people are dying because they can’t afford the medications that would keep them alive, and healthy. When pharmaceutical companies jack their prices up, they hold the sick and dying captive. And then governments refuse to make ransom payments for the treatments.
I don’t know who’s winning here. But I know who’s losing.
And speaking of companies, were you aware that giant corporations like Monsanto knew for decades that their weed killer was a carcinogen? And they kept their research under wraps? Isn’t there something dishonest going on there?
Sorry – what did you say? Of course you could do something about all this. You’re Almighty, after all. But you won’t. We got ourselves into this mess; we gotta get ourselves out of it.
Okay, but in that case, one last request. As your one-and-only intervention, could you please erase from our minds forever the belief that we can expect you to fix things for us?
*****************************************
Copyright © 2017 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups, and links from other blogs, welcomed; all other rights reserved.
To comment on this column, write jimt@quixotic.ca
*****************************************
YOUR TURN
Tom Watson liked the termite analogy: Prior to your column, I knew absolutely nothing about termites, so thanks for the education about the mound they build being an emergent reality. I am left wondering what the termites do if they encounter a time when they're not sure where they're going. If churches are an analogous emergent reality, we could help the termites out. We have an answer to the "not knowing where we're going" dilemma. Restructure!
“We should warn the termites, though, that the mound will no longer be the focus of the activity or the reason for being; the restructuring itself will consume the collective energy.”
John Martin had a recommendation: “You've probably heard of Daniel Dennett. I'm currently reading his From Bacteria to Bach and Back, which echoes some of what Abrams seems -- from your report -- to be saying. Recommended.”
Laurna Tallman wrote, “Brilliant. Helpful, from my place in the termite mound.”
Robert Caughell objected to the new word “emergent”: “People who are too lazy/stupid to look up/use proper/appropriate already existing words create new ones to appear cool/cutting edge, etc. As if the English language isn't complicated enough already.”
James Russell took the concept of emergence and ran with it: “I understand emergence slightly differently, that is, as describing a phenomenon that arises from interactions among other phenomena but which operates according to laws and rules which are not reducible to the laws and rules governing the phenomena from which it emerges. (Or sorta like that, eh?)
“One easy example in science is Boyle's laws: They relate temperature, volume and pressures of gases, all of which are real, and which are independent of the type of gas (double the pressure on a sample of any gas -- helium, oxygen, whatever -- and you will halve its volume [assuming constant temperature]). The gases themselves are composed of atoms. Yet the concepts of temperature and pressure apply only to gases, not to atoms.
“The concept is quite important: It clears up, for instance, why there is no need for a Supreme Mixmaster to perform a special and separate creation of Man. People emerge -- that is, they evolve -- through the operation of gradually more complex phenomena emerging through sufficiently prolonged interactions among simpler. We come from mud, but we are not mud. No mystery, really. Evolution is indifferent to whether there is or is not a god.
“And the reverse is also true. We can't explain societies (or politics, or morality) by reference only to individuals [within those societies: JT] Societies are emergent. The individual is NOT supreme over society. Nor the reverse. They interact and shape each other, but the laws governing the behaviour of societies are not the same as those for individuals. In particular, whether greed is a virtue for individuals might be arguable. But it's far from clear that societies can even BE virtuous, let alone why or how the pursuit of greed could become a desirable goal for a society.
“All of which to say: Good column. The concept of emergence is indeed an interesting one, with wide and surprising application. But is there any reason to think that an emergent God would be any more interested in individual people than we are interested in the fate of our individual nail clippings? Or that God's wants or desires would be comprehensible to us or even relevant to us? After all, I don't expect insulin to be interested in what I'm planning for dinner....
Perhaps I need to clarify Nancy Ellen Abrams intent, in her book A God That Could Be Real. I don’t think she’s trying to prove the existence of an emergent God, but rather that there is nothing in science that can disprove the existence of such a God –- unlike most of the scientific criticisms of a traditional God.
*******************************************
PSALM PARAPHRASES
Do you remember, as a child, writing thank-you letters for birthday gifts? That’s the feeling that Psalm 113 gives me.
1 Dear God,
How can we thank you enough for your gifts to us?
2 We will remember you with gratitude
today, and tomorrow, and all through the days to come.
3 All day, every day, we will thank you.
4 You saw our situation. You noticed our needs.
7 You brightened our lives with your gifts.
You lifted us up to sit in your lap.
You make us feel loved and wanted.
5 You looked on us with love.
6 There is no one else like you;
you understand the deepest yearnings of our hearts.
8 We are wealthy beyond our wildest imaginings.
9 Last night our home was bitter and sad;
today it rings with laughter and joy
because you chose us as your family.
For paraphrases of most of the psalms used by the Revised Common Lectionary, you can order my book Everyday Psalms from Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com.
*******************************************
YOU SCRATCH MY BACK…
• Ralph Milton most recent project, Sing Hallelujah -- the world’s first video hymnal -- consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at www.singhallelujah.ca
• Isabel Gibson's thoughtful and well-written blog, www.traditionaliconoclast.com
• Wayne Irwin's "Churchweb Canada," an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://www.churchwebcanada.ca>
• Alva Wood's satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town are not particularly religious, but they are fun; write alvawood@gmail.com to get onto her mailing list.
• Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at twatson@sentex.net
*****************************************
TECHNICAL STUFF
If you want to comment on something, send a message directly to me, jimt@quixotic.ca.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send an e-mail message to jimt@quixotic.ca. Or you can subscribe electronically by sending a blank e-mail (no message or subject line) to softedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca. Similarly, you can un-subscribe at softedges-unsubscribe@lists.quixotic.ca.
My webpage is up and running again -- thanks to Wayne Irwin and ChurchWeb Canada. You can now access current columns and about five years of archives at http://quixotic.ca
I write a second column each Sunday called Sharp Edges, which tends to be somewhat more cutting about social and justice issues. To sign up for Sharp Edges, write to me directly, jimt@quixotic.ca, or send a note to sharpedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca
********************************************