People and Planet

Paula said...

But I would take issue with your assertion that the church " has run its course." From where I stand, there is an abundance of life left in it. What many of us want to do is work together with the U.S. Bishops to re-create the institution in the vision of Vatican II. Will you contribute your considerable acumen to this cause? Please help us think of ways to exercise our baptismal responsibility to build the church going forward. We know the ways in which we are failing; we need help to imagine new ways. We don't need so much discouragement from you. Will you consider it? Thanks, Marie.

November 19, 2010 1:22 PM

Marie

Our task is: understanding and replacing the mythical trappings in RC to pursue a genuine faith that seeks reality, and eliminate a pseudo-faith that invents reality.

November 21, 2010 2:54 PM

Marie

Many Catholics need further intense education, epistemology being but one subject. That has been a part of the problem; indoctrination is not the answer.

November 22, 2010 12:52 PM

Marie

We are in a post-Vatican II period and into a beginning post-Axial Age faith phenomenon. 11-9-10.

Marie

11-21-10 but with additional information.  I think I am repeating myself but once again: what is this contemporary knowledge?  Scientific biblical-historical scholarship  -- the kind Pope Pius XII promulgated in his encyclical is one source.  Philosophy, especially epistemology on belief, justification and knowledge is another source.  There is a direct connection here to doctrines or issues such as the incarnation, resurrection, the faith and revelation circular argument, and magisterial authority.  Relevant science is yet another source.  Our task is: understanding and replacing the mythical trappings in RC to pursue a genuine faith that seeks reality, and eliminate a pseudo-faith that invents reality.

Paula and colkoch --

Nov. 29, 2010 Since my message is too long for a post, I am using my blog to get this message to you.  Please google Marie Schickel Rottschaefer or click my name on PCV.

The above comments say a lot about our recent communication. 

To move on the issues takes a whole lot of study: a basic understanding of Catholicism with study of the Catechism of a few years back, McBrien’s Catholicism, the Vatican II documents etc.  Then we move to relevant religion and faith issues outside the box of indoctrination.

First a response to colkoch, thank you.  I read a little on the observer effect in quantum physics.  Very interesting but you and I are discussing different issues.

Now to Paula and PCV.  I think what fired up this conversation was your saying  “We don't need so much discouragement from you.”  I do not want to discourage you.  I have been writing about the global crisis for many years in response to many experts’ writing about it, and about many changes that appear to be a part of our definitive twenty-first century.  They can lead us to discouragement or to encouragement.  It is our choice.  I have been opting for encouragement every step of the way.  Otherwise I would not have taken on this task.  The situation is grim but not hopeless.  

In no way do I put down you or PCV.  Quite the opposite.  I have worked on this project for many years and see in PCV people something quite remarkable!  Virtuous, productive, open-minded, wonderful people.  I wish I had known of your existence much earlier. The irony of life!  I get interest and response from PCV people now that it is time for me to exit.  I have to close my blog and discontinue posts permanently for health reasons.

I have had the opportunity of working with Catholic people and groups for most of my life.  PCV wins first prize!  I have given to the Church as a layperson at least 70 years of dedicated service.  I have been given a gift for which I am most grateful, to have access to a great many information sources by experts in diverse disciplines and other sources, given the work that my husband does and my own field of work.  Some of what I say may seem unconventional, but if people read and connect the dots, it may seem expected!

I can tell that you and colkoch and other PCV-related people want church reform  -- very much.  I opt for evolution of the people who call themselves Christian.  Our species called Homo sapiens has been evolving for hundreds of thousands of years.  This new faith phenomenon that I think is in the making will simply change peoples’ ways of doing things, not destroy our belief in a Supreme Being Who is the Origin of our being, a Necessary Being Whom we can rely on with every breath we take, every thought we consider, every behavior and action we generate.  We still worship, share love, realize justice, participate in sociality, and work in freedom and with responsibility.

You said Paula, ‘we need help to imagine new ways.’  It may not be a church but it will be a faith group.  I think that the least we can do is read what the experts are saying, judge for ourselves the merit of what they are saying, and appropriately respond. 

I’m available if you want to stay in touch but it has to be limited.  May you flourish.  Thank you for all your gifts.  Marie.

People And Planet

November 24, 2010

http://unprecedentedchange.blogspot.com

or google Marie Schickel Rottschaefer

Blog 7

Continuing from last week, Paul and Elder speak to the result from learning critical thinking.   I will repeat the characteristics of a well-cultivated thinker; I inadvertently left out material in the second point.

"A well-cultivated critical thinker:

·      raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely;

·      gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively

·      comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards;

·      thinks open-mindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences; and

·      communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems.”

In resume blog 6 point 2 I gave an example regarding a range of focus on nutrition.  Regarding the second part of point 2 i.e. using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively, I would choose personal nutrition since my project would be about the essentials of health promotion for the individual.

Regarding point 3 testing solutions, the response is easy.  I use biological and other natural sciences, medical and the social sciences.  Regarding point 4 history is a good check on alternatives.  Many of the old time alternatives were either unscientific or less advanced science.  Point 5 in communicating with others, is a given. Nutrition science has progressed impressively.  The science and technology of exercise has advanced with Dr. Kenneth Cooper’s aerobics and since that time.  All the other areas mentioned are advanced specialty areas requiring assistance from health professionals of one kind or another but cooperation from the client in doing his/her homework.

The authors continue, describing the core of critical thinking.

Self-directed

Self-disciplined

Self-monitored

Self-corrective thinking.

It takes for granted consent to rigorous standards of excellence and attentive control of their use.  It requires effective communication and problem solving abilities and a commitment to overcome our native egocentrism and sociocentrism.

This is what a health promotion project is about, self-directed; excellence, appropriate control, effective communication, problem solving, and one of the most challenging issues, a commitment to overcome innate egocentrism and sociocentrism.

People And Planet

November 18, 2010

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Resume Blog 6

The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking -- Concepts & Tools by Dr. Richard Paul and Dr. Linda Elder The Foundation for Critical Thinking 2003 is our mini-guide that contains the essence of critical thinking concepts and tools extracted for ‘pocket size’ learning.  Users apply these skills to their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and various academic disciplines such as history, science, math, philosophy, and the arts; as well as their personal and professional life.  So this is a good beginning for those ‘training to be trained’ in this complex and uncertain society.

The authors begin by laying out the problem as to why we need critical thinking. Every one of us thinks.  But without training often enough our thinking is subject to being biased, distorted, partial, uniformed or clearly prejudiced.  We could easily think of examples we have encountered.  They continue, the quality of our life and that of what we produce, make, or build depends on the quality of our thought.  Substandard thinking is costly, in money and in quality of life.  But excellence in thought must be systematically developed.  (Let us remember as people & planet restoration people, we are trying to bring quality to people and planet.)

Such quality thinking must have a definition.  Paul and Elder say: Critical thinking is that mode of thinking about any subject, content, or problem in which the thinker improves the quality of his/her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them.

To understand this abstract definition concretely I use my own examples.  Each person has his/her examples depending on one’s individual life circumstances.  As a retired RN I am interested in health promotion.  What are the structures?  --  All those areas that promote health: nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress management, avoiding harmful substances and situations in the environment, and timely preventive and restorative health care.  These are the intellectual standards to be imposed on the structure or construction of a health promotion project because if any are missing then the health promotion  task is compromised.  In building a house, if any vital pieces were missing, it would never pass inspection. 

What is the result we would expect from our adaptation?

Paul and Elder list them.

A well-cultivated thinker:

- raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely

[People and planet restoration workers want to get it right; my immediate area would be to focus on nutrition]

- gathers and assesses relevant information

[What area of nutrition?  It could be anything from personal nutrition with particular diets for normal to therapeutic diets on one end of the spectrum, to State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet An incisive account of the global food crisis—and how it can be solved, on the other end.  We know that it’s important to stay focused on one area yet be flexible enough to change priorities if necessary.]

I will continue Paul & Elder’s list next week with my examples to make it specific.

People and Planet

People And Planet

November 13, 2010

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Resume Blog 5

[Critical thinking is a] desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and hatred for every kind of imposture.  ~Francis Bacon (1605) Courtesy http://www.criticalthinking.org/ .  This Internet address will lead you to a wealth of material. 

From Resume Blog 4 “There is a handy resource that can teach us more about critical thinking skills.  After two millennia of indoctrination and questionable thinking regarding many assumptions in Catholicism, and Christianity in general, we could use some fresh ways of reasoning and discovering reality.” This little booklet put out by these critical thinking people will be a start for us.

I also said that there are people to assist, knowledge resources available, a world of opportunities to re-enrich the planet and its inhabitants and hopefully mitigate the tipping point, the sixth mass extinction, climate change, and promote the reestablishment of the earth’s homeostasis and the mechanisms that sustain it.

We as a species created this deficit.  It is up to us to bring it back into balance as best we can.  But we need skills and virtue to do it.  Notice all the virtues described in that one sentence of Francis Bacon.  The multi-faceted global crisis is so severe that we must train ourselves to mitigate it, ‘to get it right’, even though we will make mistakes.  Patience and perseverance are essential.

According to my philosopher husband the definition of virtue is: a learned capacity to do the right thing in every circumstance.  Aristotle, Plato, certain English philosophers, and others are examples of ‘virtue ethicists.’  Being a virtuous person is of course an ideal to strive for, but even very young children can be empathetic and have a sense of fairness.  We learn from day one.  I believe that I had mentioned earlier that epistemology and logic are branches of philosophy; so too, ethics. 

Moving from talk about virtue to reminding ourselves that we need skills, I want to state once again a post that I put on PCV recently.

Marie Schickel Rottschaefer said...

9-15-10 Progressive Catholic Voice people I wish you well with your Synod of the Baptized but how about adding this agenda at the end?
May 2010 (CNN) -- The world's eco-systems are at risk of "rapid degradation and collapse" according to a new United Nations report.
The third Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3) published by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) warns that unless "swift, radical and creative action" is taken "massive further loss is increasingly likely." Reading the entire online report is vital.

September 15, 2010 10:09 PM

Are we some of those people who will take “swift, radical and creative action”?

There are a zillion potential and actual green jobs out there in the world.  But unemployment, well,  -- See The New York Times: Off The Charts In Global Unemployment, a Sea of Young Faces By Floyd Norris Published: April 16, 2010.  The question is how to get jobs and the unemployed together?  Doing the right thing well means we must train ourselves in virtue and skill.  We train ourselves in marketable skills or by creating our own jobs.  There is merit in either path and each path has its challenges as well.  We have the perfect set-up: vast global needs to be met, people anxiously job searching, and a cautious consideration of training to be trained.  What I am suggesting is outside the academic circle but using academic resources – a personal development program of learning skills in thinking and enhancing one’s basic virtue or good qualities to prepare for further academic education or new job possibilities i.e. training to be trained.  To change the planet in a high-tech society will take a high degree of personal, technical, and professional education.  But those who train to be trained will not have a free education; they earned it.  No, they can consider themselves as having already paid their tuition given the circumstances of their lives. 

 Let’s begin with our tiny booklet to learn more about training ourselves to get it right.  The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking by Dr. Richard Paul and Dr. Linda Elder The Foundation for Critical Thinking 2003.

People And Planet

November 11, 2010

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or google Marie Schickel Rottschaefer

Resume Blog 4

 From Resume Blog 3: “-- both science and philosophy are essential tools in constructing a post-axial age faith.  We need the evidence of science but the reasoning power of philosophy to correct possible errors of thinking and enhance our cognitive capacities.”

This sounds so intellectual, but yes, this is our evolution!  Words must be anchored in reality, ‘feeling good’ must find its rightful place, and behavior and action genuinely, purposefully productive.  Hopefully this is building the post-Axial Age faith phenomenon.  This is learning further the skills to express love (caring), to promote justice, to end the suffering, to bring healing, to restore as much as we can the goods and the services to profoundly deprived people and animals, to replenish the earth (land, oceans and waterways, the atmosphere), and to promote for our descendants and ourselves -- a better future.  This advances our evolutionary journey and step-by-step we travel closer to the Origin of our contingent being at least in understanding more and more our bequest of a universe.  Necessary Being sustains our contingent being as we discover our reality.

There are people to assist, knowledge resources available, a world of opportunities to re-enrich the planet and its inhabitants and hopefully mitigate the tipping point, the sixth mass extinction, climate change, and re-establish the earth’s homeostasis and the mechanisms that sustain it.

There is a handy resource that can teach us more about critical thinking skills.  After two millennia of indoctrination and questionable thinking regarding many assumptions in Catholicism, and Christianity in general, we could use some fresh ways of reasoning and discovering reality.  This tiny booklet was my clue for the need to advance in critical thinking skills as a beginning step.  I call it the art of correct thinking.  To construct a post-Axial Age faith phenomenon we need good thinking skills to distinguish between fact and fiction, myth from reality, and evidence from wishful thinking.  As a follow-up we can reference pertinent philosophical sources as needed.  Then we can examine the relevant science and use it for restoring planet earth to the best of our ability.  We have no time to delay.  The following is a quote that is over 10 years old!

“The Sixth Extinction

Niles Eldredge

An ActionBioscience.org original article

articlehighlights Can we stop the devastation of our planet and save our own species? We are in a biodiversity crisis — the fastest mass extinction in Earth’s history, largely due to:

␣ human destruction of ecosystems ␣ overexploitation of species and natural resources ␣ human overpopulation ␣ the spread of agriculture ␣ pollution.”

We have a multitude of resources; the political will and organization must be multiplied by the existing effort.

People and Planet

People And Planet

November 5, 2010

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Resume Blog 3

Earlier I spoke of Christianity’s foundation based on the incarnation and resurrection beliefs needing to evolve into a new faith phenomenon.  The faith and morals issue of more than two millennia must metamorphose.  The incarnation and resurrection belief reevaluation (biblical-historical scientific scholarship) and the faith and revelation issue based on an infallible authority i.e. the hierarchical structure (epistemology challenging its validity) are two reasons why a supernatural view has been supplanted with a natural view.   An axial age religion is undergoing a metamorphosis into a post-axial age faith phenomenon.  The invention of reality is being replaced with the discovery of reality.  Necessary Being has bequeathed a universe to contingent being (us).  Our evolutionary journey needs to be sustained not squelched by a sixth mass extinction we are currently experiencing.  If we want to be people of faith, moral people, our task is to unite as a species to restore our planet and its inhabitants.  This world and its manifestation of being an evolutionary journey is the basis of our new found faith.  Our task is to accept this fact in all its implications.  Here is where the faith and morals issue begins to metamorphose.  The state of planet earth and contemporary knowledge induce the change.  To repeat for emphasis, both science and philosophy are essential tools in constructing a post-axial age faith.  We need the evidence of science but the reasoning power of philosophy to correct possible errors of thinking and enhance our cognitive capacities.  Cooperation, collaboration, negotiation, shaking off fear, establishing trust in valuing the sharing of talents and gifts, replacing envy, intolerance, and self-seeking with cherishing each others’ contributions, to continue our journey of evolution and keep devolution, (degeneration), and extinction at bay is required.  Extinction screams at us to change our direction.  We must convince one another without condemning one another.

People And Planet

November 3, 2010

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Resume Blog 2

11-4-10 Last time in blog 1 of my resumed blogs I extended Peter Steinfels’ metaphor of a church further adrift to it being run aground.  Its foundation based on the incarnation and resurrection beliefs have to evolve into a new faith phenomenon.

Prior to this in my post 10-24-10 to PCV in response to Steinfels’ piece I said the bedrock, the theological infrastructure of Christianity i.e. the doctrines of the incarnation and resurrection appear to have collapsed.  Biblical-historical scientific scholarship and philosophical reasoning e.g. epistemology in exposing the circular argument of the "faith-revelation' issue are bottom line reasons why educated people can no longer practice Christianity. This Axial Age religion has run its course. A post-Axial Age faith phenomenon is evolving.  Biblical-historical science and epistemological reasoning are intersecting to strengthen the position that we are moving into a post-Axial Age faith phenomenon. 

The Axial Age cultural cohesion seeking personal wholeness and social coherence was functional but over time has moved into significant dysfunction.  (See Loyal Rue: Everybody’s Story and Religion Is Not About God.)  Dysfunction has its own reasons and causes.  Who has not encountered dysfunction in some form in his/her individual life?  The history of Homo sapiens tells the story.  Momentous issues such as the advancement of human knowledge and the dire state of planet earth and its inhabitants propel humanity into indispensable and unprecedented change.  Anyone of us can notice small, subtle cutbacks in goods and services that just a few years ago were not the case.  But for a large percentage of the planet the situation of scarcity is multiplied drastically.

Besides the biblical-historical scientific scholarship, epistemological reasoning necessitates examining the circular argument inherent in the faith and revelation issue be it a Catholic or Protestant viewpoint.  We are nudged into the realization that our long-standing Christian faith has finished its course.  A provisionally named post-Axial Age faith phenomenon is our only recourse if we are to continue as faith-seekers.  I say provisionally because this definitive century will name itself.   So what is the problem with the faith-revelation issue?  

First let’s refresh our memories as to the definition of ‘begging the question’.  Begging the question is a form of logical fallacy in which a statement or claim is assumed to be true without evidence other than the statement or claim itself.  When one begs the question, the initial assumption of a statement is treated as already proven without any logic to show why the statement is true in the first place.  [For those who have not studied philosophy, logic is another branch of philosophy as is epistemology]. We can see why both science and philosophy are essential tools in constructing a post-axial age faith.  We need the evidence of science but the reasoning power of philosophy to correct possible errors of thinking and enhance our cognitive capacities.

So, returning to Thomas Sheehan’s “Revolution in the Church” article mentioned in resumed Blog 1 he explains the circularity in the faith and revelation connection.  “In other words, the Catholic argument from revelation seems to end up either begging the question (the infallible interpreters of revelation must first interpret revelation as constituting them infallible) or taking refuge in a quasi Protestantism that throws believers back on their personal experience of God's revelation. But if one follows the second path,  -- the same circularity of revelation of himself is what brings faith about; yet only from within faith can the believer know that there has been revelation and what has been revealed.”  “Over and above the scientific gains that the Catholic liberal consensus has made, its major achievement has been to rediscover the ineluctability of this hermeneutical circle of revelation and faith.  -- In any case, this rediscovery seems to be bringing the Church to what can be called the end of Catholicism, that is, to the limits of what it can say about God and the human condition.”

I fine-tune this for my own understanding as follows.  The circularity = the explanatory circle of revelation and faith i.e. revelation brings faith about yet only through faith can the believer know that revelation exists.   A circular argument has no epistemic ground; its foundations, scope and validity are not available.  See Robert Audi’s Belief Justification and Knowledge for more on the circular argument.                                                                      

What works for me in developing a post-Axial Age faith is to consider my own contingent (dependent) being.  Therefore there must be a Necessary Being, a Supreme Being, the Origin of my being from which I exist.  I am a person and so my personhood came from the fullness of personhood i.e. this Necessary Being Who is the fullness of the Personal.  My being is generated from the One Who is Person, but not in the Christian sense of Trinity. (Jesus as second person of the Trinity appears to be an obsolete reality; read more of the biblical scholars including Sheehan to check this out.)   If there was no incarnation and resurrection of Jesus then the Trinity concept needs to be replaced.  All people -- believers of any religion -- a non-believer who says that we could have come from nothing, (I actually heard someone say this!), might consider it more logical to believe that we came from necessary being than from non-being – all of these people might come to a common understanding of our own contingency.  Understanding our contingency means that knowledge is our goal and belief is subject to change.  We express our being in and with and through our Necessary Being, who is with us in every breath we take, every thought we consider, and every behavior and action we generate.  Awesome!

People And Planet

October 28, 2010

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 Resume Blog 1

10-28-10 As a laywoman reading and writing online in recent times it has become clear that the RC church is in a quagmire.  When one is in quicksand generally speaking one’s only recourse is to be rescued.  I believe that this is the position the church is in today.  Outside help is the only answer because the-struggle has been long.  The struggle is multifaceted -- abuse of various kinds, financial disaster, spiritual, doctrinal, ethical, and everyday practical issues needing appropriate resolution have besieged the church.  And so I would like to present some people and resources ready to assist.  Because visits to my blog [People and Planet hhtp://unprecedentedchange.blogspot.com or google Marie Schickel Rottschaefer] have trickled in since August 2010 I have decided to resume writing my blog but in an ad hoc manner for the time being.         

The issues I raise are not so much about parishes and dioceses problem- solving as about the church as an institution and meta-level issues.  In my post in response to Peter Steinfels’ A Church Further Adrift 10-22-10, I state that the bedrock, the theological infrastructure of Christianity i.e. the doctrines of the incarnation and resurrection appear to have collapsed.  I say this because the book The Acts of Jesus by Robert Funk and the Jesus Seminar as I understand it gives a strong argument for this being the case from the scientific biblical-historical scholarship that they have produced.  This is the kind of scholarship that Pope Pius XII promulgated in 1943 with his encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu: “11. There is no one who cannot easily perceive that the conditions of biblical studies and their subsidiary sciences have greatly changed within the last fifty years. For, apart from anything else, when Our Predecessor published the Encyclical Letter Providentissimus Deus, hardly a single place in Palestine had begun to be explored by means of relevant excavations. Now, however, this kind of investigation is much more frequent and, since more precise methods and technical skill have been developed in the course of actual experience, it gives us information at once more abundant and more accurate. How much light has been derived from these explorations for the more correct and fuller understanding of the Sacred Books all experts know, as well as all those who devote themselves to these studies.”

Thomas Sheehan in his article in The New York Review of Books Volume 31, Number 10. June 14, 1984 “Revolution in the Church” goes into detail as to why the sea change in the church.  Both the encyclical and Sheehan’s piece can be found on the Internet.  The Funk et al book is easily accessible.

Indeed the church is further adrift because it is being run aground or in to a quagmire.  It has run its course.  Its foundation based on the incarnation and resurrection beliefs have to evolve into a new faith phenomenon.  The faith and morals issue of more than two millennia must metamorphose.  The Axial Age from which it originated is far more ancient (see Loyal Rue’s Religion Is Not About God ---).  But things change and Homo sapiens’ history makes the Axial Age look relatively brief.  The World Book Multimedia Encyclopedia New York World Book 1996 states that most anthropologists believe that between about 400,000 & 300,000 years ago, Homo erectus evolved into a new species called Homo sapiens.

People and Planet

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People and Planet – unprecedented change Blog #6
September 14, 2010
Marie Schickel Rottschaefer
Retired RN BSN & MS (Nursing Education)


9-14-10
The commonality that I see between Rosemary Ruether speaking about a spirituality of infantilism which was deeply bred into our psyches in our traditional Catholic socialization, Tom Doyle speaking about clericalism and its trappings, and Bernie Rodel, Eileen Rodel and Paula Ruddy discussing When is a Law Not a Law? is this.   Each is a recent response to the authority question in Catholicism.  The question at hand is, where is the justification for such authority?  This leads to the next question, where can true authority be found?
Although I speak as a laywoman, I think that epistemology (theory of knowledge and justification) and other philosophical areas and critical thinking skills, as well as relevant science including especially scientific biblical-historical scholarship, would immediately extricate people from the ‘indoctrination box’ ever implicit in each of these groups’ thinking as Catholic people.  The biblical-historical scholarship demonstrates the bedrock of Christianity i.e. the incarnation and resurrection beliefs.  If the bedrock is problematic then anything built upon it is even more so.  Philosophy and the relevant sciences will enhance the change that Christianity, as a religion that originated in the age of mythology must accept.  The significant lack of necessary acceptance is what is promoting Christianity’s demise.
Christianity and the Roman Catholic Church have had intellectuals in every age.  Thinking has both evolved and superseded one mindset over another depending on the circumstances of a particular historical period.  But this is the period of a twenty-first century scientific worldview, the age of the Internet, and moving towards a digital world library, as I understand it.  This means that the magisterial authority has to prove itself intellectually superior to the world depository of knowledge.  The hierarchy has access to the same experts for advice, as does anyone else.  Not only that, the church representing itself as ‘the sacred’ and the world representing itself as ‘the secular’ -- in the final analysis -- each has access to the same human knowledge base.   Evolutionary theory has preempted the assumed dichotomy between the hypothetical sacred and secular realms.  Sacred and secular reality and truth are one.  It is difficult for me to imagine how the hierarchical teaching authority can sustain its position.
Expert group minds giving expert advice as needed in such radically changing times for people and planet is the new necessity.  We are into the sixth mass extinction, climate change, depletion of global resources, a global population crisis, a global multifaceted crisis and more.  On the one hand we have global coalitions working for people and planet.  Yet on the other hand far too many live their lives in the spirit of ‘business as usual’.
Historically, new knowledge does supersede older knowledge often enough, and especially so in philosophy and science.  I admire the progressive Catholics who are the avant-garde and leading the church into a new age.  But I think that it will be a post-Axial Age faith replacing an Axial Age religion; cultural evolution will make it so.   Many required resources are already available.  It’s a matter of connecting the dots -- using the resources and activating the political will to enable people and restore the planet as much as is possible.
I wish you well in your endeavors.  I am sorry that I am not able to join you.  The cost-benefit ratio is not working for me.   Also, competing priorities prevent me from continuing my Blog People and Planet -- unprecedented change.   I appreciate the opportunity google gave me.  And I appreciate your kind consideration.  Marie.

People and Planet

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People and Planet – unprecedented change Blog #5

September 9, 2010

Marie Schickel Rottschaefer

Retired RN BSN & MS (Nursing Education)

Before my digression in blog 4 we were at the point where Rue argues that religious traditions may be seen as schools for educating the emotions.  For me, chapter three is the most complicated chapter of his book.  So I will outline the main headings to orient us.  

What is an emotion?

Emotions are temporary feeling states

Emotions acquire narrative content

Emotions are predispositions to act

Emotions are influenced by culture

Summary and conclusions

This chapter requires significant time and interest to do justice to the effort that the researcher-author has given to his project.  Professor Rue writes for students as well as others and reading chapter three requires classroom effort.  If we were doing a curriculum the details of this chapter would fit substantially and meaningfully into the picture.  But since we are only doing an overview I want to comment briefly on a few highlights.  As a sampler of a worthwhile chapter let’s begin with this claim.  If we are to understand human nature and religion, we must begin with the emotions the author says.

In an extensive chapter he begins by saying that there is no consensus as to their definition and classification even though emotions are considered to be highly complex biological-psychological-social phenomena.  He gives a brief history of theorists’ work in each of these domains.  So for some satisfaction he gives a working formulation derived from this research.  An emotion is a temporary feeling state that acquires narrative content and leads to a predisposition to act.  A major part of this chapter includes the explanation of this formulation for those seriously seeking in-depth knowledge as to how emotions partner with cognition.  But for brevity’s sake appropriate for this blog, I will skip over to some of his summary and conclusions that briefly include thinking and emotion working in tandem.

The central thesis of his book is that religious traditions are primarily about manipulating aspects of our universal human nature for achieving a goal-oriented process of personal wholeness and social coherence, in order to maximize the chances favoring human reproductive fitness.  Giving an account of human nature and showing how various spiritual traditions have manipulated it realizes his thesis.  

In our human nature we have the means for manipulating our nature.   Rue says, “In this part on human nature I have stressed the point that human beings are wholly products of a cosmic evolutionary process, that we, like all other living beings, are star-born, earth-formed, fitness-maximizing creatures endowed by natural selection with a set of species- typical traits for negotiating a livelihood on this planet.”  [For those who want a reminder, natural selection is a process by which organisms pass on advantageous genetic characteristics.]

The uniqueness of Homo sapiens is established because of our special ability to develop symbolic systems for the mediation (support) of behavior.  These adaptive strategies supersede all other species. Rue continues reminding us that this chapter has been focused on the interaction between emotional, cognitive, and symbolic mediation systems.  The emotional systems are the hub because the evolution of how they operate and are influenced by cultural variables provides particular insight into both human nature and religious phenomena.  He summarizes the trajectory of emotional-cognitive mechanisms and the phenomenon of culturally divergent traditions resulting in moralizing about emotions.  [In contrast, it would be interesting to study what other authors’ research suggests in the search for a universal moral standard for our species.]  He concludes by shifting attention from human nature to spiritual traditions.

Conclusion next time.  Marie

People and Planet

http://unprecedentedchange.blogspot.com

or google Marie Schickel Rottschaefer

People and Planet – unprecedented change Blog #4

September 2, 2010

Marie Schickel Rottschaefer

Retired RN BSN & MS (Nursing Education)

The consistent and persistent theme of my writing for a number of years regardless of what titles were used at different times is as follows.  The goal of these posts 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.  This is the primary reason why I have a blog.  Blog #4 will be slightly longer than my typical goal of about 500 words once a week if I can manage it.

I thought that I would reconsider a post that I wrote in June 2008 since it puts in a nutshell where I stand regarding the need for change.  It is slightly edited for timely reasons.  In my limited and humble opinion, it speaks to one of the inventions in history that Tom Doyle wrote about when he described some of the trappings of clericalism.  I am digressing from Rue’s book momentarily to once again emphasize Doyle’s remarks because ultimately they are a part of seeking solutions for pressing --- problems.  The trappings of clericalism extend to the papacy itself.

A Post for NCRcafe: New Search For Ultimate Reality

By Marie Schickel Rottschaefer

Vol. 2 No. 1 June 2, 2008

The goal of these posts 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.

Greetings café confreres!  New Search For Ultimate Reality has a name change.  It will be called Exit To Entrance.  In these posts I will be attempting to strengthen my claim that in the twenty-first century we are moving from the end of an Axial Age religion to a post- Axial Age faith (for those who consider themselves as faith seekers).  The term, “post-axial age,” is a provisional description.  The journey itself will reveal the nature of this age, also characterizing in time, the name of this age. 

I speak not as a scholar or researcher but as an ordinary laywoman (now retired) with an MS in education, specializing in nursing and health from a well recognized university.  The discipline of nursing relies on an interdisciplinary approach to solve actual and potential health problems.  It is obvious that nursing along with many other disciplines has essential relevance for pressing people and planet solutions to problems. So in these posts I use a variety of sources from researchers, scholars and other experts, employing an integrated approach to strengthen my claim and its rationale.

The following is a quote taken from Pope Benedict XVI’s recent speech to educators during his visit to the United States.  It was put on the Internet by The College of St. Catherine. 

[The following location was taken from the Internet 8-31-10.

Meeting With Catholic Educators

Address Of His Holiness Benedict XVI

Conference Hall of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Thursday, 17 April 2008

The original speech in its entirety is online.]

 “In regard to faculty members at Catholic colleges universities, I wish to reaffirm the great value of academic freedom.  In virtue of this freedom you are called to search for the truth wherever careful analysis of evidence leads you.  Yet it is also the case that any appeal to the principle of academic freedom in order to justify positions that contradict the faith and the teaching of the Church would obstruct or even betray the university's identity and mission; a mission at the heart of the Church's munus docendi and not somehow autonomous or independent of it.” [Munus docendi means, roughly, teaching office].

From my view the above quote expresses the heart of the problem.  With the greatest and most humble respect I say that the papal request itself appears to have an inadvertent inconsistency.  For in fulfilling the Pope’s injunction to pursue the truth “wherever careful analysis of evidence leads you” we need to employ critical thinking skills, scientific knowledge, biblical/historical research and philosophical assessment, especially epistemological (theory of knowledge and justification) and logical examination.  But these tools of academic freedom do seem to lead to positions that contradict the faith and the Church’s teachings.  Thus the Pope’s words leave us with no resolution of the long-standing debate between academic freedom and the munus docendi. 

The resolution must come in the pursuit of truth.  It must take precedence over the teaching office of the Church. The ‘fierce urgency of now’ compels a further extension of the Church’s thinking.  The intellectual tools that enable the pursuit of truth are necessary for both a productive Church-wide discussion -- a discussion that would involve the genuine learning presupposed in the idea of munus docendi -- and for commitments beyond the Church, commitments to the world at large.  Even a review of the relevant Church documents shows that the Vatican itself has changed its thinking regarding its understanding of its teaching authority in contemporary times to keep in step with the intellectual revolutions that academic freedom in the pursuit of truth has achieved.

As the tension between the pursuit of truth and obeying the teaching authority of the Church relaxes, the discrepancy between the results of academic freedom and the teachings of the Church fades.  The result is that we will exit one age and begin another.  Exiting the Axial Age religion known as Christianity, specifically Catholicism, we enter a post-Axial Age faith.  Because of the work of experts in well-developed and emerging fields of scholarly endeavor Homo sapiens has made a giant leap forward in the last 2000 years since the founding of Christianity.  The sciences and other disciplines are converging to show that Christianity had a beginning that now appears to be leading to its ending.  Humanity’s faith in the future as elaborated in Christianity is once again metamorphosing into a new faith -- a post-Axial Age one.  This process is part of our cultural evolution.  Evolutionary theory has preempted the assumed dichotomy between the hypothetical sacred and secular realms.  Sacred and secular reality and truth are one. 

More later.  Marie.  

People and Planet

People and Planet – unprecedented change Blog #3

August 26, 2010

Marie Schickel Rottschaefer

Retired RN BSN & MS (Nursing Education)

In case you did not see this post that I responded to for Tom Doyle’s blog, I want to include it here because it gets to the fundamentals of why I have a blog.

8-22-10 I have to respond again to Fr. Tom Doyle’s essay because I think that he’s getting at the heart of some of 21st century Catholicism’s problems.  It surely is an excellent start. 

Esteemed progressive Catholics, we have to go back to the beginning.  If we do that, I think ‘reform’ will become further ‘progression’ and progression will metamorphose like a pupae or a tadpole.  An evolution is occurring.  I think that we are in transition from an Axial Age religion to a post-Axial Age faith phenomenon.  Tom Doyle speaks to some of the inventions in history.

But we need scientific biblical-historical scholarship like the kind Pope Pius XII promulgated because we need to get to the very early issues, as fundamental as the incarnation and resurrection beliefs.  While talking about scientific scholarship we also need to move to the relevant sciences for a twenty-first century faith.  This identifies our belief as a post-Axial Age faith not an Axial Age religion.  This will become more apparent as we study the issues.  I think the evolution is as dramatic an evolution as an ancient polytheistic system being superseded by a monotheistic system.

We also need philosophical reasoning (epistemology) to get to belief, justification and knowledge issues.  And we need other philosophical reasoning such as critical thinking skills and logic.  Catholicism is beset with assumptions that must be challenged.  The synod of the baptized is coming up.  But a conference even more basic is needed in the future for an authentic transformation that is as radical as is required for the evolution that is at stake.

----

Now back to my regular blog.

Rue having addressed the central features of human nature in the

Evolution Of Behavior, brings us to chapter 3 The Education Of Emotion.  Human nature is shown by how we came to exist and how we persist.  By way of evolution, complex and interactive behavior mediation (support) systems manage our ability to persist or carry on in meeting the challenges of daily living.  The emotions are vital both to an understanding of human nature as well as to an understanding of religion.  That is why Rue focuses on the emotional systems.

He says that the central importance of emotion studies in academic (scientific) psychology has been recognized only in recent times.  He gives a brief but very important historical summary of the indispensable nature of the emotions.  “Emotion and cognition are now viewed as “partners in the mind.”  Once considered obstacles to reason, the emotions are now considered essential to rationality.”

The emotions are of even more importance to an understanding of religions whether the tradition is Christian, Buddhist, or other traditions.  In fact Rue argues that religious traditions may be seen as schools for educating the emotions.

More later.  Marie

People and Planet

PEOPLE AND PLANET -- unprecedented change Blog #2

August 19, 2010

Marie Schickel Rottschaefer

Retired RN BSN & MS (Nursing Education)

Rue translates ‘psychological and social organization’ as personal wholeness and social coherence.   Spiritual traditions have personal wholeness and social coherence as their foundation and goal as I understand this book.  Rue takes an evolutionary perspective as his infrastructure.  His trajectory is comprehensive from the beginning of the universe to our present doomsday foreboding times.  A significant part of the book demonstrates evolutionary success from the standpoint of physics, chemistry, biology, as well as culturally, religiously, and in other domains.  But in the final pages he speaks of our inclination to fail, -- nevertheless with hope always present.  He brings us to an ironic ending that causes one to look further for a satisfying sequel, either his or elsewhere.  To me, that is a measure of fine reading.

To attempt to answer the question in abbreviated form why the positive, why the negative (?) that I mentioned in my first blog, I will itemize the chapters by including at least one outstanding point he makes in each chapter.   Rue’s book and a preceding book of his called Everybody’s Story – Wising Up To The Epic Of Evolution are for me ‘base camp’ for my publications’ journey.   People and Planet -- unprecedented change, as the title of this blog, and as already stated starts with a book that goes to a situation before the beginning of planet and people.  But before the ‘beginning’ let’s start with his initial remarks.

Introduction: “Edward O. Wilson has rescued the concept of consilience from historical obscurity to characterize the ultimate prize of inquiry: a coherent, unified meshwork of ideas that renders intelligible the full scope of human experience.”

Part 1 ON HUMAN NATURE

Chapter 1 The Epic Of Evolution

He uses Holmes Ralston’s Science and Religion, New York: Random House, 1987 model of cosmic evolution: An Ontological structure/process -> as the vertical line and Historical time -> as the horizontal line.  In ascending order the graph looks like it’s at a 45-degree angle (wavy line outline).

I. Matter: Plasma, Energy Particle, Star, Element, Compound, Crystal, Formational molecule.

II. Life: Informational molecule, Cellular organism, Multicellular organism, Ecosystem, Sentience, Experience.

III. Mind: Thought, Person, Society, World History.

Chapter 2 The Evolution of Behavior

This robust chapter takes us through living systems: molecular, neural, reflex, perceptual, physiological drive, learning/memory, emotional, cognitive, symbolic, various sub-systems, and finally to human nature and the meaning of life.

At the end of the chapter he summarizes the central features of his sketch of human nature.  “ Human beings are star-born, earth-formed creatures endowed by evolutionary processes to seek reproductive fitness under the guidance of biological, psychological, and cultural systems that have been selected for their utility in mediating adaptive behaviors.  Humans maximize their chances for reproductive fitness by managing the complexity of these systems in ways that are conducive to the simultaneous achievement of personal wholeness and social coherence.”

Responding to this difficult challenge is the purpose of spiritual traditions.

Chapter 3 The Education of Emotion

This chapter is a powerful introduction into how effectively and adaptively religious traditions provide for us.

More later.  Marie.

People and Planet

People and Planet -- unprecedented change   Blog #1 August 12, 2010

For many years I have been writing either in print or online about people and planet issues.  I thought it was time to redo some of what I have written and add to it as well.  The writing evolved under a number of titles.  But the goal was to give a brief overview of developments that have relevance for us particularly in seeking solutions for pressing people and planet problems. 

My motivation for doing this was that as a Catholic Christian I felt that I might be of some help to some people in sharing some of my life experiences.  Little did I dream that in the telling, my own religious belief system would change significantly.  My work in nursing and health and my husband’s work as a professor of philosophy gave me an access to reading a variety of sources from books, journals and other resources.  This privilege shaped my goal to work on people and planet issues in a new way.  In responding to Rosemary Radford Ruether’s recent talk that was put online by The Progressive Catholic Voice, I had no idea that I would end up having my own blog!  What a privilege.

When I started writing in 2006 for the online NCRcafe (The National Catholic Reporter), the title of my contribution was a New Search for Ultimate Reality.  The lead question that I posed was: Is Christianity the beginning and the end of humankind’s search for the ultimate meaning of life?  Or, is it a link in the chain of evolution of humanity’s search for Ultimate Reality?  I continued by saying that my intent was to explore what good thinkers are saying.  This does not mean that these thought-providers are infallible (surely not), totally correct necessarily, and certainly not the last word.  No, rather, they take their place with appropriate background and in good faith to contribute to humankind’s search for truth and understanding.  The relevant sources that I give are for anyone who wants to delve deeper into the issues.  Some of these sources can be purchased, borrowed from the library, or found online.  My hope is that those who post in response will opt for a constructive contribution for all readers at large.  We represent some of those seeking solutions for pressing people and planet problems. 

I began as follows.  According to Loyal Rue, Religion is not about God: How spiritual traditions nurture our biological nature and what to expect when they fail (Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick NJ: 2005), the Axial Age religions appear to have run their course.  Rue says that the Axial Age began about the 6th century B.C.E.  Its influence is with us to the present.  For now we can speak of it as “the age that transformed the psychological and social organization of the human species.”  As I understand, the Axial Age is one indicator that perhaps Christianity is a link in the chain of evolution of humanity’s search for Ultimate Reality.  Notice Rue speaks of “the age that transformed the psychological and social organization of the human species.” And he speaks of how spiritual traditions nurture our biological nature and what to expect when they fail, in his title.  This captures a major part of his thesis: success and failure.  Why the positive, why the negative?

More later.  Marie.