People and Planet

http://unprecedentedchange.blogspot.com
or google Marie Schickel Rottschaefer


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  Thinking has both evolved and superseded one mindset over another depending on the circumstances of a particular historical period.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

http://unprecedentedchange.blogspot.com

or google Marie Schickel Rottschaefer

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