Giving Truth A Good Back-Massage
I’ve been massaging an idea. It’s time to try to express it . . . here comes.
I recently read a book, The Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav. Most of what he says is compatible with New Testament concepts. But it comes across fresh to me, and thus stimulating, because he is by no means an evangelical and uses very few of the buzzwords, which by their overuse tend to become insipid. Zukav is connected to no religious group as far as I know, and is neutral among theological orientations, so I won’t offend anyone, except those who equate neutrality with bankruptcy, when I say this author presents spiritual truths that are echoes of Christ’s teachings.
But my point is more about Zukav’s method than his message. He has cast his message in a particular framework. Reincarnation provides part of the skeletal form for his structure. But isn’t this just what everyone does who espouses a theology or ideology, whether it is Calvinism, Wesleyanism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Islam, Christian Science, Darwinism, Marxism? Each theorist takes what he perceives and structures it so as to make some sense. I haven’t met a Protestant denomination yet, or any other religion, that makes 100% sense. And as I read more widely, I see the basic truths of the New Testament cropping up in all kinds of other frameworks--Zukav’s being one. I don’t have to swear allegiance to his framework any more than I have to fall on the sword of forward-dunking for baptism.
What jolted me into reaching for a ladle (pen) and lifting this thought out of the soup was a statement in another book, Freeman Dyson's, Infinite In All Directions. (I had seen another book by Zukav at a used book store, so I went looking for it, and Dyson’s was right there staring at me, for only $4--I couldn’t resist. One book leads to 2 more. I think God fashioned eternity knowing this trend would get geometrically out of hand for some of us slow readers.) Dyson refers to a Japanese geneticist, M. Kimura, who by mathematical calculations has theorized that “random statistical fluctuations have been more important than Darwinian selection in causing species to evolve.” He calls this genetic drift. Dyson thinks Kimura overstates his case, but the sentence that grabbed my eyes was, “I find [Kimura’s] theory helpful even though I do not accept it as dogma . . . Even if [it] is not true in general, it may be a useful approximation to make [better] models...” .
Every individual’s insights are going to be toned by his or her experiences, training, personality, and each expression of insight that all may feel in common is going to be slightly off and slightly appealing, depending on who is listening. In other words, to not give attention to variations on a theme locks one into a less than perfect understanding and blocks any advance toward a closer understanding of truth. I am not saying truth is relative, though a solipsist might charge me with this. Better to say we relate to truth as we watch others relate their truths.
Of course, if you want your followers to open their wallets to you, you will need them to buy into your whole theological package. No one gives money to a salesman full of qualfications. But I don’t want a salesman giving me my “last rites” either.
Doug Good
I recently read a book, The Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav. Most of what he says is compatible with New Testament concepts. But it comes across fresh to me, and thus stimulating, because he is by no means an evangelical and uses very few of the buzzwords, which by their overuse tend to become insipid. Zukav is connected to no religious group as far as I know, and is neutral among theological orientations, so I won’t offend anyone, except those who equate neutrality with bankruptcy, when I say this author presents spiritual truths that are echoes of Christ’s teachings.
But my point is more about Zukav’s method than his message. He has cast his message in a particular framework. Reincarnation provides part of the skeletal form for his structure. But isn’t this just what everyone does who espouses a theology or ideology, whether it is Calvinism, Wesleyanism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Islam, Christian Science, Darwinism, Marxism? Each theorist takes what he perceives and structures it so as to make some sense. I haven’t met a Protestant denomination yet, or any other religion, that makes 100% sense. And as I read more widely, I see the basic truths of the New Testament cropping up in all kinds of other frameworks--Zukav’s being one. I don’t have to swear allegiance to his framework any more than I have to fall on the sword of forward-dunking for baptism.
What jolted me into reaching for a ladle (pen) and lifting this thought out of the soup was a statement in another book, Freeman Dyson's, Infinite In All Directions. (I had seen another book by Zukav at a used book store, so I went looking for it, and Dyson’s was right there staring at me, for only $4--I couldn’t resist. One book leads to 2 more. I think God fashioned eternity knowing this trend would get geometrically out of hand for some of us slow readers.) Dyson refers to a Japanese geneticist, M. Kimura, who by mathematical calculations has theorized that “random statistical fluctuations have been more important than Darwinian selection in causing species to evolve.” He calls this genetic drift. Dyson thinks Kimura overstates his case, but the sentence that grabbed my eyes was, “I find [Kimura’s] theory helpful even though I do not accept it as dogma . . . Even if [it] is not true in general, it may be a useful approximation to make [better] models...” .
Every individual’s insights are going to be toned by his or her experiences, training, personality, and each expression of insight that all may feel in common is going to be slightly off and slightly appealing, depending on who is listening. In other words, to not give attention to variations on a theme locks one into a less than perfect understanding and blocks any advance toward a closer understanding of truth. I am not saying truth is relative, though a solipsist might charge me with this. Better to say we relate to truth as we watch others relate their truths.
Of course, if you want your followers to open their wallets to you, you will need them to buy into your whole theological package. No one gives money to a salesman full of qualfications. But I don’t want a salesman giving me my “last rites” either.
Doug Good
Labels: Darwinism, Freeman Dyson, Gary Zukov, Genetic Drift, Jesus Christ, Reincarnation, Truth
posted by Doug at
2:31 PM
1 Comments:
Doug: Ever since the first cave man looked out of his cave and watched the first lightening storm and heard the thunder and was filled with fear for some reason, mankind has created models in his own image to make sense of the seemingly illogical.
That someone has taken the narrow niche of reincarnation to do the same thing is not suprising. He comes from a long line of cave men...some of whom paused only long enough to nail one anomoly to a cross to see if that would help them understand it all.
The thread I would be wondering about is the fear, the intrinsic fear felt by the cave man and by your author fellow as he dug into his version of thunder and lightening to bring light to his own darkness.
And how does faith fit into this puzzle?
Hmmm. Chew, chew, chew. Hmmm
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Happy Hoeing, Jon, At
October 5, 2007 at 9:51 PM
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