about
these ideas are merely hypothetical constructions for predicting the positions of planets and should not be assumed true or even probable. Andreas Osiander
This quote has been the muse behind this blog from the beginning, but i've never explained it. i thought i would today. (btw, the picture below ended up on the top of digg after i started writing this).
it comes from The Copernicus Quest by Christopher Reed:
;-)
I'm not afraid of truth. i don't think any one (including bible reading christians) should be. i fully expect to see the face of god at the bottom of the rabbit hole. that being said, i don't think rational thought gets us all the way there. (i also don't think we'll get all the way there - its too deep). but there is a big difference between where i come out - and where i think this sign may be coming out on the issue.
i'm post rational. that is, i want to hear every rational argument there is - and i intend to use rationality to the extent i can (i'm an analyst / systems engineer by day). but at the end of the day - i think rationality is found wanting: left brained thought simply can not describe nor account for the full of reality. (oh, i'm an artist by night). which is why i put a lot of stock in intuitive thought. i think this is where we make our real money thinking - and why e.g. AI isn't coming around any time soon. penrose tends to agree with me.
so i'm a little bit concerned that this sign is about being pre-rational - or maybe even irrational, because i don't quite see how reason is the enemy of faith. i don't think we need to be afraid of reason, or of evidence, or of reality, or of truth. all that stuff is here declaring the glory of god as it should. no one else gets the glory. i think we even learn about god and his ways as we explore reality!
jesus said, 'fear not' often enough. but that sign looks a little fearful to me. i'm not afraid. you shouldn't be either. but i think truth is on our side. if not, it's certainly on the side of god, is it not?
so... welcome to this blog. feel free to leave me a little note or comment here if nowhere else.
grace & peace
This quote has been the muse behind this blog from the beginning, but i've never explained it. i thought i would today. (btw, the picture below ended up on the top of digg after i started writing this).
it comes from The Copernicus Quest by Christopher Reed:
Copernicus argued against the conventional wisdom, promulgated by Claudius Ptolemy in Alexandria around A.D. 150, that the earth was fixed at the middle of the universe. He proposed instead that what could be observed of planetary motion could be explained if the sun was immovable in the middle, with the earth and other planets going around it, the modern understanding of the solar system.so if you find something you think is heretical on this blog - you should rest assured that those ideas are merely useful for describing reality and it is doubtful they are true, or even probable.
But what about Holy Writ, in particular the passage from Joshua in which he commands the sun to stand still and the Lord listens and the sun does stand still in the middle of the sky for almost an entire day? An anonymous notice on the back of Copernicus's title page, addressed "To the Readers Concerning the hypotheses in this Book," soothingly explains, says Gingerich, that "the ideas are merely hypothetical constructions for predicting the positions of planets and should not be assumed true or even probable." This advice to readers was written by Andreas Osiander, a theologian who finished the proofreading of Copernicus's book at the press in Nuremberg. The disclaimer may have done the trick, for the Catholic church withheld its condemnation of heliocentrism for many decades. It was left to the German astronomer Johannes Kepler to publish, in 1596, what Gingerich calls "an unabashedly heliocentric treatise." Galileo Galilei was also a believer in a sun-centered universe and came to famous confrontation with the Catholic church on its home ground by declaring such things as "the Bible teaches how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go."
;-)
I'm not afraid of truth. i don't think any one (including bible reading christians) should be. i fully expect to see the face of god at the bottom of the rabbit hole. that being said, i don't think rational thought gets us all the way there. (i also don't think we'll get all the way there - its too deep). but there is a big difference between where i come out - and where i think this sign may be coming out on the issue.i'm post rational. that is, i want to hear every rational argument there is - and i intend to use rationality to the extent i can (i'm an analyst / systems engineer by day). but at the end of the day - i think rationality is found wanting: left brained thought simply can not describe nor account for the full of reality. (oh, i'm an artist by night). which is why i put a lot of stock in intuitive thought. i think this is where we make our real money thinking - and why e.g. AI isn't coming around any time soon. penrose tends to agree with me.
so i'm a little bit concerned that this sign is about being pre-rational - or maybe even irrational, because i don't quite see how reason is the enemy of faith. i don't think we need to be afraid of reason, or of evidence, or of reality, or of truth. all that stuff is here declaring the glory of god as it should. no one else gets the glory. i think we even learn about god and his ways as we explore reality!
jesus said, 'fear not' often enough. but that sign looks a little fearful to me. i'm not afraid. you shouldn't be either. but i think truth is on our side. if not, it's certainly on the side of god, is it not?
so... welcome to this blog. feel free to leave me a little note or comment here if nowhere else.
grace & peace
Labels: about, fear not, guestbook, P3T3RK3Y5, Post Rational
posted by P3T3RK3Y5 for meltingearth
2 Comments:
I appreciate your well-written thoughts about the relationship among faith, reason and science. I find most of the arguements about who's right to be futile. If we understand reason as part of our God-created human design we can use it as a servant-source to understanding reality. If we understand science to be a discovery-process-in-motion more than a final conclusion, we can use it as a servant-source to understanding reality. If we understand faith as a gift of God to open our eyes to reality beyond what reason and science can describe, we can use it as a servant-source to understanding reality. And if we understand that what we understand from our take on any of these, filtered through one finite human brain, is very limited, like a "small dog barking at the edge of a large prairie" we can have enough humility to realize we are, at best, on a quest to approach Mystery. We do well to carry on a conversation among these ways of knowing rather than to pit them against each other.
I stumbled onto your blog through the "Common Table" web site, which I find quite fascinating. Wish I'd discovered it while I lived in the DC area.
wow glenn. thanks for this thoughtful paragraph. i love the posture and tenor of the "servant-source" idea. and of the broader (and balanced) perspective of reality you speak to.
clearly our community would be the richer had we crossed paths.
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