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Monday, October 22
View Article  How does early Christian philosophy help us understand what life is? Part II of II
by Daniel J. Shepard on Mon 22 Oct 2007 12:00 AM EDT

How does early Christian philosophy help us understand what life is?

 

Part II of II

... In short, if nothing exists beyond the boundaries of our universe, immortality becomes illogical since time permeates our universe.

 

With the elimination of the rationality of immortality, religions would lose their significance.

 

Early Christian philosophy was not about to entertain any suggestions leading to this possibility.

 

So it was that early Christian philosophy expanded upon the size of the Causative

Force over what western/Middle Eastern pre-Judaic faiths believed.

 

Early Christian philosophy established the size of the Causative Force to be greater than physical reality, our universe.

 

With the increase in size of the Causative Force came an elevation of the significance of the individual followed by an elevation of behavior.

 

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Early Christian philosophy offered us an understanding of something greater existing than life.

 

Something greater than the universe existed and we had the opportunity to be a part of it if….

 

With philosophy questioning the qualifier, ‘If …,’ philosophy found itself in direct confrontation with religion, which refused to give up its control over the keys to the gates of ‘heaven.’

 

Religions, unwilling to be questioned, created a split between faith and reason.

 

Religion moved on with its own existence ignoring scientific or philosophical perceptions contradicting religion.

 

End

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Sunday, October 21
View Article  How does early Christian philosophy help us understand what life is? Part I of II
by Daniel J. Shepard on Sun 21 Oct 2007 12:00 AM EDT

How does early Christian philosophy help us understand what life is?

 

 

Part I of II

 

There are two statements we can make regarding our universe – our reality: our universe either exists within something or it does not.

 

In either case, our definition of what life is becomes quite different.

 

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If life exists, then the definition of life would most probably have to be derived from and account for either one of these two perceptions.

 

If life exists within the Causative Force (panentheism), then hope rises up and engulfs all individuals equally.

 

Significance becomes absolute and rational rather than a possibility beyond our understanding.

 

On the other hand, if life does not exist within the Causative Force because there is no outside to the universe, then hope begins to die out and eventually loses the warmth and comfort it had to offer us.

 

Without an existence outside the universe, time becomes a major factor of our existence, for it permeates our universe.

 

With no outside beyond our reality, time, being a function of matter and energy, becomes a characteristic of all living things and, thus, immortality becomes an irrational concept.

 

To be continued: Part II of II: In short, if nothing exists beyond the boundaries of our universe, immortality...
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Thursday, October 18
View Article  How do the concepts of early Christian philosophy reinforce the concept of symbiotic panentheism? Part II of II
by Daniel J. Shepard on Thu 18 Oct 2007 12:00 AM EDT

How do the concepts of early Christian philosophy reinforce the concept of symbiotic panentheism?

 

Part II of II

... Also keep in mind that the model being examined within this trilogy is not professed to be ‘the’ model.

 

The point of the trilogy is to develop a process for the creation of a model that is the most accurate model we are capable of creating at this particular point in time using faiths, observations, and logic we have been able to gather as a species.

 

Early Christian philosophy is definitely a part of this.

 

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We can no more ignore the perceptions of early Christian philosophy than we can the faiths of one billion Muslims, one billion Hindus, three hundred million Buddhists, three hundred million atheists, tens of millions of Jews or eight hundred million people who have no particular religious orientation.

 

All views must be respected and the only way to do that is to build a foundation capable of rationalizing the right of all individuals to exist within a physical reality, whose intention is understood in broad principle by all.

 

The intention of the unified view would be the creation of a universal philosophy.

 

The operative phrases here are unified view and universal.

 

One of the fundamental principles such a model would need to embrace in order to be unifying and universal is unconditional love, a basic principle of early Christian philosophy.

End

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Wednesday, October 17
View Article  How do the concepts of early Christian philosophy reinforce the concept of symbiotic panentheism? Part I of II
by Daniel J. Shepard on Wed 17 Oct 2007 12:00 AM EDT

How do the concepts of early Christian philosophy reinforce the concept of symbiotic panentheism?

 

 

Part II of II:

 

They do not; what is actually taking place is symbiotic panentheism is reinforcing the concepts of the significance of early Christian philosophy.

 

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Symbiotic panentheism simply states:

 

The Causative Force is omnipresent and whatever exists within the Causative Force must have some form of impact upon Her as well as She affecting what is inside Her, a symbiotic relationship.

 

Given the behavior they exhibit and the frailties of the human species, early Christian philosophy had a problem with the idea of humans being a piece of the Causative Force.

 

Symbiotic panentheism does not imply the Causative Force has to be all present in terms of its location ‘within’ the universe nor does it imply a human being has all the knowledge, power, and presence of the Causative Force.

 

Quite the contrary; this model of a universal philosophy, a unified view, goes as far as to say these very pieces of the Causative Force are almost totally amnesiac of their origin and past experiences ‘within’ this ultimate entity.

 

To be continued: part II of II: Also keep in mind that the model being examined...
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Monday, October 15
View Article  What does ancient philosophy reinforce about the significance of existence, life? Part II of II
by Daniel J. Shepard on Mon 15 Oct 2007 12:00 AM EDT

What does ancient philosophy reinforce about the significance of existence, life?

 

Part II of II

...This would lead to the concept that the whole had no choice but to be the total of all the numbers, thus the whole was equal to the sum of its parts.

 

Total awareness was equal to the sum of individual, unique, aware essences.

 

Ancient philosophy subscribed to the basic perception of what we think we understand today.

 

The only difference lies in the details. Ancient philosophy could not place pieces of the puzzle made up of entropy, topology, Homo, ontology, Islam, Christianity… because they did not exist.

 

Today, philosophy can use these pieces to construct more of the puzzle to give us a more complete view of the whole picture.

 

Before philosophy can do this, however, philosophy must decide to do so, and modern philosophy has not made the decision to do so.

 

The ancient philosophers still have much to offer us.

 

The ancient philosophers, like old craft masters, have an understanding to offer us that the primary purpose of philosophy is to develop an ongoing unified view, an ongoing living, universal philosophy.

 

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The process of developing a universal philosophy, a unified view, is nothing less than what the ancient philosophers did thousands of years ago using the information they had available to them.

 

The process they used was one of combining the three means we have of perceiving what it is we are and why we exist: faith – religion, observation – science, and reason – philosophy.

 

End

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