Sylvester Steffen's Comments
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Nov 20, 2009 | comments: 6
in reply to a comment by Thaddeus Maximus
Sylvester Steffen Nov 22, 2009, 2:52am EST
Why, Sarah Palin, the darling of the Republican Party, not?

She has that sparkle in her eyes, that way with words. She's a staunch promoter of the philosophy of individualism. She believes government is the problem, not the solution. And, her religious "rightness" is more right than that of Catholic bishops, if that's possible.

Sure seems like Ronald Reagan to me. And what has the deregulation politics of Reagan done for us, to us?
Nov 20, 2009 | comments: 6
in reply to a comment by Thaddeus Maximus
Sylvester Steffen Nov 21, 2009, 3:42am EST
Thaddeus, I too am searching for "rationality and commonsense." Just curious—are you a fan of the female version of Ronald Reagan?
Oct 10, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 39
in reply to a comment by Rose Baltes
Sylvester Steffen Oct 21, 2009, 5:03am EDT
Rose, intuitional wisdom (faith, the universal "canon") is a deep well of universal humanity. The integrity of self-reflection (living by love) expresses deep wisdom and refreshes all. Thank you for the refreshment you bring. Love's intuition depends not on years of schooling, nor does I.Q. measure it. Only the integrity of living brings it to the surface (service) of consciousness. Welcome!
Oct 10, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 39
in reply to a comment by Sylvester Steffen
Sylvester Steffen Oct 16, 2009, 1:36pm EDT
Dennis, on the www.secondenlightenment.org website there are a number of essays under the section "Additional Resources"; also books there, and at www,evolution101.org, for example, "GREEN RELIGION, inside the Cultural Spectrum".

I expect it will be at least a year before "EARTHEOLOGY, the Phenomenon of God" will be published. Thank you for your interest and kind comments. Of course I encourage you to use and recommend materials at my websites, most of which are free.
Oct 10, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 39
Sylvester Steffen Oct 15, 2009, 2:57am EDT
Dennis, I read and appreciate your thought in "Why I believe in God."

From 1983-1988 I wrote a manuscript I called "Eartheology, the Phenomenon of God." I'm now revisiting it for publication. On the back cover under the heading "God's Presence Lived" I write:

"If as much effort were put in living Godlike as in arguing God’s existence, all life would be better off and we would be less confused.

"Life is about experience that neither needs proof nor brooks denial. We grow up learning grass is green and give no thought to proof or disproof. Green grass doesn’t need proof, and what do we gain in trying to prove or disprove God’s existence? God doesn’t need proof of existence, but we need to live Godlike if we would experience Godlikeness in relationship with other.

"In EARTHEOLOGY the reader will find no arguing the existence of God. Serious effort is made however to understand what Godlike living is and how to live Godlike. The best evidence of existence is experience. Best proof of God’s existence is living Godlike relationships.

"In interpersonal relationships experience, faith and reason inform us that word is to communication, as information is to consciousness, as mindfulness is to conscience. The Godlike community is a people trustful in word, truthful to consciousness and faithful to conscience. Godlikeness takes seriously the work of truthful communication, of rightly informed consciousness and rightly formed conscience. The harmony of word, light and love, brought to life mindfully, purposefully, is persuasive of Godlike experience, of God’s existence/ presence.

http://www.secondenlightenment.org/SERVICE%20TO%20RELIGION.pdf
Oct 10, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 39
in reply to a comment by Sylvester Steffen
Sylvester Steffen Oct 12, 2009, 12:31pm EDT
Dennis, thanks for commenting. Anyone serious about faith can’t deny that some things in Roman Catholicism (including understandings of faith) are mutually exclusive; even more so with faiths outside Christianity. All are usually taught that their faith is the “true” faith, especially denominational Christians.

Certainly it’s true that faith cultures contain incompatible ideas, as well as mutually exclusive expectations and practices. That’s true also about Roman Catholicism. The onetime politically expedient theology of dominion (imperial) that prevailed before the Second Vatican Council has lost its credibility, and notwithstanding the Church’s hang-on to imperial political structures, many Catholics don't believe in it. Even the Second Vatican Council opened the Church to evolution while the First Vatican Council condemned it with many other things about "modernism" that have come to be accepted, like religious pluralism. By the way, Christian denominations root in medieval Roman Catholic theology; they yet have to deal with that anachronism

The great conundrum of religious practice is how people understand faith, and how they understand religion. Faith and religion are not the same thing. Even the Catholic Church with all its inconsistencies and exclusivities recognizes that faith is personal and that personal conscience is the bottom-line arbiter of all personal decisions and actions. However, in practice the Church often doesn’t act like it believes in this dictum.

Obviously the God people believe in is idiosyncratic. Putting human dimensions on God, or putting any dimensions on God, get people off on a wrong track because God is outside human dimensions. How God self-manifests in Creation is a whole ‘nother thing.

Just an aside: your final comment about some differences being immaterial made sense to me, but your problem with the word “staurus” didn’t. Really, whether it means a beam, a tree trunk or a pole has nothing to do with Jesus and salvation history
Oct 10, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 39
in reply to a comment by Sylvester Steffen
Sylvester Steffen Oct 11, 2009, 12:58pm EDT
I think "spontaneously" can mean "auto-poetically," sensitively responsive.
Oct 10, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 39
Sylvester Steffen Oct 11, 2009, 12:26pm EDT
Clifford, your question is direct, TOTALLY APPROPRIATE, and deserves a straight forward answer. I am a Roman Catholic, of the Vatican II persuasion. See my personal biography at www.acolyte.gather.com
and my philosphy/ theology at www.secondenlightenment.org
and www.evolution101.org
Oct 10, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 39
in reply to a comment by Sylvester Steffen
Sylvester Steffen Oct 11, 2009, 10:02am EDT
Thank you. How much to the point, and in "plain English".
Oct 10, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 39
Sylvester Steffen Oct 11, 2009, 2:52am EDT
On the twilight zone of "evolved genetics":
Intentional consciousness supposes the quantum-electric tensions of cellular molecules, the root potential of evolutionary openness. Lessons of quantum-electric experience (purposeful outcomes) are structured in genetic codes—the scriptural “canons” of natural symbioses and mindful love.

RNA is a molecule about the work of integrating codes of nurture into the genetic codes of nature. RNA molecules function primarily in the synthesis of proteins in cells, and in transmitting genetic information from DNA (DesoxyriboNucleicAcid) to proteins made in cells. RNA instructs strands (patterns) of DNA to cell cytoplasm in maintaining and structuring individual genetic codes. RNA has deoxyribose units, adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), uracil (U), while DNA has A, C, G, and thymine (T), in place of deoxyribose and uracil.

Cells are nurseries of genetic coding (DNA) and of RNA that reproduces faithful patterns of cellular DNA. Ribosomes (akin to chromosomes) are cites within cellular cytoplasm that translate and transmit genetic information, in form and function. (Google, DNA, RNA, and ribosomes)
Oct 10, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 39
in reply to a comment by Clifford H Colpitts Jr
Sylvester Steffen Oct 10, 2009, 10:03pm EDT
Clifford, we are talking about saving the Earth and ourselves; if Earth isn't "saved", neither are we Earth inhabitants. Spiritually, physically, we are Earth dependent. Being intentionally symbiotic in the manner of evolved life is an act of love, of altruism, consistent with human/divine trust as Jesus taught. Consumer capitalism (ego-culture) is killing Earth, us.

I hope you have a good sleep tonight.
Oct 10, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 39
in reply to a comment by Chuck L.
Sylvester Steffen Oct 10, 2009, 9:51pm EDT
Dennis, you say "...what I cannot agree with. It would require often adopting two accepting mutually exclusive beliefs as being both correct. The intolerance, arrogance etc. of the past is unacceptable, but moving to an ideological\doctrinal comprise is not logical."

I don't understand what you are saying or what you mean by "require often adopting two accepting mutually exclusive beliefs as being both correct." I don't know where what I say requires one to accept "mutually exclusive beliefs".

I'm not talking about ideological or doctrinal "compromise" but growth that allows new understandings of truth to be accommodated when errors of past ideology and/or doctrine are exposed. God-given intelligence requires the ongoing pursuit of truth, and openness to new insights into truth. This is especially true for teachers of faith for it is a terrible thing to cause others to persist in belief that is inconsistent with truth.
Oct 10, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 39
in reply to a comment by Chuck L.
Sylvester Steffen Oct 10, 2009, 9:23pm EDT
Dennis, "postmodern" is a term of art (as is "modern") that relates to a time and cultural movements within the time. "Modern" is an era that was, and "postmodern is the era that follows it. I understand what you are saying, but who says that terms of art have to be logical or literal? Google can probably tell all you want to know about either term
Oct 10, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 39
in reply to a comment by Bert B.
Sylvester Steffen Oct 10, 2009, 9:13pm EDT
Bert, I don't pretend to have the answer, and I don't know if there is one. But at least we can do personally what we can not to go along with the religious culture of institutional arrogance, i.e., seek common ground that is essentally universal, and by whch religions might recognize their arrogance and misdirection. History can teach us, but only if we want to learn.
Oct 10, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 39
in reply to a comment by Bernie W.
Sylvester Steffen Oct 10, 2009, 4:04pm EDT
I think I made the point that Jesus shows the way, is "the way", i.e., Christian Humanism. But simply saying Jesus is the way doesn't put us on "the way". It's about understanding "the Way" and making choices in life that are informed by "the way". Secular reality imposes on spiritual reality. Grace supposes nature, the "natural" way. Sensitivity to natural grace is a necessary aspect of authentic spirituality.
Oct 10, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 39
in reply to a comment by Chuck L.
Sylvester Steffen Oct 10, 2009, 3:53pm EDT
I don't deny my density, but I think the point is getting through
Oct 10, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 39
in reply to a comment by Bert B.
Sylvester Steffen Oct 10, 2009, 3:51pm EDT
Economic, ecologic and societal implosions are converging in these times to unsettle global (religious) consciousness. Old religious dogma is irrelevant if nature can't tolerate the destruction caused by religious arrogance. Either global humanity seriously moves to correct humanly induced collapses of natural systems, or nature will make humanity pay ever more dearly by imposing the havoc of eco-social collapses directly on humankind.
Oct 10, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 39
in reply to a comment by Chuck L.
Sylvester Steffen Oct 10, 2009, 3:33pm EDT
Education in the modern/postmodern era doesn't value liberal arts. I'm quick to admit that my posting presupposes knowledge of Christian theology, medieval and renaissance politics/ history, wars of religion, and the intramural conflicts of Christian denominations that continue. It isn't easy to make sense of religious/ political conflicts, but it is really important that we try. Ultimately, all wars are "religious" wars.
Sep 26, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 3
in reply to a comment by libramoon C.
Sylvester Steffen Sep 27, 2009, 6:03am EDT
However, libramoon, if Creation Energy, the sustaining Source of the Cosmos, the MilkyWay Galaxy, Planet Earth and Self-reflective Consciousness are open to each other, it's a game-changer beyond human knowing, not?

http://www.secondenlightenment.org/SINGULARITY%20and%20Heavy%20Metal%20Grinders.pdf, http://www.secondenlightenment.org/Heavy%20Metal%20Harmony.pdf
Sep 19, 2009 | comments: 2
in reply to a comment by Pelagius Hereticus
Sylvester Steffen Sep 20, 2009, 10:34am EDT
Isn't it possible for English to be "plain" eventhough its content is many layered and needs further drawing out to be understood? Afterall, science and religion taken alone are "dense" subjects in themselves, and even more so when the harmony of their content is attempted. Granted, the content isn't "plain."
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Sylvester Steffen
New Hampton, IA
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