Science at a conference about Religion

Posted on November 19, 2011 by

My first day at the 2011 America Academy of Religion was filled with science. The America Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) organized some workshops and reception.

20111119-070228.jpg This is part of the AAAS Science and Theological Education Project, which is an joint initiative with the Association of Theological Schools (ATS). Science and technology is and important part of modern society. As such, how can seminaries incorporate new topics into an already full curricula. These are the questions being explored here this weekend.

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American Academy of Religion

Posted on November 15, 2011 by

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This weekend, I am attending the American Academy of Religion’s 2011 meeting.

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Tarot Musings

Posted on November 9, 2011 by

As human beings, we love to create meaning out of things. I can remember days spent, as a child, studying the patterns in the sidewalk, the cracks in the ceiling, and the pictures in the clouds. As a teenager, I loved fairy tales and literature and looked for ways they entered into my daily life. And when I went to college, I discovered the tarot. What a wonderful tool! My first deck was given to me at 18. I loved the images, the stories the cards were telling, and the art. I loved exploring the different spreads and trying, through art and story, to make meaning out of things. I have read many books and articles, taken classes, and bought many beautiful decks. I have a series of art projects I have completed that use the tarot. I have been playing with the tarot for over 25 years and I still feel like a novice. I currently have over a dozen decks and only really connect with a few of them. I love the familiarity of the Rider Waite and always seem to return to it. This morning I was reading an article by Barbara Moore on the Llewellen site. In it, she talked about all the ways one could engage with the cards. I especially liked the part where she suggested to get to know the cards one at a time. You could choose to explore a card a day, a card a week, or a card a month. I find it funny that no matter how much time you spend with the cards, you are always a student of the tarot. So I decided I would study a card a week and record my musings. A card a day seemed to little time for exploration, a card a month seemed like overkill. But, a card a week seems like just enough time to look at meaning, story, symbolism. Plus, it gives me time to do some sketching of the cards. First, I need to decide which components to include into my study. I plan to take another look at Mary K. Greer’s “21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card” to help me decide on my format. I love the way she breaks down reading each individual card into so many insightful techniques. I also plan to keep a journal. I hope that by engaging in this process, I can make more connections with the cards and everything in my life.

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Creating art and being human

Posted on October 4, 2011 by

I spent the weekend in San Luis Obispo creating art with my family. As part of the weekend art experience, we view an exhibit of book art where my aunt had one of her altered book on display; however, she did not feel it was worthy of being with the work of ‘real’ artists. I worry anytime when I hear someone say ‘I am not a real artist. As if there is a certification board for ‘real’ artist. What makes your art real is does it move you, friends, other humans, or fulfill your purpose for the art.

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However this leaves open the possibility that art is so vague that anything anyone makes can be claimed as art. I think that there is a difference between this broad, and vague, sense of art and what is may be seen as popular and cultural art. However, the question of what is art is complex and depended on the reason, need, and disciple of the categorization. My question today is why do people doubt themselves as artist?

Even more so, many artist still after becoming “successful” doubt themselves as artist. Seeking validation seems to be a very human need. I have my own doubts but I do not create art for validation. I enjoy the validation and even seek it out but my goal for creating art is different. Art is a media for me to build relationships. Some time this is only a relationship with myself but often it is about community and connection to nature. In this sense, art becomes broad and powerful. In fact, I think that most people engage in art more often than they may see and thus much more of an artist. Perhaps all humans are artist; some make money with art but all of us make connections.

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Philosophers and Social Media

Posted on September 9, 2011 by

Social Media is about building an intentional community… real communities…where you can engage with those topics and people that are important to you. 

There are four parts of social media: connection, consumption, curation, and creation. Social media sites and systems can be one, some, or all these such as Facebook where you can follow and comment on what your friends are doing, read and watch what is being shared, share your own interesting finds, or create your own material. Let look at each of these categories in turn with a focus on some of the social media that works best for each of them and see how social media can be used by philosophers.

Connection

Social media is about being connected. The social media sites that I discuss all have a connection component but I will focus on three that seem pertinent to philosophers (LinkedIn, Academia.edu, and Google+). 

LinkedIn

First, the largest and perhaps best site, for professional connection is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is primarily use for making professional connections, having discussions within specifically industries (groups), asking and answering questions, and job searches (both looking for jobs and finding people). Overall LinkedIn is mostly for business connections; yet, as LinkedIn grows there is the possibility that more members of academia will join and make use of this site. A simple overview one how LinkedIn can be used by academia is give by Digital 3.0 101: LinkedIn for Academia. Also, see William Morris’ blog about how having academics on LinkedIn can be helpful for finding experts. 

With such groups as The Philosophy Network, History and Philosophy of Science, and Philosophy Majors, a philosopher may engage others in discussions, ask questions, and connecting with other philosophers. A quick review of academic type of groups showed that by searching for “philosophy” that there were over 900 groups. Now philosophy is a board category in common usage but some results include: Erasmus University Rotterdam (an exclusive group for alumni, professors, students, researches, and staff); The Philosophy Network (with over 2,700 members); and Philosophy Majors. 

However, the majority of groups are not engage in academic discussion of philosophy and those few groups that do tend to have members outside the academic setting. Seeing that LinkedIn is the premiere professional site for creating and maintaining connection, I see academia using it; however, there is already one professional site for this: Academia.edu. 

Academia.edu

Academia.edu is self describe as “a platform for academics to share and follow research. Academics upload their papers to share them with other academics in over 100,000 research areas. They can also follow other academics, and see new papers and other research updates from those academics in their News Feeds.” I have seen Academia.edu described at The LinkedIn for Academics (see http://gautamghosh.net/2009/03/04/academiaedu-the-linkedin-for-academics/). Academia.edu provide a means for making connections and following the work of other scholars. 

Google+

What is Google+…well that is the question that many people are asking and I think that, in general, Google+ is a social media for connecting in a naturalist way with the different social groups such as friends, colleagues, or even students. What is special about Google+ is that being Google, I think, they will continue to integrate their products and services. Also, Google+ offers what they call “Sparks,” which is a means of searching for post and websites on relative topics. Often this search is too broad; yet, I find these searches useful at times. 

Consumption

Living in the U.S., and thus part of a consumer culture, social media has made it easy to consume information, news, and entertainment. Although it is easy to spend many unproductive hours looking for Lego recreations of Henrik Ibsen’s plays on Youtube, there are many productive means of consumption for philosophers.

Goggle Reader

With a plethora of websites and blogs that contain good philosophical writings and discussions, it can be a daunting task to bookmart and visit each of your favorite sites. However, those days are over because there is a simple way of reading all these by having them delivered to you through the magic of RSS through Goggle Reader. See CommonCraft presentation on RSS in Plain English for help. Basically, sign up for an RSS readers such as Goggle Reader and then subscribe to those blogs that you want to read. When a new blog is posted it will be available in your Goggle Reader. 

Flipboard

You can also use an aggregator for your news and social networks. For those of you using an iPad, which is great for consumption, Flipboard works well. There are many services and the point here is to use social media to make is faster and easier to have the information your want on hand. 

Curation

Curation is the process where a person makes choices on what is interesting and useful to a community. Museums are seen as places where examples of what is best in art and culture are put on display. In social media, what is being curated is information in the form of blogs, websites, and other media. See Is Content Curation the New Community Builder by Eric Brown for more on this topic. Sites such as Philosophy News Services bring together article on philosophy. This differs from aggregation because a person makes choices on which articles are to be include not an automatic search with a logical statements such as “find any tweet that contains the word philosophy.” Find the right group of people who share the kind of content you want to read to save you time looking or if you really like doing the searches, then become a curator yourself and have people follow what you think is useful or interesting. 

Creation

People who create by writing blogs, posting photos, making e-books, white papers, and even commenting are the springs from which all the other parts of social media often flows. Lets look at two ways to create content with Twitter and Blogging. 

Twitter

Twitter is just a micro-blog of a 140 characters per post that started off with a simple question “what are you doing?” See Common Crafts’ Twitter in Plain English. It has grown into a social media tool for marketing, sharing ideas and photos, following events, and still remains a place for people to say what they had for lunch. There are philosophers, publishing houses, and aggregators all on Twitter. You may want to follow @Routledge_Phil or @Philosophy_Talk to begin with but there are many more.   

Blogging

If you need more than 140 characters at a time for blogging, and lets face it most philosophers do, then setting up your own blog may be the answer. However, before taking on this venture think about what you want from your blog. Do you want to express your thoughts, engage others, build up your reputation, or even be able to write more? All these reason are fine but some take more time. It can be a little hard when you have written a brilliant blog, set back and wait for all the comments and engagement only to find that no one has looked at it. There are lots of blogs with lots of shinning objects pulling at our attention. If you want to be successful, you will need to market your blog. Well, that is, unless all you really want is just to write more and do not care about readers.  

Connection, Consumption, Curation, and Creation

Social media permits all levels of engagement from commenting on what your friends have to say to writing content each day for others to read. I have always through that philosophers should engage at many levels with our communities. Social media is a powerful tool for this engagement. 

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Julian the Economist

Posted on August 24, 2011 by
Roman Coin wiht Julian (360 to 363)

Portret van Julianus Apostata op bronzen munt van Antiochië, 360-363. Foto met toestemming van Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. (CNG) at www.cngcoins.com

Flavius Claudius Julianus Augustus, the last Pagan Roman Emperor (355 CE to 363 CE), has been vilify by some (Julian the Apostate) and held in great esteem by others (Julian the Philosopher); yet, what I have recently leaned from this Roman Emperor are some economic lessons. Check out The History of Rome podcast episode 144 – The Road to Constantinople for more information and the source for my realizability that Julian has more to offer me than philosophy.

Julian during his fateful stay in Gaul…in the little town Lutèce that we now call Paris…faced the ever present problem of the Alamanni (German tribes) and need money to fortify the Rhine frontier. Conventional wisdom presented by the Praetorian Perfect Florentius was to raise taxes but Julian step in (that is overruled Florentius) to lower taxes. Now, if more money is needed, then why would Julian step in and lower taxes. Well the soon to be Emperor also ensured that the rich…who over the years used various tax forgiveness opportunities to simple not pay would in fact pay their taxes. Julian understood that he could lower taxes for those already at the breaking point, permitting a growth in local trade, and still secure the funds needed by taxing those who did have the means to pay. I am not sure if Julian’s understanding of economic growth include the idea of tax relief towards small business people; however, he did seem to have an understanding fairness towards all those he ruled.

I, like many, wonder what would have happened if Julian would have rule longer than he very short time; however, he did not and what we have left is a few writings and sampling of what he tried to do during his time as emperor. I have read some of these philosophical writings but I completely missed his attempt to change how the emperor interacted with the people, economic changes, and the restoration of Paganism. Yet, with such a short time as emperor, Julian did not have much lasting effect.

The lessons I do see are those of being practical about getting to where you want to be. Julian need money to protect the Rhine frontier, so he turned to those who had both money and an obligation to pay. He wanted to restore Paganism but understood the criticism that the temples and clergy were corrupt, so Julian implemented reforms for the temples along with restoration. In my work in the world I have become more of a pragmatist looking for what works while I try to balance what I think is the right thing to do. I get the feeling that Julian was walking this line too and as such is a good example of a philosopher applying actions to change the world.

Joseph R. Hoffmann, in Julian’s Against the Galileans (see his chapter Julian the Restorer) gives the reader an overview of Julain’s writings, times, and life. I would suggest Jonathan Kirsch’s God against the Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism for an general introduction.

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Making Connections

Posted on August 7, 2011 by

I love to dabble in the Tarot. Having been a literature major in college and a lover of fairy tales from a very early age, I really connect with the archetypes and stories behind the cards. For me, the Tarot is another tool, like journaling or art,  by which I can interpret my life and raise awareness by turning off the part of my brain that is the censor so that I may enter into introspection with a different perspective. We have all found that sometimes, when you are too close to a situation, you fail to see it for what it really is.

So the other day, I followed a link to a website called Beyond Worlds, and listened to a Tarot podcast by Donnaleigh de la Rose. (Air date: March 5, 2011) During the program, she shared a great tip for a quick read. It was based on a Swedish proverb that says, “Shared joy is a double joy, and shared sorrow is a half a sorrow.” She then suggested pulling two cards and ask: 1)  How can I make joy a shared joy this week? 2) How can I make someone’s sorrow a half sorrow this week? Always enjoying a new tip, I pulled two cards. They seemed pretty self explanatory, so I nodded and went about my business. It wasn’t until later in the week that I actually connected with the reading. I met a friend of mine for dinner. We had a nice evening, and in a moment of sharing, we opened up to each other. Now I know this is not an extraordinary concept. Friends depend on each other all the time. But sometimes we do hold back, we don’t want to burden the other person. We may have things that we feel are too personal to share, or not important enough.  We are afraid of others’ judgement. That night I connected with my friend on a deeper level than we had ever done. I truly feel that we had some bonding and it has greatly enriched our friendship. The next night I went out to meet friends, and even though I had been feeling down, the connection had lifted my spirits. It opened me up to the group and talking with some of the members, I remember thinking that we are all dealing with our own processes at any given time, but the act of gathering and sharing really brings us connection.

I enjoyed reading William’s previous blog about joining his friend at Lughnassadh. I could feel the sense of connection he came away with. So while still composing this I asked him what he took away from the trip – on a personal level. He said, “Separate from any experience I would have had on my own, it was a great honor to be invited into an intimate personal setting with my friend whom I greatly respect. I was able to share a religious experience from her perspective.” He went on to explain that trust was key. He trusted her completely to bring the experience to him and never once felt like an outsider. Friendship brings trust and meaning.

That is so simple. Friendship brings trust and meaning. Everything we experience, everything we must bear, every bit of joy, is what it is to be human. Human connection brings us joy and helps us on the journey for whatever may come. Life is a process and for better and for worse, we need each other to help us along the way.

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My life among the Druids…well one weekend

Posted on August 1, 2011 by
My friend Carol was kind enough to invite me to Driudpalooza, which was a Lughnasadh weekend campout hosted by the Coastal Oak Grove (www.coastoakgrove.com) along with other Druids and Groves for Lughnassadh. Everyone there was gracious and inviting to me. In fact, hospitality (*ghosti) is a core value to Ár nDraíocht Féin: A DruidPaso Picacho Campground Tree Line Fellowship (www.adf.org). This is the formation of the guest/host relationship where hospitality is given to guest in order that guest may be able to provide the same hospitality be that in gifts, time, or energy. This seems closely related to the ancient Greek idea of Xenia (ξενία which is, in part, the rights of a guest but is used in a great sense of friendly relationship within the context of a foreigner and even a foreign state) but with a more modern and perhaps broader meaning.
 
However, what I am interested is applied ethics and see how this concept worked in the real world. There seems to be a subtle but important point that Archdruid Kirk (www.druidkirk.org) pointed out where hospitality is given in order to gain hospitality but to build that relationship where this exchange may occur. Hospitality is not I give to you so that you will give to me but more along the lines of I give to you because it is the right thing to do so that we can build a relationship. This idea of building relationship is part of what I consider Piety. In our everyday lives, we engage in relationship where we give in order to receive. In the morning, I may go for pastry and tea (okay in reality more often a donut and soda) but when I pay I expect to receive the food then not as part of some relationship build where I may be freely given pastries in the future.
 
What this type of hospitality is more like is when I ask a new friend to lunch and pay for the meal. I do not think that one day they may pay for me too. What I think is that I want to grow my friendship by building the relationship. I offer the gift of the meal to say that my time with you is important to me and I honor it by this meal. And, I did fill honor by the hospitality provide by Coastal Oak Grove and all those who attended. This is a good value to learn from these Druids for Pagan Humanist.
 
Just a few disclaimers, I did not attend this event in order to look at the practice of *ghosti, I was an invited guest and feel blessed for being included with both the weekend camping trip and the Lughnasadh celebrations. Also, please do not take one weekend as a sign that I truly understand ADF and its members understand of *ghosti, only as my limited view.
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Obligations towards Future Generations

Posted on July 25, 2011 by

There are other avenues which Pagans may engage with considerations of our obligations towards future generations. The very idea of future generations may be challenge by a metaphysical paradigm which reject lineal time so that to speak of future generation may make as much sense of speaking to those people west of us until we come full circle to ourselves. Dualism may be inherit within a system that separates actuality and non-actuality people and thus run counter to some Pagans.

By being born we are linked and thus have a biological and moral connection.[1] Many Pagans see this connection as important to their religion and thus worthy of moral consideration. Even though our connection to future generations may be filled with paradoxes and uncertainties, Pagans are inclined toward making moral consideration through intuition and experience in which some of these philosophical considerations are nothing more than interesting thought experiments. However, from my perspective as a person who engages with religious philosophy, I feel that Pagans have a voice—a multiplicity of voices—that should be heard at many levels on the topic of what our obligations are to future generations and other ethical considerations.

[1] Daniel Callahan, “What Obligations Do We Have to Future Generations?” American Ecclesiastical Review 164 (1971).

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Temporal Remoteness

Posted on July 18, 2011 by

The concerns that Partridge writes about all seem to have this central theme of what to do about moral obligations to those people who do not yet exist. Brain Barry reflects that people alive in hundreds of years can be made better off by us; however, but they cannot make us better off[1] may not be completely true. Although there may be no guaranty, what we do now may reflect how future generations view us. Honor is an important religious value to many Pagans. The idea that our honor may be impugned by those future generations because we do not engage in right relationships when we had the opportunity to do so can be seen as harm to those of us today. We can see this in our struggles with understanding the imperfections of our ancestors who, even though we may admire, we have to accept that they were human and thus intrinsically flawed.[2]

Judgment about our actions may be harsher by those distant generations. Some of the criteria that may be used to judge moral obligations are knowledge and capacity, which are directly related to science and technology. Our present society is better able to determine the probability for the outcomes of our action that our ancestors where. We are able to dramatically affect the world around us through this knowledge and technology and with this power is linked long range effect upon the environment and future generations but no previous ethical background with which to deal with it.[3] How we treat the environment, enact polices on population, and invests in just institutions[4] are a few suggested means thought which people affect the future.

“Honour and Integrity are qualities which enables someone to want to do something right and just,” Brendan Myers claims, “not because of the good consequences that may entail, and not because the act fulfils the requirement of some moral law. Rather, a person’s own sense of purpose and worth motivates her.”[5] Along with this, Myers suggests that honor evolves public and relationship concepts that a person acquires through actions.[6] Myers ideas are closely related to virtue ethics in which a person become virtuous by performing virtuous actions. 

There is one more crucial point that comes with knowledge and that is the ability to make choices. This is one of those places that Pagan religious philosophers can engage with John Rawls. Rawls examined and defended the moral principle that human begins need to be capable of obeying an ethical principle in order to be held morally accountable for it. We do not have an obligation to future generations if we are unable to do otherwise. Although Schwartz would claim that there is no value significance because we are affecting no individual’s life, I believe that we are obligated to choose the best of the potential lives. It may seem a bit simplistic; however, if I use a Rawls’ model, his original position, I would ask the question, ‘what is the best course of action if I was uncertain which generation I would exist,’ then I would answer that we should neither put an unreasonable strain upon this generation nor leave an unbearable cost to future generations.[7] This balance in moral consideration is one of the roots of fully honorable relationships of which Orr speaks.

[1] Brian Barry, “Justice Between Generation,” in Law, Morality and Society, ed. P.M.S. Hacker and J. Raz (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977). 

[2] An example in the US would be holding the framers of our Constitution in high regards even though they permitted the barbaric act of slavery to continue while expressing liberty and freedom that would only slowly be generalized to the wider population.

[3] Hans Jonas, “Technology and Responsibility: The Ethic of an Endangered Future,” in Responsibilities to Future Generations, ed. Ernest Partridge (New York: Prometheus Books, 1981).

[4] John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (Massachusetts: The Belknap Press, 1971).

[5] Brendan Myers, The Other Side of Virtue (Winchester, UK: O Books, 2008), 49-50.

[6] Ibin, 45-46.

[7] John Rawls, “A Theory of Justice,” in Justice and Economic Distribution, ed, John Arthur and William H. Shaw (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc. 1978), 46.

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