It seems to me that Patricia's caveat of "after the first moment" is the sticking point
If "God" is anthropomorphized to mean the big man with the white beard -- as something apart from His creation -- we do indeed have a conundrum. Such is the inconsistency in secular Western thought. However, if we do accept HE/SHE/IT as omnipresent, omnicient, and omnipotent, there is no possibility of anything being *other *than God. Therefore, separateness is an illusion, and the universe was indeed Self-organized -- and continues to be. From what I have seen, this is the viewpoint held by most mystics (East or West), as well as most First Peoples. Carol On Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 6:54 AM, Ralph Copleman <rcople...@comcast.net>wrote: > If we say we live in a self-organizing universe, and if we also say there > is no such thing as a non-self-organizing system, then where does that leave > us with regard to the biblical creation story of the original seven days -- > which seems to lay down holy word that it is possible create a comprehensive > order out of nothing? > > It's irrelevant that the biblical story may or may not be literally true. > We must recognize the impact this version of creation has had on our > collective consciousness in the West, if not all over the world. This model > of order-out-of-chaos dominates most, if not all our modern institutions. > It lays the framework for how we see the world and how we seek to relate to > it, its systems, and itc challenges. It's the pattern for government, > business, education, community development, religion, etc. It even dictates > how we shall relate to Earth itself. > > When we ask people to accept the belief that there is no such thing as a > non-self-organizing system, aren't we saying, "The story we have all lived > by, whether we consciously realize it or not, is wrong, profoundly > inaccurate, and dangerous"? > > Ralph > > * > * > ========================================================== > osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu > ------------------------------ > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, > view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html > > To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: > http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist > -- Best regards, Carol Hiltner Founder, Altai Mir University 206-525-2101 (US) 913-462-6912 (Novosibirsk) carol.hilt...@gmail.com www.AltaiMir.org www.AltaiBooks.com * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
