“ Who Am I?” - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1
Slide2

“Who Am I?”Slide3

Answer Involves

Beliefs

Present Condition

Personal History

AncestrySlide4

Larry’s First Answer

I am a man, husband, father.

I was born in CA, chemist, traveled much.

I am Irish, Welsh, English, & Cherokee. Slide5

Another’s Answer

I am a child of God.

A traveler among men.

I seek Truth.

Come from a long line of seekers back to the mists of time.Slide6

N. Scott Momaday’s Answer

“I am the Story of myself.”

Larry’s note: “Story” means the whole 13.7 billion year story.Slide7

A Great Work

Usually Cosmology 1 + Cosmology 2 is

Cosmology 1 and, oh yeah, the other one.

Cosmology 1 + Cosmology 2 could be Cosmology 1 + Cosmology

2Slide8

The Great Work

New Cosmology

New Cosmology

New Cosmology

New Cosmology

Original

Cosmology

(western scientific, technological, economical, industrial, & biblical)

New Cosmology

New Cosmology

New Cosmology

New CosmologySlide9

Larry’s First Answer

(Example of Literal Cosmology)

I am a man, husband, father.

I was born in CA, chemist, traveled much.

I am Irish, Welsh, English, & Cherokee. Slide10

Another’s Answer

(Example of Mythological Cosmology)

I am a child of God.

A traveler among men.

I seek Truth.

Come from a long line of seekers back to the mists of time.Slide11

Cosmologies

(Including Creation Stories)

Literal

Mythological

Dysfunctional

Earth

is flat.

Witches, devils,

slavery,

etc

Functional

Earth is a globe.

Australian

Dream TimeSlide12

American Cosmology

is a Mixture

Biblical Literalists = Creationists

Scientific-Technologists-Evolutionists = no non-physical explanations

Folks, probably lots of them, who don’t concern themselves much with explanations.

(There must be considerable overlap.)Slide13

Dysfunctional

Even though American cosmology is a mixture, with overlaps, complicated,

etc

, it is fundamentally dysfunctional because it carries an implicit and very powerful assumption:

Earth was created for humans.

This is revelation and/or common sense (law).Slide14

Embedded in our Culture

When

is last time we asked permission of the natural world to build a housing project

?

This assumption and its corollary are deep in our culture

.

Miriam

MacGillis

did.

The Irish used to, not long ago.Slide15

Should be Easy to Fix;

Just the Facts

Humans are newcomers on Earth.

No significance until recently (30 – 50

kya

).

Created through long process of natural selection.

Alas! Not very successful. Should have known. Evolution taught in most colleges already.Slide16

Big Learning

Many people find the facts sterile.

They want meaning.

And meaning, real meaning is best conveyed

mythologically

.

Joseph Campbell’s quote.Slide17

Joseph Campbell Quote

“I would say that all our sciences are the material that has to be mythologized. A mythology gives spiritual meaning - what one might call rather the psychological, inward meaning, of the world of nature round about us, as understood today. There's no real conflict between science and religion ... What is in conflict is the science of 2000 BC ... and the science of the 21th century AD.”Slide18

Need Multivalence

Thomas Berry stressed that we need to educate for a new cosmology in a “multivalent” mode – levels of meaning.

A few do this very well: Thomas, Brian

Swimme

, Miriam

MacGillis

, Mary Evelyn Tucker, and others.

This has been effective over the last 30 years.Slide19

Thomas Berry Quote

“It’s all a question of story.

We are

in trouble just now because we do not have a good story. We are in between stories. The old story, the account of how the world came to be and how we fit into it, is no longer effective. Yet we have not learned the new story. Our traditional story of the universe sustained us for a long period of time. It shaped our emotional attitudes, provided us with life purposes, and energized action. Slide20

It consecrated suffering and integrated knowledge. We awoke in the morning and knew where we were. We could answer the questions of our children. We could identify crime, punish transgressors. Everything was taken care of because the story was there. It did not necessarily make people good, nor did it take away the pains and stupidities of life or make for unfailing warmth in human association. It did provide a context in which life could function in a meaningful manner.

My addition: “We awoke in the morning and knew where we were.”

and who we were

.Slide21

Slight Expansion of my Answer

Gratitude is the key to a heartfelt response.

Carry genes of my ancestors. So I am (part) them.

Also carry results of their lifestyles and choices which were dependent on their environments.Slide22

I am Grateful

I am Irish, Welsh, English, Cherokee

I carry the genes of these ancestors but

also some

aspects of their culture, those aspects that affected their health, etc. And I am grateful that those ancestors made the choices they did that I might be alive now. Slide23

Lucy, Australopithecus

afarensis

,

3

mya

S

avanna

influenced her life &

choices

I am Grateful.Slide24

Tiktaalik, lobed-fin fish, 375

mya

walked

ashore

I am GratefulSlide25

Juvenile Sea Squirt, 500

mya

Developed Cartilage Vertebrae

I am GratefulSlide26

And so on back to the

beginning

13.75

bya

I am Grateful

The mammalian ear so I can hear.

The fish eye so I can see.

Bacterial respiration so I can breathe.

DNA so I can live

Supernovae so we can exist

Universe birth so all can existSlide27

I am the Story of Myself

The Whole Story

The Story of humanity

The Story of life

The Story of Earth

The Story of the Cosmos

And I am Grateful.