The old science views nature as objects; the new science views nature as relationships. The old science is characterized by detachment, expropriation, dissection, and reduction; the new science is characterized by engagement, replenishment, integration, and holism. The old science is committed to making nature productive; the new science to making nature sustainable. The old science seeks power over nature; the new science seeks partnership with nature. The old science puts a premium on autonomy from nature; the new science on reparticipation with nature. (Para.)The new science takes us from a colonial vision of nature as an enemy to pillage and enslave, to a new vision of nature as a community to nurture. The right to exploit, harness, and own nature in the form of property is tempered by the obligation to steward nature and treat it with dignity and respect. The utility value of nature is slowly giving way to the intrinsic value of nature. (Jeremy Rifkin, The Empathic Civilization, pp. 599-600, via Randy C. Williams)

Nez: This is the “new human” view of nature. We humans are part of nature. The human as separate from nature is what I hear him saying we are out to overcome, for the Earth community is one—truly intrinsic.

[We* are] founded in profound recognition of the unprecedented evolutionary challenge currently facing the Earth Community. The ecological, social, economic, political and spiritual crises of our time call for a fundamental reorientation of our civilization, including a transformation not only of our institutions but also our consciousness. The cultural historian Thomas Berry called this task “the Opus Magnum” … the Great Work.

Journer: Heck of a statement for a small community activities center in San Francisco. Makes me want to check them out.

Nez: Would that all businesses on the planet understood their profound reason for being.

* Note: web page message from founders of The Center SF (a “Namaste” bow by one of the founders) check it out

From the very beginning, we said that as a foundation we will not support abortion [because she was raised a strong Roman Catholic]. …I had to wrestle with which pieces of religion do I use and believe in my life, what would I counsel my daughters to do.… [W]e’re … serving the other piece of the Catholic mission, which is social justice. (Melinda Gates, Newsweek, May 14, 2012 read article via LLC) 

Journer: The article goes on, “Right now, she points out, 100,000 women annually die in childbirth after unintended pregnancies. Six hundred thousand babies born to women who didn’t want to be pregnant die in the first month of life.” The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is out to deal with that immorality through the new quarterly contraceptive injections women gladly walk miles to receive.

Nez: That’s a personal, family, church, and Earth Community victory, what I call authentic responsibility. Enough of just traditional morality in the name of some religion—serve the bigger need.

Journer: Let’s dialog with this YouTube clip from a “West Wing” TV show past.*

In science it often happens that scientists say, “You know that’s a really good argument; my position is mistaken,” and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again…. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (Carl Sagan, 1987 CSICOP Keynote Address)

Journer: Why are political, economic, and religious leaders so hesitant to change?

Nez: Stuck in power, greed, self, and tradition. Sagan is too nice. Jesus called them really, really bad names and told them to repent—but they got even with him.

______

Image: James Tissot, “Curses Against the Pharisees,” Brooklyn Museum, NY source 

Journer: And what would presence in the world look like?

Nez: Getting out of your house, your church or temple, your locality, your nation, your species. Getting out there and being present to the whole world’s need.

Journer: Like a Wangari Maathai and a Vandana Shiva.

* Carlos Castaneda source 

Image: Vandana Shiva and Wangari Maathai article source

Patch Adams, as first-year medical student, takes on the meanest patient in the hospital, Bill Davis, who is about to die. Watch the movie clip to see how they dance with death.

Journer:Unbelievable care for the dying.

Nez: You got to get through their defenses and help them to dance the last dance with open eyes and joyous heart. The “Angel of Death” dared to help reveal healing presence.

Image: source (Robin Williams)

Journer: O to get beyond theory—stop trying to figure out the Book of Revelation—by experiencing my life’s big bang.

Nez: The rational search stops with Wilber’s “And then” … when revelation happens. Once it has really happened to you, Journer, theory and belief systems become secondary.

Image: source 

Nez: What, that the world needs, has made you come alive, Journer?

Journer: Getting people together to reflect on and answer the question What, that the world needs, makes you come alive?

Image: source 

[Awe is] primary, unique, underivable from anything else … the basic factor and the basic impulse underlying the entire process of religious evolution. (Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy, p. 15)

Journer: It would also be true if we just said “the entire process of evolution,” don’t you think?

Nez: Sure. Raw, secular awe was and is the precursor of religion and spirituality because it is the primal and depth impulse of the universe. Our mysterious encounters with the awe-filled universe guide and transform our journey—from birth to death.

Image: John August Swanson, “Psalm 23” source