> Richard wrote:
> >God is an emergent property of the billions of minds on the planet.
>
> >The Spirit is a tangible force that is created, not creator, of the human
> >mind. This force exists and causes things that no individual or group is
> >consciously causing, just as the human mind causes things unbeknownst to
> >the underlying cells of the body.
>
> >Complexity theory tells us that the nature of an emergent phenomenon is
> >unpredictable from and unrelated to the mechanics of its underpinnings.
>
> I see how complexity theory can lead to a sense of meaning. But,the
> implications of complexity theory are that we should get religiously
> devoted to a greater entity which we cannot control. I don't say that's
> bad, but how is that different than devoting yourself to Jesus like the
> fundamentalist Christians?
"[W]e should get religiously devoted to a greater entity which we cannot
control"? I would say something rather different: we should recognize
that we are a part of a greater entity which we cannot control or
understand in its entirety (since we can only see and control our own part
of it directly). If I've phrased this effectively, it ought to be clear
how it's different from standard forms of monotheism. Let me know.
Eva,
doing her best to make her neighborhood of the Pattern flow in beauty