The picture in today's lesson is an example of a Fractal. A simple way to consider it is that fractals are to geometry what fractions are to numbers. A number such as 1/3 when calculated as an exact number, is 0.33333.... It is an unending repeated decimal. Some, such as Pi, are an unending decimal with different numbers that are also without end. This means that no one can ever know the absolute value of Pi. The picture above is a never ending graphic image that can be forever magnified and will never come to a final end. Until computers came along, these things we call fractals, could only be visualized in the mind of a mathematician. Now we are all able to enjoy their incredible beauty. What you see in the picture is just one of an unlimited possibility of different systems (equations), each in themselves, - unlimited.

When we started this series on hermeneutic considerations, we concluded that even though we are able to be aware of systems other than our own, we are very much limited in what we can know about them. In fact, we can only know anything about them because we are able to access what comes from them. (That is, we do not join with that other system, we only receive something from that other system, such as reflected light.)

Now, the containing system we are all in (-this universe, which also includes other galaxies) cannot communicate with others. Despite bold attempts at science fiction or "testimonies of ghostly appearances", or religious experiences, nothing scientifically verifiable has passed from one universe to another. So - we have no experience of things like time travel, or entering into another parallel universe. Just because all of this is systems within systems doesn't mean there cannot be an Absolute beyond our universe. This is a philosophical question at this point.

If an Absolute breaks through into our universe, either as an observer, a participant, or even Creator, it must be initiated by that Absolute. [Only the Absolute has the knowledge of what systems exist.] Christians believe the Absolute has done just that. (This is seen in the present debate about "Intelligent Design".) There is also evidence of this from what is contained within our universe (called Natural Revelation by theologians), from messages and words claimed to come from the place of the Absolute. (called Special Revelation), -and even a visitation of the Absolute Himself. (termed Incarnational Revelation). We are still stuck, however, in that whatever "is here" is still another system within our system, and limited accordingly. It cannot be absolute. The only way we can truly know this absolute is that it must become a part of our own personal system, - our own self! For some, this only introduces another set of withins in ourselves that can continue down that unending spiral. Again, where it all ends must be at the discretion of the Absolute. From our part, our best response would be openness on a holistic level.

Several lessons ago we looked at Psalm 19. Go back and, this time, read the opening paragraphs to see what some of these words say about what we have been dealing with here.

To see notes relating to the diagram below click here.

Symbolic diagram considering makeup of a Person

The Eye of God Nebula

Before we begin I need to make several comments: The previous material concerning dimensions and systems relate to the thinking in the early 18th Century, often called Positivism or Empiricism. Although there have been modifications, this philosophy has dominated much of the modern world and is partially responsible for the chaotic condition of our present cultures. I also wish to point out that the graphic we introduced last session is only a limited spatial aid to visualize some relationships.

As Christians, we have received writings from our history which were compiled into our Bible almost several thousand years ago. Originally in oral form, these scriptures tell of the story of the Absolute, not only breaking into our world, but creating all systems. The “Absolute” has revealed Himself in numerous ways to different cultures, through His creation, through individuals who have written as He has directed them, and He has revealed Himself subjectively within the people He created, and continues to do so.

In the picture - the white balls at the intersection of the lines appear to briefly change to black. This is an optical illusion and the picture is not changing, but the observer is seeing what is happening within the eye as the picture is processed by the neural construction of the eye and the brain.

These past weeks we have been dealing with questions that most people seem to think have little relationship with the “reality they know”. They do have a good point because most of these philosophical matters seem to have little effect on our lives. However, this doesn't change the fact that merely because things are unseen doesn't mean they have no consequences, whether they are viruses or demonic powers. Life does seem to go on in ways that we think are explainable, usually if we are not the one’s trying to do the explaining.

Many who read the Bible usually seem perplexed at what the fuss is about. “Just read it for what it says”, they say. “It does not take a rocket scientist to understand, at least, the recent translations.” In the 18th century there was a group of Christians who espoused what they called ‘common-sense’ philosophy. That certainly sounds desirable, but what one found common was not always the same for others.

As science advanced and extended into investigating the cosmos and the quantum world, the particular mathematical understanding of human logic soon became obsolete, and mathematics discovered relationships that defied human reason. I recall attempting to explain Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle to a class by stating that a particular chair was more probably at one location, than another place that I pointed to just a little to one side. The response was they had uncertainty about a lot of things that day! Yet, there is a semiconductor component called a tunnel diode, whose function depends upon that very principle.

For the most part, we don’t need much more than traditional Newtonian Physics to describe how to travel around the earth, but for a trip to Saturn, other matters become relevant. Much is the same with Biblical Interpretation; most of the Scriptures are clear and understandable. Were it not for theological claims of inerrancy and absolute truth, ventures like we have just come through would not be so pressing. Remember that the Bible itself reminds us that we do not look at what is visible. Seeing the invisible is not a simple matter!

Colossians 1:15-17 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-- all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

2 Corinthians 4:18 -we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

The Scriptures from the last lesson ( Col 1:15-17; Heb 11:3; 2 Cor 4:18) are important because we are not the only ones that hold to a reality that is invisible. One of the tenets in Postmodernism is that we perceive reality through the lens of culture and language. Since culture and language are far from universal (“metanarratives”), there seems to be no possibility for any truly objective truth. The implications are that people use what they consider as truth to develop their own world view. The consequences of this make things that are not truth to be, even though they are not-real, but invisible constructions of their mind;   resulting in “mental illusions” not unlike our more familiar “optical illusions”. When Jesus said to those listening to his teachings, “Whoever has ears to hear,” he was acknowledging that there were those in the crowd that were unable to “see” or perceive his message. Processes within our minds work to bring into “awareness” certain information, and filter out others.

A famous riddle is:

"A father and son were in an automobile accident. The father was killed and when the son was taken to the hospital, the surgeon refused to operate, saying, "I cannot operate because that boy is my son". What are the relationships?

We are ever relying on our spell checker, but the brain is able to ignore many of our mistakes and fill in "what it expects to see" by familiar clues. As an example:

Another example of the mind filtering out what is there is shown below:

How long did it take you to notice the extra word?

The solution to the riddle is that the surgeon was the boy's mother, and it was her husband who had died. The filter is one of gender, where usually a surgeon is assumed to be a man. We see things we expect to see, and miss other information that is before us.

The task of Hermeneutics is as a tool to help us to understand the Scriptures. If our goal is any less, we will only be able to find surface meaning. Before we can begin to "get anything out", we have to see what is there, and from our simple exercises above we see it is not as easy as we usually expect. So - regardless of what hermeneutic approach  we finally employ, the first step must begin with accurate observation. For those who casually study scripture, this seemingly simple task is often ignored with resulting faulty conclusions. Observation becomes the universal beginning of most all hermeneutic applications.

Although we seem crippled in our ability to overcome these limitations, in some manner or another, individuals are responsible for their world view, or else there exists a fatalism. Perhaps the book of Ecclesiastes would be a good study for contemporary Christians, even though there is nothing new under the sun.

Another, even more controversial topic is the presence of evil in the world. That the results abound around us is undeniable, but is it an effect from unseen forces, or is evil only defined in relative and social contexts? We will explore this in other lessons.

Many Postmodern critics lament that reason and logic have been abandoned and the situation seems hopeless. I would put before you that this is not true. Unsaved and saved Postmoderns are neither stupid, nor mutually exclusive as a group which includes Christians. Postmodernism is a cultural expression like others, and has been around since the beginning of man’s life outside of "The Garden".

"Some of the “old guard” might think that it was the right hemisphere of the brain that suffered in the Adamic Fall. It may prove that in our renewal of the mind, the other part we have neglected might well be the most exciting and rewarding transformation yet. It helps to remember that our goal is to be like Jesus, who for now remains unseen; but John writes.

1 John 3:1-3  See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. NAU

Or -  as The Message puts it:

What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are. But that’s also why the world doesn’t recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who he is or what he’s up to.

   But friends, that’s exactly who we are: children of God. And that’s only the beginning. Who knows how we’ll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we’ll see him—and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own.

14. A Quick Look at the Compass

A compass doesn't tell which way to go. It just gives the bearings. Leonard Sweet pointed out in one of his books how maps "lie". Compasses are like that. When working with a compass there is a term one finds called "true North", which seems as elusive as some of our other absolutes. If you have ever attempted to set a car compass you will find a small map included that requires you to make an adjustment in your readings, dependent upon where you are located. If you don't know where you are, compasses are not that helpful. Let's take a quick look at our bearings.

1. The problem of reality continues to perplex those working with the philosophy of science and theology. In our metaphor of an exploring journey, one can identify with the old children's song which goes, "--the bear came over the mountain, and what do you think he saw? He saw another mountain, he saw another mountain ..."  Philosophers, to a large part, have given up on the idea of finding a final certainty, but still agree to pursue truth. For the mountain pioneer this spells a certain doom regarding his finding the promised land, but if he has a mind to enjoy the journey and keep his eyes open, many treasures are able to be acquired along the way.

Lest the journeying Christian become too critical of theologians for failing to give us the final clear roadmap to our destination, we must remember that they also are on the same quest. There are numerous discoveries many of them have made, some at supreme personal cost. Even the Scriptures point out that we all look at a faulty distorted image of truth. The wilderness ahead is not benign, and acknowledged or not, there are entities within that territory that are diabolically committed to destroy us. Many have run their ships upon the rocks and are those who are said to be "ever learning but failing to come to the knowledge of the truth."

 2. Another observation we must clearly keep in view is that we are not dealing with some inanimate or lesser creature that we can assume that we sit at a place outside of the entire system as a capable observer. Even for those who readily admit to the necessity of acknowledging our interactive context and subjective baggage in all of our thinking, we must be humbled before an absolute God. (At least for theological philosophers). Many would accuse us of hiding behind our presuppositions and faith in order to maintain our irrational authoritarian position. But like a card player that gives his own rules to the game, he has his own defined wild card somewhere in the deck. Whatever matrix of rationality one has, he will always find presuppositions, even though he might deny this.

Ours are: First, the Absolute, who we call God, has chosen to reveal Himself to us through His creation and the Scriptures. Secondly; that we arrive at this certainty through an equally necessary imparted and revealed faith and presence of the Absolute as the Holy Spirit. We have consequentially found that objective evidence that this is the truth also resides within our world system, but not necessarily as a philosophical proof. 

3. As we would then look into the external evidence of Scripture, we acknowledge the necessity for continued revelation and interaction of the Holy Spirit to enable us to come to the knowledge of the truth represented by those Scriptures. This is all at his discretion and not as a mechanical or methodological result of our own intention.

A common expression among Evangelicals is that Scripture must interpret Scripture. Although this is often stated from a naive' and simplistic understanding, it is the only path ahead. It is not exclusive to any other directions because we are in continual communion with the Life within. But the Scriptures have, even from their own testimony, a unique and purposefully given place in revealing the path of truth for our journey. Although not the end  we seek up ahead, each step of the path consists of the same substance of that place, given to lead us onward. In forthcoming lessons we will look at how Scripture addresses these questions, and how much baggage can we leave here, and what discovered treasures will be valuable to take as we proceed.

15. Being Human

These are amazing still frames from a newly developed ultrasonic scan video camera that takes moving pictures of the baby within the womb. Developed in Great Britain, the web site reporting this is the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3846525.stm

The yawn is at 12 weeks, and the wink at 24 weeks. The video requires some "playing with" and depends upon your download speed.

Some years ago I was  a graduate student in physics. Most of the classes were involved with advanced mathematics, but the Physics department would not have their students take any classes from the Mathematics Department. This wasn't just academic tribalism, but the problem for the physicists was that the Math department was concerned with "excessive accuracy" in their computations.

It seems that I remember the issue was that the mathematicians were working in an unreal world. This was more than abstractions or numbers, for we have already noted that fractions are able to be worked with differently than decimals are. (Lesson 6). The physicists were interested in working within systems, while the mathematicians were more fond of exploring "pure" possibilities. An equation might be made up of expressions that involved numeric values out to tens of decimal places to be a precisely correct solution. The response the physicists might have preferred was to take the correct equation and put "realistic numbers" into it, and with a broad sweep, erase most of the equation as having no practical significance.  The physicists were dealing  within the world system where they were concerned with what they considered reality. They felt the same way about the philosophers as they did the mathematicians, and the Philosophy of Science class was not in the graduate physics curriculum. Physics was, after all, to be about reality. These days some of the most insightful philosophers are physicists.  Most people still would put theologians into the impractical and "other worldly" category. This should not be.

We have seen that math means different things to different people. The price of gasoline at the pump might say in big numbers  $ 2.18 but we know "in small print" is added  0.9 cents. For all practical purposes the cost is $ 2.19 per gallon, but we still think $ 2.18.  It has only been embarrassingly  recent that we have seen how much a seemingly small number can affect the "practical results in the real world" with what has been popularized as the "Butterfly Effect".

Unless we are trying to make bold statements about our absolute knowledge about The Absolute, life as human beings is quite workable within our own system. This is probably why the Church has to be continually reawakened to the exhortation of scripture that it is our present world  in which we are to be involved. To be spiritually minded is not to always be thinking of spiritual things (other worldly), but to be thinking about all things from a spiritual perspective. This is one of the reasons why "sanctified" subjectivity is needed to function as a Christian. But subjectivity itself is a mix.

It might be thought that the audible voice of the Holy Spirit continually moderating our daily activities would be a wonderful thing. It might be as it was when Jesus walked with the disciples. But it is clear that they didn't always get it right even in his presence. We still carry our mixed bag of experiences and other interactions with our world and its effects upon us as seen through our only too human eyes.

So there is a reality that is common to us as humans, and one that is affected by many things which severely skew our perception and understanding. Not only have we seen that we cannot entirely trust what we see, as our experiments with optical illusions demonstrated, but there are many voices and experiences that engulf us. Some come from the community of man, and we are told from the Scriptures that there are multitudes of other entities about us, some that are mortal enemies. What can we trust if this is true?

 Here is why the existence of  evidence commonly available to man, scriptures, and the internal presence of the Holy Spirit of Truth are our only hope. In the Postmodern world view, all is futile and meaningless. Man's best efforts always come up with disappointment and that all is vanity. I would say that this conclusion is correct and despite some valiant attempts of some of our best philosophers, it is the conclusion we continually return to. This is why the Absolute has broken through upon us in our world, and why He has given us the scripture and has come to transform and live within us. All of this is necessary, and that it has been done as it has. No other Salvation, in any other way - can be our hope and give us meaning. The lessons ahead will continue our journey into His word and Spirit.

A more detailed and expanded pdf file containing this and other perspectives are included in the sample lesson, "Seeing the Kingdom of God".

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