First things first ...

Some musings ...

There is variation in the cosmos ... the cosmos being everything, and the universe being everything we know about.

If there were no variation in the cosmos, there would be uniformity.

Therefore there has to be "at least two states" of whatever there is.

Let us call the first state of the "at least two states", "on" and represent it with the value "1" or "one". Lets then call the second state of the "at least two states", "off" and represent the value "0" or zero.

Ah yes, binary math ... if we can combine 1's and 0's ...

Let us surmise that there is no way to combine or alter the relationship between the separate states of the "at least two states". Then there would be no activity in the cosmos.

Therefore there has to be at least some way to combine or alter the relationship between the separate states of the "at least two states".

If at any time their ceased to be a way to alter the relationship of whatever states existed of the "at least two states", activity would stop.

Whenever the conditions exist for the "at least two states" to alter their relationship, they do -- having the potential of becoming something different. If, in fact another "new state" is formed, than the above statements hold true for this "new state" and it's relationship to the prior existing states of the "at least two states".

If the forming of a "new state" eliminated variation in the cosmos, uniformity would exist and activity would stop. Therefore we can surmise that multiple items in "at least two states" exist simultaneously. And that being in one of "at least two states" applies to a set of items having that characteristic. Thus we have a transcending characteristic across multiple items.

We can surmise that "new state" and its relationship with the "at least two states" -- a set of which the "new state" is now a member -- can form new patterns of states and new patterns of relationships that did not exist prior to the existence of the new states -- even though the potential existed for their existence to be realized in their coming into existence.

We can also surmise that the cosmos has not reached its limit of altering relationships between multiple items with variations in being characterized as one of "at least two states", thereby creating new items with a "new state".

In this process, existence builds upon itself.

And as the 0 and 1 of binary math has the potential for expressing all real numbers, existence has the potential of all that is real.

Note: I will be working on this for awhile ...

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Footnotes:
surmise v. an idea or thought of something as being possible or likely.

surmise. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/surmise (accessed: December 25, 2006).

The narrative of existence ...

Our awareness creates and the stores a narrative of our existence in our brain. This narrative is given us by the those we turn to as children for information. It's "purpose" (utility for survival) is to allow us to connect the sensory and other forms of "information" we receive in the present to some pattern set, providing a means of classifying and coordinating the present ... and thereby organizing our lives coherently.

This narrative of our existence has become a key component in evolution's struggle for survival, for the ongoingness of human life ... and conceivably with the unleashing of nuclear energy, of life itself on this planet.

Different groups of human beings have different narratives encoded in their brains. We are watching the cataclysmic clash of different narratives in Iraq as this is being written.

The shear absurdity of thinking people are born with a narrative for democracy and freedom as defined by Western Capitalism encoded in them, is ... well, is so far beyond rational thought that only an ideologue would put forward the concept.

Our whole recorded history demonstrates the importance of encoding the conventional wisdom of a culture in the children of that culture WHILE they are still children, and recognizes the difficulty in changing that encoded narrative later in life.

More to come ...

As a Christian Transcendental Existentialist ...

Disclosure ... I think of myself as a Christian transcendental existentialist ... who does NOT believe in the necessity of a supreme being in the Biblical (King James Version - KJV) sense of that identity.

Let us begin ...

I believe my interpretation of John 1:1-4:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

... which is that the potential of existence existed at the beginning, whatever that "beginning" was (is?)

... which deals with the idea that "what is" came out of "what was" and "what will be", will come out of "what is" ... which of course is the "transcendental" part ...

Pause

Though we perceive existence (are aware of -- "awareness" relative to "existence" is important to existentialists ... like in which comes first, the chicken or the egg?) as ongoing -- past, present, future -- the reality of the cosmos does not HAVE to be in that "form". It could be like the infinity symbol and we are (I am?) simply passing along it's endless band ... or multiple bands with or without multiple dimensions.

However ... I experience my existence as ongoing -- past, present, future ... in a universe that is ongoing.

And -- this is my interpretation of Kierkegaard's leap of faith -- I choose to believe that my existence and that of the universe has meaning in its unfolding "ongoingness".

I am engaged in a search for that meaning.

From Luke 17:20-21 (King James Version, New Testament): Note: "He" is Jesus.

And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:

Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

I find the meaning of my existence, including my awareness of experiencing my existence, within myself. I come to "understand" that meaning by sharing my awareness with others as they share theirs with me.

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Matthew 18:20

If the sharing of experience is done in the spirit of pursuing the truth (as in the blind men and the elephant) it frees us from the mistakes of our past.

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:32

More to come ...

ncswede

Footnotes:

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kierkegard

As tiny url:

http://tinyurl.com/ymdrru

All Biblical quotations are taken from:

http://blueletterbible.org/

Pause

Putting aside the issue of dealing with our mistakes for a moment ...

Fear ... how do I conquer fear?

As a child I drew close to a parent or my older brother as I walked through the forest at night.

Now when I have time to think, I "assess" the situation ahead and "calculate" whether or not I can handle it ... then continue or turn aside.

When caught up without warning, the adrenalin kicks in and I react. (One of the reasons I love the Interior Alaska wilderness ... the adrenalin high is awesome because I have not been there long enough to have being in that environment become "normal". The individuals I REALLY admire are like the mountain climbers, and the rock climbers. I can get another shot of adrenalin simply by taking another step further into the bush.)

But what happens to a person in the devastation of a disaster such as a hurricane, a drought, an earthquake, ... war ... when the person is caught up in something so vast and consuming that every last vestige of hope in it ever getting better again is taken from him/her?

Or something close and personal and singular like the death of one's child ...

What then?

What rekindles the flame of the human spirit, what rekindles hope?

For me it is faith ... faith that "this to", whatever it is ... will have meaning as I (we) go on.

And I do not mean that in the sense that it is "a lesson to be learned" ...

And it does not mean that I could or would retain my faith if I were in the middle of a seemingly unending disaster ... I can't say because I have lived such a "blessed" life.

I can only discuss these issues from the perspective of my perception ... which is NOT the whole elephant by any means.

But faith was instilled in me as a child ... and it has never left me.

Now I don't believe in some Supreme Being acting as producer and director of the "Show On Earth" ... mostly because it ain't "the greatest" for whole bunches of people.

But I do choose to believe that what is happening/unfolding (living) has meaning in its becoming what it does become ... and that what I do now does affect the outcome ... (as in chaos theory of the small pebble being able to alter the course of the boulder as it starts to roll down the hill ... or as Jesus taught, "if you have the faith of a mustard seed you can move a mountain"[sic].)

And in this process of living, I make mistakes ...

Pause

I'm going to defer my discussions of "mistakes" (sin?) for now ... again.

I was reading in Gilson, Langan, & Maurer's RECENT PHILOSOPHY: Hegel to the Present last night in bed about the emergence of Existentialism with the works of Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche.

"Nietzsche's greatness lies in his discovery of the individual existent as the unequivocal "lieu" of historical Being's coming-to-be"

This is to me the incredible excitement of existentialism. "I" and my awareness of "I" comes out of existence. Existence does NOT come out of awareness.

I reject the nihilism of Nietzsche by accepting faith, not specifically in God as Kierkegaard did, but in meaning ... and not in coming out of a past purpose but going toward a future in which I can and do participate meaningfully (as chaos theory demonstrates) out of my awareness ... by choosing what I believe ought to be and acting to make it what is.

And that choice is mine to make, as a result of searching for meaning within my own experience ... that I validate in concert with others to the extent that I am willing to be truthful (honest) about my own experience.

I find the roots of this incredibly exciting point of view in the teachings of Jesus ... which itself has roots in other teachings ... but I came to my point of view by believing that what Jesus taught has relevance for my life ... and exploring Jesus' meaning relative to my experience.

An aside: Y'know ... that almost 6,000 mile journey across the North American continent taught me one thing ... I have enormous liberty in a culture based on Judeo-Christian values. Not everyone in that space has the same freedom to come and go as I do for numerous reasons ... I think that freedom should be expanding, not shrinking. But how to do it? That's what we should talk about at some point. Is there any other place on our planet where a relatively poor, relatively old person such as myself can have this much freedom? I love it so!!!

ncswede

Footnote:

nilihism n- an extreme form of skepticism: the denial of all real existence or the possibility of an objective basis for truth.

nihilism. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1). Retrieved December 05, 2006, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nihilism

lieu n- Note this is the French word commonly translated as "place", and here meaning the point of Being, not as an idea put as a real center of awareness/experience in the cosmos that has arisen out of (from the ground of) existence.

Pause

If we are not honest with each other ... telling each other the truth about ourselves ... not worrying about our mistakes because all of us make mistakes (For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23 New Testament, King James Version, www.blueletterbible.org)... then we cannot discover the meaning of our existence unfolding into the future. Because the potential of our future is with us here and now.

So, when those in authority lie to us ... they lead us astray from the discovery of the true meaning of our existence. That's the same for parents who do not tell their children (at the appropriate time) what is happening to their bodies and minds as they grow older. That's the same for teachers who do not provide the actual history of our world. That's for politicians who say one thing to get elected and another once elected. Or leaders who lie us into a war of their choosing. Or even friends who do not tell one another how they really feel about the way we treat each other.

An interesting experiment is having people guess the number of jelly beans in a jar. The larger the number of people guessing, the closer the average of all the guesses is to the actual number in the jar ... which makes a lot of sense.

Pause

A couple of ideas from Jesus ... that the Kingdom of God is within us (like, within ME) ... and Heaven is it's the realization of it's (the "Kingdom's) potential ...

I can readliy wrap these ideas into the transcendentally evolving ongoingness of existence ... toward (never ending) something positive ...

All of life responds positively to the nuturing of life ... and the seemingly limitless diversity of life within a given environment (bounded only by that environment ... which can in fact interact randomly (chaotically) with events overlapping from other systems/environments to expand possibilities) ...

So life is in the process of exploring all its options in its setting ... and expanding into those that are positive for one form or another ... which may be negative for another form of life ...

But then ... we humans ... seem to be able to build new environments to accentuate the positive ...

Fascinating ... to say the least.

Pause

Invitation to Philosophy Issues and Options - Eighth Edition,
by: Stanley M. Honer, Mt. San Antonio College, Emeritus; Thomas C. Hunt, Mt. San Antonio College, Emeritus; and Dennis L. Okholm, Wheaton College

There is a section on Existentialism in Chapter 4 Epistemology: How We Know. It asserts the nihilistic view that all knowledge is subjective and therefore "there is nothing stable or objective about" knowledge.

It does go on with the view of religious existentialists as "likely to argue that human beings cannot know; they can simply believe. And belief is a nonrational 'leap of faith.'"

YES!!! I choose to believe ... and to work out my "knowledge" for forming my belief out of an honest dialogue with others.

And it is not the past governing the future put the future forming out of the present ... a future that I can affect by my choices. I do not disregard the past, put I m not bound by it either. I can decide that "what is" is NOT "what ought to be".

To be continued in Part II ...

Manhattan Skyline I