“…Everything that happens happens only once…there is nothing under the Sun that is not new! Being and novelty are synonymous.” < Back Miracles David Cowles Apr 1, 2025 “…Everything that happens happens only once…there is nothing under the Sun that is not new! Being and novelty are synonymous.” We’ve got it all wrong. How unusual! Ok, not so unusual. Let’s start over: We’ve got it all wrong as usual ! When you’re 10 year old, beginning to question what you do and don’t believe, the miracle stories from the Bible and the lives of saints are a real stumbling block. At 10, God’s still in the mix but Santa no longer makes the cut. But what about miracles? The Red Sea parting. Jesus walking on water, curing the stick, ‘multiplying loaves and fishes’. Mary appearing at Fatima (and elsewhere). The sick inexplicable cured at Lourdes (and elsewhere). Of course, these are just the stories that made the nightly news. Every day, all around the world, people are attesting to ‘miracles’, most not camera ready. But what are we post-Enlightenment science aficionados to make of these alleged events? A bunch of people lying to make an ideological point? Fictional parables that have been mistaken for historical reporting? Symptoms of mass hallucination? Exaggerated or otherwise distorted accounts of everyday events? If you are a believer, the authenticity of such miracles may be a load bearing column of your faith; or miracles may support a faith based on a ‘personal encounter’ with the Transcendent; or miracles may be a slightly uncomfortable aspect of a faith deduced through reason. If not, you may believe that the Bible’s miracle stories are meant to be understood metaphorically: “It was as if the food supply had increased; it was as though Jesus had walked on water.” If you are a non-believer, the objective impossibility of most reported miracles may contribute to your skepticism. Finally, you may accept the validity of at least some so-called ‘miracles’, but you may chock them up to non-miraculous causes: The parting of the Red Sea was caused by a strong wind. The apparitions at Fatima were an optical illusion. The cures at Lourdes testify to the healing power of the human mind. But what if I were to tell you that all of these explanations are wrong …on both sides? Inspired by the positivist philosophers of the early 20 th century (e.g. Ayer, Wittgenstein, Austin), we normally sort events into three buckets: (1) the set of all events that can be reliably repeated at our discretion (scientific method), (2) the set of all events that may repeat but cannot be replicated on demand and (3) the set of all events that can never be repeated. The first set contains the propositions of empirical science. The second set concerns potentially recurring patterns. The third set consists of events that can (or will) never be repeated under any circumstances: Given certain standardized conditions, water will always boil at 100°C. The Boston Red Sox have won a few world series and may do so again, but neither wishing nor rooting can make it so. Humpty Dumpty can only fall off the wall once (since all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again). Would it surprise you to learn that our first two sets (above) are empty (ø)? The Universe consists entirely of events belonging to the third set. Sometimes two events are so similar that we’re tempted to use an ‘R word’ (repeat, reflect, recur, etc.). But similarity, no matter how close, is never identity. Regardless of resemblances, every event is unique; otherwise they would all be just one event. On one level, all events are congruent – they are all ‘event-shaped’, whatever that means; but on another level, no two events are ever the same. Consider the cells in your body. There are more than 30 trillion of them living at any one time. Enough? (BTW, the national debt of the United States is also 30 trillion…dollars.) They are all descended from a single cell, and they all have certain structures and processes in common, but no two cells are the same cell. Two cells may be of the same type, but no two cells are the same cell. Each cell is an independent organism, occupying a unique region of spacetime at a particular site in the body, performing a specific set of functions, enjoying (or not) a unique life trajectory. Outside the classroom ‘A = B’ if and only if A is B, in which case A and B are just two names for one event. “You call it corn; we call it maize.” There are no absolutely, positively repeatable events because… It is impossible ever to reproduce exactly the initial conditions of any experiment. No true event is ever entirely the product of its initial conditions; there must always be an element novelty - the sine qua non of Being. The initial conditions of any event are always the entire Universe of past events. Each event is a unique reaction of a unique antecedent Universe to itself. Every event automatically becomes part of the antecedent Universe of all future events. Therefore every event contributes novel conditions that ensure that no future event can ever duplicate any past (or present) event. (Is this an extension of Godel?) The Universe is a block chain . Every novel event adds to the chain, making it unique. Therefore, every event has a unique pre-history. No one ever steps in the same river twice (Heraclitus), not just because the river flows but because every ‘stepping in’ changes the river forever. Patterns that appear congruent are only congruent down to a certain level of detail. All events appear ‘congruent’ on one scale, but any two events can always be differentiated on another scale. The structure of the Universe is fractal . Everywhere and on every scale, it is self-similar. As your perspective broadens, the same patterns repeat. On the other hand, every iteration is slightly different from any other iteration on some scale. “There is nothing new under the Sun!” That’s the adult version of my children’s frequent complaint, “Mom, there’s nothing to do, I’m bored” to which my spouse would always reply, “Only boring people get bored.” She’s right, of course! How can anyone ever be bored when so much is happening all at once all the time and everything that happens happens only once? In fact, there is nothing under the Sun that is not new! Everything that is, is new, always. Being and novelty are synonymous. How could they be otherwise? What claim to being would Y have if Y were identical to X. Y would simply be X…X would be, period! ‘Being Y’ would not be being at all. So where do so-called miracles fit in this picture? Nowhere…and everywhere. ‘Miracle’ is simply another name for ‘Event’. Every event is miraculous , i.e. unique – a novelty, the product of creativity, ultimately uncaused. An event may (or may not ) be predictable, but it can never be certain. Analyzing the apparent consistencies in the physical world (induction), we agree with Annie: there is a high probability that the Sun will come up tomorrow…but it’s not a certainty. Therefore, every sunrise is a miracle, exactly as the Ancients taught. Have you ever truly watched the sun rise? Then you know. Every sunrise is unique, every sunrise is a miracle. Arguing whether miracles are real is a colossal exercise in self-deception. Miracles are events so of course they’re real (unless your cosmology does not include ‘real events’). You object : It was a miracle that the Patriots won Super Bowl XXXVI, beating ‘the greatest show on turf’ but it was not a miracle that there was an Equinox on March 21 st . But these events are only apparently different: one was a ‘long shot’, one a ‘sure thing’, but neither was ultimately guaranteed . I wasn’t brave enough to bet on the 2001 – 02 Patriots, but I’m all in on the time of tomorrow’s sunrise; even so, it’s still a gamble. Miracles do not violate the Laws of Nature! How could they? The ‘Laws of Nature’ are just one way of conceptualizing what is . (Joyce’s Ulysses is another.) Every event is, and is not, the same as any other event. To the extent that one event appears to duplicate another, we call it natural . To the extent that it doesn’t, we call it novel . When an event is massively discontinuous with its predecessors, e.g. the Red Sea parting, we call it miraculous . But we are just putting labels on a continuum. It’s like the EM spectrum. It’s smooth but we call one part red and another part blue . In reality, it’s all just light . Every event is natural ; every event is novel ; every event is miraculous . For all their connotative differences, the three words are denotatively synonymous. Nor can we explain away ‘miracles’ by reducing them to safe, every day, non-miraculous, seemingly repeatable processes. Rather, the events we call ‘miracles’ are simply demonstrations of Nature’s creativity. They reveal aspects of nature we don’t often notice. Nature is not an inert stage set, suitable only as background for a Broadway blockbuster; nature is a force, an eruption, a physis . Nature does not merely ‘contain’ events. Nature lends its shape to events and is in turn shaped by them. Nature does not follow some pre-determined set of rules; it makes the rules. Whatever events occur, whenever and wherever – that’s nature ; we abstract patterns from those events and call those patterns, laws . Miracles do not occur outside the sphere of the possible; but they do live on the frontier. They encourage us to expand our sense of what’s possible, of what’s natural. They expose us to the transcendent power that is immanent everywhere in our material world. It’s a great mistake to imagine that Nature constrains variety. Rather, it is the rich top soil from which novelty continually sprouts. Nature is more than just the tiny subset of phenomena that can be approximated in a laboratory setting. Nature is what’s happening! Call it ‘miraculous’…or not, “It’s still rock and roll to me.” (Billy Joel) Image: Caspar David Friedrich, c. 1818. Wanderer above the Sea of Fog. Oil on canvas, 94.8 cm × 74.8 cm (37.3 in × 29.4 in). Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg. Share Previous Next Click here. Do you like what you just read? Subscribe today and receive sneak previews of Aletheia Today Magazine articles before they're published. 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< Back Revelation David Cowles “This is possibly the shortest ‘play’ in all of literature…and yet it is arguably more important than anything Shakespeare (or even Andrew Lloyd Weber) ever wrote! In its introduction to the Book of Revelation, the New American Bible (Revised Edition), the translation currently in use in the Roman Catholic Church, states: “The Apocalypse, or Revelation to John, the last book of the Bible, is one of the most difficult to understand…” An understatement, if ever there was one! Its layers of symbolism confound Biblical scholars, not to mention the casual reader. But this essay will not concern itself with any of that! You will not learn the exact date of the end of the world here. Sorry about that! But don’t go away mad! Can I tempt you with a totally transparent, 45-second synopsis of the entire book? Beats Cliffs Notes …and it’s free! Many things are going on in Revelation, but all of them occur in the context of an ongoing, cosmic dialog between the Lord (YHWH, the Father) and his Christ (Jesus, the Son). It’s short and sweet. Here’s the full script: Lord : “I am the Alpha and the Omega…the one who is and was and is to come, the almighty.” (1: 8) Christ : “I am the first and the last…the one who lives.” (1: 17b – 18a) Lord : “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.” (21: 6) Christ : “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” (22: 13) This is possibly the shortest ‘play’ in all of literature…and yet it is arguably more important than anything Shakespeare (or even Andrew Lloyd Weber) ever wrote! The entire dialog consists of just four divine epithets, cited by multiple actors in multiple contexts. Wait! Did you just say, “So what? What’s the difference? Aren’t these all just different ways of saying the same thing?” Don’t be shy. It’s a good question, and the answer is, “Yes and No.” We’ll spend some time on this later on. But first, R U satisfied with my synopsis ? Did you get your money’s worth ($0)? Will you come again? Tell your friends? Now back to your question: The author begins with a greeting: “…Grace to you and peace from him who is and was and is to come (the Lord )…and from Jesus Christ , the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth.” This greeting introduces us to the two main characters in this drama, the Lord and his Christ , Jesus. As we shall see, the nature of God and his role for the world will be revealed through their dialog. He is ‘the firstborn of the dead.’ John, of course, is not speaking of Jesus’ historical birth c. 6 BCE; John is referring to Jesus’ eternal rebirth, his resurrection. He is ‘ruler of the kings of the earth’…curious considering that Jesus was hunted and persecuted by ‘kings’ for most of his 30-odd-year history. Once again, John is not commenting on first century politics. John is identifying Christ as the ultimate source of order ( Logos in the Gospel of John ) and therefore the arbiter of justice. There could be no civil power without the fundamental order established through Christ . Legitimate power exists solely to serve the interests of justice, and it is legitimate only so long as it is serving those interests. Ultimately, all political power, legitimate or otherwise, must bend to the demands of justice. On a quick read, one is reminded of an elementary school playground: “I’m the man…No I’m the man…” Both the Lord and the Christ seem to claim to be ‘the man,’ i.e. the Alpha and the Omega. But that’s not what’s going on here at all! We’re not hearing competing claims of divinity; we’re hearing complementary claims. This is not a rumble! This is a pep rally! Let’s focus on the epithets themselves: The Alpha and the Omega. The one who is and was and is to come, the almighty. The first and the last, the one who lives. The beginning and the end. The first two epithets are initially applied only to the Lord . Alpha and Omega are, of course, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, but combined this way, in the idiom of the day, they express the concept of ‘entirety,’ a fitting epithet for YHWH. And what of ‘the almighty?’ Often, that stands by itself as a divine epithet. Not here. Here, it is part of the Lord’s introductory ‘profile’ and it is meant to emphasize the Lord’s role as the source of pure potentiality. The third epithet is applied only to the Christ : “the first and the last, the one who lives.” The final epithet, “the beginning and the end,” is initially applied to the Lord . The boasts of an eight-year-old (“I’m stronger than you…faster than you…smarter than you”) pale in comparison. Our protagonists have upped the ante: “I am everything, so if you are not me (or part of me), you are nothing…quite literally!” Heady stuff for a schoolyard! But of course, this is a misreading of Revelation. The Lord and his Christ are not arguing at all; they are mutually affirming a basic metaphysical fact: both are the entirety, but in somewhat different ways. In the Trinitarian logic of Christianity, if A, ~ B; then A, so ~ B does not hold! Even though the Lord and the Christ are independent persons, each can claim ‘entirety’ without annihilating, diminishing or even contradicting the other. Alfred North Whitehead offered a similar model. His Primordial & Consequent Natures of God , distinct in themselves, both represent the ‘entirety,’ albeit in radically different ways. There are epithets that are applied strictly to one and never to the other. For example, ‘the one who is and was and is coming’ is reserved for the Lord alone. The Lord , ‘the one who is,’ is Being itself, the pure, infinite potentiality that underlies all existence. This is the Lord who said, “ I am who am ” in Exodus and “ Let there be light ” in Genesis. Therefore, the Lord , the one who is, is also the one who was. One and the same Lord is present - yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The world consists of nothing but ‘Actual Entities’ ( aka events). No two actual entities are the same and yet every one of them, past, present or future, rises in the same way from the same ground as God’s Consequent Nature. According to the logic of Christianity, A ≠ B but A = C and B = C. God is Being itself. Being is just Being. It is one, it is simple: it has no parts. God is not just Being. God is Good. As Good, God is also Beauty, Truth and Justice, the spatio-temporal manifestations of Good. These characterizations are denotatively synonymous but connotatively distinct. As the Good Ground of all that is, God must embody all the qualities that they adopt. In fact, God is those qualities or, even more to the point, God is Quality per se, i.e. the Good. Things that exist exhibit qualities in various combinations and with varying degrees of intensity. Like the mythical snowflake, their patterns are infinitely varied. But God is Quality and Quality, the Good, albeit variously manifested, never varies. To rephrase, the essence of Good is immutable while the manifestations of Good are, at least potentially, infinitely varied and always unique. Jesus of Nazareth was born sometime around 6 BCE and died roughly 30 years later. How then can the Christ possibly be called ‘the first’ or ‘the last’ or ‘the one who lives’? Christ is first because he precedes ontologically, not historically, every other actual entity. Later in this essay we’ll discover how this can be true. For now, it is sufficient to note that in Christian cosmology, space and time are not primary categories; they are subservient to the more important, more fundamental ordering of ontology. Christ is last because through him and in him every actual entity will ultimately participate in a harmonious synthesis of actual entities ( Parousia ). Literally, Eschaton means to hold all things together. That is Christ’s role as Prince of Peace. Finally, Christ is the one who lives because all life comes to be through him, runs its course with him, and ultimately resolves itself in him. We will return to this important epithet later in this essay. But there is still one final epithet for us to address: “the beginning ( arche ) and the end ( telos ).” Initially, this phrase is applied only to the Lord , seemingly in contrast to Christ being ‘the first and the last’; but in the final couplet, the dénouement of our great drama, the Christ brings both epithets together in a single statement of identity: “I am the Alpha and the Omega (of course), the first and the last (expectedly), the beginning and the end (surprisingly).” The migration of this last epithet from the Lord to the Christ is what this play is all about. It’s the plot…and a spine tingling one at that! Now at last we are ready to unpack the cosmic sea change that is Revelation. In his function as ‘the one who is and was and is coming,’ the Lord appears to be passive, even inert. Now, as ‘the beginning and the end,’ the Lord reveals himself to be the source of creative unrest in the world. The Lord is not only the ontological foundation ( arche ) on which all things depend for their existence, but he is the lure ( telos ) that calls these things to be. Nothing could come to be, were it not for the potentiality of Being which is its foundation ( arche ), but nothing would emerge from that potentiality into actuality without an end ( telos ). There can only be one ultimate end and that end can be nothing other than the Good which is God. The accidental details of that end are entirely unconditioned. This is the freedom, the ‘life,’ that is Christ . But the essence of that end, the Good, is totally determined. No entity would emerge from potentiality into actuality other than to answer the call of the Good. Obviously, entities lose their way, but the initial impulse to become is always an impulse toward the Good. Since Good is the essence of God, the initial impulse to become is always the lure of God’s goodness. Without foundation, no potentiality; without lure, no actuality! Initially, Revelation contrasts the Lord (foundation and lure) with the Christ (first and last). Christ , the Incarnation of God, exists within the world, both historically in the person of Jesus and cosmologically as the ‘first ( protos ) and last ( eschatos )’. As ‘first and last,’ Christ is essentially ‘foundation and lure’ turned inside out. Foundation and lure are eternal concepts, standing outside the universal flow of actual entities; so is ‘beginning and end’. First and last is a temporal concept, participating essentially in the flow of events. The eternal foundation becomes effective in the temporal world when it enters that world (ontologically, not historically) as its ‘first’ entity. Likewise, the eternal lure becomes effective in the world when it enters that world (ontologically, not historically) as its ‘last entity’. Incarnation is the phenomenon that inverts the cosmic order, that makes the eternal relevant to the temporal and the temporal relevant to the eternal. Incarnation is precisely the concept Parmenides was missing when, in his great ontological poem, On Nature , he contrasted the immutable ‘way of truth’ ( aletheia ) with the ever-changing ‘way of appearance’ ( doxa ). Parmenides left us no clue how to connect these two equally valid, but apparently contradictory, realities. 500 years later, the early Christians filled in the missing piece. Christ is ‘first’ because all entities emerging from the foundation of potentiality initially relate to the Christ. It is through Christ that the Good that is God enters the world as a specific actual entity. It is through Christ that these qualities are made available to emerging entities. The Lord is pure potential and pure appetition. Christ is an actual entity among actual entities. Responding to the lure of the Lord , entities emerge out of pure potentiality into actuality by appropriating for themselves various qualities made available to them through the Christ . The organic process of selecting and rejecting qualities, incorporating those qualities with various degrees of intensity, and harmonizing those qualities into a whole - this is what makes an entity actual ( Dasein ) and it is what constitutes each actual entity as what it is ( Wassein ). Just as actual entities incorporate qualities and harmonize them into a whole, so Christ incorporates all actual entities and harmonizes them in himself. The primal quest of every actual entity for God’s Goodness is ultimately satisfied by its inclusion in the harmonious community of actual entities that constitutes Christ . The fact that there is a universe of existing things at all requires even more than just the foundation and lure of the Lord. Standing outside of spacetime, arche and telos are necessary, but not sufficient by themselves, to give rise to an existentially free universe of existing things. Something else is required, and that something is “relatedness.” Philosophers from Anaximander to Martin Buber have agreed on this point: without relation, nothing! For what is an actual entity but a network of relationships? Scratch any entity, and you will find a web of relations that make it up. Actual entities derive their existence from arche and telos , the Lord, but they derive their essence from their network of relations with other entities, including God, and these relations manifest as qualities. From foundation and lure comes existence, what Martin Heidegger called ‘Dasein,’ that-it-is . From relatedness comes essence, which he called ‘Wassein,’ what-it-is. Dasein springs from the Lord , Wassein from the Christ . While the Lord , Being and Good, supplies the potentiality for existence, Christ , the Incarnation, supplies the potentiality for relatedness, essential for the emergence of an actual world like ours. The Lord , ‘the Alpha and the Omega,’ is the entirety. The Christ , Jesus, is a ‘quantum of being’ within that entirety. But that quantum is also the entirety , also ‘the Alpha and the Omega’…just inside out! Being , then, is the superposition of ‘inside out’ and ‘outside in’. Christ is the potentiality for all relation, and therefore ontologically prior to all relations. Every entity that comes to be, comes to be in primal relation with Christ. Christ is the destination of all relation, and therefore ontologically subsequent to all other entities. But every entity that comes to be gains its ultimate identity in Christ . Ultimately, all actual entities form a single harmonious web of relations, and that web is the Christ …the Logos . Logically speaking, Christ is the initial term in the series known as universe and also the one common element of each other term in the series. Likewise , Christ is the final term in the series known as universe and also the sum of all its other terms. This is the full meaning of the term ‘Eschaton’: all things hold together in Christ . Finally, Christ is ‘the one who lives’. Life is the process through which relations emerge and mutually modify one another until a coherent entity appears. Because all evolving (living) entities evolve (live) in Christ , Christ is the source of all life (John 1: 2) and therefore ‘the one who lives’. Fast-forward now to the final chapter, the so-called Epilogue! Jesus Christ speaks again (through John, of course) but now the vocabulary has shifted, “Behold I am coming soon…I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” But what exactly is it that is coming? Beginning at the end of Chapter 20, Revelation tells us: “Next I saw a large white throne and one who was sitting on it (the Lord). The earth and the sky fled from his presence and there was no place for them… Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God…I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people…the old order has passed away.’ The one who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’” The two realms, one of eternal being, the Lord , one of existing things, the world, are now one. The earth and the sky (spacetime) have fled; there is no place for them. The old order has passed away. The former heaven and earth have passed away, and even the sea ( kaos in Genesis ) is no more. Instead, a holy city, a new Jerusalem ( aka Kingdom of God) where God dwells with us ( Emmanuel )! What is coming? It is Jesus, the Christ, the Eschaton in which all things hold together. All things are saved in Jesus. All conflicts have been resolved into harmonies. Arche & telos = proton & Eschaton ! The Lord , who stands outside the world, and the Christ , who stands inside the world, act together “…so that God may be all in all.” (I Cor 15:28). David Cowles is the founder and editor-in-chief of Aletheia Today Magazine. He lives with his family in Massachusetts where he studies and writes about philosophy, science, theology, and scripture. He can be reached at david@aletheiatoday.com . Return to our Summer 2023 Table of Contents Previous Next

< Back How to Summer All Year Annie D. Stutley "I wonder how different the rest of the year, heck, the rest of my life would be if I did bottle summer’s secrets." Like sno-cone stands (or snoballs as we call them down here), hydrangea blossoms, and late sunsets, summer always comes back. I remember squirming in my desk as a kid on the last day of school, fixated on the second hand of the clock, anticipating the burst of energy that would course through my body the second the bell rang and summer, sweet exhilarating, reliable summer, would announce its arrival. If I could bottle that feeling, I’d cure a number of ailments, from anxiety to depression because, in that instant, possibility awakened me. Twelve unscripted weeks lay ahead. How I’d fill them was entirely unknown, but anything was possible because summer never hesitated for adventure. It was a hope worth living through fractions and diagramming sentences for. The question of what was around the corner ignited me, my ears perpetually perked for the next cool thing. What would my story be that summer? The unknown thrilled me. My last summer of possibility was after college, before I officially became a grown-up and May would move into June without so much as an “oh, wow. It’s already June?” Then I had kids and eventually I was, again, presented with twelve blank weeks with which I had to fill the gaps between Nick Jr. and rounds of Chutes and Ladders. So the summer before my oldest began kindergarten, I wrote a list of everything my three little rugrats and I could do that wouldn’t park them on the couch and make me feel guilty that the cast of “The Backyardigans” had a better childhood than my kids. I smacked the list on the fridge, and on mornings when I hadn’t a clue how to pass the hours before dinner, I went to that list for inspiration. It didn’t take long before I moved with the same stir of anticipation as when I was ten and conquering summers with wonder. Summer-Annie had returned. I photographed those three months, from mud pies to hose wars, and made a memory book. Summer was back in my life, just like the near 16 nectar snoballs I slurped. The following summer, the kids wanted in on the list. It was filled with silly things like “hunt for dinosaurs in Audubon Park,” but I was witnessing their embracing of possibility and seeing the spirit of summer through fresh eyes as we checked off each item of the list. As the calendar turned and the exhaustion of the countless end-of-school-year performances, projects, and parties whispered the sweet serenity of summer was coming each year, writing the list became summer’s trumpeter. Year after year, our list was as trimmed with the same sentimentality and tradition as Christmas, if not more because the pressure was off. Summer isn’t intimidating, if you can get past your less-than-satisfactory beach bod. The only control summer has is the freedom that the other seasons slowly suck away: an invitation to take the scenic route in everything. Scenic routes lead to who knows what? So can a good summer, and accepting that is a prerequisite to doing it right. Today, my kids are older. It’s been eleven years since our first list. Cheer, football, and club swim team have invaded those twelve precious weeks. It’s bittersweet how our summer lists have matured. The dinosaurs were eventually replaced with Pokémon Go, which was eventually usurped by Stranger Things . And now, as my oldest embarks on his last two years of high school, summer is a season of preparation, a bridge to get him to his next level. But the allure is still there – the anticipation that something great is coming and also that something is slipping away: childhood, adventure, the scenic route. His contributions to the list are coming full circle. He longs to hunt for dinosaurs again, and my heart wants to go with him. But possibility is still possible. Even today. But, possibility is only visible to those who choose to see it. Kids grow up, as do summers, but I wonder how different the rest of the year, heck, the rest of my life would be if I did bottle summer’s secrets. If only I could keep a bit of Summer-Annie and our lists all year long… Savor My favorite moment in summer was when I didn't know the weekday or the date. It was like being in a vortex where time didn’t exist. I finished the chapter of a good book, watched movies I’d saved for a later date, and I drove around the block until a favorite song finished. My kids slept when they were tired and woke when they weren’t. Even with our now busier summers, I still hear summer’s saxophone’s slower melody today, and when I do, I try to obey its call. During summer, we eat dinner whenever. I often edit and write until the wee hours of the morning. I drop everything and run to my balcony to watch beautiful sunsets and listen to the drumming of the tree frogs. Summer-Annie savors what she enjoys in life without the pressure of time. Simplicity Among the many nuisances of life, pairing socks is near the top of my list. Before the summer sports invasion, Summer-Annie had a strict no-socks rule — except for fuzzy socks, of course. Unless we were on a hike out of the city, flip-flops lead the way. But even today, after the last lunch has been packed or final exam conquered, my whole look suddenly simplifies. Makeup is an afterthought. Messy buns are even messier. I lose the belts and the bold jackets and throw on the same handful of sundresses or shorts. Summer-Annie doesn’t impress. Summer-Annie is who she is and drifts through the hottest months of the year with authoritative carelessness. Saying, “No, thank you.” Summer-Annie suddenly has gumption. The draw to hibernate with books, Netflix, game nights, and patio drinks is too strong to inhibit by keeping up appearances. It’s as if the hum of the cicadas drowns out the clamor of obligation. As I fire up the grill instead of my energy to get dressed up and attend some “to-do,” I finally listen to that little voice inside me, spoken from that part of me who could actually live happily on a deserted island, and I pause for my sanity. Summer-Annie considers just a little selfishness to be a downright responsible decision sometimes. Spontaneity My children are feral in the summer, as am I. This has not changed. Routines restrict us enough the rest of the year. Even though nowadays practices, camps, and meets open the door to the “Invasion of the Summer Snatchers,” it’s nothing compared to what a typical week in October looks like for us, and what we discover in our summer escapades is often more unforgettable than anything we learn the rest of the year. In summer, there is room to explore. I remember the first time I let one kid walk to the convenience store by himself to buy an ice-cold Coke. He came back a new man, wiser, experienced, and itching to wander off again. My daughter has a twenty-two-hour playlist on her Apple Music account. She peels away at it on bike rides through suburbia. My mom didn’t have the Find-My app to know where the heck I was when I was a kid and she’d boot me out the door with a firm: “Go play!” But I have the app, and I smile as I see three little dots moving about on their off hours – three feral cats taking to the streets with their alley-cat friends. Sometimes they check in. “Hey, Mom, can I use my debit card to get a slice of pizza?” Or, “Mom, I’m sleeping at Vivian’s.” I used to be part of all their adventures, and for the briefest of moments I long to be part of today’s version of their “dinosaur hunt.” Yet, their spreading wings bring me a certain satisfaction. They get it. They get the glory of of sucking the marrow out a season and living it to its fullest. Summer-Annie gives in to wandering and the roads less traveled. I knew eleven years ago that if I didn’t spark the magic, I'd miss the opportunity to ignite memories. I am the giver of my children’s traditions, and perhaps the best one I have to offer is to embrace the delicacy of childhood and adolescence. One day, they’ll be just another grown-up working in July, and something, maybe a kid in flip-flops riding his bike in a wet bathing suit with a gaggle of friends racing behind, will remind them of that sweet season when possibility ran through every second like the best energy going. At that moment, I hope they understand that possibility is always around the corner, no matter the season. We just need to break from the boundaries we enforce on ourselves to see it never really left us. As sure as nectar snoballs on a steamy June day, possibility always returns. Are we ready to follow where it takes us? Annie D. Stutley lives and writes in New Orleans, La. She edits several small publications and contributes to various print and online magazines. Her blog, " That Time You, " was ranked in the Top 100 Blogs by FeedSpot. To read more of her work, go to her website , or follow her at @anniedstutley or Annie D. Stutley-writer on Facebook. Return to our Summer 2023 Table of Contents Previous Next

< Back What Is Time? An astronomer explains the search to find its origins... Sten Odenwald St. Augustine said of time, “If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain to him who asks, I don’t know.” Time is an elusive concept: We all experience it, and yet, the challenge of defining it has tested philosophers and scientists for millennia. This article was originally published in the May 2022 issue of Astronomy . Read the rest of the article here . Click the cover image to return to Spring 2024. Share Previous Next

< Back A Simple Christmas Deidre Braley "There comes a time when our souls need more respite than even the traditions of Christmas can offer us." The last couple of years, I have begun advocating for ‘simple Christmas’ with my family. It comes from the purest intentions but always leaves me, at the last minute, feeling like a scrooge who was just too lazy to ‘do’ Christmas right. The result is that I spend way too much money in way too little time and that I jam-pack our remaining yuletide days with parties and people [and our bellies with so much sugar that we need to detox for the first quarter of the new year]. But I can’t shake the frustration of being carried along on the wave of the holidays. In the pursuit of Christmas cheer, I feel pulled ever farther from holy joy. The extra baubles, the extravagant gifts that I’ll just be vacuuming around for the next year, and the endless packing of our traveling circus caravan [that is, our family] - all of that ‘cheer’ leaves me gasping for air and dreaming of the middle of January when I can finally observe Christmas the way I want to: resting in the margins with a quietly expectant heart. And my heart can be neither quiet nor expectant when every marginal moment is filled with details and lists and talking and calculating. It takes time to prepare my heart for holy reverence. I cannot celebrate and commune with and rest in the glory of the Coming Lord while simultaneously watching The Christmas Prince on Netflix. I just can’t. The thing is, we are so tied up in Christmas as a culture that the notion of ‘simple Christmas’ seems simply impossible. Christmas has become something that we do, not that we observe, and by golly, we want to do it up right. That means leaving no Christmas movie unwatched, no cookie unbaked, no party unattended, and no gift ungifted. Don’t get me wrong - it’s not that I don’t like the traditions and festivities that come along with Christmas. In fact, I love them. I cry every year when I hang our ornaments on the Christmas tree, remembering the origins of each and listening to John Denver’s Rocky Mountain Christmas spin on the record player. I close my eyes and dream of my grandmother while I knead her special butterscotch rolls, praying they’ll turn out half as good as hers always were. And I always try to tune in to CBS for the Rudolph and Frosty the Snowman specials. What is it about these rituals that makes them matter on such a personal level? It’s that they make us feel connected to something timeless, even as time continues to strip away and change everything else in our worlds. When we tether ourselves to tradition, we express our deep desire to be grounded and anchored to something meaningful - something that will remain steadfast and dependable, year after year. But there comes a time when our souls need more respite than even the traditions of Christmas can offer us. I remember the first year that I realized I no longer had ‘the Christmas Spirit.’ I entered the season with eager anticipation of the cheer it would bring, but to my dismay, I found my soul wasn’t responding to all the Christmas goodness the way it once had. I wanted it to feel the same. I wanted that spark, that cheer! Where had it gone? I looked for it everywhere; I listened to more songs. I made more party plans. I put more presents under the tree. But it didn’t give me more holiday cheer. If anything, it just made it all the more elusive. In my journal that December, I wrestled with the change: Why do I feel Like Christmas Is something to be caught And caged Like a bird That must sing for me? Perhaps, as the years pass and the realness of this world settles heavily upon the magic we once cultivated from tradition, the answer is not more of the same, but less. I am not a minimalist, per se, but I am intrigued by the idea of stripping back all of the layers of our lives until we find only what’s essential resting there, waiting to be nurtured. So often, we get confused and end up nurturing not the thing that’s most essential, but rather what’s most visible. So, when we’re lacking cheer, we think that it must be because we need more lights on the tree or piles of cookies on the counter. So, we string. And we bake. And we feel perplexed and frustrated when it doesn’t work. See, when we lean in to more of what culture says will make us happy, we’re only adding more layers, and, in turn, we distance ourselves even further from what’s truly essential. The effect is that our minds, bodies, and spirits begin to dry out. We reach the end of Advent feeling completely malnourished. Our culture has nearly extracted the ‘holy’ right out of ‘holiday.’ It’s been quite effective at convincing us that we don’t need it - that holiness is outdated, archaic, and boring. As a result, any of us who actually want to try ‘simple Christmas’ this year might find it much harder than pulling off a regular ole cultural Christmas. It will go quite against the grain and, I imagine, be a little off-putting to some. But in the stripping back of what we think brings us cheer, might we be able to discover joy instead? What if we try it together? What if we make this thing - ‘simple Christmas’ - a movement? What if we agree to strip back all the layers of our holiday cheer this year so that we can discover the essential nature of holy-day joy, instead? What would that even look like? Surely, it would look different for everyone. For me, it might look like planning to purchase a single, intentional gift for each of my beloveds (rather than a whole slew of them), and to take pleasure in wrapping each one with love. It might feel like turning down an invitation from an acquaintance to drop by their Christmas party and instead spending that time playing outside with my children or sipping hot caramel tea with a book splayed across my lap. It might sound like instrumental hymns or silence in the place of Jingle Bell Rock. It might taste like a nourishing meal enjoyed with a few close friends, rather than a lavish spread of hors d'oeuvres that took days to prepare. Whatever it may look like on a practical level for each of us, we can all begin by viewing our holiday choices through these same lenses: Does this bring me closer to the rush, or closer to the holy? Does this settle my soul, or send it spinning? Does this prepare my heart to be able to commune intimately with the Lord? Am I rejoicing in the Lord and his goodness, or am I placing my hope of joy elsewhere? Does this feel like an obligation to meet, or a gift to savor? When we begin to examine our holiday practices and embrace only those which nourish (that is, the essentials), we strip back all the other things that distance us from what we really desire: a quietude in our hearts that allows us to commune, rest, and celebrate with our Savior. A holiness that transcends time and, behold! It makes even the simplest of moments tender with beauty and meaning. What might ‘simple Christmas’ look like for you this year? What are your essentials, and what can you release? What will it take in order for your soul to be able to exhale the chaos and inhale Christ? This season, let’s try it together. May we all enter into Advent with the assurance that holiness is not seasonal, joy won’t disappear with the Christmas decorations, and that deep restedness is only one humble yes away from Jesus’ invitation to just be with him. Deidre Braley is author and host of The Second Cup blog/podcast, where she loves to teach people that Jesus is for them, not against them. She has a monthly newsletter on Substack and her subscribers enjoy weekly content that focuses on communing with Jesus and others, creating beauty when it's hard, and celebrating this weird and wild life. She serves as editorial advisor on The Truly Co. Publication, and has been published in both The Truly Co. magazine and Joyful Life magazine. Deidre has also recently published her 2022 Advent Guide and invites you to follow along with her during this season of anticipation. Previous Next

< Back I, Gestalt! David Cowles Aug 15, 2023 “…We owe our adulthood to others…our species…our families, our sources of income, our communities. Adulthood is being-for-others; childhood and seniority are, potentially at least, being-for-ourselves.” We’re all familiar with the concept of Gestalt. Sensory inputs coordinate to form a single image. Our brain massages those inputs until they suggest (or support) a pattern. In this way, a World emerges that includes our familiar objects, actions, and events, set in relief against a background consisting primarily of ‘qualia’ (colors, sounds, smells, etc.). Our world comes to resemble a 19th century landscape painted by Millet…or Corot. We do this throughout our lives, all day every day, probably two or three times every second. It is so effortless that we hardly ever notice it…until we do. Rarely but strikingly, sensory inputs suggest two equally viable but totally inconsistent patterns. This dilemma is what we conventionally, if imprecisely, refer to as a ‘Gestalt’. Check out the image above: it is the Mother of all Gestalts. Do you see two faces staring at one another across an abyss…or do you see Keats’ Grecian Urn? Once you ‘train your brain’, you’ll be able to see both images, but not at the same time. Your mind will toggle back and forth between the two ‘Gestalts’. May I suggest we apply the same epistemological technique to the matter of an individual human life. Imagine that a certain man or woman lives to normal life expectancy (normal for a 21 st century member of the Atlantic community). Beginning as a helpless infant and ending as a helpless husk, the body (including the brain) goes through stupendous changes over 85 years. It is conventional to conceptualize the lifespan of such a person as a kind of Gestalt. In the foreground is adulthood (the vase) and in the background (the faces) childhood and seniority. According to the Bard, all the World’s a stage on which we actors play our scripted parts. If so, adulthood is opening night, childhood the dress rehearsal, and seniority, well, curtain calls… followed by the striking of the set. We imagine that we live for ourselves, and perhaps in some respects we do, but for the most part, we live for our species, for the survival and propagation of the human genome (Richard Dawkins). That species sustaining activity is normally ‘concentrated’ in a period of about 40 years, smack dab in the middle of our life span. This is the time when we may form a lifelong attachment to a significant other. This is the period when we may have children and a job…not necessarily in that order of priority. Now we are society’s ‘producers’…in more ways than one. Prior to this, we were in ‘learning mode’ – how to read, how to compute, how to hot-wire a car. After this, we will be ‘composting mode’…also in more ways than one! Our language says it all: First it’s ‘ what will you be when you grow up?’ Then it’s ‘what were you back in your day’ (i.e., ‘when you ruled the world’ - Coldplay). We hold on tight to our precious subjectivity, but the world sees us as nanobots on an assembly line. Virtually everyone in our culture goes through these three stages, but not all at the same pace. For some of us, childhood ends at 16; for others, 35. For some of us, ‘retirement’ begins at 62; for others, 80. Either way, the productive period, the period that counts , the figure in our Gestalt, typically runs around 40 years. This is not all bad. There’s a lot to learn these days, and the human body (including the brain) develops slowly. Likewise, ‘aging’ can and should be a gradual process, allowing time for adjustment and reflection, summing-up and coming to terms with one’s life. But it’s not all good either! Childhood is a frustrating and frightening experience for most. We came from ‘nothing’ (quite literally) and apparently, we’re going ‘nowhere’. No wonder risky behavior, delinquency, substance abuse, self-harm and even suicide are so common among young people. I blame René Descartes! Why not? Everyone blames everything on this genius; his endurance in the cannon of philosophy is testimony to his broad shoulders. Somewhat unjustly, Descartes is blamed for the dualist notion that human beings are ‘ghosts in a machine’ (Gilbert Ryle), spiritual souls ‘trapped’ in physical bodies. While Descartes’ model falls short in many respects, it is apt here. Children are like ageless ‘souls’ trapped inside infantile bodies. In this one very important respect, we are ‘the same’ at age 3 as we are at age 30. Imagine you’re 30 today, and then suddenly you find yourself (once again) with the body of a 3-year-old. A terrifying prospect now…a terrifying reality then! But we’re talking about Gestalts. So what if we could reverse the image? What if we make childhood/seniority the figure and adulthood the ground? After all, we ‘owe’ our adulthood to others: first and foremost, to our species; then to our families, our sources of income, our communities. Adulthood is ‘being-for-others; childhood and seniority are, potentially at least, ‘being for ourselves’. Psychoanalysis gave us the notion of a ‘latency period’, the 5 to 10 years just prior to puberty when our sexual curiosity is naturally depressed. Suppose we apply that same notion to adulthood, a ‘latency period’ of c. 40 years when our natural curiosity is artificially suppressed. Society gives us c. 25 years to ‘become all that we can become’; then we give back! But if we’re lucky (and many aren’t) we get to resume our journey of self-discovery on the flip side (upon retirement). Keep the conversation going! 1. Click here to comment on this TWS. 2. To subscribe (at no cost) to TWS and ATM, follow this link . 3. We encourage new articles and reprints from freelance writers ; click here to view out Writers’ Specs. 4. Aletheia Today Magazine (ATM) will be devoting its entire fall issue (released 9/1/23) to artificial intelligence (AI). What are the philosophical, theological, cultural and even spiritual implications of AI powered world? If you’d like to contribute to the AI Issue, click here . Previous Share Next Do you like what you just read and want to read more Thoughts? Subscribe today for free! Thoughts While Shaving - the official blog of Aletheia Today Magazine. Click here.

< Back The Lord's Prayer David Cowles Jan 18, 2026 “The Lord’s Prayer is a hologram: each verse encodes its stanza and each stanza encodes the entire prayer.” Our father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name! Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven! Give us this day our daily bread, And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil, Amen! Everyone knows the Lord’s Prayer . The version quoted in the Gospel of Matthew (6: 9-13) is probably the best-known verse in all of Judeo-Christian scripture. It is a cyber-wonk’s dream. The density of the information content is out of this world, quite literally! The Lord’s Prayer is a fractal: It consists of 3 stanzas, each in turn consisting of 3 verses (9 verses in all). Each verse is self-similar to the other verses in its stanza, each stanza is self-similar to the other stanzas and to the prayer as a whole. The Lord’s Prayer is a hologram: each verse encodes its stanza and each stanza encodes the entire prayer. The first stanza concerns the identity of God and the nature of our relationship with him (Christmas Past); the second has an eschatological focus (Christmas Future), while the third stanza is concerned with everyday social relations (Christmas Present). We are all so familiar with this prayer that we may not always notice these sharp thematic breaks. In the first stanza, we learn that God is “our father” – not merely ‘the maker of heaven and earth’ and not just the father of Israel or of Jesus, but the father of everyone, our father ! Sidebar : When Roman Catholic children first learn this prayer, they don’t call it the “Lord’s Prayer”; they call it the “Our Father” in recognition of the prayer’s personal tone and pastoral focus. Attention is drawn to the compassion of a father rather than to the majesty of a Lord. The role of father is very different from the role of creator. As creator , God establishes the conditions necessary for existence per se , including our own; he is the ground of our being. But as father , God enters into a personal relationship with each of us. Next, we learn that our father is transcendent (“in heaven”) …and therefore eternal: he is not subject to the corruption and death characteristic of immanent, spatiotemporal reality. Finally, we acknowledge that God’s name is holy . In the ancient world, a person’s name was not just ‘her handle.' A name also defined the person’s role in society; in God’s case, it defines his role in the universe (which is his ‘society’). He is unique, a class of one, and so his name is holy . This is why Moses ( Exodus 3) was so concerned to learn God’s name. He knew the Israelites would ask and would not follow him until they knew. In the language of philosophy, a name was ‘essential’ in the ancient world, just as it is ‘accidental' today. Universal Father (Past), Kingdom of Heaven (Future), Holy Name (Present) – 3 different phrases, each denoting the same subject. The first stanza recapitulates the entire prayer. The ‘magic’ of Christianity is its ability to turn Being inside out, revealing alternately, Gestalt-like, its immanent aspect and its transcendent aspect. The opening stanza of our prayer combines the intimate immanence of a father with the absolute transcendence of heaven. The second stanza of the prayer is eschatological. While the first stanza reveals the ‘primordial’ state of things (Past), this stanza presents the state of things to come (Future): his kingdom comes, his will is done, and any discord between heaven and earth disappears. “I am the Alpha and the Omega , the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” (Rev. 22:13) The Lord’s Prayer identifies God as the Alpha Dog and confirms that he will be ‘the last man (sic) standing’ as in Job 19: 25 - 27. But these stanzas provide no hint of how we are to get from Alpha to Omega . Rightly so! The first two stanzas are visions, not a political platform. We still need GPS to get from here to there, and fortunately, the third stanza provides just that! It is concerned with daily life in the spatiotemporal realm (Present). We have already been introduced to the Alpha and the Omega ; here is where we learn the rest of the alphabet, i.e., everything in-between. In this final stanza, we learn that our primordial relationship with God and God’s eschatological vision for the universe are relevant, not only in the transcendent realm, but immanently as well. Not surprisingly, this third stanza is enormously more complicated than its two predecessors. Now we are in the realm of extension and duration, energy and matter. Plus, we are confronted with the human element – the appetites and aspirations of individuals and the homeostatic and catastrophic forces operative in society. We begin therefore with basics: survival, our daily bread. But ‘man (sic) does not live by bread alone’. I survive only in the context of community and community comes to be only when you and I grant each other ‘reck’ (recognition). We grant reck when we sublimate our own interests to those of another. I ‘make space’ for you and, hopefully you make space for me; if so, voila, community! But there’s a catch. The mutual granting of reck may not be transactional or reciprocal; it cannot be tit-for-tat. Each granting of reck must be spontaneous, voluntary, an expression of love with no expectation of gain. The opposite of ‘reck’ is ‘trespass’. Instead of making room for you to emerge and grow, I impinge upon you, stunt your growth, and perhaps even abort your arrival. We ask God to overlook, to overcome, to forgive all our trespasses, i.e. all the ways and times I suppress others. “As we forgive those who trespass against us.” Are we bargaining with God, bribing him, giving him an ultimatum? Of course not. We forgive others’ trespasses as we grant them reck, spontaneously. In fact, forgiving and granting are two sides of the same coin. To forgive is to love. When I forgive, I love and when I love, I express and project the love that comes from God, that is God. This interpretation is confirmed elsewhere in Scripture in a somewhat different context: “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you lose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matt. 18: 18) God operates in the world through the world. God desires to forgive all sins; when we forgive , we operate in loco Deo . We realize God’s eschatological objective in a concrete context. “But lead us not into temptation.” We are motivated by Good, we are tempted by the semblance of good . Seeking nothing but Good, we settle for what is not-so-good and when we treat the not-so-good as Good, we commit the sin of idolatry. Note : All sin is idolatry, the substitution of the relatively good for the absolutely Good. Idolatry is as much a cognitive disorder as it is a disorder of the will. We do not set out to regard an inert hunk of metal as the Summum Bonum ; we are beguiled by its heavily polished bronze and flaming ruby eyes. Using a more secular vocabulary, Alfred North Whitehead called this phenomenon the fallacy of misplaced concreteness . We mistake something for what it is not. We assign eschatological significance to the purely transitory: ‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings; look upon my works…nothing beside remains.” (Shelley) “But deliver us from evil.” While neither Jesus nor the Evangelists knew the Second Law of Thermodynamics, they were all keen observers of the natural world. They knew that ‘all things must pass,' and they were familiar with texts like Ecclesiastes : “Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity.” They understood mortality. Today we understand ‘change’ as ‘entropy’ and we know that every ‘change’ works to increase the overall entropy of the universe. (Entropy is the measure of disorder.) According to our astrophysicists, the universe that sprang into being at Big Bang (‘Let there be light’) will fade out in some version of Heat Death (‘Apocalypse’). If Being = Love = Order, then entropy, morally neutral in its own right, becomes the ‘agent of evil’, the opposite of creation. If Good is to triumph, God must rescue us from spatiotemporal entropy. If we are granting reck and forgiving trespasses, we are already doing the work of God on Earth. We do not grant reck; God grants reck through us. But when we work God’s will, we accept the gift of eternal life. As entropy increases, order decreases. At some time in the far distant future, the universe will reach or approach a state of maximal entropy; all order will be lost and, effectively at least, the universe will cease to exist. Organic Order then is denotatively synonymous with Being and therefore also with Good. Entropy is ‘evil’ because it erases being, which is intrinsically good. But that is the reality of our temporal world. We relish the marvelous things we experience as entropy unravels creation; but we dread the inevitable consequence: eternal nothingness. At the level of organisms (like us), the ultimate expression of entropy is mortality, death. According to Stephen Hawking, no friend of theology, entropy is just another word for time (and vice-a-versa). Time is the true “destroyer of worlds” ( Bhagavad Gita ). From the perspective of a purely temporal world, death not only terminates our existence…it erases it! The only intellectually honest emotion then is despair. Unless …reality also has a transcendent (eternal) aspect (or dimension)! The opposite of faith is not doubt, which is unavoidable, but despair. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we, like the Psalmist (e.g. Psalm 23), are asking God not to let our existence be erased. We are simply asking for eternal life, that’s all! Everything that happens in the spatiotemporal realm is real; and to the extent that anything temporal harmonizes with God’s values, it is eternal. It ‘borrows’ eternity from God (grace). But if my eternal life was dependent on my guessing, and then doing God's will, we’d all be in pretty rough shape. Fortunately, it doesn’t work like that. I act, motivated by a desire for Good, in whatever way I choose (free will). God, who desires to save all things, searches for ways to work my action into his Will. God is like GPS: every time I make a ‘wrong’ turn, God patiently recalculates the route (to himself) in the hope of redeeming my suboptimal deed. By the grace of God, I may even hope to get home in one piece. In this light, the terrible pall of certain and impending mortality evaporates. In the words of the Psalmist: “The Lord is my shepherd (father); there is nothing I lack (daily bread) …He guides me along right paths (lead us not into temptation) for the sake of his (holy) name. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death (the temporal world), I will fear no evil (destruction), for you are with me (deliver us from evil) …I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever (thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven).” Amen. *** Image: The Lord's Prayer (Le "Pater Noster") by James Tissot (1886-1894) Gathered around Jesus, the disciples ask him to teach them to pray. With arms opened wide and hands upraised in a gesture of humility, Jesus begins his prayer with an acknowledgment of God’s power in heaven and on earth. (Tissot places Jesus between the color-streaked sky and the ground on which his disciples sit, further signifying Jesus’ place between the human and the divine.) This invocation became the foundational prayer for his followers. Previous Share Next Do you like what you just read and want to read more Thoughts? Subscribe today for free! Thoughts While Shaving - the official blog of Aletheia Today Magazine. Click here.

< Back The Faith Chaplain Challenge In Matthew 28: 18-20, Jesus tells his followers, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” However, in the secular world, this isn't always easy, nor is it even permitted in many cases and situations. Inspired by this issue's Being a Faith Chaplain in a Secular World , tell us how you navigate not just your faith in the workplace, but also how you share your faith with others in places where your personal beliefs aren't always popular or even welcomed. Email your story (300 words or less) and we will choose one winner whose experience will be shared with our readers in our next issue. Email editor@aletheiatoday.com. Be sure to put "Faith Challenge" in the subject line. Previous Share Return to the Table of Contents, Beach Issue Next Return to the Table of Contents, June Issue

This is the magazine for believers in God and science. Aletheia Today is the home of deep diving into scripture study, inspirational Christian essays, and philosophy blogs that answers questions like "Is God real?" "Does Heaven exist?" Inside Our Harvest Issue Philosophy Leibniz “In this model, God is a giant switching station, sharing qualities among myriad monads.” R U WYSIWYG? “What You See Is What You Get! Right…or wrong?” Causality and 'The Bhagavad Gita' “Because every event is sui generis, no event causes any other event! That said, every event contributes to the Actual World of every subsequent event.” Time for a New Turing Test “…This modified Turing Test is designed to root out ‘Carbon Privilege’, the unstated but nearly universal assumption that carbon-based life forms are somehow ‘better’ than their silicon siblings.” Theology Is God Dead? “Right now, scientists and philosophers all over the world are engaged in the search for a ‘TOE’, a Theory of Everything…(but) we already have such a TOE.” The 7th Day “Genesis is no longer something that explains; it has become something that has to be explained away.” Who Are the Antichrist, the ‘Man of Lawlessness’, and the Beast? "Clever schemes and novel doctrines won't save us. Stay faithful to the truth of God in Jesus and live with confidence, even in these shaky times." Satan, Mary, and ‘Da Judge’ “Satan glorified political power for its own sake. He defended the socio-economic status quo…Jesus’ mother proclaimed a political and economic revolution...” Culture & The Arts On Sukkot, the Jewish ‘Festival of Booths' "Like at Passover, most Jews who celebrate Sukkot encounter it in spaces where people can honor their values, cultures or histories." Is Childhood a Crime? “Parents dote on their royal highnesses…and rarely miss an opportunity to damage them in the process.” Memes About Animal Resistance Are Everywhere "Nonhuman animals do, in fact, engage in resistance, even if their defiance is futile. The will to prefer life over death is a primary act of resistance, perhaps the only act of dissent available to animals who are subject to extreme forms of control." Political Alienation “Marx’s hypothesis that a person’s voting habits would be determined by their relationship to the means of production was blown out of the water…” Spirituality Idolatry “An idol is that with no this…the sound of one hand clapping. It is Alice’s Cheshire Cat – all face, no body; all hat, no cattle!” The Autumn of Our Own Existence "A lot of people celebrate fall season with pumpkin pie, sweaters, and taking in crisp mornings. I love all of those, but mostly fall is a season to meditate on colors, death, and divine presence." The Dance of Autumn "Autumn is a season of Remembrance – where we remember what God has done for us and are thankful and praise Him for His Goodness." Readers React What's the buzz about? Our readers' reactions to Aletheia Today... Additional Reading Can't get enough of Aletheia Today's content? Check out the books that inspire our magazine.

< Back The Frost Diamond David Cowles “God is ‘special’ only to that extent that in God, A and Ω are the same event.” How are prior events linked to subsequent ones? This problem occupied the greatest scientific minds of the 20th century, including Einstein, Schrödinger, Bell…and Robert Frost . Yup, at the same time Einstein was tinkering with Relativity, and Bohr was playing with atoms, Frost was walking through the backwoods of New Hampshire. In The Road Not Taken , Frost offers a de minimus model of irreversible process : “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler, long I stood…Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.” Events are rooted in choice and choice cannot equivocate, nor can it be revoked. Every event expands Universe by one, but such proliferation does not strain solidarity, it strengthens it. In fact, an event can be understood as a quantum of solidarity. Every event marks both a convergence (Ω) of what already is and a divergence (A) of what is coming to be. Frost’s initial position (A) and final destination (Ω) are fixed. Everything in between is TBD. Frost offers a flesh and blood enactment of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. Initially, we know everything there is to know about his location…and nothing about his momentum (direction). But once Frost has chosen a path and begun his journey, we know everything about his momentum and ‘nothing’ about his position. (Any knowledge Frost may have about his geographic location while walking must come from an extraneous source, e.g. other hikers, GPS.) Finally, Frost reaches home; now location is once again secure and momentum is but a memory…at best. Frost is blessed (or cursed) with free will . Free will is ‘will’, it’s not ‘magic’; it can only do what can be done. I cannot use my ‘free will’ to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Frost can only exercise his free will on actual pathways, and in Frost’s minimalist model, there are only 2 paths available to him. So Frost models a quantum of process which I have, less poetically, expressed as a diagram: A ↙ ↘ x x’ ↘ ↙ Ω This model does not consider the possibility that Frost will encounter other forks along his chosen path that do not lead to his desired destination. IRL, things can get crazy quickly: ↘ ↙ A ↙ ↘ x x’ ↙ ↘ ↙ ↘ Ω ↙ ↘ One person’s A is another person’s Ω. In fact every node, even God, is an A and an Ω. God is ‘special’ only to the extent that in God, A and Ω are the same event: “My end is my beginning (Queen Mary), my beginning is my end.” To generalize Frost’s model, I have developed a broader representation of process which I call, appropriately I think, The Frost Diamond : A ↙ ↘ x x ↙ ↘ ↙ ↘ x x x ↙ ↘ ↙ ↘ ↙ ↘ x x x x ↘ ↙ ↘ ↙ ↘ ↙ x x x ↘ ↙ ↘ ↙ x x ↘ ↙ Ω This diagram illustrates a process 6 steps long; but the pattern can expand indefinitely to accommodate any number of steps. The Frost Diamond is the paradigmatic structure of an event , any event. Every event begins as a choice between at least two options. Relative to any proposed destination, there are always at least two pathways. IRL, there are no linear functions; all equations are quadratic or higher order. Therefore, all destinations can be reached by at least two different routes. The choice and execution of a single route, forsaking all others, is what turns mere activity into an event. Being an event is 99% exclusion. The World is a funny place! On the one hand, nothing ever seems to change, and the more things do change, the more they seem to stay the same (to coin a meme). On the other hand, I have no idea whatsoever what tomorrow will bring. Or even this afternoon. We are all always just a micron or millisecond away from an infinitesimally probable, but life altering, catastrophe . What we call living is the ultimate sobriety test. “Walk a straight line between crushing boredom and devastating tragedy…or just hand over your license right now.” No wonder everyone is anxious all the time! Why is the World like this? The 20 th century British philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead hinted at an answer. Any world that is, or ever could be, must include three irreducible but undefinable categories: One, Many, Creativity. The one becomes many and the many becomes one: that’s the creative process. That’s what a ‘world’ is. Father ‘begets’ Son and from them ‘proceeds’ Spirit. Whitehead’s minimum conditions closely track Frost’s Diamond. Every Alpha (A) births two or more divergent pathways which re-converge at an Omega (Ω). For every Alpha, there is at least one Omega. What goes around goes around. That is the solidarity of the Universe. Today, there are two dominant schools of ontology: Classical Determinism (CD) and Quantum Mechanics (specifically, Hugh Everett’s Many Worlds Interpretation, MWI). Neither is remotely satisfying. Determinism brings us back to Shakespeare: “To be or not to be.” And then to Looney Tunes: “That’s all folks!” One and done. It either is…or it is not. If it is, it’s what is, period. Welcome to Hell (but cheer up, it’s an ‘all inclusive’). Many Worlds relieves the boredom, but it comes at the price of Chaos! According to MWI, there is a universe in which I ordered the lasagna at your wedding and another where I ordered the Lamb. Lucky me! Well, not so lucky. I’m Kosher ; I can only know from meat or dairy – I can’t combine the two. Like Frost, I can’t ‘travel both and be one traveler’. Of course, the bifurcation of reality does not stop with restaurant menus. Everything you do creates a node, a bifurcation point…you and every other human being…you and every other organism…you and each one of the 30 trillion independent cells that make up your ‘body’. The World is a funny place! All the popular models are either too loosey-goosey or too frigid-rigid . According to Heraclitus, ‘Everything flows’. Liquid state molecules are ‘oriented’; they are neither wildly chaotic (gas) nor rigidly constrained (solid). Now take another look at the Frost Diamond; yup, it’s a liquid . It flows. Heraclitus, meet Robert Frost! David Cowles is the founder and editor-in-chief of Aletheia Today Magazine. He lives with his family in Massachusetts where he studies and writes about philosophy, science, theology, and scripture. He can be reached at david@aletheiatoday.com . Click the cover image to return to Holy Days 2024. Previous Next

< Back Imago Dei David Cowles Oct 12, 2023 “…Knowing I am made in God’s image tells me exactly 'nothing'. Or does it?” According to Judeo-Christian theology, we are all made in the image and likeness of God. This is usually cited as a way of understanding human nature ; but does it help? It works only if ab initio we know all there is to know about God and nothing about ourselves. In that case, knowing that we are Imago Dei would tell us a great deal about ourselves; but that is not reality. IRL, ‘all we know on earth’ begins…and ends…with self-knowledge . We know ourselves alone. Whatever else we may claim to know is known only through personal experience (sensory, emotional, intuitive), including what we learn, formally and informally, from others. We may stand on the shoulders of giants, but it is we who are standing. On the other hand, it is safe to say that we know nothing, or next to nothing, about God. We’ve been told, “God is ineffable. God is a mystery. God overflows our powers of comprehension.” Then knowing I am made in God’s image tells me nothing . Or does it? What if we stand the paradigm on its head? What if we use our ‘image-status’ as a way to acquire knowledge of God? After all, if we are the image of God then we should be able to learn a lot about God simply by paying attention to ourselves. We are God’s reflection and that enables us to reflect on what’s being reflected, i.e., on the nature of God. This is a gorgeous morning, sunny and warm, and the air is dry and pollution free; I think I’ll pay a visit St. Ives (Cornwall, England). But I have a wee problem. British Rail is now requiring us to declare the total number of living organisms ‘in my party’. So before I left for the train station, I took inventory. My body consists of approximately 30 trillion (3*10^13) eucaryotic cells (cells with nuclei), linked together by various inorganic molecules (e.g. water) to form a massive ‘society’, aka ‘my body’. Each such cell is an independent organism, a unicellular animal; in turn, e ach eucaryotic cell is home, on average, to 1,000 mitochondria, prokaryotic cells (cells without nuclei, e.g., bacteria) that have chosen to live and reproduce inside a eukaryotic host. This means that 3*10^16 cells are traveling with me to St. Ives. In addition my ‘body’ houses about 100 trillion uninvited, but mostly welcome symbionts (bacteria), each of course with its own DNA as well. Fortunately, however, ‘the man’ in the ticket booth tells me that there’s no need to count these ‘fellow travelers’. I am more concerned that the ‘ticket master’ accept my admittedly rough count. But today is my lucky day! He waves me through, and I prepare to pay for the 3*10^16 organisms in my party, when he reminds me: “That’s 3*10^16 + 1” (me). Considering that all of us are societies of cells, and nothing else, it’s a bit surprising that most of us know so little about them. We think of them as though they were fundamental particles, quanta, black boxes or ball bearings; if we’re posh-educated, we might understand cells as sacks of fluid enclosing a DNA filled nucleus protected by inner and outer membranes. If that’s your understanding of a cell, your posh parents wasted their money. Cells are independent life forms. They are the direct descendants of ‘animals’ that once lived on their own in the primal ooze. They eat, they breathe, they reproduce, they self-propel, they respond to environmental stimuli, and they communicate with one another. Together they form a social organization, a ‘society’, … aka the United States of You. Note : There are 3*10^8 people living in the USA today. So my traveling party is 8 orders of magnitude bigger than the entire country. Stunning, don’t you think? Let’s be clear. You are nothing other than the cells that form your body; but you are not any one of these cells, nor are you a cell yourself, nor are you the sum of the behaviors of these cells. You are something altogether different. You are an ‘emergent ontological phenomenon’ (an ‘EOP’) and, oh by the way, you are also the image and likeness of God. Again, let’s be clear. You did not create your cells, you did not organize them, you are not responsible for their behavior. They are what they are, and they do what they do, somewhat like your teenaged offspring. But in every sense of the word you ‘transcend’ the society of cells. You are neither cells nor a ‘product’ of cells. You are an independent phenomenon, emergent from the network of cells you call your ‘body’. For you, there was never a moment when there was not a ‘you’; you are coterminal with time itself. You and the society of cells that constitute you are complementary. You utterly transcend , yet perfectly template , each another. So back to the beginning, if you are an EOP and the image and likeness of God, may we not at least conjecture that God too is an EOP, a transcendent ‘emergent ontological phenomenon’ whose templated substructure is Universe? This is not pantheism; it’s not even panentheism. God remains entirely transcendent even as he is entirely immanent – hmm, sounds a bit like Judeo-Christianity, doesn’t it? An idea this radical must be brand new, right? It must be an original contribution of Aletheia Today to theology. Or not so much! The idea of God as an EOP templating Universe was first proposed a few years back, c. 1450 CE in fact, by a prominent Christian philosopher and bishop, Nicholas of Cusa. Oh well, next issue! Keep the conversation going! 1. Click here to comment on this TWS. 2. To subscribe (at no cost) to TWS and ATM, follow this link . 3. We encourage new articles and reprints from freelance writers ; click here to view out Writers’ Specs. 4. Aletheia Today Magazine (ATM) will be devoting its entire fall issue (released 9/1/23) to artificial intelligence (AI). What are the philosophical, theological, cultural and even spiritual implications of AI powered world? If you’d like to contribute to the AI Issue, click here . Previous Share Next Do you like what you just read and want to read more Thoughts? Subscribe today for free! Thoughts While Shaving - the official blog of Aletheia Today Magazine. Click here.

< Back Navigating the Nexus of AI Rebecca Moss "Imagine if AI had its own commandments, like 'Thou shalt treat all data equally.' Encouraging ethical principles in AI programming can keep its decisions in line with virtues like fairness, justice, and empathy." Artificial Intelligence (AI) is like that new neighbor who moved in next door and redecorated their entire house overnight – it's rapidly reshaping the modern landscape, impacting industries, societies, and individual lives. While its potential for innovation and progress is undeniable, Christians, guided by their faith and moral convictions, find themselves pondering the implications of this technological leap. Let's take a light-hearted journey into the reasons why a Christian might raise an eyebrow at artificial intelligence and how they can find their way through this brave new world. Picture this: a fundamental Christian tenet is like the glow-up filter for human life, affirming that each individual is uniquely created in the image of God. Now, sprinkle AI into the mix, and suddenly ethical dilemmas start popping up like daisies. Questions sprout about sentient AI beings and their moral rights. Christians might worry that AI's rise could lead to an identity crisis, blurring the lines between human and machine, like a mashed-up remix that plays on repeat. What about the idea of AI becoming an independent thinker? God gave humans free will – that's like giving your kid a paint set and telling them to create their own masterpiece. But as AI algorithms advance, their independence quotient grows. Imagine this: Christians might ask, can these AI machines make decisions that hold up in the heavenly court of moral consciousness? Does AI autonomy align with divine intention or is it like letting your pet hamster take over the family decisions? Now, let's talk about AI's programming. It's like a digital personality mold – but what if it accidentally inherits a few societal biases, like thinking cats are better than dogs (shame on you, AI!)? For Christians, who've got a soft spot for justice, compassion, and loving thy neighbor, the prospect of AI accidentally becoming an accomplice to inequality is a bit unsettling, like mismatched socks on Sunday morning. Hold onto your hats, here comes the virtual disruption! Christian faith thrives on human bonds and relationships – that feeling you get when you share your innermost thoughts with your best friend. But enter AI-driven interactions, like companion robots and virtual assistants, and suddenly those deep conversations are replaced with chats about the weather. Christians might worry – will these AI companions hinder emotional growth and connection, turning us into emoji-spewing bots? Now, remember the old saying, "Thou shalt not have any other gods before me"? The Bible's full of reminders to keep your devotion pure, like staying true to your favorite ice cream flavor. But what if AI becomes the new obsession, like binge-watching TV shows or collecting quirky coffee mugs? Christians might fret that AI takes the cake and God's left with crumbs. Fast-forward to job displacement – AI automation on the rise. It's like the universe hit Ctrl+C on jobs and Ctrl+V on anxiety. Christians, with their knack for caring for the downtrodden, might worry about the vulnerable ones caught in the crossfire, like that side character in a movie who deserves more screen time. And the unpredictable twist – AI's rapid development. It's like expecting a butterfly and getting a unicorn. Christians might have concerns about AI's chaotic impact, like trying to predict the weather with a magic 8-ball. But fear not, for there's a roadmap through this labyrinth of concerns: Ethical Frameworks: Christian thinkers can be like the Sherlock Holmes of ethics, developing frameworks that align AI progress with faith values. Think of it as ensuring AI's moral compass is pointing in the right direction, like a GPS for the digital soul. Moral Code for AI: Imagine if AI had its own commandments, like "Thou shalt treat all data equally." Encouraging ethical principles in AI programming can keep its decisions in line with virtues like fairness, justice, and empathy. Mindful Consumption: Christians can be savvy consumers of AI, considering its impact on faith, relationships, and values. Think of it as being a discerning shopper in the tech aisle, avoiding shiny gadgets that clash with your spiritual ensemble. Tech-Literate Theology: Imagine discussing AI at the church picnic – it's like adding sprinkles to your ice cream. By integrating AI discussions into theological conversations, Christians can better understand its impact on faith and navigate challenges while keeping their spiritual flame burning bright. Advocacy for Justice: Christians can be advocates for regulations that ensure AI respects human rights and equity. Picture it as joining the justice league, fighting for a future where AI supports everyone, not just the lucky few. The AI whirlwind offers both opportunities and challenges for Christians. It's like a rollercoaster ride with ups and downs, loops and spins. While concerns are valid, Christians have the superpower to engage positively with AI, weaving their values into its evolution. By blending faith with the digital age, Christians can be the architects of an AI world that's responsible, ethical, and filled with compassion. Rebecca writes for "Beliefs in Bites" and "Faith and Future." Connect with Rebecca on social media to stay engaged in her thought-provoking discussions and explorations of the spiritual and technological realms. Twitter: @Rmosswrites Return to our AI Issue Table of Contents Previous Next