INTELLIGENT DESIGN, IRREDUCIBLE COMPLEXITY, ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE

T.S. ELLIOTT said,"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."

from http://johnsonma

tel.com/blog1/2008/01/k

now_the_place_for_the_first_t.html

and

http://www.amazon.com/Privileged-Planet-Cosmos-Designed-Discovery/dp/0895260654

The book The Privileged Planet,  by Guillermo Gonzoles, along with the DVD of the same name advance the wonderful Thesis of the authors that the conditions within the Cosmos that make the earth ideally suited for intelligent (human) life are also the conditions that are optimal for scientific observation of that same Cosmos, suggesting that there was a purpose in the formation of our Universe not only for the creation and nurture of human life, but for us to be able to observe the handiwork of the Creator.  

The carving posted with this blog shows a relic of the Four Evangelists at the center of the Milky Way.  On the macro scale, the Milky way shows these admirable traits of the Universe.  The Earth exists half-way between the outer edges of the Milky Way and the inner Center. The Galactic Center is too full of catastrophic galactic events such as supernovae, and is not too friendly to life of our sort, whereas the outer reaches of the Galaxy do not have enough of the heavy elements , especially iron, which is essential to the earth's magnetic core, and the electromagnetic field it generates for the earth to shield us from harmful effects of solar radiation.  

At the same time , the earth does not exist within a spiral arm, but slightly outside of one the Saggitarius arm, so that we are able to discern more easily the configuration of the Galaxy and to gaze into the deeper heavens beyond the Galaxy, so noting the incomprehensible immensity of the Universe, and the even more Incomprehensible Greatness of the God who thought this into being.  

Some might note that the arms of the Galaxy to the left and right are morphing into the ultramicrostructure of the bacterial flagellum.  Bacteria with flagella have built within themselves a machine with all the parts of of an outboard motor.  Rotors, propellors, the whole works. The bacterial flagellum is an outstanding example of irreducible complexity, a term advanced by Michael Behe, in his book, Darwin's Black Box, which expresses the concept that biological systems are too complex to have evolved by chance from more simple ones.  The function of the bacterial flagellum contains any number, perhaps 20, extremely complex structures, that must exist for the flagellum to work at all.  Darwin himself said "If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down."

--Charles Darwin, Origin of Species

For more details on irreducible complexity and the bacterial flagellum go to 

http://www.ideacenter.org/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/840

Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, Coming King

Savior, Sancitfier, Healer and Coming King are the four fold expressions of the Gospel expressed in the writings of A. B. Simpson, of the Christian and Missionary Alliance.  His four states of blessedness correspond to the Apostle Paul who spoke of those whom God 'predestined, he also sanctified, and those He sanctified He glorified'.  

Savior is the predestining work of the Lord and corresponds in classical Christian expression to the stage of purgation, the first stage of Christian life.  The stage of sanctification corresponds to the classical Christian expression of 'illumimation' which is expressed in evangelical terms as being 'saved' or 'filled' with the Holy Spirit.  The final aspects of healer and sanctifier, are summed up in classical Christian terms as glorification, the experience that some experience now before the Second Coming and the Resurrection, and that all believers will enter after the Lord comes and receive us to Himself.  

Orthodox Tradition and Evangelical Correlates

Orthodox Monks that are becoming Saints often find themselves practicing the asceticism of sleep deprivation. They often sleep only a couple of hours a day, and that often, in a standing position. But such things have happened as well to sold-out Evangelicals. For example, the great missionary pastor, A. B. Simpson, of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, holiness and missionary movement found himself in his aging days, approaching a nervous breakdown, so heavy was the work load that denied him sleep. Until, in a great spiritual crisis, he had the experience of Christ 'quickening his mortal body' , and thereafter he was sustained by Divine Life to do the work that was beyond human strength, done in the Strength of Divine Enabling.  

Orthodox Saints who repose are found to have incorrupt remains. Their bodies don't decompose. When they are exhumed a few years later, their remains are as fresh as the day that they died.  Orthodox countries of Europe and Asia have churches where those Saints lie in state. The Communist embalments of  Lenin and of Stalin are pitiable parodies of the Orthodox Truth.  Has such been seen amongst the Evangelicals?  Yes. The sister of Corrie ten  Boom, who died in the concentration camp, was observed after her death to have her body restored in youthfulness and in health .  "He will not allow His Holy One to See corruption."  The Incorruption of the Crucified Christ is attested to in the Incorruption of His Saints." God is glorified in His Saints.  And those who honor God, those will God honor.  www.metafysiko.org

Glory to the Consubstantial Trinity!  

Hesychastic Verities Set to an Evangelical Hymn (Are you Washed in the Blood?)

Has Your Nous Descended (to the tune of the hymn,  “Are You Washed in the Blood?”}

Has your  nous descended to your heart today?

Has the stillness of unknowing caught your gaze?

Has you wand’ring attention found its native home?

Has your nous returned to your heart

Refrain

    Has your nous, found your heart?

Has your gaze seen the stillness of the Lord?

Has the gate to theosis opened through the grace of God?

Has your nous descended to your heart?

2.        Have you warred against the passions with the Jesus Prayer?

Have you stilled the senses and the mind?

Have the demons fled from your humility?

Has your heart been prepared for your nous

3.        Has unceasing prayer been your way of life?

Has your body been weaned off of the world?

Has your thought life gathered to the Jesus Prayer?

Has neptic vigil made you aware?

4.        Has the bread of repentance been your daily fare?

Tears of Compunction and of sorrow filled your heart?

Has bodily stillness led you to your inward Sabbath rest?

Has the Jesus Prayer  set your life apart?

5.        Has the hesychastic pathway called you on to God?

On to union with the Divine?

Has the stillness of unknowing found your ceaseless gaze?

Has your nous returned to its home?

6.        Has the grace of God brought unceasing prayer?

Has visionary prayer come into your heart?

Has what He is by Nature, come to you by grace?

Do you  practice divine  Sonship as your art?

Silence "Be Still and Know That I Am God"

Forgive me. I think of the words of St. Pambo, or a variation thereof, "If I cannot help you with my silence, I cannot help you with my words." I put the lie to that by putting my hand to keyboard and purporting to write something that I hope you will read.

Accept that as the Silence that Helps. It seems to me that the call to Contemplative Prayer from the West, and the Call to Unceasing Prayer that leads to the descent of the nous (understanding/attention) into the heart (and the Stillness of the Father) are pointing us to the same Thing. The Thing that troubles me in both expressions of the Truth of Centering Prayer and of Hesychasm is that language is so very inadequate to express the profundity of what is being described.

Throughout my childhood in my wakening moments I had the desire to hide in a cave. Oh, I so wanted that cave! But what was it? I did not know. I did not know that the hunger for that cave, that hiddenness, that place of security, corresponded to a Place to which we are all called to resort.

That Place is the Stillness of the Father, to which the Word ever calls us. It is so aptly expressed at the website Contemplative Outreach in its discourse on the Lectio Divina of the Desert Fathers

"In the Trinity, the Eternal Word is always emerging from the infinite silence of the Father and always returning".

(http://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5253)

The infinite silence of the Father is not the mere cessation of outward and physical bustle and noise, but it is an entering into- into an Unknowing where we find ourselves at home and in the security that we always sought and the communion that we alway desired. Outward stillness is often a necessary precursor to inner Stillness, as the experience of the desert for many Christian ascetics is the necessary precursor for encounter with God. But outer stillness, outward hesychasm is a preparation- a pre-condition for entry into the Divine Stillness.

Such expression finds its roots at the beginning of the Christian Tradition. St. Ignatius the God-bearer said, "those who acquire the word of Jesus must also acquire is stillness so as to be perfect." The Stillness of the Father is no new aspiration of the heart, no aberration of the Christian yearning, but is fully Apostolic, and fully Trinitarian.

Orthodox Psychotherapy puts it so succintly "That is why man, in order to come nearer to God, is not satisfied only to receive His revealed energies but must also advance towards receiving in silence the mystery of His unknowing. It is not enough to hear His word, but one must also advance towards the unhearing of His stillness. This second part leads to perfection, and so the first is presupposed. In fact, as St. Ignatius the Godbearer observed, only `he who has truly acquired the word of Jesus can also hear His stillness, so as to be perfect'. So then the movement of man towards God should not be only a movement of action, but also a movement of hiddenness; it should not only be a witness of confession, but also a witness of silence and stillness"

(http://www.vic.com/~tscon/pelagia/htm/b02.en.orthodox_psychotherapy.05.htm

"Be Still and Know that I am God." Psalms 46:10 KVJ