“Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one perception, the perception of this one living being; and how all things act with one movement; and how all things are the cooperating causes of all things which exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread and the contexture of the web.”              
           – Marcus Aurelius, (Emperor of Rome, 161-180 AD), Meditations IV, 40.

Introduction to The Book of Continuing Creation

[ NOTE:  We are opposed to biblical, fundamentalist “creationism.” ]

The Path and Practice of natural Continuing Creation is not related to Biblical Creationism, to Spiritualism, Scientology, or Christian Science.

This three-page age Essay introduces The Book of Continuing Creation: Finding Life’s Meaning & Purpose — In Nature, Reason, & Science.

We also refer to Nature’s Continuing Creation as The Growing, Organizing, Direction of the Cosmos; as Nature’s Continuing Creation, and as The Interlocking Processes of Continuing Creation. 

Still other names for Continuing Creation include:  The Flow, The Force, The One, The Whole of All Wholes, The Progression, The Sum of All Systems, Gaia, Our Path, Our Practice, Our Way, Continuing Natural Creation, and even the abbreviation “CC.”  And we often say that Continuing Creation “Grows in the Direction of Organized Complexity.”

All these names are possible translations of the phrase, “The Tao Te Ching” (literally, “The Way and its Power”), which is the title that the ancient Chinese Sage Lao Tzu gave to his small yet immortal book of wisdom which is the foundational text of Taoism. 

The Book of Continuing Creation is a collection of related Essays. Twenty-six Essays have been posted up to our website, www.continuingcreation.org, with others to go up over the coming weeks and months.  All the Essays can be read independently of each other.  However, this very short Introduction, along with the 27-page Overview Essay, should be read first. 

This website also contains all of J.X Mason’s two-page Blog Posts.  New Posts come out weekly, and you can subscribe to them by clicking the dark green button in the right-hand margin of each page. The Blog Posts and the Essays are free, and they carry no advertising.    

By traveling a “Path of Meaning & Purpose,” we mean cultivating a deep intellectual and emotional connection with, and positive participation in, the ongoing creativity of the universe.

Some people might call our Way a “Spiritual” Path, but the word “spiritual” attaches to supernatural things such religion, gods, ghosts, and angels.  (Wikipedia actually has two related articles – one for Spirituality and one for Secular Spirituality.) If anything, in our book we’re talking about Natural Spirituality: it is secular, but not man-made.  

The Book of Continuing Creation’s Path provides its Practitioners with energy, inspiration, positivity, motivation, appreciation, ethics, cooperation and caring — all of which should add up to Personal Fulfillment.

There are forerunners to our Spiritual Practice, including Process Theology, Deism, Taoism, and Nature-based paths. We mention them in our Overview and we also devote a separate Essay to them.

If readers seek a longer synopsis of The Book of Continuing Creation, read our more fulsome 27-page Overview Essay, which is linked to topics in the entire Book.

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On Earth, Continuing Creation is powered by our sun shining down light and heat, and from the heat of its own molten magma core. This flow-through of energy powers the formation of our geology and atmosphere and the construction of plant life.  Plant life and animal life evolved from a common single-celled ancestor.  Today, plant life supplies food and oxygen for animal life. In the human animal, the energy from “burning” the food in our cells creates consciousness, thought, culture, science, and technology.

The Book of Continuing Creation aims to be consistent with modern science and historical fact. The Growing, Organizing, Direction of the Cosmos is not just the process of evolution, but all the processes of physics, geology, chemistry, biology, and the social sciences that underlie the universe and life.

All natural Creation, past and present, happens through the interlocking Principles and Processes that make up the Growing, Organizing, Direction of the Cosmos, including: energy throughput, differentiation-through-combination, complexity, emergence, evolution, natural selection, phase change, feedback loops, catalysis, emergence, change-through-error, chain reactions, and far-from-equilibrium systems. Using clear language, we will explain each of these and other Processes in this Book.

For humans, Continuing Creation includes wondering, reflecting, questioning, thinking, researching, exploring, discovering, learning, planning, inventing, designing, building, writing, composing, organizing, improving, weaving, teaching, growing, inspiring, communicating, caring, and loving.

The purpose of each human life is to create and to build. This includes creating and building positive and constructive relationships with our loved ones, neighbors, and co-workers.  Creating and building also include discovering, exploring, learning, preserving, and teaching.  Each of us is here on Earth to sustainably contribute to the constructive processes of Continuing Creation.

People who follow Our Path of Continuing Creation are known as Co-Creators in… Followers of… Explorers of… Navigators in… Masons of… Weavers in… Gardeners of… Cultivators of… Architects of… Practitioners of… Partners in… Agents of…Continuing Creation: The Growing, Organizing, Direction of the Cosmos.

The primary texts of the world’s great religions contain much wisdom, but they also recount myths which did not take place and are not literally true. Those myths were written ages ago when men and women had little knowledge of the Universe.  Newer spiritual paths such as New Age and Scientology also demonstrate a lack of scientific knowledge.

The sacred books of the Old Desert Religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — portray Continuing Creation in human terms – as an all-powerful individual God who intervenes directly in individual human lives. This is an anthropomorphic projection of human characteristics onto Continuing Creation, and it is untrue.

Today, in the twenty-first century, people who cling to the old myths and old conceptions of Continuing Creation as “God” are killing each other over their outdated, unscientific beliefs; and over their desire for disputed land. Muslim versus Christian and Jew; Catholic versus Protestant; Sunni Muslims versus Shia Muslims.  Religious violence repeatedly threatens to overwhelm the world and usher in a new dark age.

In the Old Desert Religions, God is a person-like super-being. Today, we know Continuing Creation is network of interlocking Natural Processes.

In the Old Desert Religions, God stood outside us. Today, we know that Continuing Creation is woven into our very DNA, and into all the systems – geologic, biological, ecological, cultural, and technological – that are within us and around us.

In the Old Desert Religions, God intervenes to reward or punish individual humans. Today, we know that Continuing Creation does not intentionally intervene in individual human lives.

Mankind must cast aside the old religious fundamentalisms, particularly the literal interpretation of “sacred” books, and adopt a New Spirituality consistent with Nature, Reason, & Science. Only then can religious conflict cease.

Religions have been transformed many times in the past.  Protestant Christianity grew out of Catholicism. Buddhism grew out of Hinduism. Now is the time for another transformation.

Continuing Creation calls us to a high morality that is informed by human tradition. It includes both energy and love; love being a deep and abiding interest in and care for some person, creature, thing, activity, or system.

This Book of Continuing Creation includes Essays on morality, ethics, virtue, and the art of living a full and satisfying life.  In action, our Higher Power calls for “Doing the Next Right Thing,” and acting with Virtue — a Greco-Roman concept from the Stoic Philosophers.

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Continuing Creation in Short Stanzas

Continuing Creation is The Growing, Organizing, Direction of the Cosmos.

Continuing Creation involves everything and everyone.
It Create Wholes that are greater than the sum of their parts, and
Each day It creates new and greater Wholes for tomorrow.

When the nuclear fires of stars created complex elements out of hydrogen,
When the elephant evolved from ancestors of the mastodon,
When Americans built the Golden Gate Bridge,
All of those, and more, are Continuing Creation at work.

Quarks combine to make atoms; atoms combine to make molecules.
Molecules make compounds; compounds make single-cell organisms.
Single-cell organisms join to make complex plants and animals.
Complex animals join to make to societies (bees, elephants, humans).
Human societies create art, language, science, and technology.

Continuing Creation ‘speaks’ to us through centuries of human learning,
But that accumulated knowledge remains imperfect.
The Book of Continuing Creation should have many revisions,
So that it stays consistent with Nature, Reason, and new Science.

In earlier spiritual traditions, God has been called many names, including
The Way, The Light, The One, The Tao, and the Ground of All Being.
But lacking science, none of those older traditions fully describes Continuing Creation.

Mankind’s old conception of “God” is outdated and no longer useful.
Continuing Creation is not a magical, all-powerful super-person of God.
It does not see nor hear; although many of its living creatures do see and hear.

Continuing Creation does not interfere in the individual lives of our human parts;
But these parts interact and cooperate with each other, magnifying their creating.

We humans cannot talk directly to Continuing Creation,
But we can talk to each other about Continuing Creation.

Continuing Creation cannot intervene on our personal behalf,
But it can be of great help when we align ourselves with its constructive flow.
The greater a person’s positive participation, the more one’s life can be enriched.
Continuing Creation is not all-powerful — but it is very powerful, and very persistent.

We do not worship The Processes of Continuing Creation,
For worship involves submission, obeisance, and supplication.
Humankind should not bow to something of which it is an important part;
No more than one human should bow to any other human.

Meditation is a vital practice for mental calm and spiritual growth;
But endless meditation in an attempt to reach “Nirvana” is escapism.

We humans must live in sustainable economies and sustainable ecologies.
Only then can Earth’s ecosystems be saved.

Instead of worship, We Celebrate Continuing Creation!
And the best Celebration is our positive, active Participation in daily Creating.

Followers of our Way seek to live ethical, virtuous, creative, and fulfilled lives.
We align our spirit, thought, and behavior with Continuing Creation.

We Human Beings are not “Children of God.” We are Agents of Continuing Creation.