Author’s Blog from J.X. Mason
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Buddhism’s Condition of Impermanence
Buddhism says that all existence (including human existence) is marked by three conditions: Impermanence (Anicca), Unsatisfactoriness (Dukkha), and Non-selfhood (Anatta). We will discuss each of these, but we will do it in this order: Impermanence (Annica, in Sanskrit) Non-selfhood (Anatta) Unsatisfactoriness (Dukkha) 1. Impermanence (Anicca) Buddhism teaches the everything is impermanent, including our health and our lives. Everything is always […]
How Old Is Planet Earth?
Biblical Creationists who think the Bible is literally true and 100% correct believe that Earth is about 6,000 years old. Most astronomers, geologists and biologists think the Earth is about 4.54 billion years old. Who is right? C. Stuart Hardwick** answers: “Not the Biblical Creationists! “The scientists report that the Earth is 4.54 billion years […]
Level of Support for Evolution
Quotations from the Wikipedia article, “Level of Support for Evolution” “The level of support for [biololgical] evolution among scientists, the public, and other groups is a topic that frequently arises in the creation–evolution controversy, and touches on educational, religious, philosophical, scientific, and political issues. The subject is especially contentious in countries where significant levels of non-acceptance of evolution by […]
What Do We Do If Disaster Strikes !?
What do We Do if Disaster Strikes? The Practice of Continuing Creation says that the purpose of our human lives is to build, discover, and create. We discover new knowledge, build new structures, create new medicines. We also create loving relationships with other people, with our professions, and with the systems and ecologies of the […]
Evolution and the Complexity of the Eye
Fundamentalist Religious Creationists often argue: “Something as complicated as an eye must have been designed and/or made by a super-intelligent Creator.” (This argument is sometimes called “The Argument of Irreducible Complexity.”) As an advocate of Natural Continuing Creation, I oppose their argument. In fact, “The eye evolved from a single, light sensitive spot in a […]
Abiogenesis – From Lifeless Molecules to the First Living Organism
Wikipedia has an excellent article on Abiogenesis (which I support). Here are the first 2 paragraphs of that article, as of 4-24-2023: “In biology, abiogenesis (from a- ‘not’ + Greek bios ‘life’ + genesis ‘origin’) or the origin of life is the natural process by which life has arisen from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds. The prevailing scientific hypothesis is that the transition […]
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The Universe and its Processes
Continuing Creation: On the Origin of the Universe and The Operation of Its Processes I maintain that we do not and cannot know if God/Substance/Nature created the universe because we ourselves cannot stand “outside,” or see “before,” the universe. It is possible that our universe was “born” out of the collapse of another universe. The […]
Evolution is Part of Nature’s Continuing Creation
NOTE: I am opposed to religious, biblical, “creationism.” All natural creation, past and present, requires a flow-through of energy: heat, sunlight, kinetic, electric, nuclear, gravitational. All past and current Creation 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, […]
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A Broader View of Evolution
When most people think of Evolution, they think of Biological Evolution, and the evolution of different species in particular. Biological Evolution is defined as the process by which successive generations of organisms change and develop from their ancestral organisms. But simpler kinds of Evolution also took place in astrophysics, in geology, and in chemistry before […]
“All Things Are Cooperating Causes”
“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 […]
Professor Bejan’s Constructal Law
Quotations from Dr. Adrian Bejan, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Duke, in his 2012 book…, … Design in Nature: How the Constructal Law Governs Evolution in Biology, Physics, Technology, and Social Organization* “The spontaneous designs (structures) we see in Nature are not the result of chance. They arise naturally, spontaneously, because they enhance access to […]
From “Lives of a Cell”
“The oldest, easiest-to-swallow idea [about our planet] was that the Earth was man’s personal property, a combination of garden, zoo, bank vault, and energy source, placed at our disposal to be consumed, ornamented, or pulled apart as we wished…. “[Now we know] that we are not the masters of nature that we thought ourselves to […]