Author’s Blog from J.X. Mason
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Warmed-over Pantheism ?
Note: Continuing Creation opposes “Creationism.” Continuing Creation has been accused of being “a warmed-over re-hash of Pantheism.” Is it? No, it is not. “Pantheism is the belief that reality, the universe, is itself a divinity, a supreme supernatural mind or being. Thus, the universe itself is an immanent creator deity still expanding and creating, […]
From Whirlpools to a Galactic Mind
Note: The Book of Continuing Creation opposes “Creationism.” The Laws of Thermodynamics tell us says that when energy (e.g., heat) moves through an open system, it has the ability to do work. This work may include the creation of structure within the system, structure which enables the energy to flow through the system with […]
Great Theories of History
I’d like to develop a list of the “Great Theories of History,” and I could use your help! If you know of such a Theory, could you kindly send me its name, its book title, and its author? Here are a few that I’ve come up with: “Challenge and Response” — Arnold Toynbee “Guns, Germs, […]
From a Tree to Transcendence
Note: The Book of Continuing Creation Opposes “Creationism.” In everyday language, “transcendence” means “going beyond,” and “self-transcendence” means going beyond (or higher than) everyday thinking, or beyond one’s everyday self. Contemplation is a type of meditation. You find an object — say, a tree — and look at it. Just look at it, but […]
Why Is There Suffering?
— J.X. Mason’s Blog Post of 7-19-22. Mason is the author of ContinuingCreation.org Followers of the Abrahamic Religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) believe that suffering is the result of Original Sin. That’s the sin that Eve and Committed in the Garden of Eden, when they ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. […]
Buddhism vs. Transcendentalism
–J.X. Mason’s Blog Post of 7-5-22 — J.X. Mason is the author of www.ContinuingCreation.org The Buddha never saw that one day, science and technology would be able to solve much of the suffering he saw all around him. Instead, he put forward Buddhism — a program of mental and emotional detachment from suffering. In contrast […]
Why New Religions Arise
— J.X. Mason’s Blog Post of 6-21-2022. — J.X. Mason is the author of ContinuingCreation.org. Historically, populations can become distressed by poverty, disease, oppression, natural disasters, war and violence. They can also become distressed by their fear of one or more of those things. Under such conditions, the population may take collective action. This particularly […]
Beyond the Tonic of Wildness
“We need the tonic of wildness… At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.” […]
The “One” versus The “-isms”
Last week, I published a Blog Post called “Pros & Cons of Taoism & Zen.” I compared Taoism and Zen, listing out differences between these two spiritual paths. As I went along, I stated my preferences, from the viewpoint of Continuing Creation. I received a number of informative comments from my Blog readers. Among them […]
Pros & Cons of Taoism & Zen
I have written evaluations of several of the World’s great religions, and I plan to write about more of them. In the evaluations, I try to list the Strengths & Shortcomings of each religion. (Presently, I am at work on an evaluation of Buddhism.) Below are excerpts from my Essay, Evaluating Taoism and Zen — […]
The Patterns of Continuing Creation
As it grows and organizes, Continuing Creation makes Patterns — branches, networks, parabolas, boundaries, spirals, and hierarchies — to name just as few. Today, our understanding of patterns is magnified by our knowledge of science and mathematics. For example, every circle that we see all around us is known by the fact that its […]
Earth-centered Spirituality
Is Continuing Creation a Spiritual Path? Yes and no. The word “spiritual” has different meanings to different people. Conventional or Traditional Spirituality Most people feel that spiritual only relates to things that are supernatural and incorporeal. These include phenomena that are part of conventional religions — God, saints, ghosts, angels, religious rituals like the […]
- Elkins, D. N.; Hedstrom, L. J.; Hughes, L. L.; Leaf, J. A. & Saunders, C. (1988). "Toward a humanistic-phenomenological spirituality". Journal of Humanistic Psychology. 28 (4): 10. doi:10.1177/0022167888284002. S2CID 145708067.
- Tony Wilkinson (2007). The Lost Art of Being Happy: Spirituality for Sceptics. Findhorn Press. ISBN 978-1-84409-116-4.
- Robert C. Solomon (2003). Spirituality for the Skeptic: The Thoughtful Love of life. Oxford Scholarship Online. ISBN 9780195134674.
- Sagan and Einstein are both quoted in Bobby Azarian, in The Romance of Reality: How the Universe Organizes Itself to Create Life, Consciousness. and Cosmic Complexity, 2022, BenBella Books, p. 276.