• SOUL-PRINTS: Faith and Life in the Quantum Age Class, Lesson 1

• SIGNPOSTS: Harris-Anointed with Real Facts

I’m teaching a class at church you might enjoy. I’ll be posting the text I’ve written for each Lesson. This week: “We’re Not in Kansas Anymore: Today’s Worldview from Granddad’s Porch.” Read the full lesson on the Quantum page of my Tracks for the Journey website.

Can our ancient faith offer the “abundant life” of Jesus in the chaotic, modern world? Today’s Quantum Age rests on beliefs about God, humankind, the natural world, and ethics which are radically different than previous eras. The insights of Process Theology offer a dynamic perspective integrating Quantum Age facts with Biblical truths. Participants will learn new perspectives on God and the world that bring practical helps for loving and living in this complex modern society.

LESSON 1

“I visited my grandparents often during my childhood years. Granddad Payne had a white, two-story house with a porch across the front. He was born in 1891 and raised on a small farm in southwest Missouri. He owned a produce store and raised cattle on the 40 acres behind the house. He raised three successful children in the small town of Neosho. I loved, as a child, going to visit. His world and faith fit together well for a lifetime of family togetherness, work, and community service. It’s important to think about how he viewed the world and how my grandchildren may be seeing it now.

The term “worldview” names our ontology, or what we believe about the nature and working of the world we live in. The beliefs of our worldview usually operate behind conscious thought, bringing a mental filter to each experience. Each of us has developed our worldview across our lifespan from the impact of many experiences. The thoughts I have about God or about eating fried crickets are deeply influenced by the worldview I’ve built from all I have experienced. Entire societies can also be shaped by a worldview, as when the belief about Aryan Superiority created Nazi Germany.

Historians mark a dramatic change in human knowledge, society, and beliefs which began around 1500 in Europe. The Modern Age slowly brought a new way of understanding and experiencing the world.  Historians find many sources converging to change the way people understood the world. In time, facts proven by scientific investigation and experimentation replaced philosophy and traditions as the sources of knowledge. It is clear the matrix of beliefs in the Modern Age, then the Quantum Age worldview, are different than the Classic worldview that shaped the people of all previous history, the Judeo-Christian culture, and the traditional doctrines of the Christian church.

Apparently, classical Christian theology as taught in many institutions today has not kept up with the radical changes of the past 550 years. Most people today do not have a system of belief that incorporates the Quantum World into a meaningful mindset. God has become merely an icon of religion that is not necessary for daily life for billions of people. The findings of science and the teachings of faith are considered in conflict, or at least in separate categories.

Bishop John Shelby Spong states the situation boldly. “The primary way that Western human beings have conceptualized God has gradually lost its meaning and has become discredited… rendered nonsensical by the advance of knowledge… A crisis of faith is now afflicting modern men and women… Enormous fear accompanies this transition.”[1]

A theology that brings vital meaning to the Quantum Age person must be shaped by the facts of today. Beliefs that are based on the worldviews of a previous age cannot sustain abundant life now or for future generations. Process theology presents ways of understanding God and the universe that is compatible with many ideas in the Quantum Age. It presents a way forward which respects the universe as we know it today and the truths of the faith as complimentary toward a unified worldview.

Read the full lesson on the Quantum page of my Tracks for the Journey website.

[1] John Shelby Spong, Unbelievable: Why neither ancient creeds for the Reformation can produce a living faith today. HarperOne, 2018, p 33-34

The Presidential Debate of September 10 exposed a fault line between the candidates revealing a dramatic difference in their minds. I invite you to read my full discussion in the latest Signposts Blog post

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