Dear organlearners,
Scott Ott <SOTT@nkcsd.k12.mo.us> wrote in LO14924:
> Another LO friend e-mailed this morning to repeat the
> age-old attacks against Christianity --- all the evil
> done by men in the name of God, & etc.; and to rebuke
> me for discussing "theology" on the LO. He expressed
> pity for me that I saw everyone as "evil" and was
> therefore "surrounded by all those demons every day."
> Most of all he said he feels sorry for children who,
> unless they accept my god, I have condemned to being mere
> puppets of my satan. He also justaposed "free thinking"
> with my faith in Jesus Christ as God.
It is very sad that such vilifications happen. They inhibit learning.
This prompted me to contribute the following for both non- christians and
christians. I hope I do not offend any one.
This is what I have learned as a Christian:
-----------------------------------
I distinguish between the "common grace" and the
"distinctive grace" of God.
It is because of the "common grace" of God that
# all humans are living things which can become more
humane and not only less humane as some with a negative
outlook on life insist;
# all humans can desire ubuntu (a loving harmony with
the Creator, fellow humans and the rest of Creation);
# all humans can learn creatively in simple or complex
ways, some using their creations to promote ubuntu,
others using their creations to favour themselves;
# all humans can experience God's love whatever whatever
they create and whatever organisations they belong to;
# all humans can experience spirituality and even develop
religions to make use of this spirituality in an
organisational manner.
Without this "common grace" of God, the world would have
been a stark place to live in - a place where no compassion
or beauty can survive - a place where hope and amazement
have no function. This stark world is depicted on occasion
by some christians when they wish to stress the "distictive
grace" of God, using the law of god as tutor.
It is by the "distinctive grace" of God that He
# gave us the knowledge that humans were created to be
the friends of God, but that humans have allowed this
friendship to immerge in a mannner described by His law,
the over-information of Satan having caused the
immergence;
# gave the knowledge that neither His law, nor His
common grace, can restore this friendship, but only the
perfect sacrifice (for) which He will provide;
# provided for that sacriface by uniting the second
person in God and a human, known as Jesus of Nazareth,
whose sacrifice on the cross at Golgotha was accepted in
terms of His resurrection and ascension;
# let this friendship emerge again with specific
individuals through the third person in the Godhead,
known as the Holy Spirit, who will help them to learn
all they wish to know about this friendship;
# left them as sign of His loyalty the Holy Scriptures
(Bible) to document how some have learned from Him and
will be learning from Him until the day of the final
bifurcation;
# warns His friends that fallen angels and wicked humans
will do evil things, despite His common and distinctive
grace, to destroy in hate this friendship, even by
pretending to do it under His command, even though He is
very clear - the whole of all His comnands is to LOVE.
------------------------------------
Our main purpose on this listserver is to FULLY understand the being and
becoming of learning organisations. An organisation without compassion or
a sense of beauty is like any learning without it - a poor substitute.
With FULLY I mean that we cannot leave anything out - even when we believe
it to be unimportant or degrading.
What people like Scott Ott and Don Kerr wish to say is that we can learn
much from the Bible on both organisation and learning, especially in terms
of compassion and beauty. If anyone chooses to learn without the Bible,
let us defend that person's choice as a result of the "common grace"
bestowed on us.
But if that person argues that it is possible to FULLY understand LOs
without investigating also the Bible or the code book of any other
religion, such a person is arguing that it is possible to understand the
complex whole by studying merely a fragment of it. It is like arguing that
it is possible to study all chemistry without needing to study the element
carbon. It is also like like arguing that it is possible to fully
understand human physiology without needing to study the heart. Lastly, it
is like trying to understand learning organisations without trying to
understanding learning. Is it not the case that fragmentarism impairs our
creativity and learning?
Many christians and non-christians stress the immense complexity of
differences between them, for better or worse. This leads to much chaos
and consequent immergences rather than emergences. The Bible clearly tells
us that the origin of this complexity of differences is due to one unique
fellow human: Jesus the Christ, the Son of God. The reason why we do not
understand this is a twofold problem, just as the grace of God is twofold.
The first fold (aspect) of the problem may be called its distinctive fold.
We have learned too little about Jesus Christ to ever claim that we can
talk with authority about Him. (Oh, how I wish to have been one of the
twelve apostels.)
The other fold (aspect) of the problem may be called its common fold. We
know too little about how the complexity of variety develops to claim that
we can talk with authority about complexity. Let us pursue this second
fold further.
This development of complexity is what I wish to tell you about in my
forthcoming book (Entropy, Creativity and Learning: how to manage chaos,
order and complexity in nature and culture.) I can assure you that nothing
of what I have written above under the heading "distinctive grace", will
figure in my book. Nor will I discuss concepts such as organisation,
creativity, learning, ubuntu and spirituality as I have done under the
heading "common grace", although my book carefully explain these concepts
in a non- biblical manner. In other words, I have tried my utmost to
accomodate non-christians in my book. I have done it with a dual strategy.
Firstly, I show as far as I understand it, how all these concepts like the
rest of the complexity of reality are are realted to the concept of
entropy. For example, I have defined creativity as the result of entropy
creation (production)- how wierd!
Secondly, I have made sure that nothing what I wrote in the book,
contradicts that which I have expounded above as "This is what I have
learned as a Christian." It is not that I am afraid to be a witness of
Jesus the Christ - why would I then have made this contribution? It is
because I think I should accept the complexity of the grace and love of
God and act accordingly. Thus in my book I wish to expound on complexity
as any non-christian would probably also do.
Please allow me the following two paragraphs to Christians.
Fellow christians would probably wonder if concepts such as entropy,
creativity, chaos, order and complexity presented in one theoretical
framework would help them understanding the Bible in particular and life
in general any better. I can only speak for myself. Yes. Every Tuesday a
handful of our congregation comes together to study the Bible. Our bible
study group has become a learning organisation. Sadly, when this
happened, our pastor refused to attend it any more. I fear that dogma,
theology and whatever he had to learn, had become too heavy a burden.
We are now studying the book of Relevations. We finished chapter 14 last
Tuesday. I have gained wonderful insights into the book of Relevations
from my understanding of entropy, chaos, bifurcations, order and
complexity. For example Rev. 14:2- 3 describes how a new higher order
emerges out of the chaos of an old order. My own understanding of entropy,
creativty and learning also helped me to guide the rest of the group in
understanding the book of Relevations. However, I am very careful not to
mention my book or any of its "wierd" topics such as entropy, bifurcation
and complexity to the rest of the group. Again it is because I accept the
complexity of the grace and love of God and act accordingly. Our Bible
study group is for me to learn in terms of the distinctive grace of God. I
cannot force more complexity upon them.
Best wishes
--At de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre for Education University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa email: amdelange@gold.up.ac.za
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>