Religion, Faith and the 7Es - Part 3 LO27181

From: AM de Lange (amdelange@gold.up.ac.za)
Date: 08/28/01


Dear Organlearners,

Greetings to all of you.

Part 3 - A personal account of the 7Es.

In part 1 we focussed on religion and in part 2 on faith. In this third
and last part I will focus on how the 7Es play a role in my own religion
and faith.

The central issue for me in my own faith is one and only one confession --
Jesus of Nazareth, who died on the cross for my sins, the way to
redemption and salvation, is for me the King of kings and the Lord of
lords, the Son of God who commands me to love unconditionally. This
confession of the apostle Peter on which the Church of Jesus Christ has
been founded is not negotiable. But all of the rest of my faith are open
to a questioning and modification as my inner knowledge changes. Yes, what
I know now and what I knew twenty years ago are vastly different. Why?

St Paul gives the answer. The highest level in spirituality is not faith,
but love-agape. The ultimate richness of the 7Es is in love-agape. (See
the chapter preceding 1 Cor 13!) What I cannot love unconditionally, is
ready to be given up as a creative collapse for the sake of love-agape.
All the commands of God-Love which the prophets and apostles tried to
articulate hinge on one central theme -- do I, like Jesus, follow Love as
the law of perfect freedom which will make any person free to prepare for
a personal encounter with God-Love?

So what is this freedom which love brings about? For me it is to increase
in the 7Es whether it be in love, faith, knowledge or creativity. I cannot
deny all the various manifestations (denominations) of the Christian
religion. As a Protestant I have to work with fellow believers from
Orthodox, Catholic and Pentecostal denominations. Furthermore, I cannot
even the deny existence of all the other religions. I have to work with
people confessing to them too.

Humans do believe as they do create, learn and love. It is a fact of life.
In terms of the act of believing humans do organise them into religions. I
have to do what my own faith requires while allowing the same freedom for
every other human. Thus I have to conclude that personal faith and
collective religion are integral to the human condition.

Jesus taught that there is either a narrow fractal path towards God or a
broad even path away from God. To follow the path towards God requires
unconditional love. But with what do I follow any of these two paths? It
is my creativity from which my knowledge, faith and love emerge. How can I
distinguish between these two paths other than by what the Bible teaches?
Most of traditional Christianity confess that only the Bible has the
answer. But in the Bible itself many persons like Job, David, Paul and
even Jesus teach that Creation itself also gives the answers, even though
our senses may have become insensitive to them. How can these answers be
formulated?

Since the early seventies I have searched for answers which would make
sense to me. In the middle eighties I discovered the seven essentialities
of creativity (7Es). I searched for corresponding patterns between the
chemical system (a material exemplar) and the mathematical system (a
mental exemplar). Both exemplars had been open to the creative questioning
of humankind. Both exemplars had received very little Biblical attention.
Both exemplars are from Creation, the chemical system from the
"world-without" and the mathematical system from the "world-within".
Eventually I discovered seven corresponding patterns.

Goethe had a most curious definition for truth. He said that truth is for
him the relationship between the "world-without" and the "world-within". I
managed to describe this relationship with the 7Es. I would not go so far
as to claim that the 7Es are the truth. But I can say that the 7Es have
helped me immensely to come closer to the truth. Among other things they
have helped me to distinguish between the two paths. Each of the 7Es has
to increase along the narrow fractal path towards God.

God is the Creator of everything. The complexity of the God's Creation is
a mystery to my feeble human mind. Yet one thing is clear to me -- if I
cannot love without reservation, then I will lose sight of my ultimate
destination and falter along the path towards it. Many people depict God
as a tyrant, especially the God of the Old Testament (OT). But I find many
examples in the OT teaching us about the 7Es along this path. For example,
Abraham had to plead with God on the future of Sodom and Gomorrah. Again
and again Abraham had to improve his notion of spareness. Will those
cities be saved when one hundred, no fifty, no forty, no thirty, no
twenty, no ten believers were to be found? Again and again God assured
Abraham that "spareness will be honoured", if I may articulate it as such.

Dear fellow learners, it might seem as if I wandered very much away from
the ultimate goal of our host Rick to set up an open dialogue on Learning
Organisations (LOs). However, I am convinced that a LO will have to
address the issue of communal religion and personal faith rather than
brushing them under the carpet. In faith and religion, other than
love-agape, reside our greatest power to create what the future will
require from us. The power of faith is greater than the power of knowledge
just as the CEO of an organisation has more power than a junior manager.

It is up to us whether we will create constructively or destructively. In
my opinion the denial of religion and faith, especially during the
twentieth century, brought humankind nowhere. The only other option which
I am aware of is the 7Es. Will they guide us to create constructively?
Will they allow use to use the power of religion for peaceful purposes? I
firmly believe so. But then we have to become aware of the two laws which
the 7Es manifest themselves into -- the LRC (Law of Requisite Complexity)
and the LSC (Law of Singularity of Complexity).

The LRC entails that we cannot have suddenly deep insight into the 7Es as
with any other complex entity. The knowledge of each of us of the 7Es have
to increase by the fractal steps of authentic learning. If I compare my
knowledge of them with my knowledge every ten years earlier, I can clearly
distinguish this fractal increase in complexity. The LSC entails that the
knowledge of them will become more unique for each of us. Take wholeness
for example. When I compare the knowledge of Leibnitz, Goethe, Faraday,
Smuts, Einstein, Boehm, Wilson and others on wholeness, I can clearly
observe the singularity of the knowledge of each.

Peter Senge has identified the 11 essences of any LO. It is possible to
combine them into the 7Es. Whether the 11 essences of a LO or the 7Es of
creativity, I believe that we will have explore their power to guide us to
create, learn, believe and love endlessly. Whatever our organisations,
even for the religious realm, I believe that we will have to increase in
each of the 7Es to understand what makes humans humane. Lastly, I believe
that peace, including tolerance of other religions, among all humans
cannot be achieved without increasing in the 7Es.

The time will come when the understanding of many humans how LEP (Law of
Entropy Production) dances on LEC (Law of Energy Conservation) makes such
understanding the most dangerous weapon in the arsenal of human cognition.
We have already witnessed a couple of decades some exploring into this
understanding under the new subject called "complexity science". The power
of the human spirit is now being explored as the power of nuclei of atoms
has been explored. I believe that the only way in which the wise use of
such an understanding will be manifested is by following the 7Es of
creativity as far as possible.

Mother Earth provides from her inside fountains and volcanoes. Many a
tired traveller has quenched the thirst and washed the feet and face in a
fountain. Many observed afterwards how animals and plants also share in
the vitality of a fountain. None of this is possible for a volcano.
Suppress the 7Es and a volcano is in the making, brooding until it erupts.
Promote the 7Es and a fountain opens up, sustaining all life. I beg you
all, let us not make volcanoes out of religions, but let us drink from
faith as a fountain keeping us alive.

With care and best wishes

-- 

At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa

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