Problems with this section; for Frank (Agnosticism)

by Frank Paris , Thursday, November 19, 2009, 23:43 (5482 days ago) @ David Turell

"I'd still like a comment on the following I brought up before, as Whitehead is so surprising to me:-"I will innocently ask this of all folks here (Matt and you, Frank) with philosophic knowledge: how mainstream is Whitehead? Or is he a side channel?"-I don't know what I'm doing wrong but my responses sometimes don't show up, and I haven't been saving my responses on my own machine. I gave you a long answer to this yesterday and now I can't find it. I did the same thing to another post you made that you also asked for more than once, and could not find my response and had to try to reconstruct it. -So I'll try again. Whitehead co-authored with Bertrand Russell a seminal treatise on the foundations of mathematics called Principia Mathematica in 1910-1913. After that, he changed the course of his career and became a metaphysician inspired by the findings of modern science, specifically relativity theory and quantum theory. In doing this he founded an entirely new branch of philosophy called process philosophy. Charles Hartshorne was the first theologian to "get it" and became a principal exponent of that philosophy in works of theology. It spawned an entirely new branch of theology that has had numerous and influential theologians ever since.-Process philosophy cannot be considered a "side channel" because then you have to ask, aside what? It is an independent line of thought that stands on its own, with a strong following among Christian theologians who reject traditional Christianity as being made entirely obsolete by the findings of modern science. Naturally, they are going to be in a small minority because, as you know, Christianity is still quite the going concern. That doesn't mean in the least however, that traditional Christianity has a viable future in the long run. Process theology is much more attractive to scientists with a strong sense of the divine than traditional theology, at least once they hear about it. It is often received with a sigh of relief and as a breath of fresh air. The transformation often happens early in theological training, while the brain is still resilient and open to new and fresh ideas. Those long entrenched in traditonal ways of thinking won't get very far with it. Such is human nature.-"It doesn't open up any vistas for me, now that i have had a slight exposure."-A "slight exposure" isn't going to do it for you. You can't expect to penetrate into its depths by reading the superficial meanderings of dilettantes like myself on these fragmentary forums. Sometimes I wonder why I take them at all seriously, since nothing is ever resolved on them. I think people think they're going to find easy answers to the most difficult questions ever posed by the mind of man. Sheer fantasy and wishful thinking. You won't get anywhere unless you're willing to do the hard work of going to the original sources and studying them deeply. The superficial passes at these ideas on these forums are almost entirely a waste of time, yet I constantly find myself being sucked into them. The Web is a disease. I even read about this sickening disease several times recently in Time Magazine.