Science and Kabbalah Evolution

This article describes how Science and Kabbalah complement each other and reveals modern ways of presenting the original concepts of the Kabbalah wisdom. This article also presents a scheme of personal growth through creation of freedom of choice, and provides a Kabbalist's road map. Kabbalah studies the evolution of the universe, our life purpose, and the ascension to higher planes of existence through knowledge attained and presented by great Kabbalists over centuries. Their presentation took different forms at different times. This article offers a scientific approach to the study of Kabbalah, to enhance our appreciation and understanding of this wisdom.     

Organisms,machines, and societies: From the vertical structure of adaptability to the management of information

The adaptability of organisms and human societies depends on the synergistic orchestration of processing modes at many different levels of organization, each with unique informational characteristics. Digital information technology is a narrow transect of this spectrum. Adaptability theory provides a tool for analyzing the interactions between these fundamentally different modes of processing and for delineating the factors that can lead to either positive or negative consequences for human life.     

Order,disorder, and the absolute: An experiment in dialogue

The first section of this dialogue is excerpted from an edited conversation between Sean Kelly and the late David Bohm, and focuses on the concepts of order, disorder, and the Absolute. The second section explores these concepts in greater depth, with Bohm maintaining the impossibility of absolute knowledge and the fundamental unintelligibility of the concept of disorder, preferring instead to speak of “orders of infinite degree” which emerge out of an “unknown ground.” Kelly responds by proposing the concept of “absolute knowing” as the cognitive process within which the concepts of order and disorder, the known and the Unknown are seen as dialectically related moments of the Absolute as complex whole. The third section is Edgar Morin's response to the preceding dialogue. He begins by outlining his views on the nature and limits of rationality, maintaining, with Bohm, the superiority of the “negative modality” of speaking about “being” or “reality.” In the second part, however, he proposes the notion of nature as “chaosmos,” which he understands as a creative “dialogic” of order, disorder, and organization.     

THE INSPIRATION OF GOD AND WOLFHART PANNENBERG'S “FIELD THEORY OF INFORMATION”

Abstract This paper will examine the implications of an extended “field theory of information,” suggested by Wolfhart Pannenberg, specifically in the Christian understanding of creation. The paper argues that the Holy Spirit created the world as field, a concept from physics, and the creation is directed by the logos utilizing information. Taking into account more recent developments of information theory, the essay further suggests that present creation has a causal impact upon the information utilized in creation. In order to adequately address Pannenberg's hypothesis that the logos utilizes information at creation the essay will also include an introductory examination of Pannenberg's Christology which shifts from a strict “from below” Christology, to a more open “third way” of doing Christology beyond “above” and “below.” The essay concludes with a brief section relating the implications of an extended “field theory of information” to creative inspiration, as well as parallels with human inspiration.     

OF MIRACLES AND METAPHYSICS: A PENTECOSTAL‐CHARISMATIC AND PROCESS‐RELATIONAL DIALOGUE

This article is comprised of a dialogue between Pentecostal‐Charismatic and Process‐Relational theologies on the perennial issue of miracles. The language of supernaturalism, widely employed by Pentecostal‐Charismatic theologians, is contrasted with the metaphysical naturalism of Process‐Relational theology; it is proposed that a philosophically and scientifically sensitive theology of miracles is possible through a synthesis of both traditions. Themes such as nonmaterialism over materialism, spiritual experience, and prayer for healing miracles are explored. A theology of miracles, mutually informed by both Pentecostal‐Charismatic and Process‐Relational theologies, may focus less on whether or not miracles are possible, but instead focus more on what kind of miracles human beings might value most. By mutually engaging a theology of nonsupernatural, metaphysically grounded miracles, Pentecostal‐Charismatic and Process‐Relational theologians may collaborate to establish the groundwork for creative scientific enterprises, especially in the non‐Western world where Pentecostalism continues to experience its most rapid growth, Such perspectives may eventually lead to cutting‐edge discoveries about the fundamental nature of, and God's interaction with, reality itself. Implications for future research are proposed.     

THE EXPLORATORY AND REFLECTIVE DOMAIN OF METAPHOR IN THE COMPARISON OF RELIGIONS

There has been a longstanding interest in discovering or uncovering resemblances among what are ostensibly diverse religious schemas by employing a range of methodological approaches and tools. However, it is generally considered a problematic undertaking. Jonathan Z. Smith has produced a large body of work aimed at explicating this and has tacitly based his model of comparison on metaphor, which is traditionally understood to connote similarity between two or more things, as based on a linguistic or pragmatic assessment. However, another possible approach is cognitive. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson have championed the view of “conceptual metaphor,” which regards metaphor as being pervasive not only in language, but also in thought and action. Indeed, according to them, it basically structures our conceptual operations and hence views of the world through partially mapping knowledge across ontological domains, generally from the concrete to the abstract. I shall argue that a similar mechanism can fruitfully be applied to comparing religious schemas, as based on the postulated relationship between the domains of human and divine, physical and abstract, and as realized through expressions of journeying and reflection.     

Sampling in developmental science: Situations,shortcomings, solutions,and standards

Sampling is a key feature of every study in developmental science. Although sampling has far-reaching implications, too little attention is paid to sampling. Here, we describe, discuss, and evaluate four prominent sampling strategies in developmental science: population-based probability sampling, convenience sampling, quota sampling, and homogeneous sampling. We then judge these sampling strategies by five criteria: whether they yield representative and generalizable estimates of a study’s target population, whether they yield representative and generalizable estimates of subsamples within a study’s target population, the recruitment efforts and costs they entail, whether they yield sufficient power to detect subsample differences, and whether they introduce “noise” related to variation in subsamples and whether that “noise” can be accounted for statistically. We use sample composition of gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status to illustrate and assess the four sampling strategies. Finally, we tally the use of the four sampling strategies in five prominent developmental science journals and make recommendations about best practices for sample selection and reporting.     

Teaching Generalized Self-Control to Attention Deficit Boys With Mothers as Adjunct Therapists

Two boys, diagnosed Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity and described as impulsive and lacking self-control, participated in the study. In a mental health setting, a self-instructional training program tailored to the specific behavioral deficits of each subject was introduced sequentially in a multiple-baseline design. Self-instructional training consisted of both conceptual and task-specific verbalizations, and targeted completion of classroom work. Mothers were trained as adjunct therapists and conducted a home training program. Results indicate that both subjects made substantial improvement in percent of daily classroom work completed, were reported as more self-controlled and less disruptive by mothers and teachers, and received higher grades at the end of treatment.     

SEXUAL DIVERSITY AND DIVINE CREATION: A TIGHTROPE WALK BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY AND SCIENCE

Abstract Although modern societies have come to recognize diversity in human sexuality as simply part of nature, many Christian communities and thinkers still have considerable difficulties with related developments in politics, legislation, and science. In fact, homosexuality is a recurrent topic in the transdisciplinary encounter between Christianity and the sciences, an encounter that is otherwise rather “asexual.” I propose that the recent emergence of “Christianity and Science” as an academic field in its own right is an important part of the larger context of the difficulties related to attempts to reconcile Christianity and a recognition of diversity in human sexuality as a norm. Through a critical discussion of arguments which are upheld most disturbingly on a global scale by the Roman Catholic Church and supported with much sophistry by important stakeholders of an influential stream in analytic philosophy of religion, this paper aims to contextualize and defend the legitimacy of the question why God would create homosexuals as such if it is true that every homosexual act is prohibited by God. While recently advanced nonheterosexist scientific models of sexuality in nature inform the discussion, I reject the simplistic view that religions suppress and the sciences liberate in matters sexual.     

超越两种文化：第三种文化与变革中的当代心理学

心理学内部长期存在着科学文化与人文文化的对立与决裂,这一矛盾加剧了心理学的分裂趋势。第三种文化兴起后,既不赞同非此即彼的单一文化观,也不认可两种文化间存在着不可逾越的鸿沟,而是提出了“数据、理论、阐释”三位一体的“综合科学”概念和以“磁力”主题为中心的研究模式,积极倡导人文与科学文化的宽容、批判性反驳与合作精神,从而超越了传统意义上两种文化的观念束缚,有望为当代心理学的发展提供一种新的进路。