Giving thanks for the life of the Rev Dr Angela Shier-Jones

It was with great sadness that I learnt that Angie (Dr Angela Shier-Jones) passed away in September this year.  This is such sad news.  Angie had been struggling against cancer.

I remember a great conversation we shared last year when I was in the UK.  We were on the train after a meeting at LEAT and we were talking about dissease and faith.  The topic of our conversation centered around a special edition of the Epworth Review of which Angie was the editor for which I had written an article on being Christian in an HIV+ world.  As always her input was deeply challenging, a magnificent theological mind matched only by her pastoral heart!

Thanks for sharing the news of her passing with me Jenny.  I am deeply saddened by the news of her death.  However, I can only imagine what she is doing in heaven!  

Here are two wonderful memorial posts I would encourage you to take a look at.  Each of them gives a wonderful insight into one of the great (Methodist) theologians of our age.

• In Memoriam of Angela Shier-Jones from PMPhillips
• In Memroy of Angela Shier-Jones from Listen : Think : Act :

Indeed, Lord, thank you for the gift of your daughter Angela.  Teach me to number my days correctly that I may gain a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90.12).

Please pray for Prof Steve de Gruchy and his family

Further to the original post below I received this message from Dr Ross Olivier in Pietermaritzburg:

Dear All

I have just been informed that Steve's body was found this morning. A memorial service will be held in the Anglican Cathedral in Pietermaritzburg at 15h00 on Saturday.

Please continue to pray. Grace, Ross

This morning the following very disturbing news arrived in my inbox.

Please could I ask you to pray for Steve and his family?

Steve is one of South Africa's most prominent theologians - many of us know Steve (and his dad John de Gruchy) well. I have spent a lot of time with him at the Theological Society of Southern Africa meetings over the last decade or so. He has helped many younger theologians, myself included, along the way. This is truly sad! You can read the IOL news story here.

Here's Jenny's email.

On Sunday morning Steve and his son were going down the Mooi River on tubes, at a section on the Balcombs' place where the river was flowing strongly after the abundant rains, which have fallen in the area. Just before some rapids Steve came off his tube - his son looked back and Steve waved him on indicating that he was okay. Steve's son cleared the rapids fine, retrieved his Dad's tube and then waited for his Dad at the bottom but Steve never arrived. Him and his Mom spent about 6 hours looking for Steve and then hiked back through very difficult terrain. There was no cell reception in the gorge. Others then joined the search but couldn't find Steve. There have been search parties all of yesterday, and today police helicopters were scanning the area and police divers were going to start searching in the turbulent waters.

Please pray for this family - especially for Marion, Steve's wife and their children, and also for John and Isabel de Gruchy - Steve's parents.

The Natal Witness reported on this tragedy this morning.

This is an incredible blow for the School of Religion and Theology at UKZN - Steve is Head of School at the moment.

We are in a state of shock.

Blessings,

Jenny Sprong

More than just a bag of neurons, or, are we more than our brains?

My friend Phil Collier is posting some wonderful content on his Brain Science blog brain sparks. 

He posted an interesting question about whether we are merely the 'stuff of our brains' (i.e., if our neurons determine who we are, or if our identity and consciousness is more complex than that). 

Here's my response to Phil (please see his post here): 

Hi Phil, 

As I mentioned in our conversation this morning, I tend towards an inclusive approach that suggests that we are the stuff of our minds (of course 'the brain' extends into the body through the nervous system, and regulates and is informed through the endocrinatic system). As such we would have to say that in part we are our bodies (not just the cells of our brains, although those are important!) 

However, I have found Ken Wilber's all quadrant, all level (AQAL) approach to consciousness quite helpful in breaking down the false dualism between consciousness and matter. 

Thus, on an individual exterior level (my biology) the individual's brain has a great deal to do with their identity and consciousness. However on a collective exterior level (the human or mammalian brain) there is also an element of additional identity forming activity going on. Then of course you have the individual interior (what I think and believe about myself that forms me) and the collective interior (what 'our' culture, religion, socialization, has contributed towards my understand of myself in relation to others). 

You can read more about my understanding of Wilber here, and a few other Wilber posts here. 

Then, with regards to the idea of an objective mapping of the functions of the brain (i.e., how the electrical and chemical components function to create outputs of action or thought), you may be interested to read some of Ray Kurzweil's thoughts. 

He has done a great deal in trying to map and emulate brain function (his speciality has been speech synthesis and speech recognition), but more recently he has become knowing for his mathematical predictions of the exponential increase in computational capacity in machines. 

I discussed this at length (and also discussed Wilber and consciousness at length) in my doctoral thesis. See the following post for links and information about Kurzweil (discussed in chapter 2) and you can read about Wilber in chapter 4. 

I am currently under contract with Cambridge scholars press who will be publishing my Ph.D in a more 'popular' form as book in 2010 (the working title is 'Why you may not be who you think you are - adventures in neuroscience, strong artificial intelligence and philosophy'). So keep an eye on this space! I'll post updates on the progress as they come.

The original interview with Ray Kurzweil in h+ can be found here.

Blessings, 

Dion

A new neuroscience blog, and the concept of time (does time exist?)

A friend of mine, Philip Collier, has just launched a new neuroscience website at http://www.brainsparks.co.za

Phil and I are cycling buddies, but we also share an interest in the brain - Phil graduated with a Masters in research psychology at the University of Port Elizabeth.  He and I often spend our rides up the Helderberg mountain talking about how the mind functions!

Please do check out his new website - it looks set for great things!

I read one of his first posts with great interest.  I would encourage you to have a look at the post here - where are you now.  What struck me as I read it was the question about the nature of time (and how a poor understanding of the nature of time can hamper a person from truly living in the present moment).  I once read a wonderful quote that said, 'we crucify ourselves between two thieves, the regret of yesterday and the fear of tomorrow'.  I'm not sure who said it, so help me with a reference if you know!  However, what I can say is that I have a much more positive view of the concept of the present - 'the now'.  I believe that there is great spiritual value in learning to live in the present moment.

Once you've read Phil's post you may like to consider my response to him (I have copied it below).  This gives some insight into how I view the concept of time.

All that being said, happy new year!  May the next decade be truly blessed for you!

Hi Philip,

Congratulations on the launch of your new site! It looks fantastic.  I look forward to great content and many wonderful interactions in the years to come.

The notion of time has been one that has occupied my mind as well - I have read Tolle's 'The Power of Now' (in fact it is one of the books we use in our conscious leadership programme with the senior management of our company).  I found it a most stimulating and helpful book.  I do think that his intention is much more focussed upon awareness of the moment than on the actual concept of time.

However, your question raises some very interesting thoughts indeed!  The ancient Greek philosophers spoke of two kinds of time, chronos (from which we get our English word 'Chronology' - this is a linear, historical, concept of time).  Then they spoke of kairos, this is the kind of time that has to do with moments of rightness, instead of marking sequential events.  It has often been described as 'pregnant' time: when a child is to be born and gestation is complete, or there is some form of trauma, then kairos comes to the fore, it is the 'right' time, or the 'selected' moment.

The sages of many of the world's mystical religious and spiritual traditions (Christian, Hindu, Muslim and Jewish mystics to name but a few) have long emphasized the incredible value of being 'present to the moment'.

Some years ago when I was doing some research on 'the new science' (particularly the work of David Bohm the quantum physicist) I came to realise just how 'the lived moment' is hardwired into all of the cosmos.  The constant implication and explication of matter in and out of the source of reality (what Bohm called 'active mind') is only perceivable in the moment of realisation.  Of course this concept was discovered much earlier by Einstein, Rosen and Podoslky (also called the EPR or tunneling effect).  You can read about it in one of my books (download a PDF copy here).  See pages 38 forward, but particularly from page 40.

One final note about the philosophy of time, as I have come to understand it, is that time is a construct (like mass or speed).  Time is not an aspect of the ontological nature of reality - rather, it is something that we have created in order to make sense of the sequence of experience and events that we process in our conscious minds.

Consciousness, however, is an ontological necessity!  Becoming conscious of the present moment, and the power of the present moment, is the key to finding blessing and peace in life.  However, history is equally important (since our consciousness of our past and the past of others gives us a sense of perspective on the present, and hopefully it makes us wise enough to act with intention and courage).  Moreover, a conscious aspiration is also a helpful thing (however, not to the extent that it draws us out of the present moment so that we miss the joy and opportunity of 'the now').

Well, those are a few of my thoughts.

Regards,

Dion